Immanuel.at Forum for Discussion Discourse 115: Will the last Pope be the false prophet of the Antichrist?

On the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI’s stepping down on 28 February 2013, the prophecies relating to the papacy of the Irish Catholic archbishop Malachi are once again being consulted. Malachi foretold that Benedict’s successor would be "Petrus Romanus" (Peter the Roman), as the last (267th) Pope, and apparently also predicted the end of the world. The above commentary on the website of Maria Gress gives a short but informative summary of the relevant information.

But it appears possible that Malachi’s prophecy has already been fulfilled long since. In 2006 Pope Benedict XVI made the former Archbishop of Vercelli and Genoa, Tarcisio Bertone, Cardinal Secretary of State and so his right hand man. Since 2007 Bertone has held the title of Camerlengo, or Chamberlain – an office entrusted with the direction of the Vatican when the papal seat is vacant, in normal circumstances after the death of a Pope. Following the departure of Benedict and until the election of a new Pope, he is thus the "supreme pastor" of the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, aged 78, whose second name is Pietro (Petrus), was born on 2 December 1934 in Romano (Roman) Canavese in the Italian province of Turin. As Camerlengo while the seat is vacant, he is Benedict’s "successor" as head of the Vatican. And so it follows that the prophecy of Malachi could already have been fulfilled – though quite differently from the way in which many expect.

From the point of view of Malachi’s times, the resignation of a Pope was unthinkable, and so the Pope’s official successor would have to be a Pope. So Bertone, who has Pietro/Petrus as one of his names and who was born in a place called Romano (Roman), would fulfill the conditions of the prophecy in every way as Benedict’s "successor". But of course this would also mean that he cannot be the last and further Popes will follow.

But as is well known, Bertone himself is actually one of the possible successors to Benedict as the next Pope! And that, now, acquires a quite particular significance when we learn of the real background to the Pope’s resignation, as reported by Dr. Udo Ulfkotte, Editor in Chief of KOPP-exklusiv, in an article in the 08/13 issue based on information supplied by the Italian secret service AISI (Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna).

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(Secret service reports: why Pope Benedict had to step down / Udo Ulfkotte, KOPP-exklusiv 08/13, 2013-02-27)

(…) From the point of view of the media there are currently many questions calling for answers in relation to the Pope’s resignation. Only one question did they answer immediately: Benedict resigned, apparently, for reasons of age. Just shaky health, it seems, moved the 85 year old Pope to step down. The pontifex stated that he wanted "a more peaceful old age".

The power of Mr. Bertone
But is that really the truth? More detailed insights on this have been offered by reports from the Roman secret services. Do you know Tarcisio Bertone? According to information supplied by the Italian secret service AISI (Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna), this man is more important and more powerful in the Vatican than Pope Benedict. Tarcisio Betone is the State Secretary of the Vatican. He determines who will be deposed. And he determines the direction the Vatican takes. To give an example of the power of this man – when Pope Benedict’s appointee as President of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, resigned in 2009, the Pope only learned of it in his sitting room from the evening news on television, and not from Tarcisio Bertone, who had actually engineered the resignation.

According to media reports the Pope is supposed to rule the Vatican as an absolute monarchy. But in fact behind him there is a shadow government which determines everything. And this is headed by Tarcisio Bertone. We need to know this, when the Pope who has stepped down says he wants "a more peaceful old age". But there are even more interesting facts in the background. Another report of the secret service AISI is concerned with Benedict’s state of health. Here it is stated that the latter is "at present considerably more healthy than many of his predecessors in office were at this age". (…) So why did the pontifex direct people’s attention to his supposedly shaky health – which in comparable situations, in any case, has never been a reason for a Pope to resign?

A man in the twilight
We can answer this question too on the basis of another AISI report. The latter includes a detailed chapter on the massive psychological pressure to which Benedict has been subjected for many months by the secret shadow government under Tarcisio Bertone. This has to do, above all, with the threat of new revelations of the Vatican’s financial affairs, amounting to billions. Since January 2013 the Vatican’s bank accounts have been frozen by the Italian government. An investigation is being conducted into suspected money laundering to the tune of billions. The bank in question is the Vatican bank IOR (Istituto per le Opere di Religione – Institute for the Works of Religion [sic!]). It is not just the ex-head of the Vatican bank, Gotti Tedeschi, an intimate of Benedict’s, who now faces charges.

Benedict, who had put everything he could into clearing up the financial scandals shaking the Vatican (just as he had already done with all cases of child abuse), was himself maneuvered into the twilight by the adroit stage management of the shadow government. According to AISI’s information, Benedict made new enemies every day because he interfered with the administration of the church’s finances, which previously (as under John Paul II) had been left exclusively in the hands of the financial professionals. And these had been selected by Tarcisio Bertone.

They then for the most part enriched themselves out of all proportion, because Popes had no idea about finance. AISI indicates in this report, at all events, that the financial jugglers of the papacy could have speculated away large amounts of the church’s former assets in connection with the international financial crisis. It is unclear whether Benedict was apprised of the true dimensions of the financial catastrophe at the Vatican. But it was clear to him that the church’s finances were no longer in good shape. Since the year 2010 Benedict had been trying to find out what assets the Vatican still owned. According to AISI, he appointed Swiss corruption investigator René Brülhart to head a new Vatican office which was to look into allegations of the European Council that the Vatican itself was involved in money laundering.

All Vatican accounts closed
At the end of March 2012 the American investment bank J.P. Morgan closed all the accounts of Pope Benedict and the Vatican. At the same time the Holy See made its first appearance in the strategic report of the US State Department on the fight with drug crime. And it features on a list of states which were suspected of being involved in money laundering for drug bosses. Another shock for Benedict was when the Italian central bank announced, at Christmas 2012 of all times, that tourists to the Vatican could no longer pay with credit cards. All credit card payments to the Vatican were banned in view of lack of transparency in the flow of funds.

