Is the Pope the anti-Christ?

ADAM and Eve’s first two sons differed vastly in their personalities and behaviour. Cain longed to farm and build, while Abel loved to roam the hills and meadows with his flocks.

After sin entered this new world because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, God established a sacrificial system and explained that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness for sin (Hebrews 9:22).

He told them that these sacrifices pointed forward to the time when Jesus would become a man and die as the Lamb of God for the sins of the world. Abel faithfully brought a young lamb as a sacrifice for his sins, but Cain thought it was unnecessary to obey God’s command so precisely. He considered the sacrificial system to be messy and reasoned that as long as he brought an offering and worshiped God, the details wouldn’t matter. So he brought an offering of his own works, some produce from the field.

Cain watched with jealous and anger as fire came down from heaven and consumed Abel’s sacrifice but left his own offering untouched. The Lord lovingly urged Cain to humble himself and obey, but Cain stubbornly persisted in his rebellion. Abel also tried to gently reason with his older brother, but Cain flew into a rage.

By the time Cain regained his senses, Abel’s bloody body lay still at his feet. God pronounced a curse upon Cain, and when Cain complained about his sentence, the Lord placed a mark upon him lest future generations take revenge for this first homicide.

The book of Revelation tells us that in the last days there will again be a battle between Christians regarding how and when to worship. Soon everyone will be identified either by the seal of God or the mark of the beast.

Before we can talk about the mark of the beast, we need to know who the beast is. In doing so, we must address some very sensitive issues, naming names and being specific. This is not a popular thing in this day of political correctness, but we must be firm because God loves His people and He wants them to know the truth.

God does not send truth to offend or embarrass anyone but that they may be saved. This message is not ours, but Jesus’. And with eternal death facing those who receive the mark, I have to be faithful to His word. If after knowing the truth you chose to continue on the path of disobedience, help yourself.

Turning to the 13th chapter of Revelation is like taking a trip into Hollywood’s bizarre world of high-tech special effects Jurassic Park. The beast you are about to encounter is as fearsome as the roaring, ripping, ravaging Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Imagine how the aged disciple John must have reacted as he saw in vision an amalgamated beast dripping with the brine of the wind-swept sea stalking toward him. Revelation 13:1-2: “Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.”

Watch this: it’s spotted like a leopard, possessed the raking claws of a grizzly bear and the tearing fangs of a lion, had seven heads and ten horns, and was dripping with water. “And on his heads a blasphemous name.” What is blasphemy? It’s taking the name of God in vain.

Webster’s Dictionary defines blasphemy as “the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God: the act of claiming the attributes of deity: irreverence toward something considered sacred or inviolable.” The Bible itself plainly defines the meaning of blasphemy: (a) John 10:33 The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”

Blasphemy is when a human being claims to be God. (b) Mark 2:7: “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Again, blasphemy is when a human being claims the prerogatives of God alone, in this case the ability to forgive sins. So whatever else this beast power is, it is a power that, among other characteristics, claims the attributes and prerogatives of God.

Revelation 13: 3-8: “And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marvelled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?’”

And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

The length of his dominion is 42 months, which calculates into three and a half years, or 1,260 days. But to what kind of time period could this possibly be referring? Interestingly, from the time of the early Christian writers in the late fourth century onward, including John Huss, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Sir Isaac Newton and various Bible scholars have consistently embraced the biblical key for symbolic time prophecies, namely, that a day represents a year (based on God’s usage of that “time key” in Ezekiel 4:6 “… I have laid on you a day for each year.” and Numbers 14:34: “According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years…”). Simply put, a day in apocalyptic prophecy represents a year in actual time. So whatever power this is, it would dominate church history for 1,260 days or 1,260 years.

But who or what is this beast power? Working strictly with the internal evidence of this prophecy, what do we know about this beast power? First of all, from even a simple reading of the prophecy, the beast clearly represents a religious power. For only a religious institution would receive the worship of the world (as it does in verse 8), seeking to usurp the place and worship of God.

