The “Great Antichrist” – Two Candidates – Papacy or Islam?

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The topic of the “Antichrist” has recently resurfaced. The more speculation there is about who exactly this might be, the further one moves away from the obvious truth. Among the Antichrist’s declared favorites, also in relation to the past, is Islam in general. The papacy, as the great earthly adversary, has been taken out of focus. Yet a simple comparison between the philosophies and actions of Muhammad and the teachings and liturgies of the Church of Rome clearly points to the great city on seven hills as the “son of perdition, man of sin, mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.”

The “one” Antichrist or many?

The “Antichrist” is one of the most prominent themes in the Bible. Yet this term doesn’t appear all that often in Scripture, and only in the letters of John. Indeed, if one simply adheres to the meaning of the word “Antichrist,” there are several such candidates. This is also due to the nature of the prefix “anti.” This can have two meanings: one as something opposite, and the other as something instead of. Thus, “Antichrist” can mean “anti-Christ” but also “instead of Christ.”

The following passages in the Bible describe the “Antichrist”:
1 John 2:18, “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.”

1 John 2:22, “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.”

2. Johannes 1,7, “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.”

It is clear that many antichrists will appear, or have already appeared. This is also obvious, since in principle, it would be enough to deny Jesus, and one would immediately be counted among those who are “against Christ,” i.e., “antichrist.” However, the statement in 1 John 2:18 has a very interesting aspect. On the one hand, John writes that many antichrists have already appeared, or will appear in the future, but “at the last hour” the calls for a coming antichrist are heard.

Antichrist theme suitable for causing confusion

This very same growing call for an Antichrist has been the case for some time. The calls and warnings about such a coming Antichrist are becoming ever louder. These warnings are usually associated with a pre-rapture of the Christian congregations before a seven-year period of tribulation begins due to the Antichrist’s work. However, this is a highly sophisticated hoax from the Jesuit order (Info). It is essentially the product of deliberate confusion and deception. Indeed, it is designed to distract from the actual “son of perdition.”.

Therefore, the talk of a “future Antichrist” has a huge drawback. For the actual, omnipresent danger, which was already active in Paul’s time (2 Thessalonians 2:7), is not explicitly called “Antichrist” in Scripture, but rather “man of sin, son of perdition, mother of harlots, abomination of the earth, and also Babylon.” These designations are found predominantly in the Book of Revelation. And when the discussion revolves around the “appearance of the Antichrist,” it is about this phenomenon in Revelation 11, 12, 13, 17, and 18.

Knowledge of the Reformation long ago suppressed

The actual, persistent Antichrist, endowed with the power of the adversary and still highly active today, has long been identified by the Reformers. But today, within the framework of ecumenism, everything is “forgotten and forgiven.” The general consensus is that this was a mistake, and one should apologize for it. Although all Reformers since the first half of the 16th century, and throughout the centuries, have agreed on who the actual Antichrist is (Info).

Antichrist – Islam or Papacy?

In addition to the papacy, Islam was also among the “hot candidates” for the biblically described Antichrist. In terms of the characteristics of the Antichrist, Islam can certainly be counted among them, for while it recognizes Jesus as a highly ranked prophet, it denies that Allah even has a son, and that Jesus did not die on the cross, let alone sacrifice himself for our sins (Info).

In fact, Islam’s expansionist ambitions actually supported the emerging Reformation. However, this was rather involuntary and a side effect. At the time the Reformation movements began, the Ottomans stood on the borders of the “Holy Roman Empire.” The military forces of the princes and kings subject to the Pope were thoroughly occupied with keeping the Ottomans in check. These forces were lacking to crush the Reformation movements in the traditional manner of the papacy.

Islam & Papacy – Comparison

While Islam does have some characteristics that would justify calling it an Antichrist in its respective aspects, it is not THE Antichrist, who is specifically described as the “man of sin, the son of perdition, and the abomination of the earth.” When comparing the “hottest candidates” for identifying the Antichrist and what force he truly is, Catholicism and Islam, despite sharing some similarities, nevertheless exhibit significant differences.

