the-antichrist-his-portrait-and-history-appendix-c-he-that-exalteth-himself-2-thess-ii-4

This is the continuation of Appendix B. The Mark of The Beast

It is unfortunate that our excellent Authorized Version occasionally fails to give the correct sense in certain prophetic passages, although this was inevitable, of course, as greater light was promised in later times. The text from which the above words are taken should read: “who opposeth and exalteth himself against (See also Exodus ix. 17 and 2 Cor. x. 5) all that is called God, or that is an object of reverence, so that he, as God, taketh his seat in the Sanctuary* of God, setting himself forth as God”; not by abuse or denial, but by actions and assumptions of Divinity. Anyone who has studied the Bible knows very well that it constantly designates rulers and judges as gods, and that self-exaltation and arrogance are constantly denounced by Christ (e.g., Matthew xi. 23); whilst the “Naos of God,” or “Sanctuary,” or “House of the Lord,” is as constantly applied to public worship (e.g., Psalm xcii. 13; Acts vii. 48; 1 Cor. iii. 17) and to the whole body of professing Christians, not to mere buildings.

*In the “Acts” the Jewish temple is mentioned twenty-five times; the Greek word used being hieron, never naos. In 2 Thess. ii, the word is naos. Jerome, Chrysostom, Augustine, Aquinas say the apostle meant the Christian Church, as in 1 Cor. iii, 16.

As a fact, there is nothing in 2 Thess. ii. that is not already explained in other passages of Scripture. Nothing but lack of familiarity with Oriental phraseology and Hebrew thought can excuse a desire to uphold, at all costs, a visionary theory—originated either by men who lived long before the event, and therefore were in a very different position to us who live after it; or by enemies who deliberately seized upon these mistaken guesses, in order to fashion a weapon whereby to deflect from Rome the obvious testimony of Holy Writ and of history. This weapon is known as “Futurism,” because it shuts its eyes to facts of the past, and fixes them on fancies of the future.

I wish to recall certain undeniable facts (not theories) which show incontestably how self-exaltation and blasphemy are conjoined in the Papacy, that Pagan Caesarism which wears a religious mask—exactly as foretold by 2 Thess. ii., Rev. xiii. and Daniel vii. and xi. 36-39; and which is the Last or Eighth Head of the Latin Wild Beast of prophecy (Rev. xvii. 11); a realized fulfillment, and not a still unfulfilled future Antichrist.

Portrait of Antichrist

With the Triple Crown claiming to have power over Heaven, Earth, and Purgatory.

“The Flavelli are the well-known great fans carried on either side of the Pope. According to Macri the eyes of the peacock’s feathers are typical of the vigilance and circumspection of the Pontiff.” (“Last Winter in Rome” by Weld p. 495. Compare Daniel vii. 8, “Eyes of a man.”)

“The Three Crowns (or Tiara) are decorated with 32 rubies, 19 emeralds, 11 sapphires, 529 diamonds, and 252 pearls.” (“Sede Vacante,” a Diary written in 1903 during the Pope’s “enthronement,” by a Papal Chamberlain.)

The Three Crowns, of Tiara, indicate that the wearer is “Father of Princes and Kings, Ruler of the World, Vicar of our Savior Jesus Christ.” (Catholic Dictionary 1884, p. 796.)

First, as to the usurped “seat” or throne occupied. In Francis. Wey’s “Rome,” illustrated, there is a picture of “St. Peter’s Chair,” by virtue of which the Pope claims to be Apostolic successor of the humble Galilean fisherman— but as it is a false claim, he is a False Apostle or “Son of Perdition,” as foretold. Here is Wey’s description of this Chair. “There is, in the apse of the Cathedral, a sumptuous altar, and in the middle of a glory, the Chair of St. Peter, sustained, by four colossal figures of bronze and gold, which represent two Fathers of the Latin and two of the Greek Church. The chair by Bernini is only an outside case, containing the curule seat of Egyptian wood faced with ivory, which is, supposed to have been given (compare Rev. xiii. 2: “And the Beast gave him his seat.”) by the Senator Pudens to his, guest, the Apostle Peter. They show in the sacristy a model of this precious piece, which is rarely exhibited, as well as some of the small ivory facings that have been detached from it; they represent the Labors of Hercules, (Hercules was God of Force, see Dan. xi. 38) and are of indisputable antiquity” (p. 155; see also “The Chair of St. Peter,” by H. Forbes Witherby, and “Jacob Primmer in Rome,” p. 94). Cardinal Wiseman described these ivory ornaments as “The Exploits of the Monster-quelling Hercules,” and said “there are eighteen small compartments, disposed in three rows.”