After that Benedict wanted to know what had happened to a ton of gold, cash reserves to the amount of 340 million euros and 520 million euros in the form of securities and shares, which had still been in existence at the last statement of the Vatican’s finances in the year 2008. Evidently, AISI says, those financial groups which speculate with the Vatican’s assets were not anxious to let their dealings be brought to light. So it will be interesting to see whether the Italian security services will publish the results of their investigations of the Vatican’s financial scandals, and what their nature will be.

The Vatican had already been threatened with similar revelations in the past. In 1982 Roberto Calvi, former General Manager of the Vatican’s Banco Ambrosiano (nicknamed "God’s bank"), was accused of money laundering and financial misdealing. But before he could be brought to trial, he was found hanged under a bridge in London. His pockets were full of bricks. The crime remains unsolved to this day.

Powerful opponents behind thick walls
The financial jugglers of the Vatican have no interest in certain crimes being explained. Otherwise the faithful might be less eager to give money to the church. Since the end of the sixties the Vatican has no longer been a tax free zone inside Italy. This privilege dated from the time of Mussolini, but it came to an end under Pope Paul VI, who had wanted to get as much money as possible out of the country under the nose of the Roman fiscal authorities. The person charged with this task was Kasimir Marcinkus, who became President of the Vatican Bank in 1971. Marcinkus would have been arrested in 1987, if the then Pope John Paul II had not refused to hand him over. He died in 2006.

Pope Benedict entered on office with the aim of subjecting all the financial complexities of the Vatican to a careful review once and for all. But behind the Vatican’s thick walls he had to face powerful opponents. Another AISI report points out that the last Pope who tried to tackle the secret financial apparatus of the Vatican did not long survive the attempt. John Paul I died on 29 September 1978, after just 33 days in office – not 24 hours after his decision to depose important money managers of the Curia.

His personal advisor, Malachi Martin, was found at the bottom of a lake with a wooden block wedged in his chest. The authorities found that this arch-Catholic man had "committed suicide". AISI mentions this in its report in connection with the enormous psychological pressure to which Benedict has been subjected in recent months because he sought clarity in the matter of the Vatican’s finances. Benedict’s statement, on announcing his resignation that he wanted "a more peaceful old age" thus acquires an entirely new dimension of meaning.

Benedikt

KOPP-exklusiv / www.kopp-exklusiv.de

This report actually only reproduces those facts which have already been circling around the Vatican for decades, and which informed contemporaries have criticized on repeated occasions – along with the Vatican’s holding shares in pharmaceutical firms which make contraceptives (the pill), although the Catholic Church is officially opposed to them.

And as has been the case for decades, it is not just these criminal actions on the part of the Catholic church which astonish rightly believing Christians, practically to the point of depriving them of speech – worse is the stupidity and lack of interest of Catholics of all social levels, who are certainly familiar with such information to a certain extent (or at least would be able to find out about it if they took the trouble), and nonetheless turn a blind eye to it and continue to follow the well beaten path that takes them ever deeper into the mire.

By contrast with these facts, the prophecies quoted above of the Irish Catholic archbishop Malachi, relating to the penultimate and the last Pope, could only be judged correctly if there were to be something written on the subject in the Bible. But the Bible tells us nothing about Malachi, nor does it have any explicit information about the Catholic Church. And the end of the world, according to the Bible, is still far off – separated from us by at least a thousand years (The Millennium). So the reason why we are addressing this issue here, at Immanuel.at, is actually a rather different one.

Babylon the Great

By some, generally Evangelical commentators, the Catholic Church has been and still is often equated with the city of Rome, the city that stands on seven hills, as well as being identified with the Babylon of Revelation, the woman who sits on seven mountains (Rev 17:9). We have already given copious proof, here at Immanuel.at, that while chapter 17 of Revelation admittedly offers some support for this view, the statements to be found in chapter 18 are in complete contradiction of an interpretation of this nature.

In chapter 17 we find Babylon the Great sitting in the desert on the scarlet beast (Satan). This beast has seven heads.

Rev 17,1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 17,2 with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality." 17,3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. 17,4 The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, 17,5 and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, "Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth." Rev 17, 1- 5;

These seven heads are then described, in Rev 17,9, as seven kings and as seven mountains on which the woman sits. And this, now, is just the passage which causes some interpreters erroneously to understand the city of Rome with its seven hills as being Babylon the Great.

The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings

Rev 17,9 "Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, 17,10 and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while. 17,11 "The beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction. 17,12 "The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. Rev 17, 9-12;

But what an interpretation of this kind completely overlooks is the fact that John is speaking here of mountains and kings. To separate these seven mountains and seven kings, seeing the mountains as the seven hills of Rome and the seven kings as the successive rulers of the Roman empire, is to ignore the global interpretive background of this chapter of Revelation and to compress it into an isolated local event of world history.

In view of the fact that the Bible repeatedly uses "mountains" to refer to kingdoms (Dan 2:35.44, Isa 41:15 and not least Jer 51:24-26, where the "destroying mountain" is the Babylonian empire), any serious biblical commentary has to interpret these seven mountains as the seven world kingdoms.

So it follows, too, that the seven kings are not the emperors of the Roman Empire, of a single empire, that is – as these commentators like to suggest – but rather the seven rulers of these seven world kingdoms. This is also confirmed by the statement in verse 17,18 of Revelation, where we are told: "The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth." So she reigns over the kings of the whole earth, not just over the rulers of the former Roman Empire.

If we now examine these matters more narrowly, we can see that, by contrast with these older interpretations, we are here concerned not just with different spatial orders of magnitude – but what is more, the prophecy is based, above all, on a totally different temporal dimension. It is not just a matter of the former Roman Empire, but of all the empires of world history in its entirety, from the first to the last worldly empire of this planet. This may be seen rather more clearly in the illustration below, showing the seven kings and taken from Table 2, "The World Empires in the Bible".

