Sitting in the temple of God speaking ex-cathedra the Pope claims to have the infallibility of God Himself. This is the daring pitch and blasphemy of Antichrist in keeping with Paul’s prophecy, ‘Shewing himself to be God.’
Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley
To reign over earthly kings came very far short of papal ambition. The Popes, like Satan their master, decided to be like the most High God. ‘He as God, sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God.’
The Antichrist claims to be God first in words and then in deeds. Let us listen to what the ‘great mouth’ has spoken of himself and then what his friends have spoken for him.
Note the position he takes. ‘He sitteth in the temple of God.’ This is not the temple at Jerusalem for that was to be destroyed by the Empire whose fall brought Antichrist’s rise. The name ‘temple’ is carried over into the New Testament teaching and indicates either the body of the individual believer, ‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,’ I Cor. 3:16 or the whole body of professing Christians, ‘Jesus Christ the chief corner stone; in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord.’ Eph. 2:20.
The temple in which Antichrist sits is representative of the Christian Church, a church however gone totally apostate. For the prophecy makes it clear that the apostasy precedes the revelation of the Man of Sin. He was indeed to be both the outcome and head of that great apostasy.
Antichrist then, according to this prophecy, would establish himself prominently in the professed Christian Church. This is exactly what the Popes have done. This fact disposes of the theory that the Antichrist will be some atheistical leader or superman politician who in a very brief but terrible career will desolate the world. No, he will work in, by and with the professed Christian Church, howbeit apostate.
Again no one-man Antichrist, whose reign is to last for only three years or seven years can meet the conditions of the Bible prophecies. We have already noted that the key to prophetic interpretations is not any man’s idea. No Scripture is of any private interpretation, or preconceived notion but interpreted by the Word of God itself. We must go by the Word of God only. As in Daniel’s prophecy, Antichrist is a dynasty, a dynasty which wears out the saints so much so that the souls of the martyred dead in heaven cry out, ‘How long?’ The teaching of Christ, let it be noted, emphasises the corporate individuality of both Antichrist and the False Prophet. (See Chapter 17).
The Pope claims to be God.
Pope Innocent III enacted in writing, ‘We may according to the fulness of our power, dispose of the law and dispense above the law. Those whom the Pope of Rome doth separate, it is not a man that separates them but God. For the Pope holdeth place on earth, not simply of a man but of the true God.’ I Book of Gregory 9 Decret. C3.
The Lateran Council, addressing Pope Julius II in an oration delivered by Marcellus states, ‘Take care that we lose not that salvation, that life and breath which thou hast given us, for thou art our shepherd, tou art physician, thou art governor, thou are husbandman, thou finally ART ANOTHER GOD ON EARTH’ Council Edit. Colm. Agrip. 1618.
Pope Nicholas assumed the title of God. His words are:—‘I am all in all and above all, so that God Himself, and I, the Vicar of God, hath both one consistory, and I am able to do almost all that God can do . . . Wherefore, if those things that I do be said not to be done of man, but of God. WHAT CAN YOU MAKE ME BUT GOD? Again, if prelates of the Church be called and counted of Constantine for gods, I then, being above all prelates, seem by this reason to be ABOVE ALL GODS. Wherefore, no marvel if it be in my power to dispense with all things, yea, with the precepts of Christ.’ See Decret. Par Distinct 96 Ch. 7 Edit Lugd. 1661.
Sitting in the temple of God speaking ex-cathedra the Pope claims to have the infallibility of God Himself. This is the daring pitch and blasphemy of Antichrist in keeping with Paul’s prophecy, ‘Shewing himself to be God.’
After his election the Pope is enthroned in the ceremony known as Adoration.
Let us refer—not to any private sources—but to the official ‘Book of Sacred Ceremonies’ of the Church of Rome.
This book, sometimes called ‘Ceremoniale Romanum,’ is written in Latin, and was compiled three hundred and forty years ago, by Marcellus, a Roman Catholic Archbishop, and is dedicated to a Pope, Leo X. Let us turn to that portion of this Volume which describes the first public appearance of the Pope at Rome, on his Election to the Pontificate.
We there read the following order of proceedings: ‘The Pontiff elect is conducted to the Sacrarium, and divested of his ordinary attire, and is clad in Papal Robes.’ The colour of these is then minutely described. Suffice it to say, that five different articles of dress, in which he is then arrayed, are scarlet. Another vest is specified, and this is covered with pearls. His mitre is then mentioned; and this is adorned with gold and precious stones.
