When a Good Man becomes a God Man, Doug Krieger, pope, apostasy, ecumenism

“And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. And he performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of

heaven to the earth in the presence of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. And there was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast might even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead, and he provides that no one should be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding, calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six” (Revelation 13:11-18).

The past several weeks have witnessed the adulation, adoration, and funeral extravaganza orchestrated by the hierarchy, viz., the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church, on behalf of Pope John Paul II. Indeed, it represents the world’s ecumenical capstone to the life and legacy of this one entitled the “Supreme Pontiff.”

The funeral was attended by 5 kings, 6 queens, 28 prime ministers, 53 presidents, countless dignitaries and religious leaders.

“The late Pope had made 'Christian Unity', healing the sometimes-bitter ties with the non-Catholic Christian world, a central tenet of his Papacy. The results of those efforts were clearly displayed in the very sincere and heart-felt sorrow that colored the faces of the array of Orthodox, Coptic, Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist and sundry other church leaders and delegates in attendance.” (Anthony Smith, 8 April 05, Tiscali.europe)

Numerous editorialists and historians are calling the funeral the largest in history; while the press speculates the impact of the man and the Church he represents, to wit:

“With the experience of two millennia, the Catholic Church is a past master at ceremony. But no-one could have predicted the extraordinary way in which the funeral of Pope John Paul II dominated the attention of the whole world. It is not just the millions of Catholic faithful who have poured through St Peter’s Square. Or even the global billions watching on television. Over 200 of the world’s leading statesmen, including George W. Bush and two former American presidents, dropped everything to attend the Pope’s internment. What does this extraordinary event signify?

“In the last generation, the historic divisions inside Christianity have suddenly weakened, in self-defense against the increasing secularization of western culture. Even the fundamentalist evangelical sects in the United States find themselves making common cause with the Catholic Church - America’s biggest denomination - against abortion rights. As a result of this melting of the sectarian divisions, Rome is again recovering its status as de facto leader of the Christian world.” (April 9, 2005, Scottsman.com - Pope's funeral a reminder that institutions can be revived)

Pope John Paul II is most noteworthy in championing the cause of human rights, tearing down the iron curtain of communism in Europe, traveling to some 129 nations, and in spite of former President Clinton’s “mixed legacy” left by Pope John Paul II, has been, and will be considered, one of the greatest popes of all time. No wonder that the millions gathered at St. Peter’s squares and adjoining promenades and porticos chanted in unison SANTO SUBITO – “Immediate Sainthood” for Pope John Paul II, THE GREAT!

In contrast to Clinton’s remarks, President Bush heralded the praises of Pope John Paul II, to wit:

“I think John Paul II will have a clear legacy of peace, compassion and a strong legacy of setting a clear moral tone," Bush said, later asking reporters to amend his remarks to insert "excellent" to describe the legacy.” (April 10, 2005, Seattle Times)

The world and US media committed excessive coverage of the Pope’s death and funeral proceedings juxtaposed to that of the Presidential race (ten times more coverage); likewise, this coverage was at the expense of a great deal of significant issues and news throughout the planet of 6 billion souls.

The veneration and nearly four hour funeral of this mortal man, whose claim as the Vicar of Christ (i.e., “holding the delegated authority of Christ on earth”), was perhaps the most ostentatious display of grandiose religiosity ever portrayed, and certainly, ever-conveyed to the world as a result of Twenty-first Century technological advancements.

The Catholic world, yea, the world in general, was transfixed upon this man, his legacy, and the Roman Church’s pomp and circumstance for days on end—let alone the spectacled of choosing a new Pope. Indeed, leading American evangelicals as a result of this Pope’s 1995 encyclical, “Ut Unum Sint” (That All May Be One) became the hallmark of his papacy for Protestants who yearn for “unity” and moral clarity against the encroachments of secularism and relativism sweeping the West, especially the European West.