So the supposition that the Catholic Church is the Babylon of Revelation fails, in view of a quite simple reflection: if Babylon the Great has royal dominion over all the empires of the world, then Babylon must also have ruled over Egypt, for example. And although the Catholic Church, in these days of interfaith ecumenism, is fond of presenting itself as the "common umbrella of all world religions" and pointing to its "millennia old" origins, the claim to have preached the Catholic mother of God, Mary, back in the time of the Pharaohs would just be too much for anyone to swallow.

But the suspicion of some interpreters that the Catholic Church could be in league with Satan does also have a certain justification in a different connection. When we look more closely, there are some indications in the Revelation of John which highlight certain parallels with the Catholic Church and in particular with its very last Pope. With a view to examining these indications, we must now briefly recapitulate the context of these statements and the way we understand it here at Immanuel.at.

The first, human Antichrist

We are concerned here with the person of the Antichrist and of his false prophet, as they are described in chapter 13 of the Revelation of John. According to our interpretation here at Immanuel.at, this beast from the sea is a demon, a deceased human being, who is reawakened from the dead by Satan as a demonic Antichrist. Before his death as a human being, this demon was the first Antichrist, the "man of lawlessness" as Paul calls him.

The lawless one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders.

2The 2,1 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2,2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
2,3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 2,4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. 2,5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?
2,6 And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 2,7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.

2,8 Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; 2,9 that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 2,10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 2,11 For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, 2,12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. 2The 2, 1-12;

This man of lawlessness is a human dictator and the originator of the apostasy on earth. But as Paul also tells us above, in 2The 2,8, the Lord Jesus will kill this tyrant on his Second Coming ("by the appearance of His coming") for the Rapture of the congregation of the Last Days ("our gathering together to Him"), at the sixth seal, before the day of the wrath of God ("the apostasy comes first").

As we read in Paul, even when he was a man, the Antichrist had made an impact by performing deceitful signs and wonders in the great power given him by Satan. After the Son of God has killed him on his Second Coming for the Rapture, Satan imitates the resurrection of Jesus – the true Christ / Messiah – by reawakening this dead man as a demon (the beast from the sea) and presenting him the peoples of the world as the risen "Messiah".

Satan, as Luther said long ago, is "the ape of God", because he tries to imitate God in every way. And so here he plagiarizes the resurrection of the Son of God, and makes the Jews (as well as Christians and other religions) believe that this is the resurrected "Messiah" of Israel, the "Son" of God, while proclaiming the true Messiah an impostor (1Jn 2:22).

Rev 13,1 And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. 13,2 And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. 13,3 I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; Rev 13, 1- 3;

When John writes here in Rev 13,3, "I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain", he refers to the last of the seven heads and so to Satan’s last, seventh worldly ruler (see above) – namely the first Antichrist, the "man of lawlessness" who was killed by Jesus Christ on his Second Coming.

And Paul also writes, in 2The 2,8 above, of the lawless one "whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming". And this too confirms the presumption that both these biblical passages are referring to the same person – the first, human Antichrist, the lawless tyrant of the Great Tribulation.

Seeing that earlier on, in Rev 17,3.9-11, we understood the seven heads of the beast in the desert (Satan) as being the seven world empires with their kings, we can likewise take the seven heads here (Rev 13,1-3) of the beast from the sea (the demonic Antichrist) as referring to the same world empires. This interpretation finds confirmation in similar statements in the Book of Daniel, where the last four of these seven world empires appear to Daniel in a dream, and he characterizes them unambiguously:

Dan 7,1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed; then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it. 7,2 Daniel said, "I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. 7,3 "And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another. 7,4 "The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it. 7,5 "And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, ‘Arise, devour much meat!’ 7,6 "After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. 7,7 "After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. Dan 7, 1- 7;

As is revealed by the interpretation of this dream in Dan 7,17 ff, Daniel sees in his vision the four world empires that are to come. Accordingly the lion is Babylon, together with Nebuchadnezzar, who for his arrogance was banished from human society by God for seven years and forced to live as a beast in the wilderness. But after that God restored him, made him to stand on two feet like a man and gave him back his human mind again (Dan 7,4).

The bear represents the next empire in historical sequence, that of the Medes and Persians. Here the statement that it was raised up on one side indicates the fact that in the ruling coalition between the Medes and the Persians the latter were always the dominant partner, while the Medes were chiefly occupied with the administration of the empire.

The swift leopard stands for Greece and Alexander the Great, who conquered the lands of his empire in a very short space of time. And likewise the four kingdoms of the Diadochi, which came into being after the death of Alexander, are indicated in the four heads of this beast.

The fourth beast, finally, with its iron teeth, represents the Roman Empire, which was the first to equip its legions with breastplates, helmets and shields of bronze and iron and ruled in the lands it conquered with an iron hand.

As we can now see clearly shown in the illustration below – taken from Table 06, "The Antichrist, the ‘queen’ in the devil’s chess game" – all these properties of the past world empires will be combined in the Antichrist’s empire of the Last Days and its demonic ruler.

The Antichrist, the "queen" in the devil’s chess game.(LANDSCAPE)

Both at the beginning and at the end of this table we have a prophecy from Revelation related to Satan. In the yellow shaded area we find the prophecy of the demonic Antichrist from Rev 13; this is preceded by the prophecies from Daniel referring to the four world empires of Babylon, the Medes and Persians, Greece and the Roman Empire.

And here we can see very clearly, first of all the similarity of this demonic Antichrist with Satan (seven heads and ten horns), and secondly the fact that all the properties of the four preceding beasts (world empires) are now concentrated in this one beast. This beast, then, is evidently the "queen" in the devil’s game of chess.

But this likewise testifies to the fact that Satan has already used all his possibilities of dominating the world in the last 2600 years, and here is now playing his last trump card. It really is a case of the "Last Days" – though of course this does not mean the end of the world, which as we know will only come after the Millennial Kingdom of Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, but rather just the end of all worldly dominion, which in actual fact has always been the dominion of Satan.

