It’s July 31 tomorrow and it’s the feast day of its founder, Ignatius of Loyola whose real name is Íñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola. Back then, as a young convert, there was much trash in me that had to be gotten rid of. I had flip-flopped about my stance with Catholics from brethren in Christ (because of peer pressure) and mission field that must be won. It’s also because I had so many Catholic relatives too. The pastor who first shared to me the Gospel of Jesus was a former Catholic. Though, there was also Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) which featured the late Billy Graham and his son Franklin Graham. TBN also featured some Catholic priests such as Father Cedric Pisegna. I was looking for sound teachers but ended up watching TBN. I admit, I also used to listen to Joel Osteen after I got saved.
I was soon introduced to the world of Chick Publications. I read all six volumes of the Alberto series. By the way, the late Alberto Rivera himself was a fraud. I was warned for more than 10 years but I refused to believe it–believing it was some “Jesuit Conspiracy”. I read Alberto, Double Cross, The Godfathers, The Force, Four Horsemen, and The Prophet. However, put your critical-thinking glasses on (and I did) and find out that there’s so much artistic liberty. There’s also much too fantastic to be true (such as how The Force’s introduction story was almost like a scene from the Hollywood film Repossessed and The Exorcist). Besides, Rivera’s story was proven false by the late Roy Livesey who the late Jack T. Chick falsely accused of being a Vatican stooge. Rivera himself (and many of those who admire him) was also fond of tagging people as “Jesuit coadjutors” without any credible proof whatsoever. Rivera proved himself to be a fraud yet his emotional appeal had captured a lot of people even beyond his death. It was the early 2000s when I read all the comic books and held on to them for years. Even worse, I landed into another conspiracy nutjob site called Jesus-is-Savior. Its webmaster David J. Stewart also manages to get emotional appeal, takes things out of their context (hence I used to believe that pastors like John F. MacArthur, Ray Comfort, Paul David Washer, and other likeminded preachers are teaching salvation by works when they don’t), a misunderstanding of what lordship salvation is (and Stewart later demonized Chick after many years), and so on. Those were my favorite sites (and there was also Texe Marrs’ site Conspiracy World) to get Jesuit conspiracy theories.
I felt the burden that I used to go to a Jesuit church. At one point, I even wondered if I was going to become a Jesuit priest. If I did, maybe I would’ve probably nailed my own version of 95 Theses on the Jesuit parish I used to go to–if I ever became Jesuit priest. Maybe, I would’ve already met with the late Bartholomew Brewer, and real former Jesuit priests Bob Bush and Victor Affonso. Maybe, I may have soon exposed that Rivera was never a former Jesuit priest would’ve I been a former Jesuit priest. Though, back then I felt I could’ve become another Rivera if I ever never got saved and became a Jesuit priest. I felt that I needed to know everything about the Jesuits. There are reliable sources about the Jesuits such as the books by the late Avro Manhattan. Meawhile, Chick Publications has been guilty of miring historical truth with their own revisionism. Rivera was proven to be a charlatan multiple times(which he also preached in the late Tony Alamo’s pulpit, a pulpit guilty of multiple cover-ups of sexual abuses). So, I decided to read those sources and say that such things can’t be lied upon. That’s until one decides to read Rivera’s testimony with critical thinking to see through all the artistic liberties, fantastic scenes, and so on that one can never find such examples in Bush’s and Affonso’s testimonies. Strangely, Chick Publications still distributes the video Catholicism: Crisis of Faith even after Chick demonized Brewer in his book Smokescreens? which I’m glad I lost.
Reading those materials really didn’t do any good. The result was nothing more than me living a double or triple life while studying in a Catholic university. Sure, one’s degree from a Jesuit university (such as Ateneo De Manila or Xavier Unversity) isn’t a guarantee that on’es a Jesuit coadjutor. I can get a masteral degree in Ateneo or Xavier and still not be a Jesuit. Meanwhile, it was something I pretended to be tolerant while being filled with hate at the same time. I remembered how I actually had desires to commit murder against my former Catholic parishioners, burn down Catholic schools, etc. because I got sucked into the conspiracy theories. On the other hand, I still got along with Catholics and still had a heart looking at them as victims of false teaching. What’s often ignored is that Catholics usually have zero idea that they belong to a murderous institution. Catholics think that stuff like the Inquisition are but a myth because they beleive it to be so. Not to mention, I got so paranoid and angry almost all the time from reading the Alberto series and other related books. I was told, early on, to stop reading but I stubbornly decided to do so.
Right now, I think about when I lost my desktop PC since it got obsolete. It had plenty of Jesuit conspiracy theories. I still remembered a lot of research against the Jesuits. I dare say many of them were mostly conspiracy theories instead of facts. Besides, Rivera’s claim that Islam was founded by the Vatican can now be disproven with a Google search. Do some reserach and you’ll find out Islam sprang out of the heretical Ebionites. Catholicism and Islam are rival cults. There’s also no way that the Ku Klux Klan and some anti-Catholic cults sprang out of Catholicism either. Maybe, it’s all a blatant lie that Ignatius of Loyola secretly founded the Illuminati. Regardless, we know these are all mission fields. Even the Jesuit coadjutors are still mission field.
Right now, I’m glad I’ve decided to drop my reserach against the Jesuits entirely. It’s not just because it made me forget I was a former Catholic. It’s also because I started to get paranoid like a crook who left his gang and gone straight. It made me forget that there are still Catholics out there who are humanly speaking, good citizens. Those kinds of materials only encouraged me to be intellectually dishonest, to get mad a lot, to be paranoid towards others (even those who just gave friendly criticism for my own good), and it really helped get the worst in me. I’m glad that I dropped the Jesuit conspiracy theories because the recent COVID-19 (and also Monkeypox) epidemic might tempt me it’s a Jesuit conspiracy. I might even think that the Jesuit General Arturo Sosa commissioned the creation of the vaccine and the virus. I almost became an anti-vaxxer reading Jesus-is-Savior and Reformation Online. Reformation Online is a whackjob that should be ignored as well. Worse, I was even afraid to talk about salvation because the conspiracy theories crippled my mind.
What’s the best focus to beat Jesuit infiltration, if ever? I believe that Jesuit infiltration is a reality. However, one can get so hyperfocused on it without thinking that Jesuit infiltrators are also part of the mission field. What if the next person invited to church is a Jesuit spy? The Jesuit spy might be the next person to get won to Jesus. The focus is to simply focus on the Word of God. True, I believe Catholicism must be preached against. The focus is, however, always on the Gospel. I decided to focus more on the Word of God and junk all those conspiracy theories that drove me paranoid (in my younger Christian years) for a very long time.
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