Our Position Today in the Divine Program as Revealed in Prophecy

This is the continuation of the series, Antichrist And His Ten Kingdoms – By Albert Close and the previous post, The Great Harlot’s Daughters.

God has never in any age sent a messenger or preacher to cross, contradict or make void an interpretation of Holy Scripture revealed to an earlier generation; as for example in the case of the Reformers at the Reformation.

The early Christians believed that Christ’s Second Coming was surely to take place in their own days. The Thessalonians even sold their goods and gave up their secular callings and sat down to wait for the return of our Lord.

St. Paul in 2 Thess. 2:1-12 reproves them for being carried away by mistaken teachers. He tells them that the Second Coming could not take place until there came a falling away from the faith of Christ, and the Antichrist, or Man of Sin, should arise. He then describes the character of the coming Antichrist and his monstrous claims and blasphemous pretensions, which have all been perfectly fulfilled by the Popes of Rome. The Pope today claims to be the Vicar of Christ on earth!

In 2 Thess. 2:3-9 St. Paul thus describes the twelve hundred years of falling away during the Dark Ages, and the character of Antichrist during the Dark Ages and since.

2 Thessalonians 2:3 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;
4 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.
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For the MYSTERY OF INIQUITY doth already work: only he who now letteth (hinders) will let (hinder), UNTIL HE BE TAKEN OUT OF THE WAY.
8 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:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

Table of Contents

EXPLANATORY NOTES ON VERSES.

From Irenaeus (A.D. 115-190), the disciple of Polycarp, the contemporary of St. John, we first hear that the hindrance to the full development of Antichrist, mentioned by St. Paul,

A. Revelation 16:12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

Beyond question refers to the drying up of the Turkish Empire, which originated in its infancy as a Mohammedan religious Power at Mecca in 622 A.D. and in 1063 as a Religious Political power at Baghdad, which passed the Euphrates and invaded Asia Minor, Eastern Europe and North Africa. In 1924 the Caliphate or dynasty of Sultans ended and Turkey became a very small Republic. Gibbon says: “The Turks from Baghdad passed over the Euphrates in 1063, and inundated Asia Minor and Eastern Europe.” Gibbon—X. p. 352. Note that Gibbon uses the word “inundated”; then read carefully Rev. 8:9, Rev. 16.

B. Revelation 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

This evidently refers to the rise of the Papal, Fascist and Nazi Movements of today. These are three outstanding evil movements in the world. These are active, not only in the area of the old Roman earth, but all over the world. The text clearly differentiates between “the earth” and “the whole world.” “The Earth” clearly refers to the area of Papal Europe and Mohammedan Eastern Europe, which once formed the Eastern and Western Roman Empires, the area ruled over by the Popes and Sultans. The West is still secretly dominated by the Papacy. Mussolini’s chief adviser on behalf of the Pope is Father Pietro Tachi-Venturi, a Jesuit, Daily Express, 2/9/35.

C. Revelation 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

Verse 15 contains a sharp clear warning shot, like a flash of lightning into the middle of the text at this time. When we see the three evil spirits at work gathering the nations of the world to battle, we should keep a very sharp look-out for the Coming of Christ, lest we be surprised and put to shame.

D. Revelation 16:16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. This verse reads in the Revised Version “and they gathered them together,” not “he gathered them.” *Were not these three evil movements in Germany, Italy and Vatican gathering all nations together in the War of Armageddon? We cannot interpret until all has been fulfilled, whether Armageddon is a period of great conflicts, or, a single great battle which will center around the Valley of Armageddon. Armageddon Valley in Palestine is only about 25 miles in length. The Battle of France in May and June 1940 extended over 600 miles in length. As Armageddon is to be the greatest Battle of all history, we must wait until it has been fought before we can interpret this verse unerringly.

* On this false translation has been built up the interpretation of a future Military Antichrist.

THE JESUITS, RIBERA AND BELLARMINE, MIX THE INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY, 1581—1603.A.D.

In 1576, Gregory XIII. appointed the Jesuit Cardinal Bellarmine to lecture on controversial theology in the new Roman College. He was a man of great learning,and the most powerful controversialist the Roman Church has ever produced. He and Ribera the Jesuit of Salamanca were the leaders in the Movement in the Church of Rome to change the interpretation of Prophecy. At the same time that Ribera published his Futurist commentary on the Apocalypse, Bellarmine published his three volumes of his lectures in the Roman College in the years 1581, 1582, and the third in 1593. Ribera published the three editions of his commentary in 1591, 1592 and 1603. These are now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

These works called forth a multitude of replies from the Protestant side, including that of Brightman, in England, in 1601.