Such, then, is the attire in which the Pope is arrayed, and in which he first appears to the World as Pope. In the Book of Revelation we see that scarlet, pearls, gold, and precious stones are thrice specified by St. John, as characterizing the Mysterious Power portrayed by himself.
But we may not pause here. Turn again to the ‘Ceremoniale Romanum.’ The Pontiff elect, arrayed as has been described, is conducted to the Cathedral of Rome, the Basilica, or Church, of St. Peter. He is led to the Altar; he first prostrates himself before it, and prays. Thus he declares the sanctity of the Altar. He kneels at it, and prays before it, as the seat of God.
What a contrast then ensues! We read thus:
‘The Pope rises, and, wearing his mitre, is lifted up by the Cardinals, and is placed by them upon the Altar – to sit there. One of the Bishops kneels, and begins the ‘Te Deum.’ In the meantime the Cardinals kiss the feet and hands and face of the Pope.’
Such is the first appearance of the Pope in the face of the Church and the World.
‘Whatever God does the Pope professes also. Does God require that to Him every knee shall bow? So, too, the Pope: he requires to be worshipped with prostration and kissing. Does God reveal Himself as the ‘only holy?’ So, too, the Pope. He claims to be styled ‘his holiness.’ Is God the ‘only wise?’ So, too, the Pope: he claims to be ‘inerrable.’ Did God plant his throne on the summit of Sinai, and thence promulgate those ten commandments which are the world’s law? So, too, the Pope: he has planted his seat on the seven hills in the character of the world’s supreme lawgiver and judge, and he claims an equal authority and infallibility for all that he is pleased to promulgate ex-cathedra as Jehovah claims for the precepts of the decalogue.
Is it God’s prerogative to pardon sin? The Pope assumes the same great prerogative. He pardons the sins of the living and the dead. Is it God’s prerogative to assign men their eternal destiny? This, too, does the Pope. He pretends to hold the keys that open and shut purgatory, and while he reserves to his followers a sure passport to the realms of paradise, he consigns all outside his church to eternal woe. In fine, does God sit between the Cherubim and receive the homage of His people in His sanctuary? The Pope, seated on the high altar of St. Peter’s while incense is burned before him, and the knee is bent to him, is invoked as the Lord our God. Romanists are accustomed to call the altar, the throne of God, inasmuch as thereon they place the host. The use the Pope finds for it on these occasions, is the not very dignified one of a footstool. ‘He as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God.’
Antichrist’s Usurpation Over Kings and Nations
Antichrist makes a double usurpation. He vaults over the thrones of kings into the very throne of God.
Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley
‘Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.’ II Thess. 2:4.
Antichrist makes a double usurpation. He vaults over the thrones of kings into the very throne of God.
‘Binding up in one colossal jurisdiction things temporal and spiritual, the Pope stretched his sceptre over all the seats of human judicature, and sat with his feet on the necks of kings as well as of priests. He claimed it as his prerogative to judge all, but to be judged by none; to make laws, but to be subject to no law; thereby unconsciously vindicating his prophetic appellative ‘the lawless one.’ He has had himself depicted holding in one hand the ‘keys’ of spiritual authority, and in the other the sword of temporal power. He has taught that it ws fit that all princes should kiss his feet, and has extorted from not a few this act of obedience. He has inculcated on monarchs that sound orthodoxy requires them to hold their kingdoms as fiefs of the papal chair; and to keep alive in them this pious frame of mind, he has imposed on them and on their subjects the tax of Peter’s Pence. If still he discerned in them the risings of pride, this meek vicar of Christ has plucked the sceptre from their hand, kicked their crown with his pontifical foot, and transferred their dominion to some more devout and humble-minded neighbour. All this he has done ‘as set of God over the kingdoms and nations to plant and to pluck up — to build and to pull down — to make and to unmake kings.’ ‘Is not the king of England my bondslave?’ were words from the ‘great mouth.’ (Pope Boniface VIII to Philip, King of France.)
If the annals of the Papacy at this present hour are not illustrated by these solemn acts of pontifical justice, it is because the power and not the right is lacking.
Pope John Paul II claims all these powers over all the kings and rulers of the world but prudently postpones their exercise till the arrival of a happier day for the Papacy.
