The prophecy of Malachi: will the next Pope be the
last one? / Prophecy of Malachi website 00, 2013-02-16
Why Pope Benedict had to resign / Udo Ulfkotte, KOPP-exklusiv
08/13, 2013-02-27
Table – The Antichrist, the "queen" in the devil’s chess game.
The first sermon by Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis
/ FOCUS Online 00, 2013-03-14
How the Pope came by his name / Daily "Tagesspiegel" 00, 013-03-17
The fraud of the Catholic Church on the Church’s
own people – Table: The Ten Commandments
Sexual Abuse in the Roman-Catholic Church. WIKIPEDIA (German)
The Pope’s sermon on Lampedusa: "Where is your brother?"
/ Part 2, Discourse 1152
The first and second Antichrist / Discourse 86 –
Death and resurrection of the Antichrist
Does the Bible say that the Antichrist
will be a Jew? – an analysis / Discourse 101
St. Malachi (1094-1148) was the Irish archbishop of Armagh. The Catholic church
venerates him as a saint. His feast day is 3 November. Malachi saw a vision of all future Popes.
According to him, there would be 267 Popes (John Paul II was the 265th). The prophecy says that
the 265th Pope will hold office for an exceptionally long period (as was the case). As for
Ratzinger, the 266th Pope, Malachi prophesies that he will only remain in office for a short
time. In relation to the last Pope the prophecy states that he will be called Peter, and after
him the world will come to an end. He would then be the last Pope, and following him the end of
the papacy, the end of the Catholic church or even the end of the world is to be expected.
"In persecutione extrema S.R. Ecclesiae sedebit Petrus Romanus, qui pascet oves in multis
tribulationibus, quibus transactis civitas septicollis diruetur et judex tremendus judicabit
populum suum. Finis."
Translation: "In the extreme [or final] persecution of the Holy Roman Church, Peter, a Roman,
will reign. He will pasture the sheep under many tribulations. These things having been
accomplished the city of seven hills will be destroyed and the dreadful judge will judge his
people. End."
The prophecies of Malachi, however, are not an official part of the Roman Catholic faith.
Maria Gress / malachias-prophezeiung.
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).
(…) 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.
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.
(See also Chapter 11 11: "The End of the World.")
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.
Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.
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;
(See also Excursus 03: "The Scarlet Beast.")
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".
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 1st head/king he has fallen |
Rev 17:9-11 Assurnasirpal 2nd head/king he has fallen |
Rev 17:9-11 Nebuchadnezzar 3rd head/king he has fallen |
Rev 17:9-11 Kores/Cyrus 4th head/king he has fallen |
Rev 17:9-11 Alexander 5th head/king he has fallen |
Rev 17:9-11 Augustus 6th head/king he is |
Rev 17:8-11 Lawless one/Beast 7th head/king he will come |
(See also Table 02: "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.
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").
(See also Discourse 86: "The first and the second
Antichrist.":)
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).
Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads.
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:
And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another.
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).
(See also Discourse 98: "The fifth kingdom in the
dream of Nebuchadnezzar: America?")
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.
FROM WHERE |
W H O |
H O W |
W
H A T |
W H E R E |
|||||||||||||||
In heaven |
dragon, old serpent |
great, red |
seven heads |
ten horns |
Rev 12:3-4 |
||||||||||||||
Devil, Satan |
tail swept away 1/3 of the
angels |
with seven diadems |
|||||||||||||||||
From the sea |
beast |
<-- |
like a lion |
Dan 7:4 |
|||||||||||||||
wings of an eagle |
|||||||||||||||||||
wings were plucked |
|||||||||||||||||||
made to stand on two feet |
|||||||||||||||||||
like a man with human mind |
|||||||||||||||||||
From the sea |
beast |
<-- |
like a bear |
Dan 7:5 |
|||||||||||||||
raised on one side |
|||||||||||||||||||
in his mouth three rips
between |
|||||||||||||||||||
his teeth: devour much meat |
|||||||||||||||||||
From the sea |
beast |
<-- |
like a leopard |
Dan 7:6 |
|||||||||||||||
four wings of a bird |
|||||||||||||||||||
it had four heads |
|||||||||||||||||||
dominion was given to it |
|||||||||||||||||||
From the sea |
beast |
dreadful and terrifying |
<- |
ten horns |
Dan 7:7-25 |
||||||||||||||
extremely strong |
little horn pulled out three horns |
||||||||||||||||||
with large iron teeth |
it had eyes like a man |
||||||||||||||||||
devoured and crushed and |
its mouth uttering great boasts |
-> |
|||||||||||||||||
trampled. It was different from |
speaks out against the Most High |
-> |
|||||||||||||||||
wears down the saints |
-> |
||||||||||||||||||
rules nations for 3 1/2 times |
-> |
||||||||||||||||||
From the sea |
beast |
--> |
like a leopard |
--> |
ten horns with ten diadems |
seven heads with |
Rev 13:1-8 |
||||||||||||
-> |
feet of a bear |
rules nations 42 months |
<- |
blasphemous names |
|||||||||||||||
--> |
mouth of a lion |
he overcomes the saints |
<- |
||||||||||||||||
V |
--> |
dragons power, throne,
authority |
he blasphemes God |
<- |
|||||||||||||||
he speaks arrogant words |
<- |
||||||||||||||||||
V |
V |
||||||||||||||||||
In wilderness |
beast (Satan) |
scarlet, full of blasphemous
names Babylon the harlot is sitting on it it was, and is not, and is about to come up and go to destruction. He is himself one of the seven and also an eight king. |
seven heads seven mountains/kings five have fallen, one is 7th has not yet come remains a little while, beast is one of them. |
ten horns ten kings receive authority one hour with the beast, and give their power and authority to him. They wage war against the Lamb which will overcome them. They will burn up harlot Babylon |
Rev 17:3-16 |
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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.