Here was one whose title as Pontiff (“The Bridge”) demonstrated Rome’s determination to gather her wandering chicks beneath her wings; and, even sought to unite the world’s disparate religions under Rome’s ecumenical umbrella, alleging that diversity of faith could be tolerated and understood in the context of the Lord’s high priestly prayer found in John 17. Listen to John Paul II’s convincing exhortations:

“With the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Lord's disciples, inspired by love, by the power of the truth and by a sincere desire for mutual forgiveness and reconciliation, are called to re-examine together their painful past and the hurt which that past regrettably continues to provoke even today. All together, they are invited by the ever fresh power of the Gospel to acknowledge with sincere and total objectivity the mistakes made and the contingent factors at work at the origins of their deplorable divisions. What is needed is a calm, clear-sighted and truthful vision of things, a vision enlivened by divine mercy and capable of freeing people's minds and of inspiring in everyone a renewed willingness, precisely with a view to proclaiming the Gospel to the men and women of every people and nation.” (Ut Unum Sint)

“When I say that for me, as Bishop of Rome, the ecumenical task is ‘one of the pastoral priorities’ of my Pontificate, I think of the grave obstacle which the lack of unity represents for the proclamation of the Gospel. A Christian Community which believes in Christ and desires, with Gospel fervor, the salvation of mankind can hardly be closed to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, who leads all Christians towards full and visible unity. Here an imperative of charity is in question, an imperative which admits of no exception. Ecumenism is not only an internal question of the Christian Communities. It is a matter of the love which God has in Jesus Christ for all humanity; to stand in the way of this love is an offence against him and against his plan to gather all people in Christ. As Pope Paul VI wrote to the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I: ‘May the Holy Spirit guide us along the way of reconciliation, so that the unity of our Churches may become an ever more radiant sign of hope and consolation for all mankind.’” (My Emphasis)

I present this material to demonstrate the intensity and the irrevocable commitment that the Roman Catholic Church, through the efforts of Pope John Paul II, has toward the ultimate “unity” of all believers who claim the Christian label and towards the “outward manifestation of the Kingdom of God” here on earth.

Thus, the death of Pope John Paul II, and his drive to unite the world’s religions (especially the “Christian religion”) could be summed up in these remarks:

“John Paul II ushered in ‘the globalization of religion,’ said John Esposito, founding director of the Georgetown University Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in Washington. ‘He increased exponentially the dialogue with . . . people of all faiths.’” (Louis Meixler, the Buffalo News, April 8, 2005, Unprecedented Number of Faiths Drawn to Funeral)

Thus, before us this past week was the death and burial of the world’s greatest religious proponent of ecumenism—ecumenism on a scale heretofore unknown within the confines of Christendom and the greater religious communities of the planet. His universal, Catholic legacy abides . . . the perpetuation on behalf of “manifested Christian unity” and the embrace of all who affirm faith—even outside the bounds of Christianity!

“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith (i.e., “Apostatize”), paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth” (I Timothy 4:1-3).

We initiated this conversation by quoting passages from the Revelation, (Chapter 13:11-18). The Apostle John transcribed the Revelation within the context of the Roman world and of his banishment to the Isle of Patmos:

“I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos, because of the world of God and the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 1:9).

The introduction of the Beast, that great end of days’ political leader known by John in his initial outburst as “the Antichrist is coming” (I John 2:18) or as that Antichrist who’s “already in the world” for “every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God” (I John 4:2-3), makes its initial “Revelatory” appearance in Revelation 11:7 as the “beast that comes up out of the abyss (who) will make war with them (viz. the Two Witnesses), and overcome them and kill them.”

Likewise, the Beasts’ elaboration is defined anew by John in Revelation 13:1-10, only after the source of evil, the Dragon (i.e., “the Devil”) is “cast out of heaven” and wherein John announces: “Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time” (Rev. 12:12). Immediately, what is read in Revelation 11:7 is rehearsed again in strikingly similar but cosmic in time tones which bespeak of his earthly manifestation after the crucifixion of the Man Child, Jesus:

“And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman, who gave birth to the male (man) child” (Revelation 12:13).

However, the time sequence is set within the prophetic Woman of Revelation 12 and commences after the ascension of Christ. It is the view of this observer, and of numerous commentators, that “The Woman” is herself the embodiment of the Image of Christ, the reflection of Messiah, and of all those who by faith comprise the people of God throughout all generations from the initial Woman, Eve, down through the ages, including Israel and the believing Church. However, her persecution strongly suggests the remnant of Israel in the “end of days”—yet, simultaneously, one simply cannot exclude those followers of the Lamb, for we read:

“And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God (i.e. Israel) and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (i.e. the Church).

