Why pope would re-erect an obelisk on St. Peter's Square?

Question

The obelisk sits right dead smack center of St. Peter's Square in the Vatican.

Isn't an obelisk a pagan symbol?

They're all over Rome... and the rest of the world... regardless of religion and politics.

Answer 1

Pope Sixtus V (1585-1590) directed the obelisk to be re-erected at the center of the square in 1586, in front of the "new" Basilica of Saint Peter, which was being built at that time.

The Egyptologist Labib Habachi gives the most accepted reason in his book, "The Obelisk of Egypt" (1977 Charles Scribner's Sons):

"Legend has it that in the Vatican Circus innumerable Christians, including St. Peter, were put to death and that the reason this obelisk was not later overturned as were all the others in Rome was that it was looked upon as the last witness to the martyrdom of St. Peter."

To think that this obelisk, this exact piece of stone, may have been the last thing that Saint Peter looked upon before his death while being crucified upside down is awe inspiring.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

An obelisk is a particular design of memorial. The Washington Memorial is the best know American obelisk but there are many many more. It is not a pagan symbol even though pagans (Egyptians and Romans) made them in the past.

Answer 3

Wedding rings were a pagan symbol also. A neutral object like a ring or an obelisk can be used by pagans for their own purposes, but that doesn't make the object itself "pagan". Such objects can also be used for God's glory. Water was used in pagan ritualistic cleansing rites. It is also used in Christian baptism.

Answer 4

indeed they are, but the ones in rome are always topped with a cross - or a saint holding a cross. The rationale is that, by putting a christain symbol on top, they are showing the triumph of chirstainity over paganism.

Answer 5

Starting in the Renaissance, the obelisk has become a staple of monumental architecture, especially funerary, mainly for freemasons. Some claimed experts in architecture and psychology say they are phallic representations of manhood and an individual's standing or influence in or on a community. Also, occult symbology is invoked when placed in a circle of 8 wedges and or when a monolith or obelisk is fashioned from "black" marble, it becomes a symbol of fertility or copulation. Many thousands of modern obelisks can be found the world over, almost any American cemetery offering several examples:

Rumyantsev Obelisk in St Petersburg, 1799.
Stowe School, Buckinghamshire – General Wolfe's Obelisk, 1754.
Kagul Obelisk in Tsarskoe Selo, 1772.
Chesma Obelisk in Gatchina, 1775
Villa Medici, Rome – a 19th century copy of the Egyptian obelisk moved to the Boboli Gardens in Florence in 1790.
Villa Torlonia, Rome – two obelisks erected 1842.
Patriots' Grave, Old Burying Ground, Arlington, Massachusetts (1818)
Bunker Hill Monument, Charlestown, Massachusetts – built between 1827 and 1843, the first monumental public obelisk erected in the United States.
The Bennington Battle Monument in Bennington, Vermont.
Dalhousie Obelisk, in Raffles Place, Singapore, 1891.
The San Jacinto Monument, measuring 173.7 m in height, resembles an obelisk but it has an octagonal shaft and lacks a pyramidal top. The museum managing the monument considers it to be a column instead of an obelisk. It commemorates the acquisition of Texas and other states from Mexico following the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836.
The Washington Monument in Washington DC, USA, measuring 169.29 m in height, is the world's tallest true obelisk; completed in 1884.
Jefferson Davis Monument at Jefferson Davis State Historic Site in Fairview, Kentucky, 351 feet (107 m) tall, mostly of concrete, completed in 1924.
McKinley Monument, on Niagara Square, in Buffalo, New York, USA.
The William Dudley Chipley Memorial, in the Plaza Ferdinand VII, Pensacola, Florida, dedicated in 1901
The Veterans' Monument obelisk, constructed primarily from river rock collected from the nearby Doe River in downtown Elizabethton, Tennessee and guarded by two short American Civil War field cannon, dedicated in 1904 to Union and Confederate veterans from Carter County, Tennessee.
The Chalmette Monument, in Chalmette, Louisiana, commemorating the Battle of New Orleans, dedicated in 1908
The Foshay Tower, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, modeled after the Washington Monument, completed in 1929.
Foro Italico, Rome (on Lungotevere Maresciallo Diaz), erected in 1932 to honour Mussolini.
Obelisk of Montevideo, Uruguay - built in 1930
Obelisk of Buenos Aires, Argentina – built in 1936.
Obelisk of São Paulo, Brazil - built in 1954
Demidov Column in Barnaul, Siberia, Russia.
Victory Obelisk in Moscow
Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw.
Abolition Park in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
A small obelisk stands at Trinity site, the location of the first atomic bomb explosion.
Rugby, North Dakota, the geographical center of North America (Mexico, USA and Canada).
Wellington Monument, 62m (205 foot), Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland.
Plaza Francia obelisk at the Altamira neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela built in 1944.
Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, black marble, seated on 8 wedge circle with dome. Allegedly placed by Mayor Victor Ashe as a memorial to the September 11, 2001 attacks.[citation needed]
Pirulito da Praça Sete in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Rutherford's Monument near Anwoth, Scotland erected in 1842 as a memorial to Samuel Rutherford
The War Memorial in London Square, Southport, Lancashire, England, erected in 1923 to a design by Grayson and Barnish. It is flanked by two colonnades each supported by Doric columns, all constructed of Portland stone.
The Capas National Shrine in Tarlac province in the Philippines has a 70-meter obelisk (erected in 2003) that towers above the grounds of the former concentration camp at the final stop of the Bataan Death March. This site is in memory of the 31,000 Filipino and American soldiers who died here during World War II.
Pond and white obelisk monument in the main square of Vigan City in the Philippines.
The Obelisk on One Tree Hill in Auckland, New Zealand
High Point Monument, Montague,NJ. A 220 foot obelisk sitting on top of New Jersey's highest point 1803 ft above sea level.

