I believe that the antichrist and the false prophet are two distinct people, and that the first has something in his appearance or nationality that causes people to feel apprehensive to the point that he always needs the support of the false prophet with his satanic wonders and the appearance of a lamb . REVELATION 13:14 (...)"And by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived "(...)
Hi Luan. The phrase "the false prophet" is mentioned ONLY 3 times in the entire Bible: Apocalypse 16:13, 19:20 and 20:10. The name "Antichrist" is not used in the Apocalypse at all. The individual called "the false prophet" is the person called "the Antichrist" by the Church Fathers. How do we know? We know because we can look at the unique characteristics of this Antichrist and find that he is given many names in different books of the Bible. I will give a couple of examples. In Apocalypse 19:20, we read: 20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet, who wrought signs before him, wherewith he seduced them who received the character of the beast, and who adored his image. These two were cast alive into the pool of fire, burning with brimstone. So, the False Prophet is described above as the person "who wrought signs" and "seduced." In other words, this person will cause the greatest deception in the history of the world. A "sign" are another word for a "miracle." The word "seduce" is another word for "deceive." Those two things are what this person, the False Prophet, is responsible for in the narrative of the Apocalypse. There is no other person in that narrative that does those things. Now, let's move over to 2 Thessalonians 2. There is a person described there that does the same things: 8 And then that wicked one shall be revealed whom the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit of his mouth; and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, him, 9 Whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, 10 And in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish; 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: The two passages (Apocalypse 19:20 and 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10) are describing the same person. This person is known as the end times Antichrist in the writings of the Church Fathers. There is only one person in the end times who has that special power of performing apparent miracles. Here is St. Thomas Aquinas's discussion of 2 Thessalonians 2: https://aquinas.cc/la/en/~2Thess.C2.L2.n47 If you will read Section 47-51 in that discussion by St. Thomas Aquinas, you will see how the Antichrist is a human possessed by Satan. It is Satan who gives him the power to deceive by false miracles. And the Antichrist deceives people because the deceived love sinning more than the Truth. I hope this helps.
Luan, Yes,2 distinct people. Most people think that the False Prophet will proceed the Antichrist (the Beast,hence why the mark of the Beast is referenced) the way that John the Baptist proceeded Christ accept these 2 people from Revelations are not good guys. You know all of this though.
PNF, you are too fixated on Pope Francis being the Antichrist for my taste. The Blessed Mother told us to pray for the Holy Father and that is what I’m choosing to do.
I agree with you Carol! I'm inspired to post a reminder or thought for anyone who hasn't thought it through: the head of the serpent that Our Lady will crush is not out there in this or that bad guy making us miserable, but inside of us. That's what I have to remember when I pray, that I am asking for the serpent's head to be crushed in me and God knows as things get worse how much I have to frely on Grace to fight the temptations to resort to human actions, revenge etc. Such strong temptations at the moment.
Hi Carol55. You are entitled to your opinion. We can agree to disagree on that. But that "fixation" was not the primary subject of my response to you. In this post, I was responding to your specific questions to me after I had stated the following; PNF said: ↑ The Great Tribulation is universally-recognized as the 3.5 year period of the Antichrist. After which, you said the following in two different posts: I have now provided what you have requested. Do you now accept that the "great tribulation," discussed in Matthew 24, is the same as the "period of the Antichrist?" And that this is the "universally accepted" Catholic interpretation?
hello @PNF the sacred scripture makes a clear distinction between the first beast that receives the wound of the sword and the false prophet that induces people to worship the first, in fact one of the reasons for the first beast to be called the antichrist is the fact of its attributes being a satanic distorted imitation of Christ himself: MATTHEW 28:17-19 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. REVELATION 13:2 2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. REVELATION 1:8 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” REVELATION 17:8 8 The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and yet will come up out of the Abyss and go to its destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because it once was, now is not, and yet will come. REVELATION 7:1-3 7 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 3 “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God." REVELATION 13:16-17 16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. REVELATION 15:2 2 And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God.
PNF, You are correct that your post did not have anything to do with your fixation that I stated, I apologize for bringing it up. I agree with what Father Colm stated in that video that I posted which is that the Great Tribulation is not the Final Tribulation. Here is something else to consider. God has already stated in the Book of Revelation how the Final Tribulation will be dealt with which you posted above - Revelation 19:20. So, why would the Warning happen then? The Warning, the Aviso, as Malachi Martin explained is when God is going to put us on notice. So again, why would the Warning occur at the very end? I think that we will have to agree to disagree on this also.