Secondly, it is also clear that the beast represents a political power. For only a political power has a throne and crowns and a global dominion (verses 1 & 2). But thirdly, it is a religio-political power that holds global sway. And so it is fair to consider this beast power a geo-religio-politico institution.

But there’s more. For the prophecy reveals that this geo-religio-political power that would hold sway for over a millennium in history becomes wounded, that is, it is nearly destroyed (Verse 3). But amazingly, that wound heals. Then, after the healing, this power reasserts its global dominance. And finally, this power is depicted as making war on the people of God (Verse 7).

So we have a geo-religio-political power that (1) is dominant for over 1,200 years in the history of Christianity and then (2) is unexpectedly and mysteriously wounded, but that (3) is eventually healed of its wound and (4) finally holds global sway.

Who is the beast? Martin Luther, a Roman Catholic monk of the Augustinian Order said, “… for at last I know that the Pope is antichrist, and that his throne is of Satan himself” (D’ Aubigne, b. 6, ch. 9).

The “beast” of Revelation 13 is simply another name for the “Antichrist,” from Daniel 7, which is the papacy. Going through the four volumes of The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers by Le Roy Edwin Froom, you will be blown away both by the number and by the unanimity of Christian writers and Bible students over the span of the church’s history who agreed, believed and taught that the beast power of the Apocalypse (as well as of Daniel) is the institution of the papacy of Rome.

Off the coast of Florida between Cuba and the Bermuda islands, is a stretch of ocean called the Bermuda Triangle. Many ships have mysteriously vanished in those waters. No one knows why. When it comes to Bible prophecy, the ancient Protestants’ understanding of who the beast was/is has also largely vanished into the waves of history.

The Catholic Church, to counter the Protestants, solicited the services of a brilliant priest and doctor of theology from Spain, Francisco Ribera. He concluded this way: “These prophecy don’t apply to the Catholic Church at all but to a single sinister man who will rise up at the end of time.” It’s called a “Futurism” position. This viewpoint was quickly adopted as the Church’s official position on the Antichrist. “The Left Behind” by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins also carried the same message. It’s completely unbiblical.

1 260 Years

History states that in A.D. 538 the barbarian siege of Rome was broken, thus elevating the Bishop of Rome to the position of pre-eminent leader within the Catholic Church. The period that followed is called the Dark Ages because of the unprecedented persecution of the Protestants.

1260 years later, in A.D. 1798, Napoleon’s General Berthier, at the head of a French army, entered Rome, proclaimed the papal political rule at an end, and exiled Pope Pius VI to France, where he died a political prisoner. Thus the papacy was mortally wounded after 1,260 years. Perfect match with Bible prophecy! During Garibaldi’s revolution in Italy (1866-70), the Roman Church was stripped of even her lands, leaving the Pope a virtual prisoner in the Vatican.

What happens next is the most amazing reversal of history, fifty-nine years later, on February 11, 1929, an Italian leader named Mussolini signed a concordat with Cardinal Gaspari that restored a portion of those lands and ushered the papacy once again into international status by granting it geo-political power. In fact one of the newspaper headlines rang out the news: The wound is healed! Which is precisely what this ancient prophecy predicted!

World Domination

Any reader of this apocalyptic prophecy cannot escape the prediction of a yet-to-be global dominance by this same power that will in turn climax human history. Clearly, the Church of Rome is front and centre. Even in the USA, a land founded by the European Protestants fleeing religious persecution in their homelands and desiring a government without a king and a church without a pope are now bowing down to the papacy.

The late Billy Graham, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbechev, George W Bush, the Dalai Lama, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Boris Yeltsin, Robert Schuller, Putin, Moslems, Orthodox Jews and a host of religious and political leaders have all sought their private audiences with the Holy See. “And all the world marvelled and followed the beast” (Revelation 13:3).

