Drawing Aside the Purple Curtain

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The Papal System Today: an Analysis of the News

THE DEATH OF JOHN PAUL II, THE POPE OF ROME

by Shaun Willcock

“...that Man of Sin... the Son of Perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12)

This past weekend – Saturday, April 2, 2005 – the pope of Rome, John Paul II, died and passed into eternity. For over a quarter of a century, this man reigned as pope in the Vatican – Satan’s Seat. He was the leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics. The turbulent years of the 1980s and 1990s are in so many ways dominated by the words and works of John Paul II. He presided over the world’s most iniquitous religion, Satan’s masterpiece itself, guiding it through some of its greatest setbacks and some of its greatest triumphs (for itself, that is).

He was, without a doubt, the most charismatic and popular pope in the history of the Papacy. Never was there a pope like this one, winning over hundreds of millions of people, both Roman Catholic and non-Roman Catholic. He was loved the world over. He was “the peoples’ pope”, an actor who knew how to work the crowds, and who made the Papacy accessible in a sense to millions as never before. Other popes before him had been remote, hardly ever leaving the Vatican and when they did so, being carried shoulder-high on golden seats, remote from their followers. This pope was different and as a result, under this man the Roman Papacy was given a “friendlier” face than it ever had before. He travelled the world, meeting world leaders and the common people, smiling, shaking hands, his charisma winning their hearts.

But what was happening, all this time? The Papal religion was being promoted! Romanism was being seen, by millions, as a beautiful and good religion! John Paul II truly was the greatest Public Relations Officer for Roman Catholicism that Rome has ever had! You will now begin to hear the praises heaped upon his head by so-called “Christian”, “Evangelical” leaders the world over: men like Billy Graham, for example, who long ago declared John Paul II to be “the moral leader of the world”, “the greatest religious leader of the modern world”, an evangelist who was “pointing men to Christ”;^{^[1]} and many, many others will all sing his praises, speaking of him as a great Christian man, many even saying he was the greatest Christian man in all the world! They will tell the world that he is now in heaven. For weeks to come, we will hear such men saying such things!

He will, I have no doubt, go down in history, in the eyes of the world, as one of the three or four greatest figures of the twentieth century, along with Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, and perhaps one or two more. But just as Mandela and Gorbachev don’t deserve such an honour, nor does he! What is the truth about John Paul II? Far from being a great man in the real sense of the word, and as far from the kingdom of God, and thus from being a Christian man, as it is possible to get, he was a wicked man (see 2 Thessalonians2:8), and a lost man; and as unpalatable as it is to the multitudes of Roman Catholics, and indeed the people of the world, to hear, biblically the truth is that this man was not a servant of Christ, but was in fact (as all popes before him were, and as all popes after him will be) the Antichrist of Holy Scripture! – the greatest enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ, His blessed Gospel, and His true Church in all the world! This is the categorical teaching of Paul the apostle, writing by divine inspiration, in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4. John Paul II was the head of the most vile false religion on the planet, a monstrous, iniquitous religious system masquerading as a church, which is called in Holy Scripture, by the Holy Spirit, the Great Whore, and also, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH (Revelation 17:1&5).

Christians must learn to always view things as God views them. Roman Catholics call their religious system the “Roman Catholic Church”; but the Lord in His Word calls it “the Great Whore.” Roman Catholics call it “Holy Mother Church”; but the Lord in His Word calls it “the Mother of Harlots.” Roman Catholics call it “the Bride of Christ”; but the Lord in His Word calls it a harlot, a prostitute. And Roman Catholics call their pope “the Holy Father”; but the Lord in His Word calls him “the Man of Sin and Son of Perdition”; “that Wicked”! All that one has to do is to compare the teachings and practices of John Paul II with the Word of God, for these reveal him to have been the Antichrist for the duration of his pontificate, just as every pope is the Antichrist for the duration of each one’s pontificate. Let us do just that:

John Paul II was a man who opposed and exalted himself against the three Persons of the blessed Trinity! For he dared to call himself, and allowed his followers to call him, “the Holy Father”; which is what the Lord Jesus called His heavenly Father in John17: 11, and which only God the Father deserves to be called; for there is only “one God and Father of all” (Ephesians4:6). And he dared to accept for himself such titles as “Christ on earth” (for this is what the popes have been called), among many similar titles, plus of course claiming to be “Head of the Church”, when the only true Head of the true Church is the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians1: 22). And also, he dared to call himself, and allowed his followers to call him, “the Vicar of Christ”; which means “the one who takes Christ’s place on earth”; and yet it is the Holy Spirit alone who took the place of Christ on earth (John.14: 16,17,26).