It is further substantiated that “The Woman” is the composite Bride of Messiah and that she is in counter distinction of the anti-type, or the Image of the Beast (i.e., the “collective reflection” of Satan himself juxtaposed to the Image of Christ, the Church):

“Come, I will show you the woman, the Lamb’s wife . . . and he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel . . . now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Revelation 21:9-14, portions).

The “names of the twelve tribes of Israel” and the “names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” and their connection to the Holy City, Jerusalem, the Woman, the Lamb’s wife, provides ample evidence that “The Woman” is the same “Woman” of both Testaments and of the pre-Noaic earth.

Firstly, the point to be made here is that this Woman in Revelation 12 is not Mary, the mother of Jesus (though she is most assuredly part of that Woman of Revelation 12), but constitutes the Image of Christ Himself, His reflection, those who are being transformed into the “same Image” from one “stage of glory to another.”

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face (unlike that of Moses; II Cor. 3:13-16), beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same IMAGE from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Cor. 3:17-18).

Here the elusion to the Image of Christ, the Bride of Christ, is made . . . for there cannot be but one Image reflective of Christ Himself and that must be the Bride of Christ herself!

Thence, we have established the clash of two images: The Image of the Beast and the Image of Christ. The Image of the Beast is, therefore, a composite of all those who have received the “Mark of the Beast” . . . whereas the Image of Christ is comprised of all those who have been “Marked Out” and/or who have received the earnest of the Spirit of God (cf. II Corinthians 5:5; Romans 8:23).

It is, however, the “religious component” which highlights the “ministry” of the Second Beast to affect the Image of the Beast. It is he who commends and empowers the last day’s apostasy wherein it is said: “In the later days some will apostatize.” As the Holy Spirit administrates (i.e., “ministry”) transforming empowerment to “build” and/or unite believers into the One Body, the Church, the Bride of Christ; even so, the “ministry” of the Second Beast, the “False Prophet” seen in Revelation 13:11-18 will empower all those who receive the Mark of the Beast and “transform” them into the “One Body of the Beast” . . . . viz., the Image of the Beast:

“Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their

foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.”

Furthermore, the ministry of the Second Beast/False Prophet fixates upon the “worship of the Beast” (Revelation 13:12; “ . . . and those who dwell in it (the earth) to worship the first beast . . .”); but goes beyond the immediate worship of the Beast and proceeds to empower the Image of the Beast by mimicking the ministry of the Holy Spirit (i.e., the Holy Breath) by breathing into the Image of the Beast so that the Image of the Beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast to be killed (Revelation 13:15).

We will come back to this amazing counterfeit ministry of the Holy Spirit and of the Image of the Beast and, specifically, of the “Worship of the Image of the Beast.” Suffice to say at this point that the religious connotation throughout Revelation 13 is overt, commencing in the worship of the “dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?’” (Revelation 13:3 and 4).

The Dragon and the Beast are clearly the antitypes of both God the Father (the great dragon . . . that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan), and of the Resurrected Christ (“Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast” (Revelation 13:2-3)).

Thus, the Dragon and the Beast, claim the divine prerogative of worship. The adoration, adulation, veneration, and ultimate praise residing in all that worship commands and implores, through divine revelation, is reserved throughout the universe to the One and only true God—yet, the Usurper would “be like the Most High” and “ascend to His Throne” . . . and in so doing, and willing, he has had but one singular design, one universal corruption of the “thing made” who with blatant audacity commands even the Son of Man to bow down and worship him!

“And he (Satan) said to Him (Jesus), ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me’” (Matthew 4:9).

Absurd? As the Son of Man, He was tempted in all points like as we, yet without sin. Man’s propensity to be seduced to worship the one who showed our Lord “all the kingdoms of the world” knows full well that the intoxicant of power politics mixed with religious fervor presents a deadly potion from whence few have found a saving anecdote.

Indeed, is it so strange that Gentile World Powers, which bespeak the depth of Satanic deception, would constitute the final appeal of the Wicked One in our Lord’s temptation . . . “and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” (Matthew 4:8)?

