!? Timing and reign of Antichrist
Here is where many fake prophecies can
be spotted right away – false predictions or heretical
interpretations of when the Antichrist is going to appear on earth and where he will rule from that contradict Church teaching.
The Church has always followed and
upheld St. Paul's teaching that the Antichrist will appear on earth
just before Christ's Second Coming. St. Paul says that Christ
Himself will defeat the Antichrist at His Second Coming, which the
Church has taught will happen on the Last Day, aka the End of Time.
Read St. Paul's teaching on this by clicking here.
NOTE: this is an important detail - the promised Age of Peace that will be established by the Great Monarch and Angelic Pontiff is a completely different age and event from the New Heaven and New Earth Christ will establish at the end of Time. The first is temporal and will not last forever, the second is Eternal as it will be established by Christ on the Last Day as foretold in the Apocalypse. Again, read St. Paul's teaching, click here.
Here is a list of the Doctors and Fathers of the Church, also, saints, blesseds, venerables and approved mystics that taught the same thing in accordance with St. Paul - that the Antichrist will come after the Great Monarch and the Age of Peace establish by him, then after the Antichrist, the Second Coming of Christ happens. For the clickable links, click on the names to see their teachings / prophecies:
*** St. Paul: (b.? - died c. 68 AD) - A 'katechon', or 'Withholder', will prevent the reign of the Antichrist from happening. Only when the 'Katchhon' is removed will the Antichrist appear. Christ defeats the Antichrist at the Second Coming / Last Day.. This is in the SCRIPTURES.
*** St. Nerses I The Great (335-373 AD) - a Roman Empire will free all Christian lands from the Ayran countries (i.e the Muslim Middle eastern countries), then a long and lasting epoch of peace comes. Men will then mourn for the past and for goods that failed them, i.e. they will yearn to go back to their sinful ways they used to live and for the material goods that caused them to sin. Antichrist will then come.
Conclusion: any prediction or visionary that says the contrary to Church teaching i.e. that the Antichrist will come first, then the Age of Peace, then Christ will come after that is teaching error and even HERESY.
*** St. Paul: (b.? - died c. 68 AD) - A 'katechon', or 'Withholder', will prevent the reign of the Antichrist from happening. Only when the 'Katchhon' is removed will the Antichrist appear. Christ defeats the Antichrist at the Second Coming / Last Day.. This is in the SCRIPTURES.
*** St. Irenaeus of Lyon (c. 130-202 AD) - Antichrist sets up his seat in JERUSALEM, and will be defeated at the Second Coming
*** St. Hippolytus (c. (c. 170 – c. 234): the Antichrist will be defeated at the Second Coming of Christ.
*** (??) St. Methodius of Olympus (c. 250-311 AD) -people will grow lax again after the Great Monarch's reign - the Antichrist then comes, the Antichrist will enter JERUSALEM, Christ defeats him at the Second Coming
*** St. Ephraim the Syrian (c. 306 c. 373 AD) - the world will grow corrupt again after the Roman Empire is established, the Antichrist will then come, the Antichrist will rebuild the Temple in JERUSALEM and make it his seat as if he were God, the Second Coming the happens
*** St. Nerses I The Great (335-373 AD) - a Roman Empire will free all Christian lands from the Ayran countries (i.e the Muslim Middle eastern countries), then a long and lasting epoch of peace comes. Men will then mourn for the past and for goods that failed them, i.e. they will yearn to go back to their sinful ways they used to live and for the material goods that caused them to sin. Antichrist will then come.
*** St. Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315- 386 AD) - The Antichrist attempts to take all the Roman Empire, will humble some kingdoms and take others, but will be defeated by Christ at the Second Coming
*** St. Martin of Tours (316- 397 AD ) - Antichrist will first seize the empires of the East; he will have JERUSALEM as his seat and imperial Capital. Both the city and its temple are to be rebuilt by him. The whole world will brough brought under his yoke until Christ's coming, i.e. the Second Coming. (Source: 'The Antichrist', by Yyves Dupont)
*** St. Zenobius (337–417 AD): “Puffed up with pride, Antichrist shall enter in triumph the city of JERUSALEM and will sit on a throne in the Temple to be adored as if he were the Son of God.”
