"The leaders of your country and the rulers of your world are faster and faster plunging forward, bringing in the reign of the evil one whom you will know as the Antichrist of one world. The plan for his rule has been set for many years." - Our Lady, August 14, 1974
"We beg you, brothers, not to be so easily agitated or terrified ... into believing that the day of the Lord is here ... since the mass apostasy has not yet occurred nor the man of lawlessness been revealed — that son of perdition and adversary who exalts himself above every so-called god proposed for worship, he who seats himself in God's temple and even declares himself to be God." (2 Thess. 2:1-4)
***
What is clear and undeniable from the passage we have just quoted is that, before the end of the world, there will appear on earth a profoundly evil man, invested with a quasi-superhuman power, who, challenging Christ, will wage an impious and foolish war against Him. Through the fear this man will inspire, and, particularly, by his stratagems and seductive genius, he will succeed in conquering almost the entire universe; he will have altars erected to himself and will compel all peoples to adore him.
Will this strange man, unique in his evil, be one of our race? Will his face have the features of man, and will the same blood as ours flow in the veins of this ringleader of error and corruption? Or, as some have understood, will he be an incarnation of Satan, a demon thrown up from hell, and disguised in human form?
Or again, as other Doctors have maintained, is this wicked creature just a myth, an allegorical personage, in whom Holy Scripture and the Fathers intended to portray, in a single image, the totality of tyrants and persecutors — to set out prominently the collective image of all the wicked and all the heretics who have fought against Christ and His Church, since the beginning of time?
These
various interpretations cannot be reconciled with the
definite, precise text of the Sacred Books. Almost all the Doctors
and Fathers,
Daniel informs us that the Antichrist will attack all that is holy and worthy of respect, exalt himself boldly against the God of gods and consider as nothing the God of his Fathers: "Is Deum patrum suorum non reputabit." (Cf. Dan. 11:37) The apostle Paul adds that Christ will kill him. All these various aspects and characteristics evidently cannot be applied to an ideal, abstract being; they can fit only an individual of flesh and blood — a real, definite personage.
The
Fathers and Doctors endeavored to ascertain the origin
of the
Antichrist, and to discover from what parents and race he
will come.
They unanimously express the opinion that he will
be born
of Jewish parents, and some declare that he will be of the tribe of Dan. Such is
the interpretation they give of the passage of Genesis, "Let Dan be a snake in
the way, a serpent in the path" (Cf. Gen. 49:17);
and of this other
one from Jeremiah: "The snorting of his horses
was heard from Dan." (Cf. Jer. 8:16) They
also surmise that
But all these suppositions are uncertain. What seems beyond doubt is that the Antichrist will be of Jewish birth. St. Ambrose, in his commentaries on the letter to the Thessalonians, says that he will be circumcised. Sulpicius Severus, in book II of his Dialogues, says that he will compel all his subjects to submit to circumcision.
Moreover,
all concur in saying that at the beginning of his
reign he
will succeed, by means of his trickery and fame, in making
the Jews believe that he is the
Messiah whom they have unceasingly awaited, and they, in their blindness, will
hasten to receive him and honor him as such.
That is how Suarez and most of the
commentators interpret this saying of our Lord Jesus Christ, in
The same
meaning must be given to these other words of
Will he be
born of an illegitimate union? The theologian
Suarez tells us that it is
uncertain. Nevertheless, it may be presumed
that a man so utterly evil, so opposed to Christ in his life
and morals, will have an infamous origin;
and, just as Jesus Christ had the
Immaculate Virgin as His mother, so we may conclude, by
analogy and induction, that His avowed
adversary will be born of
an impure union, and will be the
offspring of an unchaste woman. "He will be a child of fornication," says St.
