Are the End Times Here and Who is the Antichrist? Part II

Are the End Times Here and Who is the Antichrist? Part II

According to I John 4:2-4 the antichrist will also not accept that Christ came in the flesh and that the spirit of antichrist that will come, is already in the world today. II John 7 tells us that there are many deceivers, who don’t believe that Jesus came in the flesh, who are antichrists. So we know that there are many antichrists that will ultimately lead to the one final antichrist of the last days. So the question now is does the Roman Catholic Church actually believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh? And what kind of flesh did Christ have?

Hebrews 2:14 says, So then as the children are one, who have shared in the body and blood, Christ, taking part of the same humanity through death, overcame the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil; And delivered those, who through fear of death, were enslaved their whole lives. The truth is, Christ didn’t take on the nature of angels; but Christ took on the human nature of Abraham. In everything Christ was required to become just like humanity, in order to be a compassionate and faithful leading priest in things concerning God, to bring others back to God for their sins. Since Yeshua the Christ has suffered being tempted, the Christ is also able to help those who are tempted. These verses tell us that Christ became fully human with the same human nature as Abraham, and had the same human nature as we do.

The Catholic Church has a doctrine called the Immaculate Conception, which is not about the birth of Jesus, but actually concerns the birth of Mary. According to Pope Pius IX, Mary, by a miracle of God was born without sin. This is a Roman Catholic dogma which holds that from its creation, the soul of the Virgin Mary was free from original sin. The Roman Catholic Church has confessed the Immaculate Conception and has celebrated it in festivals in the Eastern church as early as the 5th century and in the Western church from the 7th century. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was opposed by the famous Italian philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas. Finally in 1854, Pope Pius IX declared the Immaculate Conception to be a dogma essential for the belief of the universal church.

The Catholic Church confesses that Jesus, who was born through Mary, took on her sinless nature, not Abrahams fallen flesh, not our fallen flesh. Catholics believe that Christ had a human nature of the same substance of hers (sinless), so that we can’t go directly to Jesus, but must go through Mary, a saint, or a priest as an advocate. In essence, this doctrine says that Jesus couldn’t have sinned, if he had wanted to, and so was not susceptible to any temptation and that we can’t approach Jesus directly. In essence, they deny that Jesus had the same flesh (human nature) that we do. This is clearly not what the Scripture teaches. Scripture teaches that Jesus had the same human nature and fallen flesh as we do, but without sin. Hebrews 4:14-16 says: We don’t have a leading priest which can’t understand how we feel in our weaknesses; but the Christ was tempted just like we are, yet without ever sinning. So let’s come without fear to the throne of grace, so that we can find mercy and grace to help us in our time of need.

Revelation 17:9 further identifies the antichrist with a city that sits on seven hills. It states: Here is wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman (city) sits. Rome is commonly known as the city of seven hills. According to tradition, Rome was founded on one of the Seven Hills, a term used to describe the Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian, Aventine, and Palatine hills surrounding the old community. It is today not only the capital of Italy but, as the seat of the Roman Catholic church and the headquarters of major international agencies and multinational corporations, a city of worldwide importance with a population of over 2,500,000 people. (According to Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2005. © 1993-2004 Microsoft Corporation.) In addition, Rome has become the site of agencies like the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and World Food Program, which could potentially give Rome power over the world’s food supply, and in turn give it power over the economies of the world. For centuries, Rome has been called the Eternal City, earned through its importance as one of the great cities of Western civilization, as the capital of the Roman Empire, and as the world center of the Roman Catholic Church. This title God gave to the city of Jerusalem, but Rome has usurped it.

Revelation 13:16-17 tells us that the antichrist will be in control of the global economy. It reads: And it causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and not free, to get a mark to identify them in their right hand, or in their foreheads. And no one could buy or sell anything unless they had a mark, something like a computer chip with the name of the creature or the number of its name. With computer chips now being placed in our pets to identify them, we’re not far from getting them put in our kids to identify them. We’ll be told it will help us to find them if they get lost or kidnapped. Maybe it’s just a matter of time before the antichrist gains enough religious and political power to also control economic matters worldwide.

Daniel 11:37 gives us another description of the antichrist of the end times. It states: He will not respect the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor any god, but will exalt himself above them all. The popes of the Roman Catholic Church certainly fit this description with the Church’s prohibition of marriage by its male priests and its claim to be the Vicar of God (the voice of God).

Finally Revelation 13:18 clearly identifies the antichrist of the end times. It states: Let those who understand count the number of the creature’s name because it’s the number of a human being; and the number is 666. Pope Innocent III (r. 1198-1216), was the most important person, secular or religious, in the European society of his time. He was the first pope to make consistent use of the title “vicar of Christ.” The Popes of Rome have many titles, another one being the Vicar of God or in Latin “Vicarivs Filii Dei.” With the Roman Numerals being I for 1, V for 5, X for 10, L for 50, C for 100, D for 500, and M for 1000, the title adds up to equal 666.

Vicarvis Filii Dei
V=5+I=1+C=100+I=1+V=5=112 I=1+L=50+I=1+I=1=53 D=500+I=1=501 = 501+53+112= 666

Could the next Pope or some other future Pope from Christendom possibly be the antichrist? Some other non-biblical prophecies give us clues as to the reign of the popes. According to the Papal prophecies, there will only be two more popes, the last one having the name of Peter. Both Malachi O’ Morgan and Nostradamus agree that the last Pope will be named Peter, the Roman. Maybe we need to watch who the next Pope is, to see whether or not he is named Peter.