*** St. Caesarius of Arles (c. 468 - 542 AD) - After the Age of Peace with the King and Pontiff, fervor will cool, the earth will grow corrupt, then the Antichrist will come, after him the end of the world
*** St. John Damascene (676 - 787 AD) – Affirms that the Antichrist will attempt to sway the Jews and will go to their temple NOT the Christian one (aka, cannot be Rome): Quote: "One should know that the antichrist must come . Antichrist to be sure is everyone who does not confess that the Son of God came in the flesh is perfect God and became perfect man while at the same time He was God. In a peculiar and special sense however he who is to come at the consummation of the world is Antichrist. So it is first necessary for the Gospel to have been preached to all the gentiles as the Lord said, and then he shall come unto conviction of the impious Jews. For the Lord said to them: I am come in the name of the father and you receive me not: If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. And the apostle: “because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. Therefore God shall send them the operation of error, to believe lying: that all may be judged who have not believed the truth but have consented to iniquity. Hence the Jews did not receive the Lord Jesus Christ and God, although He was the Son of God, but the deceiver who says he is God they will receive. For that he will call himself God, the angel who taught Daniel thus declares: “he will make no account of the gods of his Fathers”. And the Apostle (St. Paul): “Let no man deceive you by any means; for unless there comes a revolt first and the son of perdition, who opposeth and is lifted up above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God”- He (St. Paul) says ---not however in ours but in the former one that of the Jews, (i.e. this means the Temple in JERUSALEM) for he will not come to us but to the Jews (initially)—not for the sake of Christ and Christ’s for which reason alone, he is also called Antichrist."
*** Andrew of Salos (b.? - died c. 936 AD) The Antichrist comes after the King of God, therefore, after the Age of Peace
*** Adso of Montier-en-Der (c. 910 / 915 - 992 AD) - The Antichrist comes after the Frankish King of the Roman Empire, meaning after the Age of Peace, the Antichrist will set up his seat in the Temple in JERUSALEM, the Second Coming of Christ happens AFTER his evil reign
*** (??) St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179 AD) - The Antichrist comes after the Great Monarch, meaning after the Age of Peace, it is JERUSALEM where the Antichrist will make the blood of Christians flow
*** Abbot 'Werdin' D'Otranto (b.-? - died c. 1259-1279 AD) -The Great Monarch and the Angelic Pontiff will come before the Antichrist
*** St. Bridget of Sweden (1303 - 1373 AD) - indicates the Antichrist comes after the King
*** St. Vincent Ferrer (1350 -1419 AD) Christians will grow lax again after the Age of Peace- the Antichrist then comes
*** (Bl.) Bernard di Bustis (1450 - 1513 AD) - indicates the Antichrist comes after the Great Monarch and Angelic Pontiff
*** St. Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church. (1542-1621). – Agrees with the teachings of the early Fathers and Doctors: the Gospel will be preached through the whole world. That there will be a Roman Empire, which will eventually be divided into 10 kingdoms before the Antichrist comes. The Antichrist therefore comes after a Roman Empire, and after it is divided up or split into various 10 kingdoms. The Antichrist arrives. Enoch and Elias also return during his time, personally in the flesh. Enoch will preach to the gentiles, Elias to the Jews. To say these two prophets will not physically return during the reign of the Antichrist is preaching error, and even close to heresy St. Bellarmine says. The reign and persecution of the Antichrist will be the worst the Church has ever known, all public ceremonies and the Sacrifice, i.e., the Mass, will cease. He also teaches the Antichrist will NOT be a Pope. He says “the Roman Pontiff is NOT the antichrist, rather, he is quite contrary to him, since the Pope carefully honors and guards the Sacrifice which Antichrist is going to take away. The heretics of this time, (i.e the Protestants of his day) apart from all other things, are precursors of Antichrist since no one more ardently desires to altogether abolish the sacrifice of the Eucharist than they.” The reign of the Antichrist will last 3 and a half years. Then the Second Coming of Christ and the End of the World happens.
*** Ven. Bartholomew Holzhauser (1613 - 1658 AD) - The Antichrist comes after the Great Monarch and the Angelic Pontiff
*** Ven. Mary of Agreda (1602-1665): according to her mystics revelations as printed in the 'Mystical City of God' she says the Antichrist will build his army up in Babylon where a palace will be built for him, he will conquer and take countries in Asia, thenEgypt and Ethiopia, but at last OCCUPY JERUSALEM.
*** Dionysius of Luxembourg (1652-1703 AD)- a great Christian ruler comes before the Antichrist, aka the Great Monarch
*** Bl. Anna Maria Taigi (1769 - 1837 AD) - the Antichrist will come after the Church experiences the Great Renewal under the Angelic Pontiff
*** Mélanie Calvet - APPARITION OF OUR LADY OF LA SALETTE (1846) the original Secrets of 1851 show the Antichrist comes after the Great King and the time of peace, not before.
*** Fr. Don Dolindo Ruotolo, Servant of God (1882-1970 AD) - The Antichrist comes after the reign of the Great Monarch and Angelic Pontiff- ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES the Antichrist will have his seat at JERUSALEM and the temple will be rebuilt. Christ then defeats the Antichrist, this is the 'Second Triumph' of the Church
Conclusion: any prediction or visionary that says the contrary to Church teaching i.e. that the Antichrist will come first, then the Age of Peace, then Christ will come after that is teaching error and even HERESY.