John Damascene, "and his birth will be saturated with the breath and spirit of
Satan." (De fide orthodoxa)
What may be safely asserted of this man of iniquity is that, right from his most tender years, he will be completely possessed by the spirit and genius of the Devil. The lion of the abyss, which, in the last ages of mankind, God will unleash in His inscrutable justice in order to punish the infidelity of men, will unite himself with him in a certain way, infusing him with the fullness of his evil. No doubt he will not be deprived of the assistance of his guardian angel, nor of the necessary help of sufficient grace, which God bestows in this life upon every single man (Suarez, Disputationes); but his hatred of God will be so violent, his aversion for every good work so invincible, and his association and commerce with the spirit of darkness so close and continual that, from his cradle to his last breath, he will remain immutably hostile to all divine invitations, and grace from above will never penetrate his heart.
The adversary of the last times, then, will not only set
himself up as the avowed, personal enemy of Jesus Christ: he will aim
openly to dethrone Him, to replace Him in
the homage and veneration of men and
have directed to himself the worship and glory
that are due to the Creator alone. He will
declare, says
In order
to lend greater credence to this belief, he will counter
divine revelation with false
revelations; in opposition to the ceremonies
of divine worship, he will set up his own impious rites; and,
against the eternal Church founded by Christ,
he will constitute an abominable
society, of which he will be the leader and pontiff.
Through him Satan will put the seal on his wickedness. He will make this living figure the quintessence, as it were, of all the sinister schemes he has formed against mankind, and will not cease to arouse in him the burning, implacable hatred of God that moves him; and the Lord of heaven, in His hidden counsels, will allow this firebrand from hell to prevail for a time.
St. Thomas characterizes this delegate of Satan by calling him "caput omnium malorum" (Summa Theologica, III, Q. 8): the prince and instigator of all the covetousness of the flesh and all the aberrations of the mind — so much so that the masters of lies and architects of evil who have followed one another in the course of the ages will seem, by comparison with this man, mere pygmies beside a giant. Thus, he will repeat the infamous deeds of Nero; he will be filled with the hatred and violence of Diocletian; he will have the cunning and duplicity of Julian the Apostate; he will resort to intimidation and will bend the earth beneath his scepter like Mohammed; he will be a learned man, a philosopher, a skillful orator, outstanding in the arts and in the manufacturing sciences; he will handle mockery and ridicule like Voltaire. Lastly, he will work wonders, and rise into the air like Simon Magus. (Cf. Acts 8:9-24)
If you
ask why Divine Providence will allow him to exercise
such power and seduction,
***
Now, is
it improbable that, in social conditions like ours, in
which the most dreadful and
unforeseen events loom up with the rapidity
of steam and lightning, there may live a man who will take advantage of
the chaos into which our revolutions will have cast
us, and succeed in beguiling the masses and
gaining mastery over minds and hearts; then, pledging himself to
regenerate mankind, will send out a
rallying cry to which all his co-religionists will respond, thus
achieving the conquest of universal power, a stupendous
dominion over minds and bodies, a dominion accepted enthusiastically
by the universality of misled, seduced peoples?
Lastly,
may we not believe that this powerful and wicked man, who will imprison the
world in the jaws of an indescribable, unrestrained
despotism and unify the human race through the enslavement
of consciences and the humbling of spirits, will be the
personage portrayed and
predicted by St. John as the Antichrist, and that he will be the man whom Divine
Providence has desired to use in order to
undeceive Israel, who will at first have acclaimed
him as her Messiah and King?
Finally, what will be the characteristic marks of the persecution under the Antichrist? Its main features have been described by Cornelius à Lapide and Suarez, in accordance with Scripture and the Fathers.
At the outset, what is certain and should be taken in faith is that, of all the persecutions the Church has had to suffer, that of the Antichrist will be the most terrible and the most violent.
First, because this persecution will be general, and will extend over the whole earth. It is written: "They spread over the whole country and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city" (Cf. Rev. 20:8-9).
St. Augustine, in book 20 of the City of God, explains this text from St. John by saying that all the infidels, heretics, sectarians, and depraved men, scattered over the surface of the earth, will unite with the Antichrist to make war on the saints and to persecute those who are faithful to God.
