St. Irenaeus

As St. Irenaeus said:

IRENAEUS AGAINST HERESIES -- BOOK V

CHAP. XXVIII.--THE DISTINCTION TO BE MADE BETWEEN THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED. THE FUTURE APOSTASY IN THE TIME OF ANTI-CHRIST, AND THE END OF THE WORLD.

2. And for this reason the apostle says: "Because they received not the love of God, that they might be saved, therefore God shall also send them the operation of error, that they may believe a lie, that they all may be judged who have not believed the truth, but consented to unrighteousness."(1) For when he (Antichrist) is come, and of his own accord concentrates in his own person the apostasy, and accomplishes whatever he shall do according to his own will and choice, sitting also in the temple of God, so that his dupes may adore him as the Christ; wherefore also shall he deservedly "be cast into the lake of fire:"(2) [this will happen according to divine appointment], God by His prescience foreseeing all this, and at the proper time sending such a man, "that they may believe a lie, that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but consented to unrighteousness;" whose coming John has thus described in the Apocalypse: "And the beast which I had seen was like unto a leopard, and his feet as of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion; and the dragon conferred his own power upon him, and his throne, and great might. And one of his heads was as it were slain unto death; and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon because he gave power to the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto this beast, and who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemy and power was given to him during forty and two months. And he opened his mouth for blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, and those who dwellin heaven. And power was given him over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation. And all who dwell upon the earth worshipped him, [every one] whose name was not written in the book of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any one have ears, let him hear. If any one shall lead into captivity, he shall go into captivity. If any shall slay with the sword, he must be slain with the sword. Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints."(3) After this he likewise describes his armour-bearer, whom he also terms a false prophet: "He spake as a dragon, and exercised all the power of the first beast in his sight, and caused the earth, and those that dwell therein, to adore the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he shall perform great wonders, so that he can even cause fire to descend from heaven upon the earth in the sight of men, and he shall lead the inhabitants of the earth astray."

The Ultimate Heresy

Apostasy from αποστασία or heresy from αίρεση, what is the difference? In the Early Church Fathers, not much. Heresy was a teaching which lead into apostasy while apostasy meant to leave the faith. Later perceived differences were compiled by the scholastics among others. The basic teaching of the Early Church Fathers is of importance now in the time we are in. In this we can see how false teachings like the synchretist Ecumenical movement are heretical in that they divide Christ by claiming that He is an historical personality but a separate spiritual one accessible to all men through any religion of their choice under any name. This is one of the main tenets of Gnosticism. Gnosticism has always been condemned as heretical and apostate. The heresy of Gnosticism divides Christ and leads men into paganism under the guise of a universalist cosmic Christ which in actuality is the cosmocrator of ancient paganism. That is nothing more than pantheism and is the basis for all paganisms. To embrace that is to apostasize from the faith. Furthermore, the effect it has on society is to produce a relativistic nihilist despair into the void of which the Communist solution presents itself as an answer. The interim stage is the anarchy of every man is an entity unto himself. The Gnostic teachers produced this effect in the Early Church. They were condemned for that as well as the false teachings they promulgated. Increasingly the Church turned to defining ecclesiastical discipline under ecclesiastical law as a result. Invariably the question arose of who was in charge. In the early third century the idea that a single individual was in charge of the Church was considered total Gnostic apostate heresy. Antipopes Zephrynus and Callistus had proposed this at that time and been condemned for it by St. Hippolytus and the bishops of the early church. According to St. Irenaeus, Simon Magus, the one from whom all the Gnostic heresies derived and who guilty of trying to inculcate all sorts of paganism into the faith, had tried this in the first century by trying to make out that he was part of the Godhead, was totally condemned for all of this. By the time of Pope St. Gregory the Great (died 604 A.D.) St. Gregory still condemned the idea that one bishop would be the universal bishop over the whole Church as the precursor of the Antichrist. The Early Church had taught that Gnosticism would be the base for the Antichrist to arise from. The many early Gnostic teachers are like the many today who are a god unto themselves. But the proponents of One Universal Earthly Head over the Church are indeed those who are bringing in the reign of the Antichrist, for that one will try to supplant the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one Who is head over His Church which He founded by His All Holy Blood. Two variants on a theme, both of which are evil. Anarchy on one hand (just watch evangelical charismatic television for examples) and absolute rule by one fallible individual on the other. Both disasters in the making. Those who recognize the evil of the all pervasive Gnostic reinventions of the Charismatics and Ecumenists then turn to excoriating others by the name they carry such as Catholic and Orthodox, condemning one another. Instead, having recognized the big evil they should be allies in this time, but instead set the stage for the Antichrist by insisting on only one visible eccesiastically defined body with a head. Such insistence is a vain attempt to define every single detail of the faith. In fact the Early Church taught that if the simple doctrine held by a body of believers was in fact Catholic, that is reflecting the true teaching of the Apostles, then it was genuine; they did not insist that every imaginable detail be defined before a body of believers be recognized as true. On the other hand they did not tolerate evil teachings masquerading as true, such as simony or permissive unrepented continual amorality, especially abortion – which they justly condemned as willful murder, or claiming that idolatrous pagans were in fact somehow worshipping the True God (which is they do NOT, of course); all Gnostic inventions, now reinvented by the Charismatics and Ecumenists.