Following is the comparison of Papacy and Islam from “The Roman Catholic Religion, viewed in the light of Prophecy and History“, by Charles K. Moore, New York, 1848, pages 93-98.

Similarities

Islam and Catholicism teach the necessity of praying for the dead.
Both religions have spread their respective faiths with sword and fire.
Both religions have hundreds of millions of followers.
Islam and Catholicism keep their “flock” in oppressive despotism.
Both religions deprive people of a national education.
Both religions have a greedy and immoral priesthood.

Differences & Exclusivity Papacy

The Catholicism spread by the papacy exhibits some characteristics that Islam would never imagine. It is an unprecedented godlessness that causes more harm to humanity than Islam ever has.

Idolatry

The papal Antichrist does not maintain strict unity of the object of worship. The Mohammedan Antichrist, on the other hand, maintains this unity. Muslims never worship anyone but God. The Papist prays to God and also to about 30,000 saints.

The papal Antichrist is guilty of the worst idolatry. Papal Rome possesses its saints, its altars, its incense, its statues, images, and relics for worship. Muhammad tolerates such idolatry neither in his worship nor in his mosques.

Superstition

The papal Antichrist is inexpressibly more superstitious than Muhammad. The Muslim knows neither such legends nor miracles, nor black-and-white-clad sects, nor confessionals, nor bastard sacraments, nor holy water vessels, nor the round mola or the cake on the altar, such as the Roman Catholic Church has in its superstitious system.

Blasphemy

The Roman Antichrist has indeed committed bolder and more blasphemous encroachments upon God’s glory, prerogative, and cause than even Muhammad. The Roman Antichrist nullifies the only atonement by replacing the Mass, which the Muslim has not done. He usurps the throne of God and “officially” forgives sins, which the Muslim does not claim to do.

He offers weekly sacrifices to appease God for the living and the dead, something the Muslim does not pretend to do. He publicly burns the Holy Bible whenever he finds it among his subjects—not just the Protestant translation, but even his own Roman Catholic translation in Spanish. It is not known that the Muslim ever burned the Bible of Christians, in any language.

Muhammad did not display the kind of fanaticism that is embedded in the very core of Catholicism. The Muslim never dreamed of the dogma of “papal intention.” Thus, the Roman Catholic priest becomes a dispenser of grace. By administering one of his seven sacraments, he declares, by his intention in soul and conscience to do what the Roman Catholic Church intends, that he can indeed bestow grace upon the recipient.

Arrogance

But if the papal priest withholds the intention to impart grace at baptism, then no grace is imparted; or if the ordaining bishop has no intention in his soul to ordain the priest, or withholds it, then the priest has neither his office nor the grace of his office; and everything he does officially as a priest, during his whole life, is null and void; and all his flock is lost.

And if the ordained priest does not intend to grant absolution during the Extreme Unction, grace is not granted, and the dying person is not absolved and is lost forever. What a terrible weapon of arbitrariness is employed here! How completely every soul of their people is at the disposal of the bishop and the priest—for Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell.

Muhammad was never so wicked as to even dream of this dream or to invent this iron flail to crush humanity under his unprecedented despotism, as papal Rome does.

Nor does the Mufti, whether in the mosque or outside, dream of bestowing grace through the laying on of hands or through certain rites, as does the Roman priest who claims to bring divine grace into the souls of men through each of Rome’s seven sacraments. This surpasses the wickedness of what the ancient Ottoman conquerors displayed.

“Holy Mass”

Muhammad knew no such revolting blasphemies as the papal transubstantiation and the nameless monstrosity of the Mass. The Muslim is shocked by the atheism of this man and the sect that professes weekly to transform a piece of bread into “the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ.”

In the eyes of Muslims, the Church of Rome acts repulsively. It transforms a wafer into the true body of Christ, the body that hung on the cross. And then it is eaten. This is cannibalism. If the Catholic claimed not to be literally eating the flesh of Christ, this would seem like a lie.

