Please read my previous post on the Beasts of Daniel first.

Many persons are misleading the faithful on the topic of eschatology. So I will be doing a series of posts on eschatology so that you will have a good understanding of the topic, and will not be misled.

First, the valid Roman Pontiff is that Pope accepted by the body of Bishops. The Church is indefectible, therefore the body of Bishops, the successors of the Apostles, can never go astray by following a false head. Francis is accepted by the body of Bishops, so he is the valid successor of Peter. Remember that the Church is indefectible and Apostolic. Follow the Roman Pontiffs and the body of Bishops in communion with each Roman Pontiff. Reject anyone who rejects any Roman Pontiff, the body of Bishops, or any Ecumenical Council.

Everything taught by Vatican Two on faith and morals is infallible. Ecumenical Councils teach infallibly either by a definition of dogma, or by teaching definitively. When the Pope and the body of Bishops together teach one doctrine definitively to be held, it is infallible and irreformable. Reject anyone who rejects any Ecumenical Council.

No Roman Pontiff will ever be the Antichrist, nor the false prophet associated with the Antichrist. The Antichrist wishes to be worshiped as if he were God, so he does not wish to be Pope. And the false prophetess (the Harlot, the Jezebel of Revelation) is the head of the Antichrist’s false Church, not the head of the Catholic Church, which the Antichrist and the false prophetess wish to destroy.

Do not believe any eschatology which proposes that the Antichrist becomes Pope, or that the false prophet becomes Pope, or that any Pope goes astray from the true Faith, or that the institutional Church (the body of Bishops led by the Pope) goes astray. The gates of Hell cannot prevail over the Church.

Now, in my previous post, I described the four beast of Daniel, which are four successive kingdoms that rise and fall after the first part of the tribulation. The future is divided into three parts:
* the first part of the tribulation
* the inter-tribulation period
* the second part of the tribulation

If anyone says that the Antichrist is in the world today, do not believe anything they say about eschatology. He is certainly in the distant future.

The first part of the tribulation begins soon and continues until the Three Days of Darkness in late March of 2040 AD. The inter-tribulation period includes the four beast of Daniel:
1. The kingdom of the great Catholic monarch (2040 to 2065 or so), followed by his divided kingdom
2. Russia and its satellite nations (2100s)
3. The Alliance of Four nations: China, Africa (not including the northern part), India, and another area (2200s)
4. The kingdom of the ten kings (2300s)

Then, in the early 25th century (2400s), the Antichrist rises to power and the kingdom of the ten kings becomes the kingdom of the Antichrist. Then after the Antichrist, ten new wicked kings attempt to rise to power, but are put down.

The various nations described by Daniel have not risen and fallen, one after another. The world has not yet been divided into ten kingdoms. So the Antichrist is not in the world today.

Antichrist Rises To Power

{7:7} After this, I watched in the vision of the night, and behold, a fourth beast, terrible yet wondrous, and exceedingly strong; it had great iron teeth, eating yet crushing, and trampling down the remainder with his feet, but it was unlike the other beasts, which I had seen before it, and it had ten horns.
{7:8} I considered the horns, and behold, another little horn rose out of the midst of them. And three of the first horns were rooted out by its presence. And behold, eyes like the eyes of a man were in this horn, and a mouth speaking unnatural things.

The ten horns are the ten kings over the ten kingdoms. Then the Antichrist rises to power, becoming the leader of the kingdom of the North (Europe). He is from the South (Middle East), but he hides his origins (since the North and South will have been at enmity for generations). He has little power at first, because in the North power is shared among leaders at various levels.

{11:20} And there will stand up in his place one who is most worthless and unworthy of kingly honor. And in a short time, he will be worn out, but not in fury, nor in battle.
{11:21} And there will stand up in his place the despicable one, and he will not be assigned the honor of a king. And he will arrive in secret, and he will obtain the kingdom by deceitfulness.
{11:22} And the arms of the fighting will be assaulted before his face and will be shattered, and, in addition, the leader of the federation.
{11:23} And, after making friends, he will trick him, and he will go up and will overcome with a small people.

The king of 11:20 is the king of the North just before the Antichrist. Then “the despicable one”, the Antichrist, takes his kingship. He first consolidates power in the North by internal battles; this is necessary because the North is a federation. The Antichrist turns it into a dictatorship.

Then there is a war between the North and the South. These two kingdoms will have the strongest militaries. So the Antichrist must rule both in order to gain power over the whole world. Because they will have been at war for generations, it is easy for him to go to war as the king of the North against the South.

Also, the kingdom of the South includes the Holy Land, and is the least sinful of the ten kingdoms. It is the kingdom that still protects religious worship, and it has the most devout and the most in number of Christians. So the Antichrist wishes to defeat that kingdom for that reason also: it stands in the way of him being worshiped as if he were a god.

{7:23} And thus he said, “The fourth beast will be the fourth kingdom on earth, which will be greater than all the kingdoms, and will devour the whole earth, and will trample and crush it.
{7:24} Moreover, the ten horns of the same kingdom will be ten kings, and another will rise up after them, and he will be mightier than the ones before him, and he will bring down three kings.