The effect that all the above has on society in terms of moral norms and civil society is two fold and two staged. One — the anarchy of the hedonists and the subsequent paralysing of moral law (mores and folkways, expected by society). Two — the abrogating of Church teaching on right and wrong and the replacement of decency with nihilism. Sandwiched in between is an amoral society that pretends it is moral and relies on a façade of appearance. This is the sure recipe for the dissolution of society on the heels of the mentality of naturalistic so-called enlightenment.

In both the cases of faith and religion and of society in general, anarchy replaced nihilism is the destruction of revealed truth and order. It is devolvement and not evolutionary (as if anything could evolve, it surely can't). It is entropy in the realm of human relations and never enthalpy. It is doom in short order.

The Great Apostasy

From the Antichrist by the Rev. Paschal Huchede

http://theantichristhuchede.blogspot.com/

4. Antichrist Foretold and Prefigured

Before the coming of our Divine Saviour there were many prophecies and figures given of Him. It shall be the same for Antichrist. The prophet Daniel speaks of him in a literal and mystical sense in three different chapters, namely, 7, 9, and 11, while St. Matthew chapter 24, St. Mark chapter 13, St. John chapter 5, and St. Paul in his 2nd Epistle to the Thessalonians chapter 2, St. John in his 1st and 2nd Epistles, and especially in the Apocalypse chapter 13; etc. tell us of his future or coming event.

Since he will be the incarnate evil and according to the expression of St. Ireneus (c. 28, lib. 5), the maximum of malice, "recapitulatio universae iniquitatis," the Fathers are justified in applying to him all the passages in the Sacred Scriptures in which there is question of the actions of God and His Church.

We are therefore justified in asserting that Antichrist has been prefigured by the persecutions of the Church, by all the enemies of Jesus Christ, whatever may have been the form under which they have existed. Cruel persecutors such as the Caesars represent his future cruelty towards those who will remain faithful to God. Hypocritical persecutors such as Julian the Apostate are typical of his deception and consummate hypocrisy. Heresy and schism, but above all the incredulity and impiety of our time, are the prelude to the great Apostasy into which he will cause many to fall. Finally, those who give themselves up to their passions and who drink from the pool of iniquity form themselves to his image and likeness, which explains the words of St. Paul when he said. "For the mystery of iniquity already worketh." (2 Thes. 2:7).

. . .

4. His Means of Action

To insure the success of his enterprise, he will employ means that naturally secure the service of men, such as imposture, recompence, violence and miracles.

I. Imposture

By his deceitful craft he will detach the minds and hearts of all peoples from the religion of Jesus Christ. By his incomparable eloquence he will represent Jesus as an imposter; he will attack His doctrine and institutions, according to the teachings of St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Cat. 15), Damascus (c. 27), Jerome (in his work on the prophet Daniel).