666

The title of the pope of Rome is “Vicarius Filii Dei” (English: “Vicar of the Son of God”). Catholic scholar, Malachi Martin, in The Keys of This Blood, uses the same title for the pope on pages 114 and 122. Notice what happens when we total up the Roman numeral value of the letters of the name.

Vicarius: V= 5, ‘i = 1, c = 100, a = 0, r = 0, ‘i = 1, u like v = 5, s = 0 Total is 112.

Filii: f = 0, ‘i = 1, L = 50, ‘i = 1, ‘i = 1 Total is 53.

Dei: D = 500, e = 0, ‘i = 1 Total is 501.

Therefore, adding all the totals together: 112 + 53 + 501 = 666

Seal Of God

Now that we have positively identified the beast, we can discover her mark, or symbol of authority. But first, let’s look at God’s sign of authority. “I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them” (Ezekiel 20:12). “It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth” (Exodus 31:17).

God is saying in the texts above that He gave us His Sabbath as a glorious sign of His power to create and His power to sanctify (convert and save) us. True Sabbath keeping signifies that a person has surrendered his life to Jesus Christ and is willing to follow wherever Jesus leads.

Mark of the Beast

Since the symbol, or mark, of God’s authority and power is His holy Sabbath day, it seems likely that the symbol, or mark, of God’s challenger — the beast — might also involve a holy day. Let’s see if it does. Notice the following section from a Catholic catechism:

“Question: Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?”

“Answer: Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her — she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.”

Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism [FRS No. 7.], (3rd American ed., rev.: New York, Edward Dunigan & Bro., 1876), p. 174.

So the papacy is here saying that it changed Sabbath to Sunday and that virtually all churches accepted the new holy day. Thus, the papacy claims that Sunday as a holy day is the mark, or symbol, of her power and authority.

Some people think that the Sabbath/Sunday discussion is a quibble about days, no it’s not! But it’s about WHO you worship, God or Satan. You chose.

“Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16).

Finally

Folks, I’m not saying all Catholics will be lost. Some of the best examples of Christianity are Catholics. This is not about individuals but systems of error. There are some wonderful Christians in every denomination, they love the Lord with all their hearts and are earnestly worshiping Him. My best friend, HG, is Catholic. I pray they will look for Bible-based church organisations near them and avoid a last minute rush.

Do people who worship on Sunday (as a holy day) have the mark of the beast now? No one will have the mark of the beast until Sunday worship becomes an issue forced by law. At that time (just ahead), those who decide to follow the false teachings of the beast and worship on Sunday (the beast’s counterfeit holy day) will receive the mark of the beast.

Revelation 13:16 says people will receive the mark of the beast in the forehead or in the hand. The forehead represents the mind (Hebrews 10:16). A person will be marked in the forehead by a decision to keep Sunday as a holy day. The hand is a symbol of work (Ecclesiastes 9:10). A person will be marked in the hand by working on God’s holy Sabbath or by going along with Sunday laws for practical reasons (job, family, etc.).

The sign, or mark, for either God or the beast will be invisible to people. You will, in essence, mark yourself by accepting God’s sign or mark, the Sabbath, or the beast’s mark, Sunday. Though invisible to men, God will know who has which mark (2 Timothy 2:19).

Just like in the Cain and Abel case, there will be a great persecution around these issues at the close of earth’s history (soon). The beast will have world governments and church leaders enforcing his beliefs and labelling true Christians as “Heretics” to be destroyed. Brother will kill brother. Daniel 12:1…” And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, every one who is found written in the book.”

Christ warned us, John 16:2 “… yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.”

Those who follow Jesus and obey His truth will keep His Sabbath day holy and receive His mark. Those who expect to refuse the beast’s mark in the future must step under Jesus’ Sabbath banner now. His power is available to those who obey Him (Acts 5:32). Without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5). With Him, all things are possible (Mark 10:27).