This is the continuation of the series, Antichrist And His Ten Kingdoms – By Albert Close and previous post, Revelation 17 – The Prophetic Portrait of the Church of Rome.

Futurists and Praeterists also overlook the fact that the Antichrist is not to be an open and avowed antagonist of Christ, but one professing to be a Vice Christ, a rival Christ; one who would assume the character, occupy in the human heart the place, and fulfill the functions of Christ. He was to be a “Mystery of Iniquity”—i.e., professing to be Divine, but really Satanic; the devil as an angel of light. He is further described by St. Paul as “the son of perdition;” and this name was applied by our Lord, to an apostate disciple, who professed to be a friend— Judas Iscariot. Further, this “son of perdition” was to be consumed by the Spirit of the Lord’s mouth. Christ said, “The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit” (John 6:63). The Papacy has been gradually consumed ever since the Reformation by the Spirit of the Lord’s mouth— ie., the Word of God. These key-words would lead us to expect in this Antichrist a Judas character; one professing discipleship, but really a foe and usurper. 2 Thess. 2:3—5. Note how perfectly the words of the present Pope, Benedict XV. (pope 1914-1922), agree with St. Paul’s description of the Antichrist. He professed to be neutral in the Great War (World War I), yet all the time was working for the overthrow of Britain and the Allies.

The Catholique National for July 13th, 1895, quotes the following words then recently uttered by Pope Pius X when Archbishop of Venice.

“The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ Himself hidden under the veil of the flesh. Does the Pope speak? It is Jesus Christ who speaks. Does the Pope accord a favor or pronounce an anathema? It is Jesus Christ who pronounces the anathema or accords the favor. So that when the Pope speaks we have no business to examine. We have only to obey. We have no right to criticize his decisions or discuss his commands. Therefore, everyone who would wear the crown ought to submit himself to Divine Right.”

The following description of the Pope as God is given by the late “Mother” Margaret Mary Hallahan:

“When I heard him sing Mass I cannot express what I felt: it was the God of earth prostrate in adoration before the God of heaven!!”—Life of Mother Margaret Mary Hallahan, p. 430.

The Great Harlot on the Seven Hills

The “futurist” interpretation, invented by the Jesuit Ribera, about 1585, does not distinguish between the dominion of the fourth beast and the body of the same. Hence they are looking for a literal Antichrist and his ten kingdoms in the future. The prophecy clearly makes the distinction, which Ribera and his followers have overlooked. See Dan. 7:19-20,

It was out of the head of the fourth or Roman beast that Daniel in his vision saw the ten horns projecting. See Dan. 7:19, 20. It was also the body of the fourth beast which he saw “destroyed and given to the burning flame.’ Dan. 7:11. This fate apparently awaits Western Europe. The future only can reveal all that Revelation 18 means to Papal Europe.

Britain was the first of these kingdoms to abrogate the Papal supremacy over the king or government of the country in 1534 A.D. Italy was the last, in 1870 A.D., when the Papal Temporal Power fell. They took away the DOMINION of the “Little Horn,” or short stout horn, as predicted in Dan. 7:8,20—26. The Papal horn was “little” because its territories—”the States of the Church”—were smallest of all; it was “STOUT” and great because for centuries it dominated all of the others.

Germany promised the Pope and Jesuits to restore this Temporal Power if they would support her in the Great War of 1914-18. This was the reason for the Pope’s silence over Germany’s crimes.

THE PURPLE AND SCARLET ROBES OF THE BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH OF ROME.

Revelation 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

Purple and scarlet are the official colors of the bishops and cardinals of the Church of Rome. The author visited St. Peter’s Church, Rome, in order to see for himself. True to this prediction, the officiating prelates were robed in purple, scarlet, and cloth of gold. This can also be seen at any important Roman Catholic service.

The Church of Rome decks her bishops and cardinals and principal images with gold and jewels. The Bambino or image of the infant Christ in Rome, for example, is loaded with jewels.

ROME’S TWO REMARKABLE MEDALS.

Pope Innocent XI. in 1680 struck a medal representing the Church of Rome as a woman, standing at Rome, extending to the nations of the earth in her right hand a cup containing her sacrament, the Host.

In 1825 Pope Leo XII. struck another representing the Church of Rome as a woman seated on the water covered globe extending the same cup of abominations to the nations. These medals may both be seen in the British Museum and in the Vatican, Rome.

The Spirit of God foresaw that this Church would employ these symbols, and revealed it to St. John over 1800 years ago. “Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee.”

The irradiating rays of light shooting from the cup symbolize the central doctrine of the Church of Rome—the pretended “real presence of Christ” in the sacrament of that church. The Spirit of God in this verse emphatically pronounces the contents of the cup Rome offers, “an abomination,” and not a sacrament. Here, therefore, we have what God thinks of the doctrine of transubstantiation—it is an abomination!

WHY THE CHURCH OF ROME IS CALLED “BABYLON.”

Revelation 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Ancient Babylon was the chief seat of idolatry of the East. Rome has been and still is the chief seat of idolatry of the West. Babylon was the chief seat of idolatry under the Old Testament. Rome is the chief seat under the New.

Most of the strange doctrines, practices, rites, ceremonies and titles of the Church of Rome which have no place in the New Testament, and form no part of the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles, have been borrowed from the ancient heathen Babylonish religion, the chief seat of which was at the city of Pergamos in St. John’s day (See Rev. 2:12—14), These have been tinted and varnished with Christian names and titles. This has been clearly demonstrated by Hislop in his magnificent book The Two Babylons. This fact explains why the figure “Babylon” has been employed by the Spirit of God to prefigure Papal Rome.