After having weakened the faith of Christ in the minds and hearts of many, he will proceed to show that the law of Moses still prevails; he will re-establish the Sabbath and all the legal observances; and he will invite all the Jews to re-establish their nationality, after which he will declare himself to be the true messiah; he will endeavor to prove the truth of his assertion from Scripture - he will declare his design of rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple and of bringing the whole world under his dominion. The carnal Jews, finding these projects in perfect harmony with their own prejudices, will easily acknowledge for the Messiah the one whom they desire. And after having at first despised and scorned him, they will subsequently receive and proclaim him king. (Dan. 11:21). According to St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Cat. 15), he will win the esteem and attachment of mankind by his urbane and unbounded kindness.

From:

Rev. E. Sylvester Berry, D.D.

"16. The followers of Antichrist will be marked with a character [mark] in imitation of the sign that St. John saw upon the foreheads of the servants of God. This indicates that Antichrist and his prophet will introduce ceremonies to imitate the Sacraments of the Church. In fact there will be a complete organization ―― a church of Satan set up in opposition to the Church of Christ. Satan will assume the part of God the Father; Antichrist will be honored as Saviour, and his prophet will usurp the role of Pope. Their ceremonies will counterfeit the Sacraments and their works of magic be heralded as miracles. A similar project was attempted in the fourth century when Julian the Apostate counterfeited Catholic worship with pagan ceremonies in honor of Mithras and Cybele. He established a priesthood and instituted ceremonies in imitation of Baptism and Confirmation."

Rev. E. Sylvester Berry, D.D.
The Apocalypse of St. John
Discussion on Apoc: xiii, 16.
John W. Winterich, Columbus, Ohio, 1921

From:

The Testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ

http://bellesheures.wordpress.com/the-testimony-of-the-lord-jesus-christ/

"Such a secular, earthbound state [Israel] could easily become the political and military power base for the Antichrist when he comes. For the Antichrist will be in perfect accord with the ideals of such a Zionist state. Moreover, the State of Israel has demonstrated that it has the will and ability to go to war and win the secular goals to which its heart is attached. Thus when the Antichrist comes to power as head of such an efficient, superbly equipped, scientific State, founded on nationalism, race and blood, he will be able to conquer the rest of the world. He will be the first, the only Jew to reign with political, economic, military power over the whole world from his capital city, Jerusalem, the city in which Our Lord was crucified" (Fr. Vincent Miceli, S.J., The Antichrist, p. 152).

Rev. Paschal Huchede's view of the Antichrist

From below - ARTICLE II - 2.: "And we see that in the mystery of iniquity Antichrist adores Satan and the false prophet glorifies Antichrist. Hence we have every reason to show that this false prophet will be an individual person and not a collective term to designate the universality of preachers engaged in the service of Antichrist. We can even assert that he will not be a king, nor a general of an army, but a clever apostate, fallen from the episcopal dignity."

The false prophet will be the Antipope and his successors at that time. This began with Antipope John XXIII and continues through, including Antipope Benedict XVI and all successors to this line of apostasy. All of them are apostate from the faith and came to the See of Peter invalidly as well. Their Apostasy alone marks them as Antipopes and to follow them is to embrace apostasy and be damned.

Chapter 2- The Action

ARTICLE I-CONTEST AND POLITICAL SWAY OF ANTICHRIST

1. Antichrist Begins to Manifest Himself to the Jews

Antichrist, being a Jew, will be circumcised; he will observe the Mosaic Law, and finally he will give himself for the Messiah whom Israel still expects, and he will be received by those whose names are not written in the Book of Life, in the Book of the Lamb. (Apoc. 13:8). Hence Our Lord thus reproaches the Jews, "I am come in the name of my Father, and you receive me not; if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive." Jn. 5:43). St. Irenaeus, St. Hilary, St. Am­brose, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and St. Damascus are of opinion that Our Lord makes allusion in this passage to Antichrist.