WHAT RIBERA THE JESUIT WROTE 1591—1603 A.D

Revelation xiv., xvii. and xviii.

“Babylon whose fall is here predicted, Babylon the purpled Harlot, Babylon the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth, she that has made all nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, this is indeed Rome; but not Rome Christian, not Rome obedient to the Pope, not Rome retaining and preserving within herself the See of the Apostle Peter . . . it is Rome the author and preserver of superstitions, the head of idolatry, the sink of all iniquity, the most bitter enemy of the Christian name, the murderer and slaughterer of the saints . . . such as she will be in the end of the world, after she has fallen away from the Pope.” “ Apocalypsin, cap. xiv. Ribera Num. 39. Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Bellarmine powerfully supported Ribera, as will be seen by the following extract from his “Disputations and Controversy.” The Year Day theory then rising into general notice was first attacked by Bellarmine.

He admits that Rome and her Ten Kingdoms is meant by Babylon in Rev. 17, but denies that it refers to Rome and the Popes, but to a Rome future, not Rome of the present, Here is what Cardinal Bellarmine, S.J., wrote 1586—96, A.D.

The Ten Kings who will share among them the Roman Empire, and in whose reign Antichrist will come, —these will hate the purple—bearing harlot, that is, Rome, and will make her desolate, and burn her with fire. How, therefore, can she be the seat of Antichrist, if at that very time she is to be overthrown and burnt?

Bellarmine continues: “By God’s wonderful Providence when the Roman Empire failed in the West, which was one of the legs of Daniel’s statue, it remained safe in the East, which was the other leg. But because the Eastern Empire was to be destroyed by the Turks, as we have seen, God once more set up in the West, the first leg, that is, the Western Empire, by Charlemagne; and this Empire still exists.”

Jesuit Robert Bellermine, taken from a Catholic website.

Here, therefore is proof positive of the origin of the Futurist Interpretation of Daniel and Revelation. It is not mere hearsay evidence. This was part of the great Jesuit conspiracy of 1551 to destroy the Church of England by mixing the doctrines. The following is a copy of the Secret Instructions issued to the Jesuits of Paris, from the Council of Trent in 1551 A.D.

JESUITS IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND MIXING DOCTRINES AND INTERPRETATIONS.

The following secret Instructions were sent in 1551 A.D. from the Council of Trent to the Jesuits in Paris.

“Ye are not to preach all after one method, but observe the place wherein you come. In England preach any that are contrary to the Holy See of St. Peter, by which your function will not be suspected, and yet you may still act on the interest of the Mother Church; there being, as the Council are agreed on, no better way to demolish that Church (the Church of England) of heresy than by mixtures of doctrines, and by adding of ceremonies more than be at present permitted. Some of you who undertook to be of this sort of heretical episcopal society, bring it as near to the Mother Church as you can, and be a means to reduce all in time to the Mother Church.”

The late Father Hugh Benson, son of an Archbishop of Canterbury, confessed before a vast audience in St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, in October, 1907, that whilst a Mirfield monk in the Church of England:—

Father Hugh Benson:—”On every point except the supremacy of the Pope we believed the teaching of the (Roman) Catholic Church, and taught most of her doctrines, as thousands of Anglican clergymen are doing today.”

Father Ronald Knox, son of Bishop Knox, followed Benson into the Church of Rome in 1917.

Father Woodlock, the Jesuit, stated that in 1924, that out of 1,345 converts at Westminster, 1,147 were from the High Church of England, and 144 from other Churches.—”Catholic Times,” 1/4/27

Father Buggy, of Halifax, states 15 out of 20 converts afterwards leave the Church of Rome.—‘‘ Daily Telegraph,” 21/10/29. Disillusioned!

Dean Goode, late Dean of Ripon, in “Rome’s Tactics,” shows that part of Rome’s tactics is to send disguised Roman priests to officiate as Church of England clergymen, and gradually introduce her ritual and doctrines.

About 9,000 out of the 12,000 Church of England Clergy are Anglo-Romanists who follow Romish practices and ritual today.

(Continued in The Scholars Behind the Promotion of the False Interpretations of the Books of Daniel and Revelation.)