(See also Discourse 1042: "Are all governments of
the world ordained by God?")
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).
(See also Excursus 03: "The Scarlet Beast.")
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:
If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
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.
(See also Discourse 101: "Does the
Bible say that the Antichrist will be a Jew?")
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.
(See also Table 19: "The persecution of the
Christians in the Last Days.")
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".
(See also Discourse 30: "Why did Jesus have to die
on the cross?")
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;
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.
(See also Discourse 89: "BENEDICT XVI: The Jewish
and the Catholic View of Jesus of Nazareth.")
The Apostolic Succession of the Catholic church?Catholic priests who in thousands of cases worldwide
have dispensed the "transformed" eucharist with their
hands in the Mass have proceeded, with those same hands, to abuse
and violate children (1Cor 6:9). Catholic bishops who earlier had
blessed the "sheep" of their flock, have gone on to be
arrested for corruption (Vatican Bank, see report in Der Spiegel
of 6.28.2013).
Of course it is true that you find black sheep everywhere. But when
the "very reverend" violators are shielded and hidden in
the ranks of the church for decades, and even corrupt
"shepherds" holding office as bishops have to be unmasked
by the police, this shows up the organization itself as being
altogether without conscience, depraved and corrupt. (Mt 7:16-20) |
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.
The one who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached.
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:
"I am the Mediatrix between you and God."
(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 manifesto "Dominus Jesus" of the Catholic Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith postulates that "the Catholic Church is the one unique church that makes salvation
possible" As is shown below, however, it is just this church which has falsified
God’s commandments, so as to deceive the congregation of the faithful. It suppressed
the second commandment, so as to hush up the fact that worship paid to idols made of
stone and wood (the saints and madonnas) is expressly forbidden in the second of these
Ten Commandments given by God. |
The Ten Commandments
|
The Ten Commandments
|
(See also Discourse 32: "Commentary on the
manifesto "Dominus Jesus" of the Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.")
Is the Catholic Church a Christian church?When the unbelieving world speaks of Christianity, in nine
out of ten cases what is meant is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church
has become practically synonymous with Christianity in the eyes of the
world. This is a massive error!
Pope Francis on gays: "Who am I to judge them?" The Bible on gays: Röm 1,26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 1,27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. |
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.
(See also Chapter 08: "The reorganization of
heaven and earth.")
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".
(See also Chapter 09: "The return home of the
redeemed.")
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.
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.
The consequence of sin and salvation through grace.Sin is every act that goes against the commandments of God
(Ex 20:3-17; Mt 5:21-48). The consequence of every single one of these
acts is the death of the perpetrator – and not just the first, physical
death, but the second death (Rev 21:8), to which the sinful person will be
condemned at the Last
Judgment after Resurrection
from the dead – the rebirth (Mt 19:28, 25:31) – with his or her new and eternally existing body. Just as the
first death is merely a transitional period up till the resurrection, so
too the second death is
not an extinction of the human person but rather an eternally prolonged
existence, distant from God in the darkness of damnation. |
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.
The Holy Father.The Catholic church is seen all over the world as the
representative of Christianity, and the Catholic Pope claims to speak as
the leader of Christians everywhere. The Lord and God of these
Christians however has commanded us: Mt 23,9 Do not call anyone on earth your
father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. But the Catholic Pope not only lets himself be
called Father – he actually lets himself be addressed as "Holy Father".
And this is a title exclusively reserved to God the Almighty, one which
was used by his Son in the last prayer to the Father that he made on
earth: Jn 17,11 I am no longer in the
world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You.
Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given
Me, that they may be one even as We are. So when the Pope lets himself likewise be addressed as
"Holy Father", he is not only going against the express commandment of
God: Deut 5,11 You shall not take the name of
the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him
unpunished who takes His name in vain. but at the same time he is committing the worst sin that a human being can commit, one which is attributed in the Bible to the Antichrist – he is making himself equal to God:
2The 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, 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. This is perhaps the culmination of all those trickeries
with which the Catholic church has been lying to its adherents for
centuries, so accumulating ever vaster amounts of money (200 billion
euros) and power (1.2 billion members worldwide, more than the
inhabitants of the USA and the EU put together). |
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.
"There he goes triggering a boom."
cartoon: diepresse.com
The Pope’s sermon on Lampedusa: "Where is your brother?"
/ Part 2, Discourse 1152