Answer 6

Because the catholic church has nothing to do with Christianity. There are pagan symbols all through the catholic church. Great question!

Let me clarify right from the very start that I do NOT hate anyone. I love the Pope and all Catholics just as I do all people (I really do). I love them with God's love. I love them enough to risk being unpopular by telling them the truth of God's Word. Though I may not like someone, I am still commanded in the Bible to love them. I have no intentions to be unkind to anyone, I simply want to preach the TRUTH of God's Word.


Pope Proves Catholics Don't Know Their Own Doctrines


Issue Date: July/August 2001

By Rick Jones

My book Understanding Roman Catholicism generates many letters and e-mails from angry Catholics. Although I simply quoted the 1994 Catholic catechism, I am consistently accused of lying, twisting words, distorting facts and otherwise misconstruing Catholic doctrine.

The fact is, I didn't lie. Catholics just don't know what their religion teaches. No doctrine has led to more criticism than exposing the Catholic teaching that outside the Catholic church, no one can be saved.

"We don't believe that!" "How can you tell such a lie?" "How can you be so stupid?" are among the outcries I regularly hear. So am I wrong? Let's look at the facts.

The official 1994 catechism claims that the Catholic church "is necessary for salvation. "1

Then there's the question and answer format of the older Baltimore Catechism (also official doctrine):
QUESTION: "Are all obliged to belong to the Catholic Church in order to be saved?"
ANSWER: "All are obliged to belong to the Catholic Church in order to be saved."2

Many former popes have also preached this doctrine. But the current "infallible" pope helped prove my point. He reaffirmed Rome's position on May 7, 2001, when he told 2,000 young people, "you cannot be a Christian if you reject the Church founded on Jesus Christ;"3 The "Church" he is referring to is not the Scriptural body of Christ, but the Roman Catholic church alone.4

Sadly, most Catholics are tragically deceived, but even worse, many Christians have fallen into the same deception. Catholic apologists preach unity between Catholic and non-Catholic Christians. But the pope says there is no such thing as a non-Catholic Christian.

We are not spiritual brothers and sisters. Not even close. How tragic that Christians have stopped witnessing to these lost religious people who are still counting on their good works to get them to heaven.

Understanding Roman Catholicism was written to Catholics, to show them how frequently their doctrines contradict the Bible. Thank God many are reading the book, getting saved and leaving the Catholic church.

But today, soul winners also need to know the doctrines exposed in this book. If you really love the lost and want to see them saved, you first need to know who the lost are. You need to look past the Vatican's Public Relations lies and learn the truth. The second step to winning a Catholic to Christ is showing them why their religion is wrong. The first step is finding out yourself.

1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pg. 224, #846.
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Baltimore Catechism, No. 2, (c)1953, Pg. 72.
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Vatican Information Service, May 8, 2001, N.86, from article Pope Meets with Youth of Various Christian Confessions.
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See the 1994 Catechism, pg. 215, #816
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"Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?"
Gal. 4:16

Founders of "Mainline" Churches Knew Who Anti-Christ Was

Issue Date: August/September 1984

The following quotes show just how far the churches of today have strayed from the wisdom of their founding fathers.


Martin Luther
(1483-1546) (Lutheran)

"We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist...personally I declare that I owe the Pope no other obedience than that to Antichrist." (Aug. 18, 1520) Taken from "The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers," Vol. 2, pg. 121 by Froom.