On the 18th of January every year this old heathen seat is “adored” by Papists on the “Feast of the Chair of St. Peter”; so the Pagan god Hercules receives homage annually by Rome’s dupes, exactly as foretold. These dupes are not aware that the ivory “Labours of Hercules” in this heathen seat are arranged in three rows of six emblems each, so that if one counts the lowest as six units, the next as tens, and the third as hundreds, one obtains the fatal “Number of the Beast”: 666. This Latin chair, therefore, is another link in the chain of evidence identifying “The Man of Sin”; for LATEINOS contains the “number of a man,” 666, in Greek numeral letters. LATEINOS was the founder of LATIUM, Rome’s original name, whilst Latin is the official tongue of the Papacy, and of no other system in the world masquerading as Christianity.

The late William Arthur (author of “The Pope, the Kings, and the People”)* in his “Italy in Transition,” described the self-exaltation of the Pope during “Holy Week,” as seen by himself.

*See also his “ The Pope, the Kings, end the Penile’ 72 pp. 271-307, chapter on “An Unequaled Pageant” It is terrifyingly blasphemous.

Here are his words: “After a while the whole of the nave is lined with Guards; first the Swiss Guards, in their harlequin dress, red and yellow and blue hanging in artistic stripes about them—every man as tall as a Horse Guard; then what are called the Palatin Guards. . . . Then the Noble Guards appear—that rare corps of eighty men, every man with a title, dressed nearly like our Horse Guards. At last the procession comes in, purple and scarlet, (Rev. xvii. 4) and muslin, and embroidered silk,(Rev. xviii. 12) gilded garments, robes of changing red and yellow, golden robes, robes of pure white, of violet, of lemon; white miters, colored miters, gilded miters; stars, ribbons and plumes; ecclesiastical, courtly, military adornments, flashing steel, clattering muskets; then borne aloft, two great fans of ostrich feathers, with a peacock feather eye upon the top of each; and then, in the air, the towering tiara, with its three circlets, one for the kingly office, another for the priestly, the third for the union of the priestly, kingly and imperial. It moves, above helmets, halberds and plumes, aloft toward the vault of the nave, gliding slowly along; over it a moving canopy of silk, borne on golden staves. . . the old hand holding itself out, and blessing with the two fingers. . . .”

That the whole of this pageantry is heathen anyone conversant with the question knows. Mr. Arthur recognized it at once. It is singular, however, how small points of identity crop up unexpectedly. In Dr. Cunningham Geike’s learned “The Holy Land and the Bible,” on page 27, is an engraving of the Fish-God, Dagon, from a bas-relief at Khorsabad. It shows a man whose lower extremities are fish-like. On his head is a tiara—and his right arm is extended, like the Pope’s, in the act of blessing. This attitude is invariably adopted by Popes when publicly and officially “blessing.” “As if,” Mr. Arthur remarks, “there were some mystic power in the motion, and a moment must not be lost in conferring the benefits of it upon all around.” It is the attitude of fraudulent Divinity, “showing by acts that he is God “—for who can “bless,” but God?

Mr. Arthur says: “The portative (portable) throne is a magnificent chair set upon a litter, such as a high priest in India may sometimes be seen borne upon by his disciples . . .; and then at last you see, under this moving pageant, eight men, clothed in deep crimson, bearers of the Vice-God. The gliding canopy, the flashing crown, the smiling face, the thrice gorgeous robes, the rich chair, the moving litter, the crimson men, the golden poles, the prostrate helmets and plumes, the flash, flash, flash of steel; the curious, or scrutinizing, or shocked, or half-adoring glances of so many eyes; altogether, it is a wonderful scene! What is meant by the ceremony? “The procession represents the Apostles and Disciples passing into Galilee to meet the Savior; but with still higher meaning, the King of Glory proceeding with the assembly of ransomed spirits from Hades into the realms of bliss . . .” (see “Lent and the Holy Week in Rome,” by C. J. Hemans, p. 163). The Pope is acting the “King of Glory entering Paradise”! “showing himself by acts as God,” as foretold.*

*As the true Christ is God therefore the Vice-Christ claims to be God. In the Canon Law the Pope is also called God (Decretum Gregorii XIII. Distine 96 Car 7): and also “Lord and God” (Decretales Gregorii IX. Tit 7). Innocent III., in his Decretals, said of the Pope: “God because be is God’s Vicar.” The Sacrum Ceremoniale says: “The Apostolic Chair is the Seat of God.” Benedict XIII was styled “Vice-God” The Canon Law and Decretals are styled by Papal writers the Pope’s “Oracle.”

Mr. Hemans gives the following explanation of the two Peacock Fans or Flabelli: “The mystic import attached to them is, that as the eyes of peacocks’ feathers are set in the ostrich plumes, vigilance as of many eyes is required from the Pontiff, that he may ever watch for the good of the Catholic Commonwealth. . . .” (Arthur, p. 372).