Seeing that the representation of these beasts in Revelation is of course not to be physically understood, but rather symbolically – with a reference to their spiritual properties – the similarity of the beast from the sea (the Antichrist) with the beast in the desert (Satan) is in no way surprising. After all, Satan has given the Antichrist all his authority, his power and even his throne (see above, Rev 13,2). But this does not mean that the Antichrist is now the new Satan. As is evidently possible in the spiritual dimension, Satan gives everything to the Antichrist by manifesting himself in him.

And here again Satan is imitating almighty God, who has given all authority to his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: "And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth’" (Mt 28,18, and cf. Dan 7:13-14, Mt 11:27, Rev 5:11-12). And just as the heavenly Father dwells in the Son (Jn 14:9-11) and speaks in him, so Satan will manifest himself in the Antichrist and will speak and act through him.

This manifestation of Satan in the demonic Antichrist is also the explanation of one of the most puzzling statements in the entire Bible. Earlier on, in Rev 17,11, it is said of the beast in the desert (Satan), with reference to his seven heads: "He (the beast in the desert / Satan)… is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven".

The human Antichrist is one of the seven kings (rulers of the seven world empires) – namely, the seventh. And seeing that Satan dwells in this resurrected demonic Antichrist, he is in a manner of speaking identical with him and so Satan too (the beast in the desert) is "one of the seven". As the eighth, Satan will then be released from the abyss only after the Millennium, when he will lead the whole of humanity astray for one last time (Rev 20:7-8).

This deceit of Satan’s – his leading astray the Jews, and then the whole of humanity, in the Last Days with the false Messiah, the Antichrist – was foretold to them by the Lord Jesus when he was still alive:

Jn 5,41 "I do not receive glory from men;
5,42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.
5,43 "I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. Jn 5,41-43;

The Lord is speaking here to the Jews, and he compares this "other" with himself. He, Jesus, came in the name of his Father as the Messiah of the Jews, and the Jews did not receive him. But when another comes in his own name (as the false "Messiah"), he will be received by the Jews. This is the biblical proof that the Antichrist will be a Jew. For a non-Jew would never be accepted and received by the Jews as Messiah.

But this statement of the Lord’s also conceals another meaning. The Lord says, "… if another comes in his own name". Now he is speaking here, of course, of the Antichrist, who however will not come in his own name, but in the "name" of Satan, his father (Jn 8:44), who has raised him from the dead. And this is yet another confirmation of the presumption that Satan will manifest himself in the Antichrist and so will be identical with him. Only in this way is it possible for the Lord to say of him that the Antichrist (= manifestation of Satan) will come in his own (Satan’s) name.

So the Jews will accept the Antichrist as the "Messiah". But as we see from Rev 13,4-5 below, it is not just the Jews who will receive him.

Likewise the Catholic Church and its Pope, and even Evangelical Christians and congregations, will hail him with joy – for want of biblical knowledge – as the "long expected Lord", and celebrate him for all the miracles he performs in the authority and power of Satan. And the rest of the world too will welcome the false "Christ" and confess him with amazement – "Who is like him?" And people will marvel at him and his father, Satan, whom he will proclaim to be God the Father, and worship them.

They worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast.

Rev 13,4 They worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?" 13,5 There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. Rev 13, 4- 5;

And authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.

Rev 13,6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 13,7 It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. 13,8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. Rev 13, 5- 8;

As the above text (Rev 13,7-8) tells us, the demonic Antichrist will have dominion over the peoples of the world, for he has been given authority over the whole earth and "all who dwell on the earth will worship him". And just as our Lord Jesus Christ said of himself that the Father is in him and he in the Father, so too the devil, the father of the Antichrist, will be manifest in him and will guide and direct him in his doings.

As the "Messiah" of Israel he will introduce the faith of Moses as a state religion worldwide. Perhaps he will ban the New Testament, and those few Christians who see through his deceit and reject him will be persecuted (Mt 19:16-22; Mt 23:32-34; Rev 2:8-10). Among Catholics, though, he will not meet any kind of resistance – for you can only see through all these trickeries when you are familiar with the Bible.

In the Catholic Church, the Council of Valencia put the Bible on the catalog of forbidden books (forbidden to the laity, that is) in 1229. And today too, the Bible is still regarded as "secondary literature" – coming after the "traditions" of the fathers of the church ("tradition" as understood by the Council of Trent in 1545) and the catechism, which are given priority – and there are very few, even of the priesthood, who take the trouble to read it.

This, incidentally, is also the reason why arguments based on the Bible are rejected by the Catholics and stigmatized as being "irrelevant". As a result of the millennia during which the Catholic "lying pen" has spread its errors, people have completely forgotten that Christianity has its basis in the Bible, and only in the Bible.

Thus it comes about that Catholic priests (like the well known Father Anselm Grün) can in all seriousness invoke Pope Benedict XVI (!) in support of their assertion that Jesus Christ did not die for our sins on the cross, claiming that "this view is beyond doubt (…) unbiblical, has nothing to do with the message of Jesus. (…)"So Jesus died in order to be a "model" for us, "to be a pointer to God".

1Cor 15,1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 15,2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 15,3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 15,4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 15,5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 1Cor 15, 1- 5;

As Paul states in the above passage (1Cor 15,1), this very fact that Christ died for our sins is the heart and essence of the gospel (Greek = euaggelizv / euangelion: good news). So these representatives of Catholic "spirituality" have not even begun to understand the gospel. But here they are just following Ratzinger’s interpretation of the crucifixion, where the Pope opines that the crucifixion of Jesus was a "passing through the cross". Jesus did not die, in the Pope’s view, for the sins of the world. On the contrary:

"Just as he was transformed through the Cross into a new manner of bodiliness and of being-human pervaded by God’s own being, so too for us this food (the eucharist) must become an opening out of our existence, a passing through the Cross, and an anticipation of the new life in God and with God." (The Book "Jesus of Nazareth" by Pope Benedict XVI, pp. 269f.)