John Calvin
(1509-1564) (Presbyterian)

"Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman pontiff Antichrist. But those who are of this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption against Paul himself, after whom we speak and whose language we adopt...I shall briefly show that (Paul's words in II Thess. 2) are not capable of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the Papacy." Taken from "Institutes" by John Calvin.


Cotton Mather
(1663-1728) (Congregational Theologian)

"The oracles of God foretold the rising of an Antichrist in the Christian Church; and in the Pope of Rome, all the characteristics of that Antichrist are so marvelously answered that if any who read the Scriptures do not see it, there is a marvelous blindness upon them." Taken from "The Fall of Babylon" by Cotton Mather in Froom's book "The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers," Vol. 3, pg. 113.


John Knox
(1505-1572) (Scotch Presbyterian)

Knox wrote to abolish "that tyranny which the pope himself has for so many ages exercised over the church" and that the pope should be recognized as "the very antichrist, and son of perdition, of whom Paul speaks." Taken from "The Zurich Letters" pg. 199 by John Knox.


Thomas Cranmer
(1489-1556) (Anglican)

"Whereof it followeth Rome to be the seat of antichrist, and the pope to be very antichrist himself. I could prove the same by many other scriptures, old writers, and strong reasons." (Referring to prophecies in Revelation and Daniel.) Taken from "Works" by Cranmer, Vol. 1, pp. 6-7.


John Wesley
(1703-1791) (Methodist)

Speaking of the Papacy he said, "He is in an emphatical sense, the Man of Sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure. And he is, too, properly styled the Son of Perdition, as he has caused the death of numberless multitudes, both of his opposers and followers...He it is...that exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped...claiming the highest power, and highest honor...claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone." Taken from "Antichrist and His Ten Kingdoms" by John Wesley, pg. 110.


Roger William
(1603-1683) (First Baptist Pastor in America)

He spoke of the Pope as "the pretended Vicar of Christ on earth, who sits as God over the Temple of God, exalting himself not only above all that is called God, but over the souls and consciences of all his vessals, yea over the Spirit of Christ, over the Holy Spirit, yea, and God himself...speaking against the God of heaven, thinking to changed times and laws: but he is the son of perdition (II Thess. 2)." Taken from "The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers" by Froom, Vol. 3, pg. 52.

Quoted from GREAT PROPHECIES OF THE BIBLE by Woodrow.

Our Lord Replaced by "Our Lady" for Roman Catholics


Issue Date: May/June 1996


For a billion "Christians" in the world, Jesus as "Lord" has been effectively elbowed aside by a mythical goddess with the title of "Lady."

Rarely do you find a shrine or church named after Jesus. But Catholicism's "Our Lady of __________" (speaking of Mary) is found thousands of times throughout the Roman Catholic world. "Our Lady of Guadalupe" presides over Latin American. "Our Lady of Czestochowa" graces virtually every church and home in Poland. "Our Lady of the Rockies" is perched on a hill above Butte, Montana.

Thousands of shrines and Roman Catholic parish churches carry the title "Our Lady of (Whatever)." Many carry the name of Lourdes or Fatima, two locations where major apparitions have occurred.

Cesar Vidal in his book "The Myth of Mary" points out that the use of "lady" in this context is a major blasphemy against our "Lord" Jesus. In fact, this is not the only way that the Roman Catholic church has shouldered Jesus aside and inserted this pagan goddess figure in His place.

Over the last 20 centuries, the pope and his false church has constructed a myth around the mother of Jesus that has no connection to the virgin lass of the Bible.

Roots of the myth reach into every pagan system of goddess worship ever concocted. Vidal describes it "like the cuckoo that kicks the legitimate owners out of their nest, the myth of Mary has attempted to deprive Jesus of all that the New Testament attributes to Him.

"He is no longer the only sinless person. Mary is too. He is no longer the only one who ascended to heaven. So has Mary. He is no longer the only mediator. Mary intercedes as well.

"He is no longer the only Savior. Mary is co-redeemer. He is no longer the only Lord. Mary is the Lady. He is no longer the only King. Mary is the Queen. He is no longer the one who holds the keys to death and Hades. Mary also has them.

"From the historical evidence, we see a process of imitation which robs Christ of His most important characteristics and fixes them in Mary."

Vidal's book traces the 2000 year history of this robbery showing how Roman Catholicism has transferred the trust of a billion people from Jesus to a goddess idol of pagan origin. He gives you the facts to lay before the precious, deceived Roman Catholic.

As a result, many have recognized the deception and escaped damnation. This book will help equip you to be a better witness to them.