But, this “Light Bearer” whose original creation led in the very worship of the Almighty; but, alas . . . how are the mighty fallen!

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High,’ yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit” (Isaiah 14:12-15).

Alas! The “son of the morning” . . . the “day star” has become the Prince of Darkness who longs for humanity and all the angelic hosts to worship and serve himself!

The apocalyptic theme of worship and the battle for, if you would, “Worship’s heart and soul,” is so pervasive throughout John’s depictions that mortal man—the battlefield of worship—either becomes one in the worship of either the Beast or the Lamb: There is no middle ground!

Yet, what we have in Revelation 13 is clearly three distinct declinations—a “trinity of deception” and false worship: Worship of the Dragon, the Beast, and the Image of the Beast (i.e., the “ministry of the False Prophet” and, thus, de facto, the worship of the Second Beast).

Man’s quest to worship and serve either the Creator or the creature pervades human history; yet, its most insidious counterfeit is to ascribe “divine quality to human fallibility” . . . to wit:

“And Barnabas they called Jupiter, and Paul Mercury, because he was the chief speaker (this, after Barnabas and Paul declared the healing of the lame man in Lystra who, in fact, was healed: “He leaped and walked” . . . Acts 14:10). Here, two godly men were immediately venerated and proclaimed, if you would, “saints” by the “worshipers of Jupiter and Mercury.” Note:

“Then the priest of Zeus (Jupiter), whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes (i.e., on behalf of Barnabas and Paul). But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, ‘Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.’ And with these sayings they could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing (Note: “sacrificing” meant “worship” to these people.) to them” (Acts 14:13-18).

“They could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing” or “worshiping” them! What is witnessed here is unfettered, unrestrained, yet misplaced sacrifice and worship by mortal men ascribed to the same fallible mortals as themselves! Barnabas and Paul demonstrated their disgust toward such obeisance by violent renunciation of such sacrifice and worship in tearing their garments and declaring their fallibility in no uncertain terms . . . eventually, the same adoring but shallow crowd of worshipers turned in anger and hate toward Barnabas and Paul (Acts 14:19-20). How fickle is mortal man’s worship of temporal flesh! How blind is the direction of their superficial adulation!

Miracles, seemingly wrought by the Last Day’s wonder worker, the Second Beast, are a heady intoxicant:

“And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast” (Revelation 13:14a).

As we examine Revelation 13 in depth, it becomes increasingly apparent that Revelation 13:1-10 constitutes the political aspect of the Dragon’s manifestation on the earth during the Last Days through the Beast. Gentile World Powers, the so-called “secular state,” is in view, especially, the allusions to the beastly characteristics of his empire:

“Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion” (Revelation 13:2).

This passage mirrors that of Daniel’s ghastly descriptions of the fourth beast in Daniel 7:7, 19, 23-25 and confirms the progression of Gentile Powers (Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece) culminating in Rome’s Empire during the time of John’s exile. The “lion” is that of Babylon’s source; the “bear” is that of Persia; and the Leopard is that of Greece; whereas the “Fourth Beast” is that of Rome, a composite of the other three.

These Gentile World Power descriptions recorded in Daniel’s account are transferred to John’s Apocalypse, to wit:

“Now the beast I saw, was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion” (Revelation 13:2).

Thus, the amalgamation of this beastly creature is replicated in the Revelation. There is absolutely no doubt, given the context of Daniel’s experience in Babylon, that the ancient prophet’s descriptions are political in nature; thus, those of John are likewise descriptions relative to the evolution of Gentile World Power at the end of days.

The latter part of Revelation 13 (vs. 11 through 18) demarcates the chapter and introduces the intensity of false worship of the beast; however, the worship is twofold, when the “worship of the Image of the Beast” arises on an equal footing with the worship of the Beast!

It is of historic significance that Protestantism, especially from the declarations of Martin Luther, that their interpretation of these portions of the Apocalypse was the religious purview and patrimony of the Holy See. The Pope was clearly identified by Luther as the Antichrist; the Beast and the Second Beast were but the religious extension of his “ministry.” And, although Luther’s deprecation of John’s Revelation was somewhat mystifying, the book and its symbolism continued to consume him throughout his later ministry—perhaps the threat of Papal sanctions intensified his interest in the exile’s writings . . .