Secondly, this persecution will be the most severe and violent of all because it will be inspired not by superstition or fanaticism, nor by a blind attachment to the worship of idols, as were the persecutions unleashed by the pagan emperors. Its purpose will not be to assuage pride, or to satisfy an unbridled lust for power, like the persecution of Mohammed. Nor will it be aroused by the unrestrained lusts of the flesh and by the lure of plunder, like the one to which the German princes subjected the Church under Protestantism and in the lifetime of Luther. It will be a persecution inspired solely by hatred of God, in which God and His Christ will be directly challenged, and its sole objective will be the extermination of the divine kingdom, the complete annihilation of Christianity and of all positive religion. Thus, the Tiberiuses, Neros, and the most frightful tyrants of paganism at least acknowledged an apprehension and, as it were, a distant reflection of the divinity in the idols, which they sought to compel the Christians to adore; but, in the times of which we are speaking, it will no longer be permissible to accord even a modified and corrupted adoration to any divinity. All men without exception will be forced to honor and render a cult of worship to Satan himself, personified in the Antichrist — that is, in the most evil and abominable man that humanity has ever produced.
Thirdly,
this persecution, which will mark the last ages, will be
waged
with an irresistible seductiveness, "insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even
the elect." (Cf. Matt. 24:24) Cornelius
à
Lapide says, "He will excel at all the crafts, forms of guile, and practices of
politicians."
At first, the Antichrist will
convince the Jews that he is the Messiah. In order to deceive them the more
successfully, he will hide behind a mask of
moderation and feigned holiness. When
As for those who are foreign to the Jewish religion, he will draw them to himself, first, by persuasion and eloquence. He will be skilled in artifice and will be taught by the Devil himself all knowledge useful for the ends for which the evil spirit destines him. St. Anselm tells us that he will be acquainted with all the natural sciences and will know all the sacred texts by heart. In the second place he will win men over by lavishing gold and riches. He will be the wealthiest person on earth. Satan will deliver to him all the treasures concealed in the bowels of the sea and in the hidden depths of the earth. (Dan. 11:43)
Fourthly, he will fill all men with admiration by his genius, and by the amazing rapidity of his elevation to the height of fortune and omnipotence. As for the ignorant and the multitude, he will fascinate them by marvels, cujus est adventus secundum operationem Satanae, in omni virtute et prodigiis mendacibu — "whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders." (Cf. 2 Thess. 2:9) St. Thomas says that, just as Christ worked miracles in confirmation of His doctrine, so also the man of sin will work false miracles in confirmation of his errors; and just as the true Christ worked wonders by the power of God, the author of all truth, so, too, His adversary will work, as we have indicated above, by the power of Satan, the father of fraud and lies.
Thus, the man of sin will not perform true miracles, like Jesus Christ, but will perform false and apparent ones. All his wonderful works will be, in reality, mere illusions and works of fantasy; so that, as St. Athanasius says, when he appears to resurrect a dead man, either the man whom he resurrects will not really have been dead, or else, if he had been dead, he will not really be restored to life.
Lastly, the same saint continues, the works performed by the Antichrist that appear to transcend the laws of nature will not be miracles in the true sense, but effects and phenomena of the physical order, performed through the intermediary of certain secret, hidden, and natural causes. In order to better captivate men, the Antichrist will permit lasciviousness and the licentiousness of the flesh, and will stimulate the most intoxicating pleasures, totus erit in libidinibus et concupiscentiis feminarum — "he shall follow the passions and lust of women." (Cf. Dan. 11:37)
Fifthly,
the persecution under the Antichrist will be the bloodiest
and most barbarous of all those which Christianity has ever
suffered. Jesus Christ so assures us, when
He says, "For those days will be more
filled with anguish than any from the beginning of
the world until now or in all ages to come."