Revelation 13:11-15 says: And I watched another creature coming up out of the earth; which had two horns like a lamb, but spoke like a dragon. And this religious leader uses all the political power of the first creature that came before it, and causes the earth and those who live in it to worship the first creature, who had come back to life. And this creature does amazing things, making fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of all humanity, and misleads all those who live on the earth by the things which it had power to do as long as it rules with the first creature. It told all those who live on the earth, to make a clone of the creature, which had been beheaded, and yet lived. And it had power to give life to the clone of the first creature, so that the clone of the first creature could both speak, and cause whoever wouldn’t worship the clone of the creature to be killed. Could this clone of the beast that suffered the fatal head wound in the Revelation be a future Pope who is killed and resurrected by cloning? Could one of the Popes be resurrected in mimicry of Christ’s resurrection? We almost have this kind of technology today, and soon man will be able to recreate man, which is certainly exalting ourselves against God.

Daniel 7:7 and Revelation 13:1 also prophesies of a ten nation confederation. Daniel says: After this, I saw in the dream a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, who was very powerful. It had teeth of iron that ate and broke everything in pieces, and it trampled what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts before it and it had ten horns. Revelation says: Then I stood on the seashore and saw a beast coming out of the water having seven heads and ten horns and on his horns ten crowns, and on his head a name that disrespects God. Could this be the Western European Union of 10 nations in existence right now? Could it give its power to one man at some time in the future? It has become much more powerful in recent years.

The Western European Union (WEU), is an association of European countries focused on defense and security issues. The original aims of the union were collaboration in economic, social, and cultural matters, and collective self-defense. The WEU grew out of the Brussels Treaty, a cooperative agreement made in 1948 between the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The treaty was amended and modified in 1954, creating the WEU, at which time Italy and West Germany (now part of the united Federal Republic of Germany) joined the organization. Portugal and Spain were admitted in 1988, and finally Greece in 1995.

Its role was further enlarged in 1992 by the Treaty on European Union (the Maastricht Treaty) that created the EU. The Maastricht Treaty incorporated the WEU as the security arm of the European Union. Since that time, the WEU has strengthened its relations with NATO, and the EU and has taken back European defense planning from NATO. With NATO assistance, the WEU has conducted military exercises and increased its operational capability and readiness to perform as the defense arm of the EU. The principal administrative body of the WEU is a council, which is made up of the foreign and defense ministers of the ten member nations. Could this ten member union give its power to the beast (Rome)? This may be one entity we need to watch for future changes.

I believe the time period of 70 Weeks in Daniel could also reflect a contemporary time ending in the great tribulation, as well as its historical elements of prophecy. If you count 70 years from the time Israel became a nation in 1948, the year 2018 comes into view. If it includes an intense seven year tribulation, you would subtract 7 years, which could begin some time around 2011. Yet it still could be counted from some other event concerning a call to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem or some other world renown Christian Church, like St. Peter’s Basilica, commonly called The Church of the Popes. Pope Julius II first gave the commission to Donato Bramante, in 1506. Bramante envisioned a church based upon a Greek cross (a cross with all four arms of equal length) and surmounted by a great dome. If you count the 490 years from 1506, you come to the year 1996. Nostradamus predicted the arrival of the Antichrist around 1999, along with new plagues and famines. Could the antichrist have been born in 1999? But our calendar is off by about 4 years, so 1999 would actually be around 1996. If we say that the antichrist was born some time between 1996-1999, then he would be about 30 years old in 2026-2029. Christ began his ministry when he was about 30 years old, so it would make sense that the antichrist would come to power about that same age, in order to mimic the Christ. Nostradamus also predicts a meteor coming close to the earth in 2027, which could be cataclysmic. Could this be the cosmic disturbances of the Tribulation? The time of tribulation could even be calculated by the historic Jewish calendar, which could be another 200+ years into the future, but I doubt we could last so long with the upheavals in nature and humanity we are now experiencing worldwide. The Bible does tell us that we cannot know the exact day or hour of Christ’s return, but it says we can discern the signs of the times. I Thessalonians 5:2 tells us Christ will come like a thief in the night! But I Thessalonians 5:4 goes on to tell us: but you, Christians, aren’t in darkness, so the Day shouldn’t sneak up on you like a thief! As Christians, we are called to watch and pray!

In my own dream, which I had in 1997, I dreamed that I was in some kind of Christian concentration camp with my daughter and I heard the Lord speak to me saying, “Even the Bibles will be taken away within 20 years.” If that dream was actually prophetic, and the 20 years are counted from the time I had the dream then that would be around 2017, just one year before the 2018 mark, which is 70 years from the 1948 establishment of the Jewish state of Israel. But the 20 year point when Bibles are taken away could be from the time the events in the dream occur as well, and not when I actually had the dream, which would put us at some other time in the future. And this was not the first prophetic dream I have had. When I was a very young child, about 5 years old, I had a dream that showed Christ coming back immediately after our generation of people, likely during my own lifetime. Since I could potentially live to be eighty to a hundred years old, that would be sometime around 2044-2064. Needless to say, I believe the end times are nearly upon us and it is a lot closer than many of us believe. Just when it is, I’m not sure. In any case, if the Word of God is taken away from us, what would there be to restrain evil then? Not much. But in Matthew 24:14 we find that the Good News of Christ must be spread all over the world before the end comes. Then when this New Word of the realm of God is told in the whole world for a witness to all nations; the end of time will come. So we Christians best get busy spreading the Word of God in every way we can to everyone we can!

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