Here the Pope too gives evidence of his own complete ignorance of the gospel of Christ. Nor, it seems, has the Pope been at all concerned over the fact that Catholic "shepherds" worldwide, in spite of, or perhaps because of this Eucharist (the false rite of commemoration of the Lord’s Supper, shifted in the direction of occultism), have been abusing and sexually assaulting children in their institutions for at least a hundred years.

The false prophet

And then John tells us in the Revelation about another beast which he saw coming up out of the earth – a beast which had "two horns like a lamb" (Rev 13:11), and which he identifies (in Rev 16:13, 19:20 and Rev 20:10) as the "false prophet". This too could be a part of Satan’s Messianic imposture. The Jews in particular know from the Torah that with the coming of the Messiah the advent of the "prophet" has likewise been promised (Mal 3:1; Isa 40:3).

In the true fulfillment of this prophecy, in the Millennium, the prophet Elijah will go before the Messiah and prepare a way for him (Isa 40:3-5; Lk 1:17). When Jesus became man, it was John the Baptist who was to perform this task, as the "voice of one crying in the wilderness" acting in the spirit of Elijah (Jn 1:19-23), but he was rejected by the Jews (Mt 11:14) and beheaded by Herod (Mt 14:9-10).

This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Behold. I send my messenger ahead of You, who will prepare your way before You.’

Lk 7,26 "But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and one who is more than a prophet. 7,27 "This is the one about whom it is written (Mal 3:1), ‘Behold. I send my messenger ahead of You, who will prepare your way before You.’ Lk 7,26-27;

In the Last Days, similarly, the false prophet will "prepare the way" for the Antichrist. He will "make the earth and those who dwell in it" to worship the Antichrist (Rev 13:12). This beast from the earth thus has the outward appearance of a peaceful being (prophet) pleasing to God, but nonetheless leads people to worship a false God.

2Cor 11,3 But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. 11,4 For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. 2Cor 11, 3- 4;

Now the fact that this second beast emerged "out of the earth", together with the interpretation that the "earth" (by contrast with the "water", the heathen, Rev 17:15) refers to the religious sector of the world, suggests the idea that we could be looking here at the Catholic Church which, with its 1.2 billion members, constitutes the biggest religious community in the world – in the person of its very last Pope (after whom the Millennium is to come).

Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb.

Rev 13,11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. 13,12 He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. Rev 13,11-12;

The added detail in Rev 13,11 that "he spoke like a dragon" is in contradiction of the lamb-like character of this being, and the passage then goes on to characterize the beast as a representative of anti-God, Christ-hating spiritual culture. But the suspicion that the Catholic Church could be meant is by no means ruled out on that account. Let us just recollect the Catholic Popes of the Middle Ages, their murders, deceits and fornications, and the wars they conducted against innocent peoples in order to increase their power and their wealth.

Likewise the worship of the Catholic "Mary" is a satanic act. The true Mary, the mother of the Lord, is dead and rests in the realm of the dead until her resurrection. The Catholic idol "Mary" is a demon who tries to get people to abandon their belief in our Lord Jesus Christ as the one mediator between humanity and God.

For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

1Tim 2,3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 2,4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2,5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 2,6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. 1Tim 2. 3- 6;

This demon "Mary" has promulgated, e.g. in the various Marian apparitions of the Catholic Church in Medjugorje and in a series of public announcements from 1981 into the nineties, the well-known message:

(Apparitions and Messages of Mary, the Mother of God - Complete Documentation through Two Thousand Years by G. Hierzenberger and O. Nedomansky. Aschaffenburg: Pattloch/1993, p. 469).

Also the worship of the Catholic "saints" is worship of the dead, and is an abomination to God, as the Bible tells us:

Should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?

Isa 8,19 When they say to you, "Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter," should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? Isa 8,19;

Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, and they cannot speak; they must be carried, because they cannot walk!

Jer 10,2 Thus says the LORD, "Do not learn the way of the nations, And do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens Although the nations are terrified by them; 10,3 For the customs of the peoples are delusion; Because it is wood cut from the forest, The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool. 10,4 "They decorate it with silver and with gold; They fasten it with nails and with hammers So that it will not totter. 10,5 "Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot walk! Do not fear them, For they can do no harm, Nor can they do any good." 10,6 There is none like You, O LORD; You are great, and great is Your name in might. Jer 10 2- 6;

In the same way as the Catholic Church, the beast coming out of the earth clearly succeeds in deceiving humanity with lying signs and wonders. While the Catholic Church does everything it can to keep people away from belief in Jesus Christ (the "Child Jesus") as the one and only Redeemer, and steer them in the direction of believing in the Catholic idols that go by the name of "Mary" (the "Queen of Heaven", the "Mother of God"), so the beast coming out of the earth leads humanity astray ("the earth and those who dwell in it") by encouraging them to make an image to this false Christ and to worship this image.

The complete lack of any way out for human beings in this future dominion of the demonic Antichrist can be seen in the statement below (Rev 13,15), where the false prophet makes the image to the beast come to life and cause those who do not worship the image to be killed. So he is the ultimate "Big Brother", who controls the brain of every single individual and can immediately recognize what people think and what they reject.

Telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life.

Rev 13,13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. 13,14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. 13,15 And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. Rev 13,13-15;

And although we have already been given the one correct answer to such "signs and wonders" in the Old Testament – e.g. in Deut 13,2-4, quoted below – the whole earth, comprising Jews, Catholics, nominal Christians and of necessity all other religions as well, will then worship the image of the beast.

If a prophet arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true.