The pope, Boniface VIII, stated categorically as far back as the early fourteenth century: “To be subject to the Roman Pontiff is to every human creature altogether necessary for salvation....I have the authority of the King of kings. I am all in all and above all, so that God himself and I, the vicar of God, have but one consistory, and I am able to do all that God can do. What, therefore, can you make of me but God?” (Papal Bull Unum Sanctum). During the Vatican Council in 1870, it was stated: “The pope is Christ in office, Christ in jurisdiction and power...we bow down before thy voice... as before the voice of Christ, the God of truth; in clinging to thee, we cling to Christ.” Pius IX said: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Pope Pius X said: “The pope... is Jesus Christ Himself, hidden under the veil of flesh.” And the Roman Catholic theologian, Thomas Aquinas, whose works are so revered within Romanism, stated: “There is no difference between the pope and Jesus Christ.” And many, many similar titles could be listed, which the popes of Rome have either given themselves, or been perfectly willing to receive from their followers.

John Paul II was a man who denied the one true God by worshipping a goddess! The name of this goddess is Mary. Of course, this goddess is not, in truth, Mary the mother of the Lord, that humble servant of Christ; it is in fact nothing less than the ancient Mother-Goddess of Babylonian heathenism, renamed “Mary” and worshipped with all the zeal and blind devotion with which heathen people worldwide have worshipped the Mother-Goddess in all her different forms, in so many religions of the world. Deny it as much as they will, but the reality is that Papists worship this “Mary” with more zeal, devotion, enthusiasm, and love than any other deity within the Roman Catholic religion (and there are many: “saints”, angels, the wafer-god of the mass, innumerable idols, etc.). And John Paul II deeply loved this goddess called “Mary”, he prayed to her, sang hymns to her, exalted her at every opportunity, devoted himself fully to her, even credited her with saving his life when an assassination attempt was made on him.

John Paul II was a man who called a piece of bread “Christ”, and worshipped it as such! For in the blasphemy of the mass, he claimed to have the power to call down Christ, the Son of God now seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and turn him into a piece of bread and a cup of wine! For it is the doctrine of Roman Catholicism that the wafer used in the mass is transubstantiated into the literal body of Christ, and the wine in the cup is transubstantiated into the literal blood of Christ; so that when Papists partake of these things, they are not eating bread and drinking wine, they are in fact eating and drinking Christ Himself, literally and physically! This is the false “christ” which John Paul II worshipped! Yet this is the man who will now be praised the world over as a true Christian, a follower of the true Christ of God!

And moreover, this was a man who prayed to and worshipped heathen images! Idols of silver and gold, the work of men’s hands, which have mouths but cannot speak, eyes which cannot see, ears which cannot hear, noses which cannot smell, hands which cannot handle, feet which cannot walk (see Psalm115:3-8). These were John Paul II’s gods!

And he was a man who taught salvation by an accursed false “gospel”– a gospel of works! A “gospel” of the devil, “another gospel”, a lie, a “gospel” which knows nothing of the glad tidings of salvation by a crucified and risen Saviour, of salvation by God’s grace alone through faith in God’s Son alone, but which is all about earning one’s own salvation (supposedly) by all kinds of means: being “baptized”, being confirmed, going to confession and doing penance, praying to idols, etc., etc. He was a man, in a word, who preached an accursed “gospel” and was therefore himself accursed! For, “though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians1: 8-9).

