Is The Pope The AntiChrist？ — Keith Malcomson

Our Bible study. We're coming to our next Bible study. Part 15 that we dealt with a week or two ago was concerning, will the Antichrist be a Muslim? But I want to move on here tonight to, is the Pope the Antichrist?

I definitely don't deal with controversial issues, I can assure you, but I want to take you to scripture tonight, reading from Daniel chapter 7. Daniel chapter 7, as we continue with this series, we're not dealing with this to be controversial or to provoke a reaction, absolutely not.

I wouldn't want to do that, I wouldn't want to waste my time. I've almost never spent time critiquing things and messages. This is utterly unique that I'm critiquing the Islamic Antichrist and now asking this question tonight.

So please don't think I have any other motive than feeling a necessity. Because listen to me, if I give you a description of a person and it's not accurate and you're waiting on that person and the description I give does not match, it's so vague or so contrary to the person you're waiting for, you're going to be looking in all the wrong directions.

And I assure you, if people are waiting for an Islamic Antichrist and yet he's not going to rise from Islam, you're going to be missing a hundred things that are happening, which are the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

That's why I'm dealing with this here tonight. And we're going to ask the question, will the Antichrist be the Pope or will the Pope be the Antichrist? Daniel chapter 7, reading first from verse 7 to verse 8.

After this I saw in the night vision and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly. And it had great iron teeth. It devoured and breaking pieces and it stamped the residue with the feet of it.

And it was diverse from all the beasts that went before it. And it had 10 horns. I considered the horns and behold, there came up among them another little horn before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots.

And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man and a mouth speaking great things. Then down to verse 19, then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron and his nails of brass, which devoured, breaking pieces and stamped the residue with his feet.

And of the 10 horns that were in his head and of the other, which came up and before whom three fell, even of that horn that had eyes and a mouth that speak very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.

I beheld and the same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them. Then last of all, just one last verse, verse 25, and he shall speak great words against the most high and shall wear out the saints of the most high and think to change times and laws.

And they shall be given into his hand until a time and a times and the dividing of times. Let's just pray here tonight. Father, we do love you. We exalt you. We thank you that even here as we gather, we know that the written scriptures carry absolute authority, no decree, no command by any church, by any Pope, by any Cardinal, nor God by no church committee.

It's your word that has absolute authority and we judge all things by the written scripture. Lord God, that is the only rule for faith. That is the only test of every spirit, every doctrine of every lifestyle.

And Lord God, we thank you for the supreme authority of the written scripture, that everything must submit itself to the truth written in this precious book that you've given us. Thank you for the headship of Jesus Christ, that we as a church have only one head.

We have only one sovereign Lord who speaks, who dictates, who rules, who has absolute authority over the church of Jesus Christ. We love you, Lord Jesus, that it's you that we look to for forgiveness of sins.

You are the only high priest over our salvation. You're the only one who can forgive us. You're our only intercessor. It's only in your name that we pray and it's only in you that we have salvation. We thank you that on the cross you made one sacrifice for sin, never to be repeated.

You laid down your life, shed your blood, you atoned for sin. Nothing can be added to that. Lord God, nothing can be improved on the one sacrifice you made. And we love you tonight, Lord Jesus. I thank you.

My sins are forgiven. I thank you. I have a high, great high priest at the right hand of the Father, whoever maketh intercession for the saints. We love you and Lord God, tonight I pray, make Christ to be the center of this message.

Even as we deal with other things, don't let us lose our vision of Christ. Let us see Christ preeminent in all things. In Jesus' mighty name. Amen. My message here tonight is, is the Pope the Antichrist?

As we said, we've done 14 messages expounding the book of Daniel. The last time we dealt with Islam and now we're going to deal with the Pope or the papacy in the Catholic Church. These messages have been added as an appendix purely to bring clarity because these are such live issues of those that are listening, the messages and what is going on in the Church today.

