Richard Bennett: Another Voice Identifying the Pope as the Antichrist and How We've Been Deceived by Futuristic Thinking

 When I first started my blog I had some topics in mind I knew I wanted to talk about, such as the head covering which I'd been studying for some time, and the Bible Versions controversy.  But while I was just getting started, while pursuing information on those and other topics, I kept sort of tripping over the topic of the Antichrist.  Eventually I got the message that God had that topic in mind for me to write about and I started listening to sermons at Sermon Audio on that subject.

The ex-Catholic priest Richard Bennett has done maybe the most thorough job of discussing the Pope as the Antichrist.  I was just now listening to this sermon of his:   https://www.sermonaudio.com/saplayer/playpopup.asp?SID=81703213440

Much of what he says confirms statements I've made here about how the Reformers interpreted scripture in identifying the Pope as the Antichrist.  It is Caesar they regarded as the Restrainer preventing the revelation of his identity, which today is thought to be the Holy Spirit.  Bennett nicely puts that one to rest.  He also mentions that his sitting in the temple was understood to be his position among the people of God who are the temple in the New Testament.

It's interesting that he traces the origin of the Pope as Anticrhist to a decree by the emperor Justinian in 538 AD instead of what I'd learned from Chris Pinto and the book "History of Romanism" of a decree by the emperor Phocas in 606 AD.  I suppose there must have been two decrees then.  The first according to Bennett established the title "Pope."   He didn't dwell on it but I want to note it because it's different from what I'd been saying.  He lists many down the centuries who were quite convinced from scripture of this identity of the Antichrist, starting with the Waldensians, John Wycliff, Jan Hus, the Protestant Reformers and continuing through many since then.   How the Church lost that once-well established knowledge is something that deserves thought.    

He objects strenuously to the last days scenario I've been pursuing here.  He is rightly angered that this futuristic scenario has prevented Christians from seeing the truth about the wolves in sheep's clothing that have already come, and the Great Apostasy that is the Roman Church itself.  \

The horrors depicted in Revelation are seen as ongoing throughout history, and there is no doubt that we can identify plenty of them, from murdering tyrants such as Nero down to Hitler to Rwanda (which was the work of the Catholic Church in killing 800,000). plus Jesuitical influence behind some modern tyrants and the doctrines of Communism, not to mention the Inquisition which was by no means limited to Spain but ongoing for centuries.  It is+ still ongoing in secret in some Catholic countries.   I think something along those lines is Chris Pinto's view too.  

It is understandable that he would reject today's futuristic eschatology because of how it has prevented us from seeing the biblical truths about the nature of the Antichrist and the "mystery of iniquity."  Nevertheless I still think the reasoning in support of the Pre-Trib prophetic view is good, but we have to give up the wrong ideas about Antichrist.   What we have then is a final Pope as THE Antichrist in a seven-year period which fulfills the many prophetic references in scripture to the Day of the LORD which is as yet unfulfilled.   Daniel's seventieth week is also unfulfilled and it fits right in.  Planet Earth had a definite beginning according to scripture, and it seems reasonable to suppose that it would also have a definite end, such as described in the Book of Revelation.   

I'd continue to defend the Pre-Trib interpretation of the Rapture, and the general outlines of Revelation as based largely on the symbolism in the Book of Daniel, including the appearance out of the Roman Empire of the little horn we take to be the Antichrist.   It is from Daniel that we get the idea that this figure is to strike a covenant with Israel that he will break in the middle of the seven years.   The historical view of the Antichrist as the papacy does bring into question the idea that there will be a rebuilt phyisical temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and the idea of an Abomination of Desolation yet to come as the Antichrist sits in the literal rebuilt temple proclaiming himself to be God.  Since the Popes put themselves in the place of God anyway this action is superfluous.  

However, there is another little horn in the Book of Daniel that sprouts up out of the previous empire, Greece under Alexander, and that little horn is understood to have been Antiochus Epiphanes who desecrated the temple with a pig and was defeated by the Maccabees.  A miracle in the form of candles that didn't go out was part of the triumph, and it is, a historical event the Jews still celebrate as Hanukkah.  