The apostle Paul completes the portrait of the Antichrist by styling him the ‘Man of Sin and Son of Perdition.’
Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley
The apostle Paul completes the portrait of the Antichrist by styling him the ‘Man of Sin and Son of Perdition.’
Christ is the Man of Holiness, the only truly holy man this earth has ever seen. ‘That Holy Thing.’ Said the angel (Luke 1:35). ‘The Holy Child Jesus,’ said Luke (Acts 4:27). The apostle Paul witnessed that He was "Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners’ (Heb. 9:26).
The Pope, the Vicar of Christ, is the Man of Sin. He has invented sin, he has taught sin, he has enticed sin, established iniquity by a law, he trades in sins and has grown rich through the sins of Christendom. Sin is the Pope’s work. Sin is the Pope’s being. Popery is the incarnation of sin as the Gospel is the incarnation of holiness.
The policy of the Pope as the Antichrist is not to deny truth but to pervert truth.
He perverts the commandments of God and converts them into sin. He perverts the sacraments of Christ and converts them into sin. He perverts the offices of the church and converts them into sin. There is not a doctrine of the Bible which the Pope does not pervert and thus deny. King Jeroboam made Israel to sin. The Pope has made the world to sin.
Paul further styled him as ‘the Son of Perdition.’ This is a phrase of terrible significance. It is only used once before in the New Testament and that in reference to Judas the traitor. It is applied to him by our Lord after the devil came in and possessed him.
‘While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name, those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition: that the scripture might be fulfilled.’ John 17:12.
The first ‘son of perdition,’ was a bishop – a bishop who fell from his elevated estate. The Antichrist is a bishop – a bishop fallen indeed – the Bishop of Rome. The first ‘son of perdition,’ went to his own place.
‘That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.’ Acts 1:25.
The Antichrist is cast into the lake of fire.
‘And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.’ Rev. 20:10.
The first ‘son of perdition’ Judas, went forth from the bosom of the infant church, where he had just partaken of the Passover cup. He rose up from the very presence of the Godman, to enact his awful apostasy.
The second and greater ‘son of perdition’ in like manner arose in the bosom of the primitive church. ‘If Christianity is going to be destroyed it must come from within,’ he declared. ‘Give me the kingdoms of the world. Elevate me to Caesar’s throne. I will declare myself to be the Vice-Christ and the world will believe on me and follow me. I will destroy true Christianity.’
Who prompted the Antichrist? What is the power behind the Papacy? The beast is energised by Satan himself. Popery is the son of perdition, the spawn, the offspring of that Old Serpent the Devil, the Arch Destroyer.
Christ’s work is to create and give life. Antichrist’s work is to destroy and take life. The Pope destroys the principles of gospel morality and evangelical virtue. Where the Papacy has trodden there is the blackness of physical, moral and spiritual death. Death and hell follows after the Pope. He is the ‘son of perdition.’ No other can or will fulfill the prophecies of God. He is the Antichrist.
Christ Predicted the Papacy as the Antichrist
Christ predicts the dynasty of the Antichrist and the False Prophet. Note carefully His language. He warns in Matthew chapter twenty-four against the deception of antichrist but never uses the singular in His references.
Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley
We have already shown that Antichrist cannot be one potentate but a dynasty of potentates. David’s prophecy which holds within it the key to its right interpretation, shows us that. Now this is dearly confirmed by our Lord Jesus Christ. Daniel tells the story in parables, in the pictures of the beasts and the horns. The little horn of Daniel chapter seven is the Antichrist, the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition. Throughout the prophecies of Daniel, a horn as indeed the beast from which it grows denotes not a single man, an individual king but a kingdom, a sovereignty, a dynasty. That is the plain teaching of scripture and to it all must submit.
Christ confirms this not only about Daniel's little horn but about the two beasts of Revelation chapter thirteen, the Beast and the False Prophet. These beasts are not two individual men but a dynasty - the Beast the dynasty of the Popes and the False Prophet the dynasty of the priests of Rome pursuing the objective of obtaining the worship and submission of the whole world for the Pope.
There is not one word in all Christ's prophecy concerning the end of time and of His Second Coming about a one man antichrist or a one man false prophet. Read and see for yourself.
Christ predicts the dynasty of the Antichrist and the False Prophet. Note carefully His language. He warns in Matthew chapter twenty-four against the deception of antichrist but never uses the singular in His references.