Much more could be said about this pope, John Paul II. He had been an actor in his youth, and in fact he was so devoted to this that when he finally decided to become a priest and applied to the Carmelite Order, they rejected him because they felt he was devoted to acting far more than he was to his religion. It was even rumoured that he had once been married. He was known, at any rate, to have female companions. In 1979, when he visited his native Poland as the new pope, he dismissed all elderly nuns on his staff, choosing six young Polish ones instead, headed by a beautiful young nun called Teodata. “A dubious choice for a pope who claims asceticism to avoid carnal temptations,” was the comment from a Vatican old-hand.^{^[2]}

He came to power after the “accelerated demise” of his predecessor, John Paul I, in 1978, who was murdered in the Vatican with the connivance of top Vatican officials.^{^[3]} Those cardinals who favoured the election of a man from a Communist country, who could play a major part in fighting Soviet Communism, had their hearts set on Karol Wojtyla, a cardinal from Communist Poland. And they were assisted, in various ways, by their alliance with United States intelligence agencies, who desired a pope who would move the Vatican away from its pro-Soviet position, which had been promoted under the pontificate of Paul VI. Their plan was to see to it that a pope was elected who would formulate a Vatican-Washington alliance in place of the Vatican-Moscow alliance which then existed: “the potential transformation of a vast portion of the socialist world into a Catholic-American sponsored communist condominium.”^{^[4]} The Polish cardinal, Karol Wojtyla, was their choice. And once John Paul I had been removed from the scene, they could see to it that “their” man was elected.

The Vatican-Washington proponents within the College of Cardinals had to rig the election in order to get “their” man elected. This they succeeded in doing, with the assistance of the CIA, and Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II. Let it not for a moment be thought that John Paul II was anti-Communist! Oh no. He was in fact a committed Marxist himself, who openly read Marxist publications during the conclave at which he was elected. But he was an anti-Soviet Marxist! In other words, he was very opposed to Soviet-style Communism, but not to Communism itself: not to Roman Catholic Communism, not to “liberation theology”, etc. He wanted to see the rise to prominence of a Romanised version of Communism controlled from the Vatican. And he lived to see it!

His Marxism was also seen in the fact that he threw his weight behind the Roman Catholic-Communist trade union movement, “Solidarity”, in Poland; and he made a point of visiting one Marxist African nation after another and meeting with, and praising, their Marxist terrorist leaders, while studiously avoiding the conservative, anti-Communist, white government in South Africa.

The cardinals of Rome love to say that the Holy Spirit guides them in the choice of each pope, but the real truth is that the choice is a heavy political matter, and as in any election in any worldly institution, there is vast wheeling and dealing behind the scenes, there are veiled and open threats, manipulations, promises, bribes, and more. In addition, certain sections of the Vatican have been “bugged” by various intelligence agencies for many, many years: the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, France, West Germany, Israel, and various Arab states too, have all “bugged” the Vatican in order to obtain vital secrets from the world’s most powerful religio-political institution. And in this way, much pressure was exerted on certain influential cardinals at the time of the election of Karol Wojtyla to the Papacy.

John Paul II was under the curse of God, as the Antichrist, as the Man of Sin, as the Son of Perdition, as a preacher of a diabolical, false “gospel” that has never saved anyone and cannot save anyone but can only damn them to hell. And any so-called minister of the Gospel who speaks well of this man – this Antichrist – is not only speaking well of the greatest enemy of Christ on earth, but also, he is in fact speaking well of the religion he represented, a religion which has damned multiplied millions of people to hell, and continues to do so every single day of every single year! This man ruled over, lied to, and deceived over one billion Roman Catholic people the world over! They themselves are heading to the same Christless eternity, the same hell that he has now entered – unless the Lord Jesus sets them free. But how will they hear the true Gospel, when wicked Protestant leaders praise their dead ruler as the greatest Christian of our time?

What must never be forgotten is that this pope was precisely the same as any pope that went before him! He believed what they believed! He was no different. So – he was no more a Christian than they were! No more a Christian than those Papal monsters of iniquity in the past who spouted forth their damnable heresies, who massacred the true saints of God, and who committed a thousand and one other evils! This man, John Paul II, headed up the same iniquitous system, and believed the same damnable heresies! Therefore, if anyone says that this pope was a Christian, then he must accept other popes as Christians–for they were all the same!

The prophetic Scriptures which speak of the Antichrist, speak of all the popes: the entire dynasty of popes through the centuries; as Jesus warned when He said, “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew24:5). This is what the popes of Rome have done! John Paul II was simply the latest representative of this blasphemy, the latest one to hold that antichristian office! He was the prophesied Antichrist while he lived; and now the next pope who is chosen will be the Antichrist while he lives; and so it has gone on, century after century, and so it will go on, until the Lord returns.