2. He Achieves the Conquest of the World and Makes Jerusalem its Capital

Antichrist will naturally meet with obstacles in carrying out his de­signs. The ten kings, who, according to the prophet Daniel and St. John, will have divided the Roman empire among them, shall endeavor to con­serve the independence of their realms and consequently will resist him with fire and sword. "I considered," says the prophet, "the horns, and behold another little horn sprung out of the midst of them, and three of the first horns were plucked up at the sight thereof. . . And these ten horns shall be ten kings, and another shall rise up after them, and he shall be mightier than the former, and he shall bring down three kings." (Dan. 7:8 & 24). "He shall take possession of the land; Egypt will not escape his power. . . he shall pass into Libya and Ethiopia." (Dan. 11 :42-43). St. Jerome has left us the interpretation of the Fathers, which is corroborated by all ecclesiastical writers who have since treated the question. At the end of the world. after the destruction of the empire, ten kings will divide among them the fragments of the Roman empire; then an eleventh king will enter the scene and conquer three of their number: the king of Egypt, the king of Africa, and the king of Ethiopia. After their death, the remaining seven laid their scepters at the con­queror's feet. (Dan. 7 [esp. 24-25]).

It seems that he will probably be defeated by certain people of the Western nations, who will give him a naval battle, people whom Daniel calls "Romans." (11:30). But he will soon recover from this defeat. St. Irenaeus and St. Hippolytus of Antioch concur with St. Jerome in the same opinion, which gives this interpretation of the prophet a theologi­cal certitude. When Antichrist shall have conquered all his enemies, power shall be given him over all tribes, peoples, languages, and na­tions; he will be the first Jew to reign over the whole world. When he shall find himself master of the world, he will choose for his capital the city in which Our Lord was crucified. (Apoc. 11 :8). If he did other­wise. he would fail to make the Jews receive him for the Messiah since their hearts will be fixed on terrestrial glory and Jerusalem, in their esteem, must be the sojourn of the Messiah.

ARTICLE II-CONTEST AND RELIGIOUS SWAY OF ANTICHRIST

1. He Declares Himself to be God and Desires to Establish His Religion Throughout the World

"And they adored the beast, saying, who is like to the beast? and who shall be able to fight with him?" (Apoc. 13 :4).

All vile parasites of fortune, astonished at the rapidity with which Antichrist achieves his conquests and also at the unlimited sway of his power, deceived by his prodigies, will prostrate themselves before him and adore him as their god. As soon as he believes himself master of the bodies and souls of all peoples, he will decree and proclaim his divinity and establish a new religion. According to the Apostle, he will lift him­self up above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God showing himself as if he were God. (2 Thes. 2:4). He will command all peoples to place his statue in the public places to be worshipped, the image of the beast whose wound was healed. (Apoc. 13 :13-15). "He will sit in the temple of God showing himself as if he were God." (2 Thes. 2:4). This temple is probably that of Jerusalem, which he will have rebuilt and in which he will have divine honors paid to him. (Damascus, Book 4, Ch. 37). It is then, according to the prophecy of Daniel and in full force of the term, that the abomina­tion of desolation shall be in the temple, seated in the holy place. (Dan. 9:27). Then he shall think himself able to change times and laws - re­ligious, political, and sacred - by which the world had been governed up to his advent. (Dan. 7:25). Although he will make himself the object of idolatrous worship, he himself will adore a god called Moazim, ig­nored by his ancestors, and he will load this idol with gold and precious stones. (Dan. 11:38-39).

Our Lord Jesus Christ as man adored His Father. Antichrist will adore his father, Satan, principal author of his power. As for the moral of his religion, we are permitted to believe that he will eliminate from it what­ever is painful to corrupt human nature, so that he may more easily gain men over to his party. (Suarez et Bellarm.)