Here, then, is the fulfillment of another item in the prophetic delineation of the Antichrist, for, in Daniel vii. 8, he is described as having “eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things,” i.e., as an EPISKOPOS, or Overseer, over the ten-horned or “Catholic ” Commonwealth or Latino-Roman Power.

As to the import of the throne, the same authority says: “In this ELEVATION of the Person of the Pontiff is implied that the Vicar of Christ is the Center to which the eyes of the faithful should turn, as to a Beacon-Light on high, for their guidance and consolation!”

What awful blasphemy! “Showing himself by act as God.”

Here is more self-exaltation, mingled with blasphemy: “After the Pope has gone back to his throne, the host and the chalice are solemnly carried down from the altar along the floor, then up the steps of the throne. Here he is seated in the temple of God—he above it, it below; his crown at this moment upon the altar, his enthroned person higher than the sacrament. While others kneel and prostrate themselves to receive it, it is handed to him seated upon his throne. Seated, he takes the host; seated, the chalice from men upon their knees; . . . Consecrated particles are presented to him by kneeling men, and he distributes them from that throne to the angels in white, and red, and gold, and purple, and embroidery, and they again to those who are kneeling around him After this, the Pontiff again puts on the triple crown, again seats himself on the portative throne, and the chief Priest of St. Peter’s presents him with a purse of white velvet, containing the fee for saying Mass” (Arthur, p. 370) Remember that the “throne” referred to is above what Papists call “the altar of God.”

It is on this that are laid the diadems of the Pope; it is on this that the Pope performs Mass—pretending to create God out of a wafer; it is above this that the Pope sits on his “throne”—conveying to the looker-on the idea of God on earth.

Add to this self-exaltation the appalling ceremonial of the “Adoration of the Pope,” as given in Picart, where he is “adored” no less than five times in succession by cardinals in red and in purple, the first time when seated on his “portative throne” before “the altar”; the second time when seated om “the altar”; the third time when seated on “the great altar”—cardinals kissing his foot and right hand, followed by foreign ambassadors; the fourth time when seated in a “throne” under the portico; the fifth time when seated on his usual “throne”—where all the cardinals “adore” him, along with all the clergy; add to this the disgusting way in which the head Cardinal-Deacon and other cardinals kiss the Pope’s stomach, whilst patriarchs, archbishops and bishops kiss his foot and knee, and abbots and penitentiaries kiss his knee only; and we reach a state of super-human self-exaltation as derogatory to man as it is insulting to God in whose name it is all done. It is “against all that is called God.” Remember, that to Papists the Pyx (a small round container used to carry the Eucharist) contains “il buon Dio”—the good God— that it usually stands on the high altar of St. Peter’s, the very place on which the Pope seats himself to be “adored”; and is only removed to allow him to occupy its place, and is then generally put on the floor out of the way. So that literally the Pope exalts himself “above all that is (by Papists) called God”; and this in more senses than one—for the Catechism of the Council of Trent declares that “bishops and priests are rightly called Gods.”

When you remember where the Pope is seated, how he is adored, and what it all represents, do you not recognize the “Man of Sin” showing himself that he is God, and exalting himself “above all that is called god,” as well as “against”?

Dr. Ward Beecher, in “Papal Conspiracy Exposed” (p. 317), said: “It has kept no terms with humanity; humanity should keep no terms with it. It has kept no terms with God; and God will assuredly keep no terms with it. It has impiously usurped His place on earth. All common blasphemy disappears and is forgotten in comparison with the blasphemy of the Popes and their insensate worshipers. They have not only claimed power as God, but above God, and against God; and let the nations be assured that he will not hold them guiltless for ever. The day of His judgment hastens; it is at hand!”

The Romish Vulgate of Pope Sixtus V. and Clement VIII. has: “who opposeth and is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is reverenced (colitur), so that he sitteth in the Temple of God, showing himself as if he were God.” “Lifted up” is “extollitur.”

As a fact, the Pope is lifted up in the Sedia Gestatoria, above all bishops and priests, who, by the Catechism of the Council of Trent, are “called gods.”

It is also a fact that the wafer is called “God” by the Council of Trent, and by all Papists, and to it is the worship Latria rendered (Session XIII, Canons I. and VI., and chapters i. and v.).

It is also a fact that the Pope is “lifted up”* above the wafer God on the “altar.” and when thus seated, the Pyx is on the floor below him.

It is also a fact that the official Petrine Throne of the Pope in St. Peter’s is high above the “altar” in the Tribune.

Hence 2 Thess ii. 4 is literally fulfilled in three physical ways by the Popes of Rome, in addition to several spiritual ways.

* In his “Temporal Power,” P. 50, Cardinal Manning wrote: “He was ELEVATED to be in his Divine Master’s name, King of Kings, and Lord of Lord’s.

Continued in The Antichrist: His Portrait and History – Appendix D. Rev. XIII. 16-18 Fulfilled