Last time, as we looked at the Islamic Antichrist, we noted that there is a difference between the Antichrist being an Arab and being a Muslim. There's a big difference in that. You see, I believe he will be an Arab, but I do not believe he will be a Muslim, but I want you to understand that those that teach the Islamic Antichrist, I agree with much that they teach and I'm very thankful for much that they teach, but I disagree that the Antichrist and his religion will be Muslim or Islamic.

I totally disagree and we showed that last time. We mentioned how Shubhat, one of the teachers concerning this, became a radical Catholic in the year 2014. No wonder he wanted to take the spotlight off the Pope and off the Catholic Church because he was a closet Catholic or someone moving towards a very radical Catholic view.

Today, he still preaches the Islamic Antichrist and mocks the idea that Catholicism could have anything to do with deception in the last days. We already said that Islam has 1 .8 billion people in the world who are members or associated with it.

That is 24 percent of the world's population, but we said that in a sequel's war that is soon to take place, that Islam is going to fall on the mountains of Israel and I believe that's going to be a momentous event that's going to open the way for an evangelizing of Muslims as well as for the rise of Antichrist.

But here tonight, let me go to ask the question, is the Pope the Antichrist? Some may think that such a question or idea or even a suspicion that the Pope or the papacy could be the Antichrist. They could think it's old-fashioned, out of date.

In this ecumenical era that we live in, everybody is a brother, we accept all churches and we have exalted love above doctrine, that we would simply talk about our Catholic brothers and sisters. After all, at Vatican II, which finished in 1964, surely the Vatican changed, the Catholic Church changed, it became open, it became more doctrinal, it allowed guitars and speaking in tongues, so surely it must be more biblical and more correct.

Let's look tonight at this question and we will look at a wide spectrum on this. If you look at the Catholic Church, it has 1 .3 billion members. A lot of them may be bad members, but they are still officially considered members.

That is 18 of the world's population, or almost one out of five people will even in a secular sense be considered Catholic in our world. So this is a major thing we're asking here tonight. It's not a small issue, it's major.

If we're Bible Christians and if we're looking at Bible prophecy, almost 40 of all Catholics actually live in South America and the Catholic Church is growing fastest within Africa. The Holy See, or what is called the Holy See in the Catholic Church, is the official government of the Catholic Church and it is headed up by a person called the Pope or an institution called the Papacy.

Vatican City State is a country, a nation within our world. It has only a population of, now listen carefully, 825 people. It has to be the smallest nation state in the world and yet its citizenship is far larger.

Every single Catholic has dual citizenship with this small Vatican City State. Every Catholic in the world is a citizen of Vatican City. It's considered a nation, a country, a government, a function and political system and yet it's the base, the headquarters of a religion.

It is the home of one of the biggest religions in the world. So we don't discount it. We recognize that the Catholic Church, that the papacy is a very powerful thing and if we're living in the last hour of the fulfilling of prophecy, where does it fit in?

Is it part of the bride? Is it a false harlot church? Is it going to be for the Antichrist or against the Antichrist? We ought to ask these questions. In the year 1871, the Holy See, its government, had only 16 foreign diplomats.

By 1929, it had 27 foreign diplomats. By the year 1985, it had diplomats or diplomatic relations with 53 different countries. I'm leading you somewhere here. But by 2013, look at the change over 150 years.

By 2013, it was exchanging diplomats with 180 nations in the world. The Catholic Church and the papacy has never been as strong politically, religiously, and numerically as it is tonight. Never has it been so strong.

These people, diplomats, are called nunisios. They carry more power and influence than any other secular diplomat from any country in the world, whether it be America or China or Britain or Ireland. They have extraordinary power and they're appointed by the Pope and immediately after finishing as a diplomat, they become an archbishop.

They are some of the best-informed men on the nation of the world. Imagine having diplomats that went out to all these 180-plus nations. Within each one of those nations, you have a large percentage within that country that adhere to you as a religion.