“When Martin Luther first translated and published the New Testament, he thought that Revelation should not have the same status or authority as the gospels or the letters of Paul or Peter. And so he put it at the end, but he didn’t number it. He didn’t put a ‘saint’ in front of [John's] name. He thought it was an edifying book, but not of the same status. But what’s interesting, even though he felt that way, it’s the one book that he illustrated, where he put woodcuts, because Revelation allowed him to make one of his central points, which was that the papacy was the Antichrist (my emphasis), and the end of the world was coming. And so there you see the only woodcuts in the New Testament. You see the whore of Babylon wearing a papal crown. You see the seven-headed beast wearing a papal crown. The message was clear. You didn’t have to read (as most people didn’t). You got the message. The papacy, the papal office—not the individual popes but the papal Church—was where Satan was working to undermine Christendom. And the fact that Satan was there meant the world was coming to an end soon. ...”

“Luther came to think of the pope as the Antichrist because, first, of what the general tradition was about where to find the Antichrist. The Antichrist was someone subverting the Church from within. That was the expectation popularly. And when he saw the papal office and read the histories and saw it subverting the gospel as he understood it, he became convinced that that was the proof that the papal office was the office of the Antichrist, trying to destroy God's church from within.

“The pope claimed to be Christ's representative on earth. Luther became convinced that the pope was the devil’s representative on earth. And that took graphic form very early in the Reformation ... with one of the most effective pieces of propaganda in the early Reformation: a series of 26 woodcuts that juxtaposed some action in Christ’s life with something in the papacy. Christ carrying his cross to be crucified; the pope being carried in his throne on the backs of people ... . Christ washing the feet of the disciples; the pope having his feet kissed. And over and over again, scenes from Christ’s life juxtaposed with scenes from the papacy. ... Christ was always humble and serving; the papacy, the pope was always lordly and [lording] over others. Christ is Christ; the pope is Antichrist.

“At the end of his life, Martin Luther decided he had to issue his final testament against all the enemies of the gospel. And he published treatises, he encouraged people, but words were not sufficient. He also had to use images. And so he asked his friend, the painter Lucas Cranach, to do a series of woodcuts, and Luther wrote the verses for them. And these woodcuts were designed to show as graphically as possible, to those who could read and those who couldn’t, what Luther thought of the papacy. So for example, there’s a woodcut which shows the pope on his throne and peasants with their tongues out, their trousers down, farting in the pope’s face. Another one shows the pope riding an ass, holding a pile of dung in his hands, saying ‘The pope is offering a counsel.’ And another that shows the German emperor lying on the ground with the pope with his foot on the emperor’s neck, which shows, once again graphically, Luther’s belief that the papacy was trying to control secular authority throughout the world. These were all actions of the Antichrist, and Luther wanted to make it clear what he thought of the pope. ...


		Woodcuts comparing Christ and antichrist

These were the pictures of a very angry man, who saw himself as a soldier in that final climactic battle at the end of the world. And he had to strike with every means at his disposal. If he pulled back at all, he was like a soldier in a battle between light and darkness, who withheld his punches. And so Luther did not hold back. He went with all that he had, attacking Satan and the Antichrist before he died. ...”

(Mark Edwards, Frontline; (Edwards serves as President of St. Olaf College and has written many books and articles on Martin Luther.)

Though Luther, and those who followed in his train of eschatology—the Historicists—were and have, since the Reformation, been mesmerized on this prophetic theme of the Pope’s occupation of both the seat and personage of the Antichrist, their hermeneutics are, nevertheless, partially correct. The entire chapter of Revelation 13, according to these pundits, portrays the on-going saga of Antichrist, the Beast, and the Second Beast in a sort of “trinity of evil” domiciled in the Roman Church and her hierarchy. The dominance of the religious over the civil is and was so pronounced by these early Historicists that to think of the Romish World, one found the Holy See intrinsically united to the political machinations of the day. Indeed, using and abusing the secular authorities at their whim!