The one who is mightier than past earthly kings is the Antichrist. He defeats three of the ten kings in the kingdom of the ten kings. The first defeated king is the king of the South, who will be a Christian (but very sinful).

{11:25} And his strength and his heart will be enraged against the king of the South with a great army. And the king of the South will be provoked into going to war by having many allies and exceedingly good circumstances, and yet these will not stand, for they will form plans against him.
{11:26} And those who eat bread with him will crush him, and his army will be suppressed, and very many will die, having been executed.

The king of the South is defeated by betrayal, rather than by battles. So the militaries of the North and the South are largely preserved intact.

{9:26} And after sixty-two weeks of years, the Christ leader will be slain. And the people who have denied him will not be his. And the people, when their leader arrives, will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will be devastation, and, after the end of the war, the desolation will be set up.

When the king of the South, the Christian leader, is slain, the followers of the Antichrist realize that there are no longer any protections for religion, as the kingdom of the South had prevailed on the other kingdoms to allow religious worship. So his followers destroy the Roman Pontiff and Vatican City and the Churches of Rome. And in other places, churches are attacked along with religious leaders.

The Antichrist then has much power. The kingdom of the ten kings was built upon a worldwide balance of power, which lasted about a century. And now that the Antichrist controls the two strongest kingdoms, North and South, the other kings are afraid. So the next two most powerful kings, those of China and Africa (excluding the northern part of Africa, which is part of the “South”), try to deceive the Antichrist.

{11:27} And the heart of two kings will be similar, to do harm, and they will speak lies at one table, but they will not succeed, because as yet the end is for another time.
{11:28} And he will return to his land with many resources. And his heart will be against the holy testament, and he will act, and he will return to his own land.

But the Antichrist, assisted by fallen angels, obtains the defeat of these two kings by betrayals as well. And the prophecy is fulfilled that he will defeat three kings: the South, the East (China), and the Meridian (Africa).

{8:9} But from one of them came forth one little horn, and it became great against the Meridian, and against the East, and against the strength.

The “strength” is the South, as that kingdom will be strong in Faith.

The Antichrist as the king of the North defeats the three next most powerful kingdoms. Now, controlling four of the ten kingdoms, the other six kings realize they cannot defeat him. So they make a pact with him, to give him control of the whole world.

This is the meaning of the beast with seven heads and ten horns. The Antichrist defeats three kings, leaving himself as the king over four kingdoms and then the other six kings. Thus the kingdom of the ten kings becomes a kingdom with seven kings but ten kingdoms.

{9:27} But he will confirm a covenant with many for one week of years; and for half of the week of years, victim and sacrifice will nearly cease; but there will be in the temple the abomination of desolation. And the desolation will continue even to the consummation and the end.”

The reign of the Antichrist lasts more than six years and less than seven years. During the second half of his reign, the false prophetess assists him in devising a formal structure for his religion, a type of false Church, by which these two attempt to destroy the Catholic Christian Faith and replace it with the worship of the Antichrist. But they fail.

More on this is found in my books on eschatology at Amazon.

Note added 3/26/2021: I was reading older messages of the Virgin Mary in Brazil (true revelations but to a schismatic, Pedro Regis).

2,532 – Message from Our Lady Queen of Peace, transmitted in 6/5/2005
…A man with good appearance, this is the antichrist, will gain great satanic power. This evil event will happen on the feast of a great saint, he who when called by God fell from his horse and had his live transformed…..

This indicates that the date is that particular Feast of St. Paul which commemorates his conversion, not one of Paul’s other feasts. It is held, presently, on January 25th each year. So this indicates that the Antichrist “will gain great Satanic power” on that day of that month. Instead of the date for the start of the reign of the Antichrist over the whole world, I believe it is the date for the start of the formal religion of the Antichrist, which occurs about 1010 days after the start of his reign. The Antichrist loses a battle, then he takes counsel. The Jezebel, an apostate Catholic woman, suggests he force the world to worship him through the use of a formal religion and a new “Church”, which is a perverse imitation of the Catholic faith, with elements from other religions. This start for the Antichrist’s formal religion about 1010 days after he takes power, is January 25th of the year. Then there will be 1260 days, until Enoch and Elijah die (in July 2437). Next they lay dead for 3 more days, rise on the 4th day and are assumed into Heaven. Then the Antichrist loses control of his kingdom. He cannot claim to be a god anymore, and the whole kingdom and its religion is based on that now-proven-false claim.

He takes counsel and decides to attempt a fake Ascension into Heaven, to regain control. This might occur on August 15th, the date of Mary’s true Assumption. The Antichrist’s kingdom is a perverse imitation of Catholicism. The Antichrist is struck down by the Archangel Michael during his fake Ascension. He lies broken but alive on the ground. Later he is thrown into Hell alive, with the false prophetess.

by
Ronald L. Conte Jr.
Roman Catholic theologian and translator of the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Bible.

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