We see that these diplomats are religious, but they're also political. They have an entire people within each nation who are faithful to them and will feed them information. In fact, they have a loyalty to the papal state.

It is a remarkable institution, no matter what you think about it. Let's look at some of these recent popes. Pope Pius XII, who was the Pope during the Second World War. Let me just say, he was also a supporter initially of Mussolini, Hitler, and other tyrants that began to rise at that time.

I've recorded elsewhere where Pius actually commended Hitler and encouraged him after he invaded Austria. After he was on the march for world power, Pius was in there putting his stamp of blessing. Do you know the papers he signed agreements with Hitler, Mussolini, and going back to Napoleon, all these great political tyrants that have arisen?

Just trace back and you'll find that Rome has always signed legal agreements with them. It's a very political institution, and yet it's a very religious institution. Do you know, since Pope Pius XII in the Second World War, he began to promote and support European federalism or unification.

Not only that, as a pope after the war, he began to support the idea that the world ought to become a federal state under one power. He was a great supporter of the UN when it was formed in 1945. In fact, he suggested that an international, supernational institution would be invaluable for world peace.

He also believed that such an institution should receive, and listen to this, this is what the Pope of the Second World War said, that this institution should receive supreme power to act without the constraint of national governments.

Do you know, since the Second World War, every single pope in Rome has been a supporter of a world government. In 1964, the Holy See, the government of Rome, was granted observer status at the United Nations.

1964. Her UN status was not only confirmed in 2004, but it was strengthened. Do you realize no other religion has an ambassador at the UN? The Catholic Church is the only religious institution that will be represented in the United Nations, and her power recognized.

Each pope since Pius XII has given wholehearted support to the United Nations, and as a result, the UN has invited each pope to address its parliament, straight the way down to Pope Francis. Now Pope Francis is the Green Pope.

He is the Pope of the New World Order. He is actually 100 behind the Great Reset, and all that is happening in our world, climate change, the green change, all of this wealth redistribution, he's a great supporter.

So we see the loyalty of all these men. Don't tell me it's not important to ask this question tonight, whether the Pope is the Antichrist or not. Don't tell me it's not an important question. It's a vital question, because it's one of the most remarkable political religious systems on our Earth, and we are in the last days, and we need to know where it fits in.

Pope Paul VI in the year 1967, listen to what he stated. Amazing. I could give you hundreds of these quotes that would shock you tonight, but he stated in 1967, the right to private property is not absolute and unconditional.

And the public authorities, in other words governments, could intervene in private ownership for the greater good of all. Then Pope John Paul, who was one of the most liked of all popes, like previous popes, he called for international law.

Be very careful, when international law comes, it will not be a good thing. These men want it. So he called for international law to manage world affairs and wealth redistribution. John Paul's funeral on the 8th of April 2005 turned out to be the largest gathering of international statesmen outside of the UN in world history.

There were four kings, five queens, and at least 70 presidents and prime ministers there at his funeral. It was remarkable, utterly astounding. If we begin to look at the pope, the papacy, the religious system, if we test it by scripture, we begin to find that the pope is actually called the vicar of Christ.

The word vicar means to be in place of. And in fact, many people have pointed out it is the word for antichrist, the vicar of Christ, to stand in the place of Christ in the earth. That is one of his names, one of his titles.

He claims to stand in the position or in the place or to represent Christ on the earth. What is the antichrist? Antichrist doesn't always mean to be against. The word antichrist also means to stand in the place of, to take up the position of.

He also claims to be the head, the only head on the earth of the worldwide catholic church. My bible tells me that Jesus is the only head of the church on earth or in heaven. And yet here we have one of the most ancient, long running, respected institutions on the earth with its leader, the pope, claiming to be the head of maybe one fifth of the world's population to represent this religious system.

When you begin looking at catholic doctrine, it didn't become more broad and open at Vatican II. It actually intensified its doctrines. Its doctrines are worse than at the time of the reformation. They still claim to have power to forgive sins.