Where has John Paul II gone, now that he has died? There is only one of two places any man goes at death: to heaven, or to hell. The only ones who go to heaven are true Christians – men and women who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to the saving of their souls, repented of their sins, and forsaken all false religion. All others go to hell. And this pope, like all popes before him, went to hell. As his spirit departed from his body, he found himself in the flames of eternal torment. For he was the Son of Perdition – and just like the only other man who is ever called in Scripture the Son of Perdition – Judas Iscariot (see John.17:12) – he went to hell. For he was a son of it! The Bible does not say, when branding the entire dynasty of the popes of Rome as “the Son of Perdition”, that there would occasionally be exceptions to the rule, men who would be true Christians even though they were popes. No exceptions are given! The Man of Sin and Son of Perdition is the pope of Rome, and every pope of Rome.

We take no pleasure in the eternal damnation of any man; but nevertheless, amidst all the praises which will now be heaped upon his head by world leaders, religious leaders, and even “church” leaders, true Christians must – must - MUST – view this event as GOD sees it! The death of a pope – any pope – is a time to be reminded of what the Bible says about the Great Whore, and the man who presides over it, the Antichrist. This moment – the death of the pope, just like the death of any pope – was the passing into eternity of the one the Bible calls the ANTI-Christ! Think about that for a moment! This was not the death of a Hitler, or a Stalin, or even of that drunkard down your street who beat his wife and cursed and swore and blasphemed God and died hating him – this was the death of the ANTI-Christ! The death of the man who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped! The death of the man who claims to be God, and who claims to sit as God in the very temple of God!

And the tragedy is that he deceived millions and millions of people, who will also enter a Christless eternity when they die, having followed this man – this Antichrist – all the while believing he was the Vicar of Christ on earth! That’s the one tragedy. What’s the other? The other is the tragedy of blind leaders of the blind – so-called “Protestant” leaders, calling themselves Evangelicals – speaking well of this Antichrist, praising him, and actually holding him up to a world of lost sinners as an example of Christ-likeness and faithfulness to the Gospel! That is the other immense tragedy! The death of this pope will reveal the hearts and motives and real natures of many, many highly esteemed Protestant ministers! It will show who they really serve and follow: Christ, or the devil! It will bring to light, again, for those with eyes to see, that these men are wolves in sheep’s clothing, deceitful workers!

This man, John Paul II, died; and in hell he now lifts up his eyes, being in torments (Luke16:23). But of course, the Papacy lives on! One pope falls; another rises to fill the vacuum. This is how it has been for centuries. Many coming in Christ’s name, and each one saying, I am Christ. And now the process of electing the next pope – the next man to hold the position of THE Antichrist – will begin; and some days, or weeks, from now, the world will be presented with the next man who will accept all those blasphemous titles, who will allow himself to be spoken of as Vicar of Christ and the “Holy Father”, and who will accept the praise and adulation of over a billion followers – not to mention millions of non-Papists from all over the world!

And so the Papacy will continue–year after year, as it has now done for many centuries–deceiving, and being deceived–lying, murdering, massacring, cheating, preaching an accursed false “gospel” – until finally it is destroyed by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, as prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10: “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

What should the Lord’s people do, at such a time as this? They should be praying for the over one billion deceived people who loved and revered this wicked man as the representative of God on earth. Pray for their salvation! And also, preach the blessed Gospel of Christ to them, as well as to the multitudes of deceived Protestants, who, in their praise for this man, show that they do not know the true Christ, or His blessed Gospel! For one who loves Christ, and who knows that salvation is by free and sovereign grace, does not speak well of Antichrist! It is as plain as that.

Now, as never before, Christians will see just how utterly blind and deceived the world is – including the so-called Evangelical Christian world! If you had any doubt about the darkness that lies upon the hearts of Evangelicals in this day and age, you’ll see a demonstration of it now! You will be given a graphic picture of that darkness, as you will hear these men praising this pope. Let the Lord’s true saints pray that the eyes of many Christians would be opened to see just how thick the Egyptian darkness is across the whole world, and especially how deceived the Protestant leaders are!

May the Lord stir His true Church up to show compassion to the lost Roman Catholic people, and to earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints (Jude v.3), when all around us the world is believing “another gospel”, and rushing headlong down the broad way that leads to destruction!

4 April 2005