Spot on! I have prayed that prayer too--that Our Lady will crush the head of the serpent in my life as well. Those temptations are strong-- to want the last word, to react to criticism with defiance. Its so hard to restrain anger and outrage in many situations in life. Especially if we feel wronged. Our human nature is so vulnerable to these temptations. I beg for the grace to bow my head and accept the Lord's Will for me. He sends people and situations into our lives to purify us. It took me SO long to learn this. My poor MIL punched all my buttons. I struggled to react with charity. I struggled not to have a deep animus toward her I am ashamed to say. My SIL was kinder than me. She saw our MIL as a wounded child and let the barbs and criticisms roll off her back. It wasn't until my MIL died that I realized what a gift my MIL was. How I was meant to learn from it. To grow in generosity of spirit. To learn true charity. I badly failed the test. I had been blessed with love my whole life. I had never encountered anyone who didn't like me. It was a shock to my system. LOL. It took years to have enough humility to return only kindness to her. God's grace. The last two years of her life she was with us. Another gift from God. I was able to try to repair for all my lack of love in past years by giving her patience and understanding and love. I genuinely grieved for her when she died. I still miss her and pray for her. The head of the serpent does dwell in us for sure. But as Jesus said to St Paul in 2 Corinthians: "I am enough for you. I show up best in weak people"(Living Bible) Probably TMI but it was a great lesson for me so thought I'd share it.
A visiting priest spoke about this in a homily. He told us he gets angry while driving, with people cutting him off , etc. He said he’s working on overcoming it. He said we should pray for those people. “those who trespass against us” is what I have to work on
Hi Carol55. I DID NOT say that the Warning would "occur at the very end." The Warning occurs in the middle of the "great tribulation"/Antichrist period. Here is what I said earlier in this post (with addition of the part in brackets for clarity): Here is the order of events OVERALL (in God's eyes): Tribulation --> Great Tribulation --> Warning/Miracle --> [PERIOD OF PEACE for "the elect" only] OR Wrath/Chastisement From the perspective of the ELECT: Tribulation (false prophets) --> Great Tribulation/Antichrist (shortened) --> Warning/Miracle --> Period of Peace From the perspective of the PERSECUTORS of the ELECT (including Catholics who side with the Antichrist): Period of wars, famines, earthquakes, etc. --> New Age of Peace and Human Fraternity --> Warning/Miracle --> Wrath/Chastisement The events will NOT be PERCEIVED in the same way by all people in the world. This is what you are missing.
I apologize again PNF but I don’t understand what you mean. It’s best that you give up trying to explain it to me and I really do take a break from this discussion, sorry. I did come across this video today which may be of interest to those here. God bless.
Satan tries to imitate and go above God as much as he can right? So, he will imitate the Trinity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 3 persons. Although the Holy Spirit is the third person, he is a spirit. What if Satan’s third person is also a spirit? Satan, Antichrist/False Prophet as a man, and the third is the spirit of Antichrist. Satan’s mimic of God’s trinity doesn’t just come once in history. It has come 3 times. The first Antichrist was Muhammad, the second Antichrist was Luther, and the current third Antichrist is ? That’s why Satan is symbolized by the number 6. He has his Trinity 3 + the 3 times his Trinity comes to earth. That’s why we are in the middle of the Great Apostasy. We are presently witnessing Revelations in our lifetime. This is it folks. Fr Gobbi was correct. This present Antichrist who has not revealed himself, yet, is the Antichrist written most about in scripture. I understand you PNF. But we will have to wait and see. We know this Antichrist fools even the elect. Many good priests including Father Rodrigue don’t believe Pope Francis is the Antichrist. We shall see.
I spent a while trying to find your comment above HH to sympathize. I get it! I have literally made myself nauseous surrendering negative feelings to God, and then am led to pray for certain people and hand them over to God. Still it's hard to keep in touch with some people in these times if there are still negative feelings brewing under the surface. I can now better appreciate the greatness of Our Lady, St Joseph and others who humbled themselves totally. I was reading the texts of Fr Michelini the other night and was given a passage where he is warned about the dangers of lingering resentments in him. He is told that the only way to get rid of them is through prayer because somehow the disgust he felt was also a natural reaction that needed supernatural Grace to overcome. This makes total sense to me especially in these very challenging times.
Andree, thank you for this! I totally agree. A priest told me to forgive, but if it’s toxic, we don’t have to continue to keep in touch. That works for me. Yes, we depend on supernatural graces. Sometimes I have to keep repeating the process. AED says Fr Ripperger says to pray for the person who hurt you and ask God to make them happy in this life and also in the next. AED said that we can forgive even if we don’t feel it. Just tell God you forgive them. The word resentment means to me a kind of long and smoldering issue. It is something I have always fought.
Thank you too HH and AED and others on the forum who help me to remember where the real battle is. I also saw this recent article about the miracles that the litany of Saints can bring if offered for souls. And there are also the prayers for the holy souls in purgatory too which are very powerful. This is another thing that the messages to Fr Michelini talk about, the gift of the communion of saints and how they can help us in our struggles. This always reminds me of that great battle in the Lord of the Rings!
“Create in me a clean heart O, Lord, And renew a right spirit within me.” Thank God for the Sacrament of Confession.