THE OLD BABYLONISH RITES AND TITLES ADOPTED BY THE CHURCH OF ROME.

Another important identification of the Church of Rome with “BABYLON,” is the fact that the High Priest of the old Babylonish religion was the original Pontifex Maximus. When Xerxes the Persian conquered Babylon, B.C. 487, the Babylonian priests were expelled. They removed, and settled in the Western city of Pergamos, in Asia Minor, where they fixed their Central College. The last Pontifex Maximus of the original Babylonian priests, King Attalus III, Pontiff-king of Pergamos, bequeathed the title and his dominions to the Romans, B.C. 188.(See Hislop’s The Two Babylons.) Julius Cesar accepted the title about B.C. 68,and the Roman Emperor from that time was Pontifex Maximus, up to the year A.D. 375, when the Emperor Gratian renounced it, and the Bishop of Rome took it up, and, to the present time styles himself Pontifex Maximus, as will be seen by examining the St. Bartholomew medal.

Here, therefore, we have a direct connection between the ancient heathen Babylonish religion and the Church of Rome, which has adopted the Babylonian rites and titles.

In the light of these facts, the meaning and force of those remarkable words in the message to the Church at Pergamos is very striking.

Revelation 2:13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

“Even where Satan’s seat is,” i.e., the headquarters of the chief counterfeit religion inspired by Satan. Doubtless the priests of the Babylonian cult practiced their rites in the city of Pergamos at the time of St. John’s vision, although the Roman Emperor, who was their High Priest, and Pontifex Maximus for the time being, resided at Rome.

When the Emperor Gratian gave up the title of Pontifex Maximus, A.D. 375, and the Pope took it, he became the High Priest of a heathen Babylonish religion, whilst professing to be a bishop of the Christian Church.

Many heathen festivals and practices were also adopted by the Church of Rome, at that period of the world’s and church’s history. It is doubtless because of all the striking analogies which exist between ancient Babylon and Papal Rome, and also because the Pope is the successor of the original Babylonish High Priest, and Pontifex Maximus, that the title “ Babylon the Great” has been employed by the Spirit of God to prefigure the Church of Rome.

HIGH CHURCHES, ROME’S DAUGHTER CHURCHES,

This prophecy implies that of all the apostate and idolatrous religions, or churches on the earth which would be an abomination unto the Lord, the Church of Rome would be the chief or “mother” abomination.

The Church of Rome undoubtedly is the Mother or chief idolatrous system of this dispensation. This prophecy implies that she has daughter churches also, such as the High Church of both England and Scotland, the clergy of which celebrate Mass, hear confessions, burn incense, creep to and adore the cross. offer up prayers for the dead, and conduct their services arrayed in the millinery, robes and colors of Rome. Most of Rome’s “converts” come from these churches after having first tampered with her Babylonish practices, ritual, ceremonies, and wine, and thus first been made drunk, or in other words, robbed of their sober senses, and made incapable of distinguishing between truth and error. This explains why otherwise well balanced and scholarly men are ensnared at times by this “Church;” as the Scriptures affirm, she makes them drunk. This is no mere empty figure of speech. What other condition of heart or mind could lead intelligent and even scholarly men to believe and propagate so vehemently the doctrine of the pretended Real Presence of Christ in the bread and wine after so called consecration? The secret of it all is, that there is a mighty deceiving satanic spirit behind this doctrine which drowns the reason. This explains why men are so mightily gripped by this strange idolatrous doctrine.

The St. Bartholomew Medal, struck by Pope Gregory XIII. in 1572 to commemorate the massacre of the French Huguenots. Note, the blood-drunken slayer holds the crucifix in one hand and the drawn sword in the other.

THE PAPAL PERSECUTIONS FORETOLD.

Revelation 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration (wonder).

The group on the medal consists of six figures; two are dead warriors, the third is dying, the fourth trying to escape; a woman in the background is holding up her hands in horror, and a figure draped as a priest is looking on.

The Church of Rome has shed more blood than any other religious system which has ever existed. (See Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.) In 1572 Pope Gregory XIII. struck the medal shown to commemorate the slaughter of the Huguenots in France. This medal represents the Church of Rome as an avenging angel slaying the “Heretics,” offering them the alternative of the crucifix or the sword. In the one hand she extends the crucifix, and in the other presents the only alternative—the sword; the dead lie all round at the feet of the blood-drunken slayer. This medal may be seen in the British Museum—struck by Pope Gregory XIII.!

THE DIVINE INTERPRETATION.

Revelation 17:7  And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
8  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

In verses 7—15 the revealing angel explains and interprets this vision.

In verses 7 and 8 he explains that Pagan Rome is to be succeeded by a form of Roman power which will originate in the bottomless pit, i.e., be inspired by Satan.

The Papacy undoubtedly has been, and still is, a supremely wicked power which has been inspired from beneath and not from above.

The fact that every nation over which Papal Rome has held sway has been blighted and cursed confirms this conclusion.

The fall of the Western Empire left the Bishop of Rome free at the same hour to claim independent sovereignty, in common with the ten kingdoms which rose out of the ruins. They both were thus given sovereign power at the same time as predicted.

(Continued in A Description of the Great Whore of Revelation Chapter 17.)

All sections of Antichrist And His Ten Kingdoms by Albert Close