They still add works to grace as a means of salvation. The mass that each pope, that each catholic priest in each city and town across the world, performs almost daily, the mass is an abomination. If you look at their teaching, they believe that Christ is sacrificed afresh in the mass.

They believe he dies afresh, his blood is shed afresh, that this is his body and his blood. They believe that. That is an abomination and a denial of Jesus Christ's finished work on the cross. They say prayers to Mary, yet Jesus said, he taught them, he said, don't even pray to me.

When you pray, pray to your father in heaven. It's a denial of Christ's teaching. They also pray to saints. It is filled with idolatry. One of the commands says, don't bow down, don't make an image. Yet they do that.

It's all through Catholicism. They have enforced celibacy of the priesthood. Immorality has spread through their institution. We've seen it here in Ireland, the abuse in monasteries, nunneries of a young generation in our world.

Everyone knows it to be true. And also, if you go back into history, you'll find that the Catholic church was one of the biggest land thieves in all of history. Just google, look up the donation of Constantine.

It was exposed in the year 1516. And now they would never stand with it. But that document, the donation of Constantine was used to steal nations, lands, states of governments and peoples for many hundreds, several hundreds of years.

I assure you, this is massive, what we are looking at. Now here tonight, I want just for a moment to look at a teaching that's called historicism. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it, don't know about it, but historists actually teach that the Pope is the Antichrist.

In fact, let me go further, that the papacy from the first Pope straight through to Francis, not one individual man, but the man, the person, the office, this position of the Pope is the Antichrist. Now I'm going to tell you which men believed this throughout church history.

These were not flakes. They were not foolish people. But often there were men that were part of the system, got saved in the midst of it and suffered at its hands. Now historists, what do they believe?

It's not as popular today, but I believe it will have something of a reviving in our day. What do they believe? When you go to the book of Daniel, they actually believe the four empires, just like what we've taught in this series.

And they believe that the fourth one is Rome, the Roman empire. They also believe in the teaching from Daniel. What they teach is that when Rome fell, that it was going to be divided into 10 nations, 10 kings, 10 nations were going to rise up after the fall of Rome.

And that after those 10 nations rise up, that a man called the Pope, the papacy, the Antichrist, who was going to have his base in the city of Rome, he was going to rise up. And for a thousand years, this institution of the papacy, all different men come in one after the other, but that institution would be the little horn of Daniel's prophecy that we read about in Daniel seven.

They actually have taught on men all through church history for a thousand years have taught that the little horn was the Antichrist who is the Pope at each individual time and that the papacy would continue until Jesus returned physically to the earth.

They didn't believe he was, the Antichrist was an individual man, but a succession of man or the papacy. They also taught in the book of Revelation that the seven churches were seven church ages, which covered all of church history and Thyatira was the greatest era of the Catholic church.

And so they fit all this in. Now, let me tell you some of the men, only a few of the men who actually taught this, that I've just told you that the Pope, according to Daniel is the little horn. Two are some of those that believed it.

John Wycliffe of England, who came out of the Catholic church, taught the Pope was the Antichrist. He was before the reformation. Savonarola, a Catholic priest in Italy, taught the Antichrist was, or sorry, the Pope was the Antichrist.

Martin Luther from Germany taught it. John Calvin of France, John Knox of Scotland, William Tyndale, who was one of the great translators of our English Bible. He was an Englishman. He taught that. The translators of the King James Bible believed the Pope was the Antichrist.

Sir Isaac Newton, that great thinker of England, he believed it as well. John Bunyan from Bedford, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, he believed this. So did Matthew Henry, the great commentator. John Wesley, who raised up the Methodist movement, he taught this as well.

George Whitfield, that great revival preacher. Albert Barnes, the commentator. A .J. Gordon, a preacher from America, a great missionary ambassador, he taught it. J .C. Ryle, an English Anglican, he taught it.