Deut 13,1 "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 13,2 and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ 13,3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deut 13. 1- 3;

As the above verses state, all signs and wonders, however great and powerful they are, must be unmasked as acts of power wrought by Satan, when they are designed to induce people to abandon the true, biblical Christian faith and worship other gods, either demons or the dead. And this was foretold to us by the Lord, who thus characterized the Catholic Church, as well as the false prophet of the Antichrist, in the following terms:

Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Mt 7,15 "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Mt 7,15;

But as it appears, the Catholic Church has been preparing itself for this role as the false prophet and vicarious agent of the Antichrist for more than a thousand years. With all the images and figures that are worshiped in Catholic cathedrals, they already resemble temples of idols today. So worship of the image of the Antichrist in the Last Days would hardly represent a radical change.

Of course, the worship of images is specifically forbidden by God’s commandment (Ex 20:4-5). But the Catholic Church has ignored this commandment and kept its members from the knowledge of it for centuries. The church has itself set up images of idols made of stone and wood in its churches, and urged its adherents to worship them.

The fraud of the Catholic Church on the Church’s own people.

Table: The Ten Commandments

As we can see, based on its "qualifications" the Catholic Church would be well capable of embodying the false prophet of the Antichrist. And that being the case, the suspicion suggests itself that Josef Ratzinger, the German Pope, has already seen this "shoot of the Last Days" blossoming in the swamp of the Vatican and, with a remnant of German thoroughness, has taken flight from the snake pit by resigning.

If the next Pope, then, were to come from Latin America by any chance, this would again open the door wide to deceit and corruption and would smooth the path leading to the false prophet. The question just suggests itself whether the Jews would be so stupid as to accept a Catholic Pope as the bogus embodiment of the prophet Elijah. On that, even I would have my doubts.

When you consider, on the other hand, how unproblematic it has been for the Jews to sweep under the carpet God’s punishment for the murder of his Son (with all the consequences this entailed, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the expulsion of the entire people into the Diaspora) and to gloss over the fact that for two thousand years they have no longer been the renowned "People of the Temple" but are now only "People of the Book", it shows you how Jews too can be capable of easy credulity.

But whoever the false prophet may in actual fact turn out to be, his appearance and the appearance of the Antichrist in the last worldly kingdom on earth is a biblical reality, and for every correctly believing Christian is just as much a fact as it is a fact that the world did not come to an end on 12.21.2012, and for an absolute certainty is not going to come to an end for the next thousand years at least.

There will be catastrophes caused by human beings, and judgments ordained by God. The earth will be reorganized as a result of earthquakes and geological shifts. Mountains will be leveled and valleys raised (Ps 192:26-27; Isa 24:1-3; Heb 12:26-27). But at the end of all these catastrophes, this planet and the people still remaining on it will see the Son of God coming as ruler of the Millennial Kingdom of Peace.

And then too the remaining Jews (Zeph 3:12-13; Zech 12:10-11; Jer 50:20; Mic 7:18) will finally recognize and accept our Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah. And all non-Jews as well (Jer 16:19-20; Zech 8:22-23), who just before this have themselves experienced the true God in the judgments of God, will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you in Jerusalem".

That is the message of the Bible, which we can proclaim to the billions of godless people and idol worshipers of this world with the same absolute certainty as the sure fact that the sun will continue to rise and set every single day until the end of these thousand years.

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(The first sermon by Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis I / FOCUS Online 00, 2013-03-14)

One day after his election, Pope Francis celebrated his first mass in the Sistine Chapel. He urged the church to reflect on its original values. You can read about the sequence of events at this first papal mass in the following notes from FOCUS Online.

5.15 pm: All 114 cardinals attend the first mass of the new Pope in the Sistine Chapel. The service "Per la Chiesa" ("For the Church") officially concludes the conclave.

5.17 pm: A choir boy sings.

5.22 pm: Incidentally, the Pope speaks five languages: Spanish, Italian, English, German and French – apart from which he may well have a command of Latin.

5.27 pm: The mass for the Pope’s official inauguration is scheduled for the coming Tuesday. Numerous heads of government and heads of state are expected to attend. From Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Bundestag President Norbert Lammert will be flying to Rome. Federal President Joachim Gauck is currently on a trip to Africa.

5.28 pm: Francis begins his sermon. Taking God’s message to Abraham as a starting point, he says: "Our life is a journey, and if we get stuck, something is not right. We must always be moving forward (…) in the light of the Lord. And in doing so, endeavor to live with God."

5.31 pm: He urges his hearers to build something up – this must be based on the confession of Jesus Christ, otherwise it is pointless. "Anyone who does not pray to God is praying to the devil."

5.33 pm: Francis says: "If we go our way without the cross (…), if we confess Christ without the cross, then we are not the disciples of the Lord. We are worldly (…), we may be priests, bishops and cardinals – but we are not the disciples of Christ."

5.37 pm: Francis wishes that the church may move forward. For this it must confess Christ on the cross – and the emphasis here is on the cross, on suffering. This, he says, is the only way in which the church can progress. Otherwise it risks being reduced to just "a caring NGO".

5.38 pm: With a prayer for grace, Francis concludes his impromptu delivery. He looks happy.

5.43 pm: According to a statement by Vatican spokesman Lombardi, Francis will move into the Apostolic Palace and break the seal of the papal apartments in the evening. Other dates are already lined up – on Friday morning he will receive the cardinals, on Sunday he will pray the Angelus in the presence of tens of thousands of the faithful on St. Peter’s Square.

5.46 pm: The eucharistic celebration has begun. The congregation prays the Our Father.

5.50 pm: Now the cardinals pray the Creed.

5.57 pm: While the cardinals are singing, information about Francis’ attitude to the Jews. He has said that he very much hopes to be able to contribute to further improvements in relations between Jews and Catholics, "in a spirit of renewed cooperation". In this way he hopes to serve a world that may be more in harmony with the will of the Creator, the Pope wrote to Rome’s Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni.

6.01 pm: The hosts are distributed. Not only the cardinals are celebrating the Lord’s supper, there are also nuns, priests and secular members of the faithful, who have been specially allowed for this occasion to enter the inner chamber of the Sistine Chapel.