The heresy trial of Joan of Arc, a case in point, portrays the Inquisitor and councils as religious prosecutors who, after the conviction of her heresy, leaned upon the civil authorities of Brittany to light the byre which incinerated the life of the young maiden of Orleans. Notwithstanding the appearance of piety maintained by church authorities . . . be it ever so clear, it was they who terminated the one who heard from St. Catherine!

Sir Isaac Newton, himself an avowed Historicist, exceedingly legitimized the Historicists’ exposure of the Papacy of such an evil occupancy; furthermore, scores of the world’s foremost evangelicals, like Charles Haddon Spurgeon, embraced the Historicists’ conjectures. Today, the likes of Dave Hunt espouse the totality of Mystery Babylon found in Revelation 17 through 19 as the Papal Throne par excellence.

Notwithstanding the Papacy’s arrogant claims to earthly power and her glaring subscription as the only religious institution upon which diplomatic credibility abides, as if it were a temporal kingdom like all other kingdoms upon the globe, she, nevertheless, is NOT the Antichrist! Her political proclivities, though they are legion, do not compare to the political powers who engaged her crafty ways throughout the centuries.

Luther’s support for the German princes, in the midst of Papal supremacy in matters political, eventually separated the Papal Throne from the Imperial Thrones of Europe, at least in what became “Protestant Lands.” Napoleon, however, wrought a most devastating “wound” to Papal aspirations of temporal rule and reign when the Emperor sequestered Pope Pius VII at Fontainebleau, refusing him entrance to Rome and his “priestly” duties.

John’s amplification of the Beast, and the “ministry” of the Second Beast, known as the False Prophet (“Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image . . . these two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Revelation 19:20)), substantiates a latter day religious element into the presence of the Beast upon the earth akin to Nebuchadnezzar’s erection of the Image and the demand of its worship found in Daniel 3, to wit: “At the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up; and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace” (verse 5).

The end of days Babylon—that Great City of the latter days with its Greco-Roman façade—is the sum and substance of all that the Beast of the West could desire as the fullness and fulcrum of his final charade upon humanity.

But, no matter how potent and intoxicating political power, the Beast demands worship and the Second Beast provides the antithesis of the Holy Spirit’s empowerment in orchestrating the final falsehood of bowing down before the Evil One in order to have “all these things.”

Ultimately, the masterpiece of this false worship will demand that itself—the Image of the Beast—be worshiped as the very reflection of what the people have beheld: The Beast himself! Thus, the Beast and his counterpart, the Image of the Beast, juxtaposed to the Bridegroom (Christ) and His Bride (the Church in fullness), audaciously display the final effrontery to the divine plan—what outrage is this!

True to satanic character, the Image of the Beast, comes to life, speaks and is accorded equality of worship with the Beast himself. Why? Because the Image of the Beast is naught but the very reflection of the Beast himself. As the Bride of Christ is the reflection and Image of Christ, so the Image of the Beast is the reflection of the Beast. The glaring differential between the two Images is this: The Image of the Beast is worshiped, whereas the Image of Christ is never worshiped! The people of God are never accorded the slightest semblance of worship in any way, shape and/or form; however, many a “good man” or group of men, and women, have been lifted up for their beneficence and service to humanity and accorded, in essence, worship.

As we have previously pointed out, Adolf Hitler’s image, Das Volk, became the German people themselves. They, along with Herr Hitler, under the damning inspiration of one, Josef Goebbels, shared a convoluted form of co-worship wherein they became the Image of the Beast (if you would), the very reflection of Hitler!

What alarms is the propensity to worship the best of humanity and to emulate the finest traits of that person or group’s character. The line is very thin. Paul exhorted the Thessalonians to “follow us . . . not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us” (II Thess. 3:7a, 9). The context of his exhortation to follow him had everything to do with a lifestyle, if you would, contrary to those among the Thessalonians who had taken to the exuberant expectation of the Lord’s heavenly appearing until they were of little practical earthly good.

The temptation to ascribe to the “thing made” coequal status to the divine is idolatrous, plain and simple. According the divine imperative to Nebuchadnezzar’s image, ultimately led to the king’s own insanity and beast-like humiliation (Daniel 4:28-33). The exhilarating rush one receives from the “work of one’s own hand” –especially from the political—is at the apex of the “pride of life.”