C .H. Spurgeon, the English Baptist, he taught it. Hudson Taylor, the missionary to China, he taught it. D .L. Moody, the evangelist from America, he believed it. Now I've got you all worried. You'll be believing this.

And also H .G. Guinness, who was a great evangelist from Ireland, of the Guinness family. He was a great revivalist. And in the 1859 revival in Northern Ireland, he was far greatly more used than even Spurgeon.

They said he was a far greater preacher. And he's seen tens of thousands turn to the Lord. A .B. Simpson, the great missionary in America, he taught that the Pope was the Antichrist, the papacy. And also, down to more recent times, Martin Lloyd-Jones also taught it, a great expositor of the Bible.

Five Arguments Against Identifying the Pope as the Singular Antichrist

Now we know at the Reformation, the Reformation began with Luther and all of the, some of these other men, and new churches raised up, they all believed. The Presbyterians, the Reformation churches, all of these new churches began to believe this.

They taught it wholeheartedly. And they began to be called Protestants. Now Protestants doesn't mean that they protest. Everyone thinks it means that. It doesn't mean that at all. Do you realize the founders, the first Protestants, if you go back and trace all the founding leaders, all the first Protestants who taught this, they actually were first Catholic priests.

They were born into Catholicism. Their families for generations have been in it. They grew up in it. They ministered in it. They become Catholic priests in it. They knew it. But you know what? God saved them out of it in a mighty, mighty way.

Many spiritual movements in history have believed the Pope was the Antichrist. The ancient Valdenzians, who were all across Italy and France and Europe prior to the Reformation, they believed this. The Hussites and Bohemia before the Reformation, they believed it.

The Law Lords all across England, they believed it. So it's not a new teaching. It is a widespread teaching and certainly was very strong from the 1200. After the Reformation, the Puritans almost all believed it.

The Covenanters of Scotland almost all believed it. The Baptists straight down to the early Pentecostal revival. All the great missionary movements of the 18th and 19th century. All the great revivals straight up to the Welsh revival.

The leaders believed in this doctrine. And so it's a very remarkable thing that we're dealing with. Even in the year 1988, lest you think it's just an old-fashioned thing. In 1988, and I remember this clearly and you can watch it on YouTube, Pope John Paul II was the first religious leader to address the European Parliament at Strasbourg.

That's the man they chose, John Paul. As he stood to speak, he was just about to begin his speech. In the background, a old-fashioned street preacher rose up and you could hear his voice booming out.

It was I .R .K. Paisley, an MP from Northern Ireland, but also an old-fashioned preacher. And you know what, he was shouting, crying out. See, he was a member of the Parliament. In fact, he had the highest European vote of any politician that was in that Parliament at that time.

He had the highest vote, the most popular. And he was in there and he began to cry out, I denounce you, the Pope, as the Antichrist of Rome. And he kept pulling posters out and as he snatched it off, he pulled another one out with it written upon him.

Men immediately were upon him, punched him, the security guards removed him and the Pope smiled. It was like something out of the days of Luther or the Dark Ages, where an old-fashioned preacher stood up and denounced the Pope for what he was exposing him.

While the idea of the people Antichrist has a very long and respectable history and much truth connected to it, I personally cannot agree with it. I wonder if I can, and the clock's against me, I can assure you already, but praise God, we're right in the midst of the stream now.

But I want to show you, if I can, simply and briefly, if that's possible, why I do not believe this. I respect these men. I believe much that they taught, I would actually agree with. A bit like the Islamic Antichrist, there's a lot I can agree with, but not the fundamental issue that the Antichrist will be a Muslim.

So it is with this, I agree with much that they stood for. Many of them suffered terribly. All the martyrs for a thousand years suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church. I have a high estimation, much that they preach taught, I agree with, but I believe they were wrong in saying that the Pope was the Antichrist or that the papacy fulfills the prophecies.