After all, the ritual claims to transform the wafer into the true, literal flesh of Christ. The Church of Rome creates God from a wafer, worships it as God, and then eats it. On top of that, the Church of Rome rejects Islam because it commits “unparalleled atrocities.”

Bloodthirstiness

The papal Antichrist has always harbored a fiercer, more relentless, and more bloodthirsty spirit of persecution than Muhammad. In his wars, massacres, and Inquisition, the Pope spared neither men, women, nor children whom he labeled “heretics.” Muhammad commanded his followers of the Koran to spare “the Men of the Book,” meaning Jews and Christians, as well as women, the elderly, and children.

The papal Antichrist has destroyed more human lives and, of course, ruined more immortal souls than Muhammad. The best writers count fifty million Christians who perished by fire, sword, and Inquisition; fifteen million natives of the American continent and the islands; three million Moors in Europe; and one and a half million Jews.

Now, sixty-nine million and five hundred thousand people have been murdered by the “woman of the Roman hills, drunk with the blood of the saints” (Revelation 17). And this gruesome list does not include those of his own subjects who fell in the Crusades in Asia, in his wars against European Christians, and in South America. When and where did Muhammad ever murder such a host, such a world of people?

Diabolical motivation

And it cannot be hidden that the Roman Antichrist murdered the saints in cold blood, deliberately, and with malice. Muhammad and his followers saw the blood of hundreds of thousands, mainly on the battlefield and in the heat of war. The Roman imposter killed the martyrs under more cruel and barbaric circumstances. The Arab imposter knew neither torture nor burning alive, nor a hellish inquisition tribunal. He was neither so inhuman nor so diabolically cruel as to invent such things!

And what tongue can then tell the number of immortal souls who will ultimately be destroyed and ruined by the cup of Roman sorcery? What a spectacle will be revealed on the Day of Judgment!

Lust for power

The insatiable spirit of proselytism and world domination makes the papal Antichrist an unspeakably more dangerous enemy to man, especially to us in this Western world. Wherever the Roman despot and “his army of monks and shaved bald” discover a new nation growing and flourishing; or a mission station of Protestants and freemen rising in the beauty and glory of pure religion, sound morals, and just government, among a Christian people or among the heathen, they direct their utmost power and influence to overrun, subdue, and bend them under the Roman yoke, and to extinguish there the lamp of God’s eternal truth.

Only papal Rome could invent such deeds—only papal Rome can commit such deeds the Turks didn’t even dare to dream of, and only demons can inspire them.

It should be remembered here that this was written in 1848. That is, before the major upheavals in Europe, not to mention the great wars, revolutions, and other countless upheavals that occurred in the 20th century. This continuation continues into the 21st century, right up to the present day.

No doubt

A look at history, official teachings, declared intentions, and present-day developments clearly demonstrate that the “man of sin, son of perdition, mother of all harlots, abomination of the earth” refers to the papacy, the Holy See, and the Roman Catholic Church. Further characteristics of this institution, juxtaposed with the descriptions of biblical prophecies, leave no other possibility. Without exception, all attributes point to the papal institution in Rome.

The books of Daniel and Revelation, both complementing each other, contain the authoritative descriptions of the great earthly adversary (Info). Very visible today are the developments within the interplay between the “beast from the sea” and the “beast from the earth” according to Revelation 13 (Info). It is clear that the beast from the sea represents the papacy and the beast from the earth represents the world power USA (Info).

The targeted fight against the quite powerful Islam, both geopolitically and militarily, began shortly after the turn of the millennium, as a follow-up operation to the now-ended so-called Cold War. The primary goal is to permanently weaken the strongholds of Islam in order to pave the way for Rome to further expand its tentacles.

The spirit of the Antichrist, which appeared already in Paul’s time, plunging the world into darkness over the past many centuries and continuing to rage until its final destruction by the returning Jesus Christ, is the papacy (Info).

But it will end for the dragon, the beast and the false prophet as it is announced:

Bible verses from King James Version (1611)