The point is that it could be right to look for a parallel event performed by the little horn of the Roman Empire, which could be the final Pope sitting in a literal rebuilt temple.  Although he is already defined as sitting in the true temple of the people of God it is possible there could be a literal replay of the sort anticipated in the Pre-Trib eschatology.  Double fulfillments of prophecy do occur.  The idea that there will be a rebuilt physical temple comes from the Book of Daniel where it is said the "prince of the people who will come" those people being the Romans who destroyed the temple in 70 AD, will cause the sacrifices to cease.  This did occur of coruse when the temple was destroyed by general Titus, so the question is whether another yet-future Roman prince who does this is to be expected.  Ongoing sacrifices could only occur in a literal physical rebuilt temple.    This is all open to reinterpretation, however, with the historical view of the papacy we get from the Reformers. even if the little horn of the Roman Empire is the final Pope.  

As I've mentioned before, Pope Francis arrived with some interesting signs attending his election, which to my mind marks him as special in the line of Antichrists.   Being a Jesuit adds to his specialness, along with his radical anti-Christian messages to the world which are even more radical than his predecessors'.   If he is the final Antichrist the Day of the LORD, preceded by the Rapture of the Church, must be very very close, because he is in his mid-eighties.  That along with many other signs pointing to a Grand Finale should keep us all on the alert.

How soon?  Years\?  Not many if these clues are right, but a few are possible.  Months, Weeks,  Days?  All possible.  

Maybe there is yet time for the churches to engage in fervent united prayer for revival.

A Call for United Prayer for Revival from Sermon Audio

 I just discovered that the host of Sermon Audio.com which has an enormous collection of sermons on every topic, put out a call to prayer for revival to begin in January of this year, and I hadn't known it until now.  In fact the way I came across it was so accidental it seems supernatural.  With my bad eyes I was poking around trying to fix some pages that were out of alignment and didn't fill the whole monitor, don't know how they got that way, but I didn't hit the right icon a few times and on one such miss this page from Sermon Audio came up on my screen:

A JOINT RESOLUTION OF UNITED PRAYER

FOR THE

REVIVAL OF RELIGION

AND THE

ADVANCEMENT OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM ON EARTH.

https://www.sermonaudio.com/unitedprayer.asp

It is very much worth listening to his talk on this subject.   He starts out with some quotes about some of the most evil things you'll have ever heard, of Facebook posters putting up pictures of cruelty to animals and small children, as well as some horror stories from other parts of the world, the point being that we don't hear about such extreme evil in the world becuase it is kept from us.  This is reason enough for the Church to be in constant prayer.

His journal of the weeks of prayer so far is inspiring.

Here's his 

Synopsis.

This resolution is based on An Humble Attempt, originally put forward by Jonathan Edwards in 1748. Its design is to encourage God's people in the duty of united extraordinary prayer; setting aside some time every Saturday, privately or publicly, to pray for the revival of His church and the advancement of Christ's kingdom in our homes, in our churches, in our nation, and in the world.

He is calling for a commitment to one prayer time every week, on Saturday, and he has 236 people who have signed up for it.  It is to go for the 52 weeks of 2020.  When he put out this call he didn't know about the pandemic or the rioting or any of that.   People somehow sign their names to the document and I don't see how that is done yet.  

I'm very glad to see this but at the same time I have my usual doubts.  Other prayers and calls to pryaer for revival over the last few decades have not produced revival and I've been speculating here about possible reasons why not.  My guess is we need to start with repentance, both individual and as churches and I gave some conjectures about that.  

I certainly understand why it would be limited to once a week, but I also wish at least some of us could manage more than that.  For it to be united, however, which is Jonathan Edwards' focus, we need agreement with each other.  

But I don't want to go too far beyond where Steven Lee of Sermon Audio goes.  I'd just like this message to be passed around among as many Christians as possible.

How to Seek Revival

 Rather surprised to find myself so avidly pursuing the possibility of revival, even with some optimism for a change.   Even if the Rapture is right around the corner and the Tribulation when the Wrath of God will fall on those remaining.  Surely this is the best thing we should be doing, to bring as many as possible into the Kingdom so they won't have to endure all that. 

The pessimism I've had about revival over the years has been due to the false revivals that have come through the Charismatic Movement, and the unwelcome idea that the same thing would happen if we started having real revivals.  Most revivals get some of the strange phenomena anyway but they don't usually take over the whole revival.  Real revival is a serious deepening of the love of God and the life of God in us, of conviction of sin that leads to repentance, of the practice of holiness, and its power is for that sort of purpose, not little supernatural tricks.   But with charismatics still believing they had real revivials that sort of fleshly and demonic interference would try to piggyback on the real thing,   Toronto, Brownsville, Lakeland, all bogus revivals.  For some reason it's not bothering me as much now, maybe we can pray it down.

