The pope and his archbishops, prelates, priests, Jesuits, etc. seem meek and humble like little sheep. The pope is looked upon as the spiritual ruler of the world. But what saith the scriptures?
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word,
it is because there is no light in them.
Isaiah 8:20
"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." Matthew 7:15 |
Ronald Cooke has insightful commentary--
That there has been a colossal shift in the papacy in the past thirty years few could deny. The papacy at the end of the 19th century had been stripped of the Papal States and reduced to the smallest state in the world--the Vatican. With the loss of its territory the papacy scrambled about to enhance its power in other ways.The Pope was declared to be INFALLIBLE in 1870. This claim to be infallible was a laughing matter outside of Roman Catholicism for years. But as time passed the Pope became more and more acclaimed by world leaders.
With the loss of the Papal States the papacy concentrated more on deception. The papacy has always been a deceitful organization but in former times it also used military might to attain its ends. With the passing of its temporal power in Europe it has concentrated more and more on pushing the Pope as a person and as world leader to the fore, while working its intrigue in political circles around the globe. The result of propaganda and intrigue has been the elevation of the pope of Rome to the position of the world's greatest spiritual leader, and a leader of leaders.
Mr. Cooke goes on to site W.F. Strojie, a Roman Catholic author--
What sin, what multitude of the most enormous sins would a man need to commit to exceed the deeds of lust, murder and oppression of the poor by men who have already lived, or live today? What natural or unnatural vices, of lust, murder or torture, of child murders, of slavery, of general destruction, of unjust wars and of planned moral corruption of nations, have not already been committed by some can it be that any man, no matter how powerful, will exceed the sins of past great sinners, so as to deserve, IN A UNIQUE SENSE, the title Man of Sin, or Son of Perdition... This person cannot be simply another evil man in the ordinary sense, no matter how far reaching his evil influence may be in the secular order. Again, this person must be unique by reason of his high and unique spiritual office. Who then in a theologically exact sense can fill the office of Antichrist? I suggest that it can only be he who can effectively oppose himself to the past vicars of Christ and their doctrines from the time of Peter, and who can effectively oppose himself to the true worship of God. Strojie, W.F., Last Days of the Catholic Church, 1978, p.7
Strojie then continues,
I am convinced that it is theologically necessary that Antichrist be a pope. I agree... Antichrist, the Man of Sin, Son of Perdition, to deserve these titles must hold a unique spiritual office, one in which the greatest possible doctrinal disciplinary and moral corruption can be accomplished. And to oppose Christ who is all Truth the essential procedure of Antichrist will not be one of force but of deception. This follows from St. Paul's prophecy of a great spiritual blindness in the time of Antichrist and the Great Apostasy... With due respect for possible non-Catholic claimants, I scoff at the notion that anyone OTHER THAN A POPE COULD BE THE ANTICHRIST. p. 31 (emphasis added)
Strojie is not alone among Roman Catholic writers in his concerns about the modern papacy. Malachi Martin is also concerned although not as outspoken in his criticisms as Strojie. Martin speaks of a "new agenda" which the pope seems to be desirous of fulfilling which involves far more than the future of the Roman Catholic institution.
Martin also speaks of the alienation of many Roman Catholic priests, nuns, and theologians, from the traditional views of Roman Catholicism, and the reaction of others to this alienation, even to the point of calling the pope the ANTICHRIST: (Pope Paul VI could not stem the onslaught) women who wanted to be priests, priests who wanted to be married, bishops who wanted to be regional popes, theologians who claimed absolute teaching authority, Protestants who claimed equality and identity, homosexuals and divorced people who called for acceptance of their status on their terms.., traditional minded Catholics who BITTERLY REPROACHED HIM WITH BEING ANTICHRIST. (emphasis added) 4
Martin takes up the alienation and confusion in the Roman Catholic Institution in even more detail in his later work The Keys of This Blood. There he noted the further decay within the organization:
Anybody who examines the Pontiff's governance of his Roman Catholic institutional organization since 1978 must come away STUNNED at the DETERIORATION that began during the fifteen year reign of Pope Paul VI, and that the present Pope has neither REVERSED nor ARRESTED. Martin, Malachi, The Keys of this Blood, Simon and Schuster, NY, NY, 1990, p. 50
Martin enlarges:
The overall result of that policy for the Roman Church has been profound. But in one key area -- the area of papal privilege, and of the papal power embodied in the sacred symbol of the Pettine Keys -- the policy has been disastrous. For it has enabled those in the Church bent on an anti-papal agenda - the antiChurch within the church -- to arrive with in touching distance of their main objective; namely, the effective ELIMINATION of papal power itself. 6 (emphasis added)
(So the Pope may be working to rend the Great Whore which rode for so long upon his back.)
Martin continues:
The result is something that has never existed before in the Roman Church. An anonymous and impersonal force has been created, centered in the Bishop's Conferences around the world, which has BEGUN to exercise ITS OWN POWER in contravention of papal power... It is true that this victory of in Church papal enemies is only a de facto affair; that nowhere and by no explicit statement has Pope John Paul formally renounced his Petrine Power. But that is cold comfort for those who find his huge GAMBLE with the Petrine Office the MOST FRIGHTENING ELEMENT of John Paul's papal policy... The effective catalyst here is the Pontiff's abstention from exercising his power in matters critical to Church governance... pp. 51-52 (emphasis added)
It is quite possible that the papacy is now looking far beyond the confines of the "church" to a New World Order where the pope will become the servant of a greater and more evil design. Where the rebellious remains of the Scarlet Woman will merely become a stepping stone to greater things.