I do not believe that. I believe there'll be a singular Antichrist who arises very shortly in our world, at the end of the age, and he'll be here when the Jesus Christ returns. So let me at least try and give you five points in this of why I do not believe the Pope is the Antichrist.

Is he an Antichrist? Yes. Yes. But he's one of many Antichrists, but there is going to be one singular Antichrist. Now, why did I not believe this teaching of the historists that see this teaching and all of these great men of God, who I highly respect, down over church history and these spiritual movements that I've written about and talked about, why do I believe differently?

How could these men have been wrong? My first point, and we're going to look at Daniel chapter seven here, and my five points, we're going to look at what they believed, and I'm going to simply point out why I would disagree, why these great preachers and teachers, why I would differ from them, and you can decide for yourself.

The Fourth Beast and the Roman Empire

First of all, the fourth beast, the fourth beast. Let's look at this, what they believed, what I believe, and what you're going to have to decide the Bible teaches. It says in Daniel chapter seven, verse seven, and this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth, it devoured and it'd break in pieces, and it stamped the residue with the feet of it, and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.

Now the historians, these great men who've taught this down over the years, now I agree with them in this point that the fourth beast is the Roman Empire. They taught and believed this without a doubt.

They believed the same as us on the four empires, their identity, their rise and their fall, and like us they believe the fourth beast is the Roman Empire, situated with its headquarters in the city of Rome, with its imperial leadership.

We agree with them, they actually taught this, but concerning this fourth beast they went a little further. Now listen carefully what I'm going to say. It's a scripture you all know well I'm sure. It's from 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 7, talking about the revealing and the rise and the manifestation of Antichrist.

Now listen this verse and listen to how they interpret it, or how they did in history. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 7. For the mystery of iniquity does already work from the days of Paul, the early church.

It's already working. What is the mystery of iniquity? It's going to lead to the manifestation of the Antichrist. Only he who now let us will let until he be taken out of the way. This is all in the context of Antichrist, that there is something hindering him until it be taken out of the way.

Do you know what they actually taught? They taught that this something, this hindrance to the revealing of Antichrist was the Roman Empire. That's what they believed. They believed holding back the mystery of iniquity, holding back the revealing of Antichrist was the Roman Empire, and that the Roman Empire had a fall for Antichrist to arise.

So they believed in history. Up until that point, we agreed with them. But in saying that the Roman Empire was going to fall, and when it fell, that the Antichrist was going to arise, and it's been there in place since then.

Now it's a beautiful teaching this, because it was brilliant men studying it, praying over it, laboring over this, and it's a remarkable teaching, far better put together than the Islamic Antichrist. The Islamic Antichrist, there's no traction on this when you begin to read it, but they believed the Caesar's imperial Rome was holding this back.

In fact, when Constantine the Great, the great Roman Emperor, who at the end of his days supposedly converted to be a Catholic Christian, he himself believed that a day was coming when the Roman Empire was going to fall, and that there was going to be 10 divisions, and then Antichrist as an individual would appear.

So Constantine the Great, that great emperor of the Roman Empire, one of its greatest and last leaders, he actually believed that's why he unified the Roman Empire. When he was a young man, it was all divided, sometimes divided in four, and he believed the Bible prophecy that said when it divided into 10, then Antichrist would come.

So what did Constantine the Great try to do? He unified it. It was in four regions, he unified it down to two, and then finally one. Why did he do that? Driving him was the thought that if he could unify the Roman Empire and leave a united empire, that Antichrist wouldn't arise soon.

It was actually Christians taught him about Bible prophecy. They said 10 kings will arise, then a little horn, it would be a singular Antichrist that would bring tribulation against the saints, and so Constantine the Great was scared of that ever happening in his day.

Well after the death of Constantine the Great in the year 337, there was a steady and slow decline, and a breaking apart, and a disintegration of the Roman Empire, and especially the influence of the western half of the empire, until Theodicius I, who died in the year 395, was the last emperor to rule over a united Roman Empire.