But the pessimism is also due to the simple fact that when strong Christians like Leonard Ravenhill and Kay Arthur have fervently sought revival it hasn't come.  That is very discouraging.   I've thought it may be because of systemic sins in the churches that are unrecognized, so this time I'm aware of how seriously we need to ask God to show us such a possibility and seek reprentance for it.   The uncritical acceptance of the Charismatic Movement is one such possible systemic sin, also the uncritical acceptance of the Roman Catholic Church as just another Christian denomination.  And the rejection of Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 11 about the need for women to cover our heads in church.  

Forewarned about all that and reforming along those lines we should be able to seek a genuine revival.   That's what I'm personally praying for anyway.

Googling for some inspiration on the subject I found a blog by a pastor in Missouri -- How to Get the Unction (Power) of the Spirit, by Geoffrey R. Kirkland at Vassal of the King blog: *- http://vassaloftheking.com/home/180007755/180007755/Images/How%20to%20get%20the%20unction%20of%20the%20Spirit.pdf 

He writes about the necessity of Holy Spirit power for preaching the gospel.  He's talking to pastors about preaching, not about revival, but the principle applies to the purpose of revival too.  

I like many of his expressions, such as "mighty weakness" as what the preacher needs, a complete dependence on God for the supernatural result of his peaching.  It's not natural ability but this dependence that is necessary for the unction that establishes  the gospel in the souls of hearers for their salvation.  Good pastors know this anyway, but what I like most about this essay is his call to fervency and even desperation, a strong increase in the normal patterns.

To answer the question how one gets this unction he gives four ways.  The first is Earnest Prayer which he describes in another inspiring phrase:  "earnest, fervent, relentless, believing, and desperate prayers."   Living holy lives is another prerequisite for the unction. 

This is also what we need for revival.   Pastors must be above reproach but if I had to have a consistently holy life in order to seek revival I'd have to give up.  Repentance is the key for me and for most of us sinners if we want God to respond to us.  It's essential.  God won't give us revival if we are holding on to unrepented sins, and we should ask Him to reveal our sins to us since we may be unaware of them.

With repentance as our foundation, and it needs to keep being renewed, then what we need is that "earnest, fervent, relentless, believing and desperate prayer" that God would rend the heavens and come down to us in great power so that our Christian lives would be strengthened and purified, and the gospel preached in power, and a huge number of souls saved.  The more we pray the better, and the more of us who are praying the better.  

And fasting also helps.  Somehow fasting opens up the spirit to hear from God and receive spiritual strength.   It doesn't have to be a complete fast, just avoiding foods we particularly like while eating the simplest most unadorned fare is very effective.

Posting this much for now but may be back to continue it.

What We Need is a Great Plea Party Movement if God is to Heal Our Land

 So tempting to make like an ostrich and tune it all out.   The big problem is the feeling of helplessness.  No matter how bad it gets, it just goes on getting worse, there are so few in politics who even speak against it let alone have a plan to do something about it.   They seem intimidated.  They've copped out.

A Christian knows, or should know, the only real answer is a supernatural return to God, but we're about as far from that as we are from a political solution.  We need revival, or reformation first and then revival, but where is the will for that?  In isolated doctrinally sound churches led by a few bold pastors the right motives are there, the true gospel is preached, but clearly that's not enough to turn back the tide of evil we are seeing.   Well, really it doesn't have to take great numbers, as the story of Gideon is there to inform us, but surely it does take the right mindset and the right motives and a deep commitment to the purposes of God.  

If preaching the gospel is our weapon but we aren't having an impact what then?   If you tell people the gospel and nothing happens, they roll their eyes and change the subject, what then?   Since our citizenship is not of this world why spend any time concerned about the world anyway?   Is that our job?  Why don't we just sit still and let it roll over us, be content with a few converts here and there, and growing under good preaching?  We're called to persecution aren't we?  The ostrich reaction gets more appealing the more hopeless the situation looks.  But the consequences of doing nothing are pretty dire, for us, for family and friends, for the nation, even for the world.