6.14 pm: The Lord’s Supper is over. Dominus vobiscum ("The Lord be with you") says Francis in Latin. Et cum spiritu tuo ("And with your spirit"), the cardinals reply. Soon after this, Francis blesses the congregation.

6.21 pm: To the accompaniment of the choir’s singing, Francis and the cardinals leave the Sistine Chapel. The conclave is officially over.

https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/papstwahl-im-vatikan/protokoll-zur-ersten-papstmesse

In the above record of the Pope’s first sermon after his election, coming at the end of the conclave, two utterances are particularly worthy of note. At 5.33 pm the Pope says:

"If we go our way without the cross (…), if we confess Christ without the cross, then we are not the disciples of the Lord. We are worldly (…), we may be priests, bishops and cardinals – but we are not the disciples of Christ."

That is spoken from the heart to every correctly believing Christian! That is the true Gospel!!

I make known to you the gospel, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures

1Cor 15,1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 15,2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 15,3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 15,4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 15,5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.. 1Cor 15, 1- 5;

It can only be the true confession of Christ, and only then does it bring salvation, when it is the confession of the sacrifice on the cross of the Son of God for our sins. Christ ransomed us, he paid the debt for us. From then on we have been justified by grace (not through any kind of performance or painful experience of our own), and can stand as justified persons before God and pray to him.

So are we to suppose that the pope has suddenly become a biblically believing Christian? Anyone who wanted to criticize at this point would probably at once be accused of fundamentalism and contradicted.

But when we look at the Pope’s statement just four minutes later, at 5.37 pm, we can see that it’s the old Catholic trick again here in full force. FOCUS Online reports:

"Francis wishes that the church may move forward. For this it must confess Christ on the cross – and the emphasis here is on the cross, on suffering. This, he says, is the only way in which the church can progress. Otherwise it risks being reduced to just ‘a caring NGO’."

So the cross is being proclaimed – behind it, however, is not the vicarious sacrifice of our Lord for the sins of the world, but "suffering". The church must confess "Christ on the cross", but not the redeeming sacrifice of the Lord for the sins of the whole world – rather, as the Pope then immediately makes plain, "the emphasis here must be on the cross, on suffering".

This, now, is exactly the same view of the Gospel which is likewise taught by Josef Ratzinger, the retired Pope Benedict XVI, in his book Einführung in das Christentum [Introduction to Christianity] (Kösel Publishers, Munich). He quotes Plato in this connection, and writes that

"A man’s righteousness is only complete and guaranteed when he takes on the appearance of unrighteousness …. ‘They will say that our just man will be scourged, racked, fettered, will have his eyes burned out, and at last, after all manner of suffering, will be crucified. ’" (P. 292)

Here we see the Catholic view of the Lord’s death on the cross: it was not for our sins that the Lord died on the cross; rather, human beings must undergo suffering themselves in order to be justified by God. According to Catholic doctrine, this is what Jesus Christ showed us and we must follow him along this path of suffering in order to be saved. And, consistent with this, Benedict argues in the book Jesus of Nazareth:

"Job’s sufferings serve to justify man. By his faith, proved through suffering, he restores man’s honor. Job’s sufferings are thus by anticipation sufferings in communion with Christ, who restores the honor of us all before God and shows us the way never to lose faith in God even amid the deepest darkness." (P. 162)

If we take Ratzinger’s two statements above together, we arrive at the following conclusion:

o In the pope’s view, Jesus Christ restored our honor and showed us the way. He restored all our honor before God through his suffering on the cross and showed us the way that we must travel in communion with him. In the Eucharist, in which the Lord gives himself as "flesh," we can participate in his suffering. As he was transformed through the cross, so eating the body of Christ must also be for us a passing through the cross in order that we can save ourselves as "an anticipation of the new life in God and with God."

But this Catholic doctrine of suffering for the salvation of humanity is not taken seriously by Catholics themselves – with the exception of a few self-flagellators. And because they have not been taught, and so have no idea about the real meaning of the cross either, they have no justification for their sins in the eyes of God and go to damnation. Even Benedict chose "peace in old age" over pain in the Vatican, and took retirement in preference to suffering.

In contrast to this Catholic interpretation that we save ourselves through suffering, the Bible teaches us that it is not even possible for humans to save themselves. The wages of sin is death – indeed, of every sin however large or small it may be. And since, according to Scripture, all people – also the Popes – are sinners (Rom 3:10.12), we must all die in order to be saved.

But it is precisely for that reason that God sent his Son, who gave his life as a redeeming sacrifice on the cross for the sins of all people. We no longer have to die nor suffer on the cross to be saved. We only have to accept this invitation of God and believe that we are saved through this sacrifice of the Lord on the cross for our sins.

The second notable utterance made by the Pope occurred just a few minutes before the above. At 5.31 pm, Pope Francis casually makes a great statement. As FOCUS Online writes,

"He urges his hearers to build something up – this must be based on the confession of Jesus Christ, otherwise it is pointless. ‘Anyone who does not pray to God is praying to the devil.’"

And here again, the heart of a rightly believing Christian leaps with joy, in sheer amazement at so much biblical wisdom and sincere belief.

But when we then hear and see how the Pope immediately follows the Lord’s Prayer, the "Our Father" of Christendom, speaks the prayer to "Holy Mary, Mother of God", the "Our Mother" of the Catholic Church, we are forced to take cognizance of the fact that the Pope – and with him the thousands of people gathered on St. Peter’s Square in Rome – has just, on his own admission, prayed a prayer to the devil.

So it seems that the new Pope, in those few seconds in which he uttered the statement "Anyone who does not pray to God is praying to the devil" must actually have been overpowered by the Holy Spirit, and probably spoke the truth without meaning to do so. All prayers to the Catholic "Mother of God" and to the "saints" of the Catholic church are not prayers to God, and so – based on the Pope’s own definition – are prayers to the devil.