He speaks of the dynasty, of 'many' not 'one.' ‘For many shall come in My Name,’ Matt. 24:5. This does away with the Atheistical antichrist, the Communist antichrist, the Jewish antichrist, the purely political antichrist. The dynasty of antichrists will come in the name of our Lord, the true Christ of God. How this points its finger at the Pope and the Papacy. The Pope is the only person who fits the prediction
'Saying I am Christ,' Matt. 24:5. Notice how Christ changes from the plural 'many' to the singular 'I.' This is the personal claim of each individual Pope. Listen to their own words.
'I alone despite my unworthiness, am the successor of the Apostles, the Vicar of Jesus Christ: I alone have the mission to guide and direct the barque of Peter; I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE.' - Pope Pius IX.
‘Shall deceive many.’ What a statement! How many have been and are being deceived by the Pope and the Papacy. Why even the Lambeth Conference of the whole of the Anglican Church (the Church of Ireland included) meeting in July 1989 has agreed that the Pope must be the Head of the Church when the other ecumenical episcopal Churches unite with Rome.
'Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect.
Behold I have told you before.
Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.' Matt. 24:33-36.
Here our Lord predicts the dynasty not only of Antichrist but of the False Prophet. See Revelation chapter thirteen. After the Lord mentions in the plural the 'false prophets,' he predicts the great 'signs and wonders' which these will do. Compare this carefully with Revelation 13:13,14. Note how our Lord's prediction about the deceptions of the false prophet dovetails perfectly into the prophecy of John. Christ states, 'Insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect.' John states, 'And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do.'
The narratives of Mark and Luke confirm these statements of our Lord in Matthew's Gospel.
‘And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you:
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.’ Mark 13:5-7.
‘And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not:
For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.’ Mark 13:21-23.
‘And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.
But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.’ Luke 21:8-9.
‘And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.’ Luke 17:23.
Christ has told us that many false Christs will appear after His ascension to glory and before His return. When we open the Pages of history we see how our Lord's words have been so literally fulfilled. Many Christs who professed to come in His Holy Name have appeared exactly as He predicted - at least 265 of them - all phoney christs, self styled christs, false christs and all harboured by the Church of Rome. Of them all Christ said, ‘BELIEVE THEM NOT.’
How clearly Christ predicted the Papacy. How plainly Christ interpreted for us the prophecies of Daniel and John. We bow to His authority and rejoice that the Antichrist has not deceived us and we have not gone after him as the world has.
The Popes of Rome for centuries have, under the title of Vicar of Christ, been masquerading as christs.
Ever since the Bishop of Rome got a taste for power, early in the Christian era, he yelled, ‘I AM CHRIST,’ and right down to Pope John Paul II they have been yelling it, shouting it, trumpeting it and parroting it. The halls of Christendom have not been without this din for sixteen centuries. Reverberations and amplifications from the original cries and their echoes and re-echoes plus added new yells multiplied a million tunes by the Roman acoustics of the halls, plague us daily. I am Christ! I AM Christ! I AM CHRIST! THIS IS THE CONFESSION OF THE ANTICHRIST. THANK GOD WE RECOGNISE HIM.
If any man shall say unto you, lo here is Christ, or lo He is there, believe Him not.'
The King with Three Crowns – The Vicar
The career both of Christ and Antichrist was to end on a throne but each was to reach their respective thrones by a very different road.
Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley
In the eighth and ninth centuries certain political changes occurred which aided the Papacy to achieve its objective.
To be supreme, the Antichrist must have a country of his very own where he could reign supreme as both temporal monarch and spiritual potentate. The events of the centuries conspired, as it were, to make this possible.
The retirement of the emperor from Rome to Constantinople was the first event. Then the defeat of the Gothic powers in Italy by the Emperor Justinian.
The Eastern Empire, however, was distant and shadowy but still real and Pope Gregory II decided that he must rid himself of its jurisdiction. He used the controversy on the subject of image-worship which the Romans supported and the Eastern Church rejected, to instigate a revolt against the Emperor. His representative was slain and the last vestiges of his jurisdiction over Rome and Italy annihilated.
However the Longobards had invaded Northern Italy and the Pope now saw that both his spiritual and temporal authority were in jeopardy.
Pope Zachary turned to Pepin King of France. Pepin and his son Charlemagne responded to the Pope’s call and defeated the Longobards endowing the Papal chair with all the cities and lands of Italy which had been subject to their rule. The Pope at last was a crowned monarch.
Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of Daniel chapter 7:8, the three horns plucked up before the little horn, the antichrist. The three horns were, (one) the Vandals defeated by the Emperor Justinian’s General Belisarius, (two) the Ostogoths also uprooted by Justinian, and (three) the Longobards defeated by the sword of France.
It was in memory of these three events and his entering into their kingdom that the Pope wore the triple crown, the tiara.
The Antichrist must however climb higher yet. He must set his throne among the stars and be supreme above all the kings of the earth.
In the eleventh century there arose a Pope of inflexible resolution and towering pride, Gregory VII—Hildebrand. He put before the world with a precision, a boldness, and an argumentative force, never till then brough to its support, the claim to be the Vicar of Christ. He maintained that he was God upon earth. In two dreadful centuries of war and blood-shedding the succeeding Popes eventually turned Gregory’s theory into fact and the tiara triumphed over the empire.
The claim of Hildebrand was exhibited in the person and reign of Innocent III in the thirteenth century, in all its amplitude of despotism and blasphemy. History records no other achievement of equal magnitude.
The career both of Christ and Antichrist was to end on a throne but each was to reach their respective thrones by a very different road.
The All Deceivableness of Unrighteousness
Paul emphasizes this special mark of the Antichrist. It is a most remarkable one. Nowhere else is it used in the Bible. It is not applied to any other system – ‘all deceivableness of unrighteousness.’
Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley
Paul emphasizes this special mark of the Antichrist. It is a most remarkable one. Nowhere else is it used in the Bible. It is not applied to any other system – ‘all deceivableness of unrighteousness.’
The deceivableness of Rome is a deceivableness peculiar to herself. It is a craft of a new order. So cunning it is that it poses as the system of righteousness which God has revealed for the salvation of the world, and those who by consequence accept it as such find themselves not only deceived but destroyed through it.
Popery has a god of its own, even he whom canon law (decretal Gregory IX Tit 7) calls the ‘Lord our God.’ It has a saviour of its own – Mother Church. It has a sacrifice of its own – the mass. It has a mediator of its own – the priesthood. It has a sanctifier of its own – the sacraments. It has a justification of its own – infused righteousness. It has a pardon of its own – absolution through the confessional, and it has in the very heavens an infallible, all prevailing advocate of its own, unknown in the Bible – ‘the Mother of God.’
This apparatus, so greatly hailed by deluded Protestant ecumenists, which the Antichrist presents for the salvation of souls, is a lie. It has not nor cannot save any one.
The Church of Rome looks like the church, it professes t be all that the church professes to be and yet it is not the church. It is the counterfeit of the church, the Bride of Antichrist, ‘the all deceivableness of unrighteousness.’
Examine the structure of Antichrist’s Church and note how it counterfeits the architecture of Christ’s Church.
Christ’s Church is built on the impregnable rock that ‘Christ is the Son of God.’ Antichrist’s Church is built on the rock of Peter, he, it is claimed, being the Vicar of Christ. On Peter and his successors is the Church built, that is the claim of the Popes.
The true Church of Christ is built on a person not on a system of doctrine. It is not by trusting in a system of truth that men are saved. It is by trusting only in Christ the Truth Himself.
The false Church of Antichrist is built not on a system of doctrine but on the person of the Pope himself. ‘It is essential,’ Antichrist decrees, ‘to the salvation of every human being that he be subject to me, the Pope.’
The false church is built on the foundation of traditions, sacraments, priests, bishops, cardinals, the Pope himself being the chief corner stone.
The true Church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone.
All Rome’s policies are marked by this all deceivableness of unrighteousness. Rome looks so ‘lamb like’ that statesmen think they have nothing to fear from her. When they are outwitted they then begin to wonder wherein lies the strength which has baffled them.
‘Rome buys and sells statesmen in her market; she uses them as the muleteer his beasts of burden; and when they are old and broken down and can no longer do her turns, she hurls them from the high places to which she had exalted them, and leaves their mangled reputations, like unsavoury carcases, on the highway of history, that posterity may see how Rome rewards those who serve her. It was written of her of old time, ‘She hath cast down many wounded; yea, strong men have been slain by her.’