The point in all of this is obvious: The religious component, along with the action corollary of worship, involved in John’s description of the Beast, occupies a dominant role throughout the Revelator’s descriptions of his rule and final reign. However, the Beast of Babylon, the Antichrist of Apostasy, and the Image of Iniquity all conspire to produce the Great City, Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth—she is more than religion, more than politics.

Apostasy, at its primary core and essence is the amalgamation of both the Holy and the Profane, the secular state and the “religious authorities” whose collaboration is a potent mix of human pride and self awareness; ultimately, propelling toward religio-political narcissism of the worst sort: Blatant idolatry.

Biblically, the extremity of this form of civil pride and religious practice can be found in several accounts—the account of King Ahab and his Canaanite Queen Jezebel. Here, the religion of Elohim was fully mixed with Tyre’s commerce and polytheistic gods of fertility and sensual pleasure. Pervasive pride and arrogant distain for all things truly spiritual gave wide berth to the gratification of the flesh.

However, the less known apostasy orchestrated under Israel’s Judge, Gideon, is a grotesque display of idolatry and apostasy of immense proportion!

After a stunning victory wrought by utter dependence upon the Almighty against the Midianites (Judges 7) and against their kings (Zebah and Zalmunna), Gideon (undoubtedly a good man indeed), heard the infamous words of human flattery that lead to idolatry:

“Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, ‘Rule over us, both you and your son, and your grandson also (Note: The issue of “succession” and ultimate idolatry are linked here.); for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.’ But Gideon said to them, ‘I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you’” (Judges 8:22-23).

Now, Gideon’s response connotes the admirable, self-effacing qualities of a godly man who refused the approbation of man who understood the Lord’s plan for Israel . . . but then an amazing sequel of events transpires that utterly militates against his initial response to those who would make him and Israel like all the other nations:

“Then Gideon said to them, ‘I would like to make a request of you, that each of you would give me the earrings from his plunder.’ For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites. So they answered, ‘We will gladly give them,’ And they spread out a garment, and each man threw into it the earrings from his plunder. Now the weight of the gold earrings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments, pendants, and purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were around their camels’ necks. Then Gideon made it into an ephod (i.e., a priestly robe and, in particular, the ephod of Israel’s high priest was overlaid by the breastplate whereby the Almighty communicated with His people) and set it upon in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house” (Judges 8:24-27).

The symbolism and peculiar (to our ears) response made by the children of Israel in committing “harlotry” with and/or “before” the ephod in Ophrah made from the spoils of war (a war seemingly won by a most preposterous, yet divine, strategy of “less is better” – Judges 7:2-7) became “a snare to Gideon and to his house.”

Thus, that which was supposed to be used in the worship of the Lord, was in and of itself worshiped! “Playing the harlot” is directly related to idolatry and to worship in this despicable scene. From triumph to tragedy; from spiritual heights to idolatrous depths . . . Gideon and ALL ISRAEL succumbed to this inordinate and unconscionable manifestation of egregious behavior before the Lord Who gave them their initial victory over the foe.

Parallels? It is unhesitatingly unavoidable to conjecture that the Romish Church and those who enshrine their own spiritual victories in like manner have contrived to fabricate the golden ephods of apostasy from once glorious, spiritual victories over the Prince of Darkness were wrought. Alas! They have gone a whoring after their own image and have denied the God Who made them. Taking the source of their victory, they have erected a dastardly object, fashioning it after the “likeness” of the Almighty’s preference; yet, this ostentatious counterfeit became the center of abject idolatry, replacing the fleece with a glaring falsehood . . . Oh, can there be a more awful expression of deceit and despite among men?

Well did they know the meaning of the “ephod” and its resplendent use by Israel’s high priest . . . with breastplate, whereby the Almighty communicated with His people. Indeed, this symbol sanctifying God’s people unto Himself became a seditious snare, a slap in the face of the Almighty!

We ask: How, just how could this happen? Why, oh why did Gideon become so deluded to think he could make a “request to request” of Israel such a thing?