Also, you will find out a false prophet
if they say the Antichrist is already here on earth and about to start his evil reign when we haven't
had the arrival of the Great Monarch and the Angelic Pontiff, or even
the Age of Peace yet which has been promised through approved
mystics, prophecies, etc.
We will have precursor antichrists, the
Church has always taught this, but if a so-called prophet says the
Antichrist himself is going to come first before the Age of Peace,
or, he is already here when the Age of Peace hasn't happened yet, this is false. They've confused his arrival with the New Heaven and the New Earth.
Such fake prophets and visionaries have also used
another heresy or a variant of it to try and cover for their error, i.e. a heretical
literal interpretion of the 1,000 Year Reign of Christ from
the book of Revelations. This is called the Chiliast heresy and has
been used by heretics, especially the gnostics, and has condemened
for centuries by the Church. The Age of Peace is NOT gong to last a literal 1,000 years. Read more about the Chiliast heresy and what the true Church teaching is on the 1000 years, click here.
(*) WHERE THE ANTICHRIST WILL RULE: IT CANNOT ROME OR THE VATICAN as we have seen above - the early church Fathers and saints have agreed that according to the Scriptures, i.e the teachings of St. Paul in particular, the Antichrist will rule from Jerusalem, or, at least in some major place in the Middle East near Jerusalem as he will take over the temple and make it his prime seat - he will fool all the Jews into thinking he is the Messiah, which is why Jerusalem and the Middle East will be his place of rule.
The excellent book "The Catechism Explained: An Exhuastive Explanation of the Catholic Faith" by Spirago and Clarke (1899) also points this out:
"Antichrist is a man who will give himself out to be Christ, and by the help of the devil will perform many wonders. (2 Thess. ii. 9). He will be a terror by the persecution which he will raise (Apoc. XX. 3-9). It is probably that he will choose for his kingdom Jerusalem and those places where Christ lived. Our Lord will kill him on the Last. Day. (2 Thess. ii.8) Types and forerunners of Antichrist have existed from time to time. (1 John ii. 18), "for the mystery of iniquity already worketh" (2 Thess. ii.7)
Spirago and Clarke also point out the Antichrist comes just before the Day of Judgement, and, the New Heaven and New Earth come AFTER the Day of Judgement. Their explanation of the catechism states that when the sheep and goats are seperated on that Day, i.e. the saved from the damned, then the New Heaven and Earth come, quoting St. Augustine and St. Peter the Apostle:
"Then too," says St. Augustine, "cretion will take on a new and glorious form, to correspond to the glorified bodies of the elect." "We look for new Heavens and a new earth according to His promises, in which justice dwelleth." (2 Pet. iii. 13) (Spirago and Clark, on 'The General Judgement').
You can spot a fake prophet or that a text must be corrupted if they say anything contrary to this - i.e. that the Antichrist himself will rule from Rome, or, that a pope or an anti-pope is the Antichrist and will rule from Rome, or he will set up his seat anywhere that is not Jerusalem or very close to it in the Middle East. Even reason tells us that the Antichrist wouldn't be able to win over the Jews if he was seen to be in any way connected with the Catholic Church in Rome or look anything like a pope as the most die-hard Jews are very anti-Catholic and refuse to accept Christ as the Messiah, so he definitely won't rule from Rome if he wants to sway them. The Antichrist will be his own leader so to speak, it is very unlikely he will be or act like a pope, he will attempt to make himself out to be the Son of God, or a god, or the promised miracle-working Messiah to fool the Jews first as the prophecies regarding the coming of the Messiah have to take place IN THE HOLY LAND. Reason dictates the Antichrist will try and mimic the fulfilment of the prophecies regarding the Messiah, and he would have to be in the Holy Land for that.In fact: it was MARTIN LUTHER and his followers, also other Protestant leaders, that put out the idea during the Reformation that the Antichrist had taken over Rome and that the Pope was the Antichrist, or that a pope would be the Antichrist. It was one sure way to break people away from the Catholic Church. A very demonic tactic that worked. A considerable number of other denominations to this day continue to believe that Rome and the Catholic Church is the 'Whore of Babylon' and will be the seat of the Antichrist, and that the Antichrist will be a pope, thanks to this heretical nonsense.
(Image: Protestant propaganda during the Reformation - the Beast / Antichrist depicted as a pope.)
At the most, we may have a major anti-pope take up his seat in Rome near the time of the Antichrist, but it is extremely unlikely that THE Antichrist will make Rome his principle seat.
Therefore, any prophecy that deviates from the Church's approved teaching on End Time events regarding the Antichrist and his precursors is an obvious fake, or, likely contains an error in prophetic interpretation, and will not get posted on this Timeline.
??? So, what about Melanie Calvet's claim in the 1879 version of the Secret of La Salette that 'Rome shall become the seat of the Antichrist'? Click here for my observations on this problematic issue.
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