(Matt. 24:21) This can be surmised
if we refer back to two causes. The first is the vast power and the stupendous
instruments of force and destruction that the Antichrist
will have at his disposal and, with these,
the evil and fury of the men appointed to execute his commands. The second will
be the terrifying wickedness of the
Devil, because in those days, says
These had to struggle against mere agents of the Devil, but the confessors of the last ages will have to struggle against him who is a murderer from the beginning. To torment them, the old enemy will practice monstrous tortures with unheard-of refinements, unparalleled in past centuries, which the human mind could never have contrived to invent by itself.
Finally —
the last feature of the persecution under the Antichrist
— it will be so violent that it will succeed in making almost
the
entirety of Christians apostatize. "And it was given unto him
to make war with the saints, and
to overcome them." (Rev. 13:7) "For, as I
watched, that horn made war against the holy ones and was victorious
. . ." (Dan. 7:21)
However, it would not be correct to conclude from this
testimony that there will be none of the
elect left on earth, and that the
Son of God will fail to keep the promise made to His Church,
when He said, Propter electos, dies
breviabuntur ("because of the
elect, the days will be shortened"). Moreover,
St. Augustine tells us that, in the reign of the Antichrist, there will be multitudes of martyrs who will display a heroic constancy, and also a number, more or less large, of confessors who will manage to escape into caves and high or sheer mountains, and God will see to it that these sanctuaries shall elude the vigilance and investigations of the persecutors, and will not permit the Devil to point them out to them.
Daniel
tells us that, at the time when this terrible persecution
breaks
out, the abomination of desolation will openly sit enthroned
in the holy place. "The king shall do as he pleases," says
Daniel. "He shall exalt himself and make
himself greater than any god; he
shall utter dreadful blasphemies against the God of gods ... He shall have no
regard for the gods of his ancestors
... for no god
shall he have regard." (Dan. 11:36-37)
In other words, once the man of sin has cowed the human race by his threats and entangled it in the meshes of his lies and wiles, he will observe no restraint, show his hand, and act openly. He will not permit anyone to worship or invoke any other god than himself, and will proclaim himself sole lord of heaven and earth. Wherever he is not present in person, men will be obliged to pay homage to his image or statue: Et elevabitur, magnificabitur adversus omnem Deum. (Cf. Dan. 11:36) He will tolerate neither the Mosaic religion, nor natural religion itself. He will persecute with equal thoroughness Jews, schismatics, heretics, deists, and every sect that recognizes the existence of a supreme being and the immortality of the life to come. Yet God, in His wisdom, will draw good from evil. The horrible tempest that His justice has allowed to be unleashed upon the earth will result in the disappearance of false religions. Along with Judaism, it will abolish the remains of Mohammedanism, idolatrous superstitions, and every religion hostile to the Church.
It will deal the finishing blow to the sects of darkness. Freemasonry, Carbonarism, Illuminism, and all subversive societies will vanish in the vortex of wickedness which will be their work, and which they had prepared for centuries in the belief that it would be their definitive, supreme triumph. They will have assisted unintentionally in the establishment of the reign of unity foretold by our Lord: "There shall be one flock then, and one shepherd." (John 10:16)
The triumph of the wicked one will be of short duration, but the consolations that follow will be universal, abundant, proportionate to the extent of the tribulations the Church will have suffered.
However, the final consummation will not come yet, as it is written:
And then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and loud voices in heaven cried out; the voices of angels and of virgins, together with the voices of confessors and holy martyrs, will hail Christ with praise and acclamations, giving thanks for His victory over the Antichrist, and for the extermination of the wicked. All men, now become worshipers of one and the same God, all professing the same faith, united in the same adoration, sharing the same table, will exclaim in chorus, "The kingdom of this world now belongs to our Lord and to his Anointed One . . . We praise you, O Lord God Almighty, who is and who was and who are to come; because You have assumed your great power, and You have begun Your reign." (Rev. 11:15-17)
Directives from Heaven
D12 - One World Government / Religion PDF
D122 - Antichrist PDF
Revised:
March 07, 2018