Jan Markell's Understanding the Times Radio for last Friday is about deceptions that are coming through the Roman Church, the role of the Pope in the end times, and deeceptions such as the apparitions of "Mary" that have been occurting frequently around the world and succeeding at seducing people from many religions, including Protestants.
Jan's guest is ex-Catholic Mike Gendrom who has worked for years to show the deceptions of the RC Church and turn Catholics to the truth of Christ. . He thinks the Pope could be the False Prophet of the ook of Revelation, rather than the Antichrist which is the role I think he'll play. The Reformers' identification of the Pope as Antichrist has been dismissed in our time, but some will propose that he could play the role of the False Prophet.
Pope Francis: The Vicar of the New World Order – Mike Gendron - YouTube
I continue to think the Pope is the Anitchrist nevertheless. The Reformers thought so and gave scriptural reasons for it. And not only the Reformers but many Christian leaders that preceded them made the same identification, some of whom I took from a teaching by Chris Pinto and posted on this blog some time ago. The argument against this identification today is that Paul was not talking about a system, such as the papacy, but about a single man. Considering that there were so many down the centuries who held that the Pope is Antichrist this argument seems rather thin and arrogant, as if so many would have ignored such a distinction.
Nevertheless even many people can be wrong. But the thinking does hold together scripturally. That is, the Roman Church itself was certainly a Great Apostasy, or falling-away from the faith with its accumulation of pagan superstitions and doctrine of salvation by faith plus works, rather than faith alone in Christ alone which precludes any of our own works as presumptuous.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God sits in the temple of God,, showing himself that he is God.
Paul was reassuring the Thessalonians that the Day of the LORD had not yet come, that before that could happen this great falling away had to come and that man of sin be reevealed. Today this is interpreted as all related to the last of the last days, the great falling away beintg what we are seeing now in the growing apostacies of so many churches. The Antichirst, or "man of sin" is understood to be yet furture, and to be revealed after the Church has been Raptured.
I don't know how much of my view is my own and how much I got from Chris Pinto and Richard Bennett -- I know it was inspired by them and it may be all theirs, I don't know, but it all goes back to the Reformers who understood the falling away or what is now called The Great Apostasy, to be the doctrine of the Roman Church, and the man of sin to be the Pope, and therefore since both have now been revealed the Day of the LORD could have come any time afterward. The falling away we are seeing today is probably best understood as the last days spreading of the original Roman apostasy.
But the Antichrist has already been revealed according to the Reformers. We don't need to wait for his revelation.
The reason I think it's probably Francis despite his old age which in itself seems to eliminate him as candidate for that role, is that he's the first Jesuit Pope and that some pretty strange supernatural signs attended his election, which I posted on quite some time ago. If he is the Antichrist then that makes the end times finale very very close. We've felt its closeness for years but if a man in his eightties is to play that major role in the Great Tribulation it must be very close indeed.
Well, my opinion jabout this could certainly be wrong, I just think it hangs together better than the popular idea of an unknown political figure suddenly rising to world prominence, a younger man, more of a Hitler type. As for the Pope's being the False Prophet instead, I just thiknk the arguments for his being the Antichrist overshadow that possibility, both the testimony of the Refomers and their predecessors but also the meaning of the "666" which is so satisfyingly expressed in the term "Vicarivs Filii Dei" which is a title of the Pope that in itself makes him the Antichrist, plus the Roman Numewerals that title adds up to. It's just too perflect. No other candidate for that number is so peculiarly apt.
So some even more satisfying way of identifying these things would ahve to come along to dissuade me of this interpretatiohnn.
Jan Markell's radio show with mike gendron did, however, highlight a film about the many apparitions of "Mary" that have been seducing not only huge numbers of Catholics but also members of other religions including Protestants. I think I recall that it was Alexander Hislop, who wrote "The Two Babylons" who suggested that the "Beast" of the Book of Revelation could be the Catholic "Virgin Mary." That's a rather startling idea but given the increasing frequency of these apparitions at a time when the Last Days Finale feels so close it would make sense to expect "her" to have a prominent role in the Great Tribulationj. just as does the Antichrist, "she" usurps the role of Christ. She doesn't quite yet fully displace Him but that's obviously just a fiction being maintained for the sake of those who still hold to some remnant of faith in Christ.
I don't know where to fit "her" in yet.
UPDATE: If it weren't for the references to the Antichrist that pretty clearly identify him as a man, and human, and some other clues that don't fit, it could even make sense to consider the apparitions of "Mary" to be the Antichrist. "She" certainly displaces Christ in the hearts of many, does usurp many of His attributes, claims to bring salvation and so on. As Mike Gendron points out in the radio show "she" is also venerated by Muslims who have also been attending sites of these appearances, and he thinks "she" (yes I have to keep it in quotes because these are demonic appearances, not Mary herself) anyway, "she" may be the means of bringing Catholicism and Islam together for the final World Religion. This suggests that "she" could very well be the Beast that will be worshipped by all still living on the earth after the true Church is gone and that makes her the Antichrist. Strange idea of course. But these appartitions are real supernatural phenomena and that is very seductive in itself. This is possibly the only thing that to my mind twould put the Pope in the role of False Prophet.
Although the idea is intriguing I can't really think it holds together in the end. Perhaps there is some other way to include "her" in the end times scenario that fits better. I don't think she represents the woman who rides the beast though, because that is so clearly the Harlot Church of Rome. Oh well, it will make sense whatever it is when it finally does all come together in reality. /update
Anyway here's the film about the recent apparitions: Messages From Heaven - "Virgin Mary" or Deception? (Full documentary uploaded with permission) - YouTube