Yet, today’s orchestrations of bombastic, sanctimonious charades of pontifical religiosity, enshrined within the edifices built by Papal indulgences cannot escape divine notice and denunciation. The cultures of the earth delight in the magnificence of religious pageantry—the grandiose train of ecclesial hierarchy in opulent attire. What may have matured under the sufferings of Nazism and the heavy hand of communism was crowned the Vicar of Christ; thus, appropriating all the mystery and cruel histories of Thyatiran Christianity.

She, the Church in Thyatira, still bears those overcomers whose “works, love, service, faith, and perseverance” are commended by our Lord (Revelation 2:19). But, the “few things against you” that He speaks are exceedingly sinful:

“You allow that woman Jezebel (or “you tolerate your wife Jezebel”), who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols . . . and I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent” (Revelation 2:20).

There are expositors whose reflections of this Jezebel divorce her from the Jezebel of King Ahab—however, the context and allusions are altogether resoundingly symbolized in her harlotries. King Ahab “tolerated” his wife and her prophetic absurdities. Commerce, religion and politics converged into the perfect storm of apostasy. Even so, Rome’s legacy of the same needs little elaboration. Her fascinations with political intrigue and religious secrecy (as today’s College of Cardinals deliberate to choose the “next Vicar of Christ”) are legendary.

Roman Catholicism, through Pope John Paul II’s dynamic appeal to ecumenism, and the fascination, as well as cooperation, the Roman Church derived from this man’s ubiquitous efforts to spread Christendom’s message, at least within the context of Catholic theology, from the aforementioned Gentile World Powers, was and continues to be the greatest religio-political story since the Reformation.

Yet, the End of Days foresees through John’s eruption of the Beast from the Abyss, a subsequent phenomenon who appears, not from the sea, but from the earth itself. The one cast out of heaven, arises from the sea, from the abyss—then his “two-horned” echo “comes up out of the earth” to create the Image of the Beast, which will worship the political Beast, as well as breathe life into the Image of the Beast . . . as the people behold, so will they reflect, until they themselves become the very Image of the Beast. Yes, through the Second Beast’s empowerment, they will have his breath breathed into them; they will come to life, stand up and speak! Ultimately, they must be worshiped, for they are his full reflection.

“He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed” (Revelation 13:15).

The world is being prepared for a final unity of religious thought, wrought by the personification of the Antichrist/Beast. There is nothing, absolutely nothing more consolidating than political power under girded by religious zeal and ecclesiastical hyperbole enshrouded under the guise of divine fiat.

The foremost galvanizing religious influence upon the earth today is the power of the Papacy. To contend that John Paul II’s reign was superior in its “spiritual dynamic” goes without saying, but the world’s ability to enshrine the “ephod of his reign” into an idolatrous object is breathtaking in its immediacy! How incongruous was Rome’s splendid Shepherd versus the Jezebel and the “sexual immorality” eating away within the priesthood spread throughout the earth by Rome. The world’s wealthiest entity has now paid out hundreds of millions to the sexually abused within the Church!

The peoples of the earth are undergoing a conflicting set of messages from the Vatican. We are about to witness the final outburst of political and religious amalgamation. The Bible clearly presents that that religious conspiracy will be heralded by an end-times’ apostate religious system. I find it utterly impossible for this final deception to be headed by none other than a final Second Beast who will trumpet the message of the West’s leadership.

Religion and politics . . . these are not strange bedfellows . . . yet, together they are antithetical to all that the Kingdom of God aspires to be upon this earth, while seated in heavenly places in Christ.

When and where will all this take us, as we contemplate the inexorable pincer of Gentile World Power, on the one hand; and, on the other hand, the ecumenical observations of world religion galvanized around the dynamics of Rome’s heritage and mysteries. With God’s guiding hand and unalterable Word of Truth, we who aspire to be found faultless in Christ, must not recoil to some distant cave or fantasy wilderness; but, as the Two Witnesses of the Revelation, stand smack dab in the midst of the Street of the Great City to declare the uncompromising love of Christ, through the true Cross of Christ; without equivocation, and without fear. . . “For greater is He that is within us than He that is in the world.”

“But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ . . . Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not charge them with this sin.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:55-56, 60).