This vast deceivableness is one of the main sources of the strength of the so-called Church of Rome. She has the art of enlisting all the claims of virtue, and all the sanctions of law, on the side of that by which virtue is outraged and law violated. Where her purpose is the most cruel, her speech is ever the most bland. Where her motive is the most villainous, her profession is the most plausible. She always gives the holiest name to the most unholy deed. When she burns a heretic she calls it an auto-de-fe – an act of faith. When she ravages a province with fire and sword, she styles it a crusade – that is, an evangelistic expedition. Her torture chamber is styled the ‘Holy Office.’ And when she deposes monarchs, stripping them of crown and kingdom, and compelling them, as she did Henry IV, of Germany, to stand with naked feet at her gates amid the drifts of winter, it is with the make-believe of a kind father administering salutary chastisement to an erring son. In short, she not only transforms herself into an angel of light, but vice itself she transforms into virtue, decking blackest crime in the white robe of innocence, and arraying foulest iniquity with the resplendent airs of holiness.
What are the sacraments by which she professes to replenish men with grace? What are the masses by which she professes to impart Christ and His salvation to them? What are the crucifixes, rosaries, and amulets, by which she fortifies men against the assaults of Satan and evil spirits? What are the indulgences by which she shortens the sufferings of souls in purgatory? What are the pardons with which she sends men away into the other world? What are the vows of poverty under which she cherishes a pride the most arrogant, and an avariciousness the most insatiable? What are the vows of celibacy under which she veils an unbridled lewdness? What are the dispensations by which she releases men from the obligations of the moral law, and professes to annul oaths, promises and covenants? Above all, what are her logic and system of ethics by which , as in the hands of Liguori, she makes vice and virtue, falsehood and truth change sides, and shows how one, if he but direct aright his intention, can commit the most monstrous crime and yet contract not a particle of guilt? What are these things, we ask, save the ‘deceivableness of unrighteousness,’ the ‘all-deceivableness of unrighteousness?’ for surely the utmost limits of deception have here been reached, and the Deceiver himself can go no further. He has produced his masterpiece.’
Antichrist’s ‘Signs and Wonders’ of Terror
It should be emphasised that Vatican Council Two reaffirmed no departure by the church from the decrees of the Council of Trent. Rome’s curses stand! The Infallible Antichrist has decreed them!
Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley
In the thirteenth chapter of Revelation and verse thirteen we read of the lamb-like beast which sponsors the worship of the beast, in these words:
‘And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from the heaven on the earth in the sight of men.’ Rev. 13:13.
Notice that this beast does the work which is identified with the whole priestly caste of the Roman system.
This prophecy is strikingly fulfilled in the papal interdicts and excommunications originating in the Antichrist and propagated by his emissaries the priests of Rome.
The fire of heaven’s judgement was pronounced by the Pope. His priests saw that it was put into effect. Blinded nations were deluded into believing that in the voice of the Pope they heard the voice of God, and that the thunderings and lightnings of the Vatican were indeed what the Pope claimed them to be, the very wrath of God. The papal excommunication was more dreadful than an invasion of a great army. When launched it stopped the nations in its tracks.
The lights were extinguished at the altars. The church doors were closed. The marriages took place in the graveyards. The unshriven dead were buried in ditches. The curse of Antichrist had closed the gates of Paradise and until he opened them all were damned. Yes, men believed it was real fire from heaven and they were scorched by it.
To the mightiest of kings the excommunication of Antichrist was a dreadful affair. The cursed monarch shook on his throne, for his army could not help him. Indeed they were more likely to join with his people in driving him forth from his kingdom. The Antichrist deposed sixty-four emperors and kings. In that number is included, Henry II of England deposed by Pope Alexander III; King John by Pope Innocent III; Kings Richard and Edward by Pope Boniface IX; Henry VIII by Pope Clement VII and again by Pope Paul III; Elizabeth I by Pope Pius V. Even Robert the Bruce of Scotland was so cursed by the Pope, but thanks to the strong Culdee elements which survived them King Robert and his subjects rejected the Pope’s fulmination.
The Antichrist chose the very figure of the prophetic scripture to designate his anathemas. Pope Gregory VII spoke of the Emperor Henry IV when excommunicated as, ‘struck with thunder.’
To the same effect is Antichrist’s description of the Emperor Frederick by Pope Innocent at the first Council of Lyons.