We need to know from God what we aren't doing and what we need to do, if there is anything at all we can do.  What do we need to repent of?  If the church appears to be doctrinally sound and the gospel is preached, still isn't something missing, and what is it?   If we don't know then God needs to show us.  We can preach against worldly attempts to deal with what is a supernatural and spiritual problem, but if preaching the gospel isn't accomplishing much, and the culture is continuing to grow as this gigantic dunghill, we need God to tell us how to get the supernatural power which alone affects the human spirit and changes the world.   Maybe the doctrinally sound churches are too content with the status quo to look for more from God.

So again I come back to the need for reformation and revival, a supernatural work of God by which God Himself comes to us in unusual power, sends us falling on our faces in trembling fear as His holiness becomes palpable, with a heavy sense of our own sins and failures, and an acute awareness of His sovereign right to rule in the affairs of humanity.  When He comes and breaks us like that then He also comes and draws unbelievers into His Kingdom as the gospel is preached with power.  And that is the only hope for the culture.  

Seems to me the first thing we need is a deep yearning for such a visitation from God and a deep faith that it is possible.  If we're complacent and satisfied with our level of spirituality and doctrinal correctness we just won't be seeking more from God.  But it's more we need.  A great outpouring of Himself by which we would know how inadequate we are, that's where we need Him to start to revive us.   We can preach the gospel quite correctly but with such little Holy Spirit power it can't change people.  We need that Holy Spirit power and that's why we need revival.   In other words even if we preach the truth and preach it well we can be missing the spiritual power that drives it home to other souls.

There must be sins that impede us that we need to repent of, and there is certainly too little seeking of God.  How do we get that power we need?  By humbling ourselves and praying and seeking His face and turning from our wicked ways, as the most famous biblical formula for revival tells us.  Then He will answer from Heaven and heal our land.  Revivals have come from churches, or even just a group of individuals, getting together for frequent and protracted periods of prayer.   With a yearning for revival and faith that it is possible and a sense of our own inadequacy for the things of God, and the humility to know we may not be fully meeting his requirements of us, God may give it.  

Chris Pinto Finds the Jesuits Behind it All and Closer We Get Every Day.

 Long time since I listened to Chris Pinto's Noise of Thunder Radio Show.  It got so depressing hearing about so much evil brewing behind the scenes in this world that nobody is effectively putting down I had to stop listening.  But now everything is depressing in that same way anyway.  The rioting is just going on without any effective countermeasures.  BLM is still getting away with calling itself a civil rights movement for blacks when it is nothing of the sort, it's revolution to destroy America.  

Well I listened to one of Chris Pinto's latest shows and that's what he's saying.  Nice to know I'm on the same page with him in general although as usual he's collected tons of evidence for it.  The one I just heard is The Jesuits, the BLM and the Gunpowder Plot Against America;

Here's the link to the page:

http://www.noiseofthunderradio.com/show-downloads/2020/7/23/notr-jesuits-blm-the-american-gunpowder-plot-72320.html

And here's the link to the radio show:

http://s3.media.squarespace.com/production/827989/9727427/JESUITS.GUNPOWDER.PLOT_07.23.020.mp3?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIGASFZJDTI4L3CAA&Signature=YzEEt9PoJ2rQNHJNSHwGts%2FN4I4%3D&Expires=1596781034

What Chris Pinto brings to the fore that nobody else I know does is the role of the Jesuits and the Catholic Church in general behind Marxist movements like BLM.    The Marxist Plot to Overthrow America is another recent radio show.  That much I say myself, but he tracks it to the Jesuits.  I do have some posts on the Jesuits scattered through this blog and on the Catholicism blog but Pinto is the one to go to for the whole picture.  

It's all about the neverending plot to take down Protestantism and reinstate Catholic dominance in the world such as they had before the Reformation.  

I don't think he says anyhthing specifically related to the Pre-Tribulation Rapture scenario, in fact I think he rejects that idea.  He's called himself a historicist at times.  

UPDATE:   At the end of this paragraph I post a link to this page of recent Noise of Thunder programs covers quite a long ist and I see I have some catching-up to do.  Just reading through the program descriptions I see he's particularly up on the political implications of the Coronavirus and the idea of mass vaccinations.   I had to laugh when I saw that he identifies Fauci as educated by Jesuits -- because that's what he's so good at, that very sort of connection that isn't obvious on the surface or even reported in biographies.  Them Jesuits they got their fingers in every political and social and educational treason.   He also refers to the Pope as the Antichrist, based on the Reformers' biblical understanding, which he always does (I got that view from him as I've said), and he puts it all in the prophetic perspective, but nevertheless he doesn't seem to see it quite in the Pre-Tribulation framework as I've come to see it.  He's on top of the political meaning of the rioting as a Communist takeover, and earlier in the list he has a show all about the curse of Liberalism.  

