On September 11th of last year I engaged in some rather reckless speculations concerning possible candidates for the position of his satanic "majesty", the Antichrist. Speculations, because I never accused anyone of actually being the Antichrist, but nonetheless reckless, because I referred to some people whose actions and characteristics resembled (in part) some of the characteristics stated in Biblical prophecy that would be associated with him. But since none of these attributes were enough to actually identify the final Dictator of the world, I would never be stupid, or reckless enough to actually designate the candidate as the one. I also made clear apologies, in advance, to any family members for stating my suspicions, which I believe were founded upon very relevant, and Biblically logical issues, especially concerning one person who subsequently made my speculations completely foolish by dying some 4 months later. As I stated then, my intent was not to slander anyone, but since these people had been very public figures for decades, and some of their suspicious actions had also been done with obviously very public intentions, and been well documented, I felt it was instructive to discuss them, especially for anyone who was uncertain of the characteristics to look for, should the Antichrist even be alive today, and should he actually come to power before the body of Christ (His believers) is "Raptured" "to meet Him in the clouds".
As part of the discussion, I referred to Revelation 17 (especially verse 9) where it seems that the Lord is explaining to the Apostle John that He considers an institution on Earth to be a counterfeit of His true Church (again, His entire collective body of believers, worldwide; He is not otherwise concerned with denominational differences). He refers to this institution as, "the Great Whore", which is in obvious contrast to the term, "the Bride of Christ" which is another reference to His Church, as a whole. Verse 9 states clearly that He is pointedly referring to the Vatican as that institution when it says that the "Great Whore" "sits upon seven mountains". There is only one place in the world that is famous for being a city that is built upon seven hills, namely Rome. The Bible frequently refers to hills as "Mountains", especially when talking about the "mountains" of Zion, Moriah, and Olivet, in Jerusalem.
Now, as I stated on September 11th, I am not trying to stir up any ancient, and irrelevant anti-Catholic bigotry. It is clear that the Lord is not condemning the individual Catholic, here, but the hierarchy that runs the church. Just as He came to earth to save the lost among the poor, especially, and realized that there would be few among the ruling-class Pharisees who would come to believe in Him, as they had heavy financial and other interests invested in maintaining their reputations as the heads of religious authority in Israel, in that day. As Jesus clearly threatened their authority, it behooved them to reject Him as the Messiah of Israel, and they eventually had him killed in order to protect their earthly status. I wonder if their status impressed God when they died, when He decided if they should go to Heaven, or elsewhere!
Similarly, Jesus knows who are the individual Catholics who have actually prayed to receive Him as their Lord and Savior, asking Him to forgive them of all their sins, and come into their hearts, to live forever, and guide them daily through God's Holy Spirit. These are not responsible for today's corruption within the Vatican, and many of them have actually been the victims of the child abuse that has scandalized the church, worldwide. I was personally unaware of the charges of child abuse, and in-house homosexual behavior that extended even as far as the College of Cardinals, in the Vatican itself, until I saw the P.B.S. special report on "Frontlines", last night. If you missed it you can watch it online at www.pbs.org/frontline.
That's scandalous enough, but the report also went on to make charges of financial impropriety, even suggesting that those officials entrusted with managing the Vatican Bank had been complicit in money-laundering activities for the Sicilian Mafia! It implied that the whole sum of these scandalous revelations may have been the actual reasons for the resignation of Pope Benedict (an act which hadn't happened for 600 years). No wonder that Jesus left off His condemnation of "the Great Whore" with the commandment to, "come out of her, my people"! And certainly, Jesus would not have told his believers to do so if there was any truth to the concept of Papal excommunication, with its condemnation to Hell! The Lord doesn't trick His people into doing something that will condemn them to Hell!
This is not to suggest that the Protestant denominations are "Holier that thou" by any means. There have been plenty of scandals to go around for them to repent of as well. But as each of these denominations, as well as independent churches are considerably smaller than the worldwide Catholic Church, and considerably less autonomous in dealing with moral and legal impropriety, and since Jesus is implying that the Antichrist will someday have some connection with the Vatican, if not actually sit on the throne as Pope, it carries considerably more relevance for its overwhelming corruption. I pity Pope Francis, who has committed himself to the task of cleaning up the corruption. The Frontline show described a condition of corruption that was so entrenched that the Pope was actually meeting belligerent resistance from the parties who were being investigated. It also stated that the Pope himself might be in some danger of Mob retaliation as well!
While this is clearly the most scandalous period in the history of the Vatican, due to all the publicity, and the secular legal investigations, it is not entirely without precedent. As I recounted last September, the Papal thrown had itself a history of being up for the highest bidder, when one of the Bourgia family's relatives is said to have bribed his way into being elected Pope, in medieval times. He later was reputed to have been quoted as saying that the concept of Salvation through faith in Jesus, and the Pope's accepted authority for the absolution of sins was a "very convenient" concept that he found useful. That doesn't strike me as the statement of a man who personally has any faith in Jesus himself! One has to wonder how many Popes were of like faithlessness, throughout history!
In conclusion, there is no greater point from all this that I can gather other than to repeat Christ's admonition to all Catholic believers in Jesus as their Lord and Savior to "come out of her my people", rather than risk being tempted someday into believing the smooth-talking blasphemies of the Antichrist, when he tries to establish himself as being greater than God. There will be no forgiveness for those who follow that line!
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