‘These words of excommunication, uttered in the midst of the Council, struck the hearers with terror as might the flashing thunderbolts. When with candles lighted and flung down, the Lord Pope and his assistant prelates flashed their lightning-fire terribly against the Emperor Frederick, now no longer to be called emperor, his procurators and friends burst into a bitter wailing and struck the thigh or breast on that day of wrath, of calamity and of woe!’
These outbursts of the Antichrist continued in Europe right down to the Glorious Revolution year of 1688.
In Rome’s great book of curses one of the most notable is the ‘Bullums Coenae Domini.’ It is truly the utterance of the ‘mouth speaking great things.’
‘Framed since Reformation, it curses all the various sections of the Protestant Church, giving special prominence to Calvinists and Zwinglians. Its scope is wide indeed. The world and its inhabitants, so far as they were known to the framers of this bull, are compendiously cursed in it. Its thunders are heard re-echoing far beyond the limits of Christendom, and its lightnings are seen to strike the pirates of barbarous seas, as well as the Calvinists of Great Britain.
This bull was wont to be promulgated annually by the Pope in person, attended by a magnificent array of cardinals and priests.
The ceremony took place on Maundy Thursday — the Thursday before Easter, and was accompanied by numerous solemnities, fitted to strike the spectators with awe. It was read from the lofty vestibule of the Church of the Lateran, amid the firing of cannon, the ringing of bells, the blaring of trumpets and the blazing of torches. When the curses of the bull had been thundered forth, the torches were extinguished and flung into the great piazza beneath, to signify the outer darkness into which all heretics shall finally be hurled. Pope Ganganelli in 1770 forbade the public reading of the bull Coenae Domini, but the practice was soon revived, and is still continued at Rome, though not in the same public fashion. But the discontinuance of its open promulgation matters nothing; it is unrepealed; all heretics are, ipso facto, under its ban, and the establishment of the Papal Hierarchy gives it to all Romanists the force of law in the United Kingdom.’ — Dr. Wylie.
It should be emphasised that Vatican Council Two reaffirmed no departure by the church from the decrees of the Council of Trent. Rome’s curses stand! The Infallible Antichrist has decreed them!
Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley
The enthronization of ‘the mystery of Godliness’ and the enthronization of ‘the mystery of iniquity’ run parallel yet are immeasurably and eternally separated.
Paul leads us up to the throne of Antichrist. He starts at the lowest stage.
‘And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.’ II Thessalonians 2:6-8.
The hindering of the developing of the Antichrist is underscored. (The word ‘let’ in Old English means ‘hinder’). Until the Emperor was removed from Rome, the Antichrist could not ascend Caesar’s throne. Caesar was Pontifex Maximus and while he claimed to be the King and High Priest of the world there was no room for another.
We have already traced how the great Empire was overturned and the throne of Caesar left vacant to be occupied by the Antichrist.
Prophecy made it clear that Christ was to occupy the throne of David and Antichrist the throne of Caesar.
It took centuries to fulfil these prophecies. The throne of David was vacant again and again that it might at last be filled by the Lion of Judah’s tribe, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
The throne of the world power was overturned from Babylonian to Medo-Persian, from Medo-Persian to Grecian, and from Grecian to Roman. Then when the Roman which hindered was taken out of the way that ‘Wicked’ came to be revealed.
Both mysteries have the same culmination—an enthronization. ‘The mystery of Godliness,’ the true Christ, beginning in the crib ends with the Crown on the Throne of Heaven.
‘The mystery of iniquity,’ the false Antichrist, beginning in the silent workings of evil, ends on the throne of the earth.
Christ refused Satan’s offer, ‘All the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them will I give thee if thou fall down and worship me.’
The Antichrist accepted Satan’s offer. The bargain was struck and faithfully fulfilled on both sides.
Note the parallel:—
| CHRIST | ANTICHRIST | |
| 'Mystery of Godliness.' | 'Mystery of iniquity' II Thess. 2:7. | |
| God manifest in the flesh. | Doth already work. | |
| Justified in the spirit. | Justified by Satan in signs and lying wonders. | |
| Seen of angels. | Viewed approvingly by the fallen angels with all deceivableness of unrighteousness. | |
| Preached unto the Gentiles and believed on in the world. | Published by priests, friars and monks that the Pope is Christ's Vicar on earth. Believed on in the world by all those whose names were not written in the Book of Life. | |
| Received up into glory. | Received up into the heavens of ecclesiastical dominion and imperial glory. Sitting in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. |
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