http://www.noiseofthunderradio.com/   /UPDATE

Though I'm not sure how he sees the end times shaping up, i take his information as another confirmation and contribution to my own view that it's very very close, the Rapture followed by the Day of the LORD or the Great Tribulation by which God will judge the world, and that Pope Francis is to be the final Antichrist who presides over the global political and religious empire that will rise to power in that time, though it is already in nascent form.  Francis is already acting like the ruler of the world going around telling nations what to do and making agreements with them, the Vatican is a political entity, a nation state, and the Roman Catholic Church is spread throughout the world.  With the disappearance of the true Church it wouldn't take much for him to be elevated to world Potentate and for all the RCC dreams to come true.

Hello Inquisition on Steroids. 

--------------------------------------------

Later:  Listening to the one titled "The Radical Leftist Agenda.."  Oh you poor naive liberals.  What you don't know about the political position you hold. 

Here's the one titled The Marxist Takeover of America:

http://s3.media.squarespace.com/production/827989/9727427/MARXIST.TAKEOVER.AMERICA_07.09.2020.mp3?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIGASFZJDTI4L3CAA&Signature=HeiBI3hlVZ0fiyzWuscNn7WiXGQ%3D&Expires=1596886909

Another Gospel Post

I needed to hear this.  Periodically I need to hear this kind of message.  This is John MacArthur on the true gospel, the perseverance of the saints:

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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RZ_IfFyF_wk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Don't know why it won't embed.  But here's the URL: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ_IfFyF_wk

Bringing it all Together for the Grand Finale of Planet Earth

Still enjoying Jay's rundown of world events in his July 20th Watchdog video I put up a couople of posts down.  My eyes are getting worse all the time and I can't read any of the information on the video screen, and he reads fast so it's sometimes hard to follow that too.  Also hard to read much I find online.   In order to read comfortably I seem to require a pretty strong contrast between the letters and the background and the right size:  if the letters are too big I can't read them any better than if they are too small, hard to explain, and I guess I'm sayhing all this as a sort of excuse, but that's why I'm particularly happy that Jay is covering the specifics involving the Pope.  That's all information that supports my arguments but I can't collect myself.  I did do a little research yesterday and found a Wikipedia account of the negotiations between the "Holy See" and Israel which looks interesting but it's not much about Francis, more a historical rundown.   And my own posts are getting hard to read.  If I make a typo even when I reread what I wrote I may miss it.  I can more or less get things typed, but rereading is becomming difficult.

I can't reread my last post for instance but I think I may have got something wrong about the Vatican's role in the peace plans for Israel.  Their plan in 1999 gave them custodianship of the part of Jerusalem with the Temple Mount, and that will probably be a part of any future plan but I don't think it's on the table at the moment.  Sorry, I just can't do more with this right now.

A little over an hour into the video Jay mentions ongoing Muslim persecutions and says it seems to him we're seeing "an awawkening of evil" in the world.  Nice phrase, seems to me to be the case too.  Certainly true here in the US.

I get the impression that Jay may be approaching the same view of things as my own but from a different angle.  I'm focusing on biblical prophecy and he's focusing on world events.  Or something like that.   I'm following the Reformers' view of the papacy which leads me to the idea of Francis' likely role as the final Antichrist, while Jay is following Francis around the globe and coming to a similar conclusion.  

He's also tracking the WCC's efforts toward a one-world religion through the UN and the aim of consolidating global power in a ew hands, and all these things are shared by the WCC, the Vatican and the UN..  

Interesting:  around 1:12: 00 he mentions  encountering internet censorship of some of his information he wants to send to a friend.  Facebook says he can't.  Nothing terribly controversial or so it seems to me:  just the fact that the WCC has a publication at the UN called "Voices of Faith" -- 

I already knew we were close but all this brings it closer still.  

I can't report on the whole video so I hope others will listen to it.  At least watch his finale from about 1:22:30.where he sums up the material he's covered in this video.   He's answering people who would say all this could only be believed by a tin foil hat wearer or a conspiracy theorist, and very amusingly says "to be fair I happen to be both" but his point is that he's based it all on actual reported facts.  And he has.  He sees this global religious and political behemoth coming together under the Pope and says we need to know about it.  We do.  

Watch.  Pray.  Stand.