The last one over a united Roman Empire in the year 395. After that, the city of Rome and the Roman Empire started to get attacked on their northern border. There were various Germanic, very aggressive, very military, very strong military-wise, with armies began to attack the northern border of the army.

All of these Germanic tribes came one after another. There were the Franks, the Goths, the Huns, the Vandals. You may not have known that a Vandal was a tribe that came down against the Roman Empire. Just wave upon wave upon wave.

The Suevs, the Burgundies, there were various tribes swept in, causing a decline of the western Roman Empire, and this all happened within a hundred year period. The great Roman Empire began to disintegrate.

You see, all these men actually taught this. They believed these tribes were the ten kings. We're going to look at it shortly, but in the year 401, Alaric, the first king of the Visigoths, he invaded Italy, but he was defeated and held back, but finally in the year 410, he sacked the city of Rome, invaded it, raped and pillaged for three long days as his people moved into the city of Rome.

Do you realize in that year 410, it was the first time in 800 years that the Roman government had been subdued by a foreign force like this? It was called the Fall of Rome or the Beheading of Rome. This one act sent shockwaves across the entire Roman Empire and the church.

Then one generation later after this, or in fact two generations, the last emperor of the Western Empire, he was called Romulus Augustus. He was forced to abdicate in the year 476 by these other forces that come in.

At the time he was a 15 year old boy and at that point he only ruled over Italy and the south of Gaul. He was forced to step down, he was forced to abdicate his position, his title, and his position was abolished in that particular year.

The man who came in was a Roman general of Germanic descent and blood and he appointed himself as the king of Italy, but the imperial Rome was finished. Now here's where the historists, this is what they believe, that once Rome was removed, then all these tribes arose and out of this arose the Catholic Church, the papacy.

As soon as the imperial political Rome was removed from Rome, from the city of Rome, when its power comes in, the papacy arose. Now they're absolutely right, they're absolutely right that these things actually began to happen, but listen, why do I not believe that they're correct in their interpretation?

Rome at this point did not divide into 10 regions, 10 nations, or into 10 kings. Also here's another reason, at this point the eastern portion of the Roman Empire, based at Constantinople in Turkey, it continued for another thousand years, so this was only the western portion.

It did not divide into 10 and it was only the western section of it. This is what they don't acknowledge and I believe they've made a mistake. Also this first and second Thessalonians, listen carefully before I move to my second point, it says there in second Thessalonians concerning something being taken out of the way, that Antichrist will not come forth until something is taken out of the way.

We know in our day most people, most Bible teachers will say it's the Holy Spirit or it is the church, it is the rapture, it's the removal of the real church. They say it has to be taken out of the way in our day for Antichrist to be revealed, so they say the Holy Spirit is removed from the earth.

This has been popular teaching using this verse here in second Thessalonians chapter 2. Only he who now let us will let until he be taken out of the way and they say very often that that's the Holy Spirit.

I disagree and let me just prove it. I'm not going into this very deep but let me prove that it isn't the Holy Spirit. A simple look at the Greek and you can do this after that. You can go look in your Strong's Concordance, test it for yourself.

You don't need to argue with me. It'll be proved if you simply look at the term taken out of the way. If you look at the Greek, do you know what it means? It means to be birthed forth in the midst. It's not something being removed.

It's something being birthed forth in the midst. That is the specific Greek. In fact, the word genitai here for to be taken out, taken out is the Greek genitai. It's used 600 times in the New Testament and you know what?

Never once does it mean the removal or the taken out of anything. It actually doesn't. Now I believe we're going to be caught up to meet Jesus in the clouds. I believe that so don't get confused here but all I'm saying is this particular term does not teach about the removal of the Holy Spirit or the church being moved out of the way.

It doesn't teach that. The word actually means to be birthed forth. It's to give birth. It's the term for a mother giving birth for a child. So what is it talking about? It's not talking about the removal of something.