But it goes without saying that in the next few days we are likely to see all kinds of egregious "emendations", "explanations" and "interpretations" from the side of officialdom, with a view to re-eradicating this fragile shoot of the Holy Spirit in the Catholic church at the earliest opportunity.

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(How the Pope came by his name / Daily "Tagesspiegel" 00, 2013-03-17)

In the same relaxed way as Francis spoke of a "Grandma" in Buenos Aires, from whom he acquired fundamental theological insights, and with the same lack of constraint with which he wished everyone "a good lunch!" at the end of his Sunday prayers, the Pope was equally candid in what he revealed to journalists about the conclave on the day before. For example, he related how he, the Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio, had hit upon the name Francis. "When the counting of votes threatened to point in my direction," the Pope said, the person sitting next to him, the Franciscan former Archbishop of Sao Paulo, Claudio Hummes, had "commiserated with him". When the two thirds majority was achieved and the applause broke out, Hummes then whispered in his ear, "Don’t forget the poor!" And with that, the pope said, "The name of Francis of Assisi, the man of poverty, found its way into my heart."

www.tagesspiegel.de

By contrast with the speculations of some media that Francis had given serious consideration to his official papal name and deliberately selected it with programmatic intent, the Pope here reveals that it was the Brazilian archbishop Claudio Hummes who put the idea into his head. This is somehow typical of the new Pope: he is very spontaneous, likes to dispense with church protocol and lets himself go with the flow. These, perhaps are the "fundamental theological insights" which he acquired from his Grandma.

But his other statements too are worthy of note. For example he observed, at his first audience given to the Vatican journalists, "Oh, how much I would like to see a poor church, and a church for the poor!" A somewhat illusory point of view when we reflect on the gigantic assets of the Vatican – not to mention the logical conclusion that a poor church would presumably not be in any way in a position to help the poor.

At the same time there are indeed "poor brothers" in the Catholic church, who make earnest endeavors to reduce this massive burden on the Pope. KOPP-exklusiv for instance, reports as follows:

"The order of the Poor Brothers of Saint Francis is a Düsseldorf order which has extolled poverty and aspires to help the poor. Now it has been revealed that the Poor Brothers have blown 7.2 million euros in speculative ventures. The money was that allocated to the maintenance fund for two refuges for the homeless run by the order’s own charity and two homes for the elderly."

But one might well advise the alleged "deputy of Christ on earth" to listen to what his Lord says in Mt 19:20-21 and alleviate both evils – the immense wealth of the Catholic church and the poverty of the poor – at least to some extent, by not just urging others to donate money to the poor but by himself opening up some of the Vatican’s accounts, and supporting the needy with a few billions of the hundreds of billions of euros at his disposal.

Likewise the fact that he did not give an apostolic blessing to the journalists attending, saying "I know that many of you do not belong to the Catholic church or are not even believers. I respect the conscience of every individual, so I bless you from the heart, but not out loud." This again indicates a Pope who takes things as they come, and doesn’t want to change them any more than he has to.

When we now consider the rather hostile situation which the Pope will be faced with in the Curia, and take into account his own character traits, we may presume that no major changes are to be expected in the Vatican and that the established networks will be able – likewise outside the limits of "church protocol" – to carry on their work without any notable inconvenience.

Kingdom of Egypt	Kingdom of Assyria	Kingdom of Babylon	Kingdom of Medo-Persia	Kingdom of Greece	Kingdom of Rome	Kingdom of Antichrist
Rev 17:9-11 Thutmosis 1^st head/king he has fallen	Rev 17:9-11 Assurnasirpal 2^nd head/king he has fallen	Rev 17:9-11 Nebuchadnezzar 3^rd head/king he has fallen	Rev 17:9-11 Kores/Cyrus 4^th head/king he has fallen	Rev 17:9-11 Alexander 5^th head/king he has fallen	Rev 17:9-11 Augustus 6^th head/king he is	Rev 17:8-11 Lawless one/Beast 7^th head/king he will come

Discourse 115 – Will the last Pope be the false prophet of the Antichrist?

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(The prophecy of Malachi: will the next Pope be the last one? / Maria Gress 00, 2013-02-16)

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(Secret service reports: why Pope Benedict had to step down / Udo Ulfkotte, KOPP-exklusiv 08/13, 2013-02-27)

Babylon the Great

The first, human Antichrist

The Antichrist, the "queen" in the devil’s chess game.(LANDSCAPE)

The Apostolic Succession of the Catholic church?

The false prophet

The fraud of the Catholic Church on the Church’s own people.

Table: The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments
as given by God*)

The Ten Commandments
of the Catholic Church**)

Is the Catholic Church a Christian church?

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(The first sermon by Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis I / FOCUS Online 00, 2013-03-14)

The consequence of sin and salvation through grace.

The Holy Father.

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(How the Pope came by his name / Daily "Tagesspiegel" 00, 2013-03-17)

Discourse 115 – Will the last Pope be the false prophet of the Antichrist?

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(The prophecy of Malachi: will the next Pope be the last one? / Maria Gress 00, 2013-02-16)

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(Secret service reports: why Pope Benedict had to step down / Udo Ulfkotte, KOPP-exklusiv 08/13, 2013-02-27)

Babylon the Great

The first, human Antichrist

The Antichrist, the "queen" in the devil’s chess game.(LANDSCAPE)

The Apostolic Succession of the Catholic church?

The false prophet

The fraud of the Catholic Church on the Church’s own people.

Table: The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments as given by God*)

The Ten Commandments of the Catholic Church**)

Is the Catholic Church a Christian church?

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(The first sermon by Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis I / FOCUS Online 00, 2013-03-14)

The consequence of sin and salvation through grace.

The Holy Father.

(Texts in a black frame are quotations from visitors to this site or from other authors.)

(How the Pope came by his name / Daily "Tagesspiegel" 00, 2013-03-17)

The Ten Commandments
as given by God*)

The Ten Commandments
of the Catholic Church**)