ANTICHRIST, WHO IS HE? 666ANTICHRIST, WHO IS HE? 666
1. John 4: 2-3 They that confess not that Christ has come IN FLESH is the Spirit of antichrist.
To point out the right Antichrist, we need more evidences. The Bible gives us many evidences:
We have earlier already heard that the Antichrist power has many names: from 2. Tess. 2. 3-8 he is revealed as THE MAN OF SIN – The son of perdition – He who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, showing himself that he is God – the mystery of iniquity – the wicked.
In Revelation we find more signs of the Antichrist power:
Revelation 13:3
In Daniel chapter 2 and 7, we find the powers that have reigneth on this earth. That is Babylon, Medio/Persia, Greece and Rome. Rome fell in 476 after Christ. The Antichrist power will rise or reign after Rome.
Revelation 13: 5 claims that this power would reign in 42 months. 42 months x 30 days= 1260 days. Ezek. 4: 6 and Numbers 14: 34, says that dealing with time prophecies we shall always count one day for one year.
Daniel 7: 25: The Antichrist power should reign one time times and a half time = one year + two years and ½ = 3 ½ years. 3 years x 360 = 1080 days + ½ year = 180 days.
1080 days + 180= 1260 days.
So this Antichrist power should reign in 1260 days =1260 years. There is no other power in the world that has reigned during this period except for the PAPACY.
The history tells us that the papacy came to power in 538. Then the Ostrogoths, the Heruli and the Vandals, that fought against the pope, where slain – the last one the Ostrogoths in 538. Then the pope could reign over the heretics and over the bishops. He became the head over all bishops.
Verse 3: The Bible says further that this power should get a deadly wound to death, but that this deadly wound should be healed. 538 + 1260 = 1798. What happen in 1798? Then Napoleon sent his soldiers under the leadership of general Berthier to Rome and took pope Pius as a prison to France. The pope died there. The papacy got a deadly wound.
But the deadly wound should be healed.
About two years later, Napoleon inaugurated a new pope. 1n 1929 the popery received the Vatican from Mussolini and today the Vatican has regained its power. It will play an important role to introduce the mark of the beast to all the world.
--- Verse 3: All the world wondered after the beast: Today we see that this prophecy is about to be fulfilled.
- Today the Vatican has erected diplomatic connections with about all countries in the world.
It is no power in the world that has so much wealth as the Vatican. The book: Vaticans billions, written by Auro Manhattan, tells about this. They own much of the industry, oil companies and business in the world.
It is the Vatican that stands behind the ecumenical movement we see today, where Protestants and Catholics make one agreement after another. We can only mention the agreement, ”Joint Declaration” and ”Charta Oecumenica”. The Protestants has given after for Rom, and become fallen protestants.
But this Antichrist power will receive even more power as time is going on, it will help the second beast in Revelation chapter 11, verse 11 to introduce their mark of authority, the mark of the beast. (We will talk about this second beast later on).
--- Verse 5 and 6: ”And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies” … and verse 6: ”And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven”.
How does the Bible define blasphemy? John 10: 33 … tells us that if a man make himself God, this is blasphemy.
Here you have some quotes from Lucius Ferraries Catholic Dictionary, vol. VI, page 438, 442 what the Catholic Church is saying about the pope:
”The pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is not mere a man, but as it were God, and the vicar of God.”
Hence the pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven, and of earth, and of the lower regions.”
”Moreover the superiority and the power of the Roman pontiff by no means pertain only to heavenly things, to earthly things, and to things under the earth, but are even over angels, than whom he is greater.”
”For he is so great dignity and power that he forms one and the same tribunal with Christ.”
”The pope is called most holy because he is rightfully presumed to be such.”
----- Today they call the pope, ”Holy Father”, even though Jesus forbade this form of address towards any man. Jesus says in Matt. 23: 9: ”And call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your Father, which is in heaven.” In John 17: 11 we find that the title ”Holy Father”, exclusively is reserved for the Father in Heaven.
Another type of blasphemy we find in Luke 5: 21: ”Who is he that speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?
The pope says that he can forgive sins. Pope John Paul II told Roman Catholics to seek forgiveness though the church and not directly from God.
In a major document on the need for confession of sin, the pontiff laid down guidelines for the world’s nearly 800 million Roman Catholics on the purposes of confessing sins to priests…
The requirement for confessing sin through priests is one of the fundamental principles of Roman Catholicism.”
( The associated Press, December 11, 1984)
But the Bible says in Matthew 6: 12: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. …. So we must go to the person we have done something wrong against, tell him our transgression and ask for forgiveness.
In Luke 17: 3-4 we find these words: Take heed to yourself: If thy brother trespass against you, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to you, saying, I repent; you shall forgive him.”
So we shall go to the person himself, that we have done wrong against, and not to another person, a priest or a pope.
At least we shall go to Christ and receive the full forgiveness there. The apostle Paul says: ”For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” It is Christ we must go to with our sins. We must repent and confess our sins, and he will forgive us. This is not the work of the priests or the pope. They are not the Mediator.
The pope and the catholic priests have tried to take the place of Christ. But only Christ is the mediator between God and us. It is He that we can go to and receive forgiveness. We again read in 1.John. 1:9: ”If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleans us from all unrighteousness.” Let us cling to this promise.
-- Verse 7: ”And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them:
This is referring to the great persecution of the Christians. No reader of history will deny that this statement, too, found its fulfillment in the papacy. The dreadful persecution of the Dark Ages (the stake, the burning of heretics, the crusades) is well known and has indeed blackened the pages of history.
Verse 7: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations:
The papacy has always worked for world dominion. This power reigned over the nations in the Dark Ages, and will regain power in the last days. We see this through the New World Order. We will come back to this.
--- Verse 4: They worshipped the Dragon that gave power unto the beast.
When the papal bull reached Martin Luther he said: ”I despise and attack it, as false… It is Christ himself who is condemned therein… I rejoice in having to bear such ills for the best of causes. Already I feel greater liberty in my heart; for at last I know that the pope is Antichrist, and that his throne is that of Satan himself.”
This statement is in harmony with the Bible text that says that the Dragon/Satan gave power unto the beast/papacy.
In the book of Concordance – The Confession of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, page 327 it says: ”It is plain that the mark of the Antichrist coincide with those of the pope’s kingdom and his followers.”
This is the same as the conclusion we have taken here: All the signs of the Biblical Antichrist power fit the papacy.
666 is only one of all the signs of the Antichrist power, but also this fits the papacy. The Bible says that 666 is a number of a man (Rev. 13. 18). One of the titles of the pope – in Latin - is VICARIUS FILII DEI, which is translated, ”REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SON OF GOD”. Since the Latin letters have numerical values, we only need to add them up. V=5; C=100; A+R+S+F+E=0; I=1; L= 50; D= 500. Together this is 666.
-- We will end with the first point: The Bible says that the Antichrist power is the power that denies that Christ came in flesh.
The Catholic Church says that Christ came in holy flesh, but the Bible says in Romans 8.: 3, that God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
Heb. 2: 14 says: ”Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. So Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh. It was only in that way he could save us. Because where Adam had fallen, there Christ won victory. Therefore he can save us.
But we must also point out that even though Christ came as a man, he was God, but he clothed his divinity in humanity. The Bible says it in this way in
Philippians 2: 5-11: ”Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in the fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
So Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, not in holy flesh.
The last scripture we find in Hebrews 2: 17-18. … In all things he (Christ) was made like unto us. Because he won victory in all points, he can help us when we are being tempted.
The power he received, in order to gain the victory, we also can receive, in gaining the victory over Satan’s temptations. May God help us to cling to Him!