BIBLE STUDY IN THE BOOK OF 2 JOHN By: Reverend Patricia Ann Sunday The second book of John is a short salutatory book with only 13 verses. The number of verses in this book to me seems symbolic of the Roman Catholic Church. The number 13 is said to be a wicked number. In Roman Catholicism the apparitions of the Virgin of Fátima in 1917 were claimed to occur on the 13th day of six consecutive months. The Church has now made the 13th of each month to be “Mary’s Day”. And there are 13 members in a Wiccan Mystical Coven. Catholicism is said to be a mystery religion. In Catholic devotional practice, the number thirteen is also associated with Saint Anthony of Padua, since his feast day falls on June 13. A traditional devotion called the Thirteen Tuesdays of St. Anthony involves praying for the saint every Tuesday over a period of thirteen weeks. Another devotion, St. Anthony's Chaplet, consists of thirteen decades of three beads each. As I read the Second Epistle of John the Holy Spirit began to show me something very interesting. In verse one of the Aramaic Peshitta Bible which is the language that Jesus the Christ spoke…right in verse one it clarifies that this book is addressed to the MOTHER CHURCH. The last verse declares that it is written by John who was the leader of the SISTER CHURCH. I believe the sister church to be offshoot of the Catholic Mother Church and it to be the Gnostic Order of the Essenes which later became an underground Church because of the persecution of the Mother Church. This persecution of the Sister Churches by the Mother Church is about to happen once again but she will have other apostate Churches with her. This book reveals that there were two distinct Churches at the time of John and that John was pleading for the Mother Church to love one another as if there had already been a split and persecution as we know followed during the Inquisitions and the Crusades. This book avows that there are many deceivers in the world and that if you do not believe in Jesus Christ being God who has come in the FLESH that you are an antichrist. He is telling us that even within Churches that we need to see who are wolves among us and he has just said in verse 21 of his first epistle that anyone who believes or prays to or bows down to idols or statues IS an antichrist. As we know in our day and time that is exactly what has happened within the Catholic Church. They have become an apostate Church that prays and bows down to bleeding statues and has forgotten how to come before and pray and worship the one true living God. There are many good believers in that Church even in the pastoral ministry but they must do what the Word of God says do before they are cast away with the tares. As the Word says, “Come out of her my people.” SHALOM.