2. His Apostles

In order to propagate his religion, he will send out missionaries to all parts of the world, as Our Saviour sent His Apostles to preach His doctrine. Among the false prophets, there will most probably be one more illustrious than the others, as St. Ambrose remarks. (in Apoc.). St. John describes him as follows: "And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns, like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon." (Apoc. 13:11). And in another passage he seems to point out three different persons: "And I saw from the mouth of the dragon, and from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs." (Apoc. 16:13). The dragon, the beast, and the false prophet signify Satan, Antichrist, and the principal apostle of Antichrist. These three different beings command all the other de­mons. In the work of our redemption, the three divine persons of the adorable Trinity manifested themselves. The Son adores the Father; the Holy Ghost gives glory to the Son. And we see that in the mystery of iniquity Antichrist adores Satan and the false prophet glorifies Anti­christ. Hence we have every reason to show that this false prophet will be an individual person and not a collective term to designate the uni­versality of preachers engaged in the service of Antichrist. We can even assert that he will not be a king, nor a general of an army, but a clever apostate, fallen from the episcopal dignity. From being an apostle of the Gospel he will become the first preacher of the false messiah. These conjectures are not devoid of much plausibility. (Acosta, Book 2, Ch. 16). Antichrist will communicate his power of working miracles to others, who will go into different countries and cities to gain new prose­lytes by all the human and diabolical means in their power. (Acosta, 2, 16). It is thus that the words of Our Lord will be fulfilled. "For there shall rise up false Christs and false prophets, and they shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. Take ye heed, therefore. Behold I have foretold you all things." (Mk. 13:22-23). "And then if any man shall say to you: Lo, here is Christ; 10, he is here, do not believe. . . he is in the desert, go ye not out." (Mat. 24:23-26). Benighted apostles who will indeed turn away from truth! (2 Tim. 4:4). They blaspheme the majesty of God and despise all true authority. "Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their confusion, wandering stars to whom the storm of darkness is reserved forever." (Jude 1:13). "Fountains without water and clouds tossed with whirlwinds, to whom the midst of darkness is reserved." (2 Pet. 2:17).

Antichrist will furthermore make all men, great and small, rich and poor, freemen and bondmen, bear a sign on their right arm or on their forehead. (Apoc. 13 :16). What this sign shall be time alone will reveal. Yet there are some commentators of Holy Writ, who, according to a special revelation, pretend to say that it shall be formed out of the Greek letters X and P, interlaced like a figure which resembles the number of Christ. (Cornelius a Lapide in Epis. 2 to Thes.]

No one can either buy or sell without this mark, as distinctly specified in the Apocalypse (13:17). And that no man might buy or sell but he that had the character or the name of the beast or the number of his name." None but adorers of this new god can enjoy the possession of riches or honors. This god shall increase their glory and shall give them power over many and shall divide the land for nothing. (Apoc. 13:7).

2. Religious Persecution of Antichrist

I. God and Magog

Those who will refuse to obey his impious orders shall be the object of a terrible and universal persecution. Gog and Magog shall be let loose; they shall come upon the "breath of the earth and encompass the camp of the saints and the beloved city." (Apoc. 20:8). What do these names mean? The Jews pretend that Gog will be Antichrist and Magog the northern people. "At the coming of the Messiah, they shall enter Palestine and lay waste the country to such an extent that the unfortu­nate citizens will be obliged to 'burn for fuel the handles of the lances and shields left on the battlefield. But these misfortunes once over, the golden age shall revive." This Thalmudic interpretation of Ezechiel (28) given by St. Jerome cannot be questioned. [Ed. note - St. Jerome is not saying that we are to go to the Talmud for anything of the truth, for it is a book of nothing but Satanic deceit. But he is saying that the Jews await this earthly naturalistic false messiah and shall be taken in by this impostor.] Some other ecclesiastical writers, notably Eusebius (Book 3, Hist., c. ult.) and Lactance (Book c. 44, 25), place the battle of Gog and Magog a thousand years after the death of Antichrist. During those thousand years, Jesus Christ will reign with the saints in this world in the midst of infidels, if not converted at least subjugated. At the lapse of that time Gog and Magog shall appear on the scene and wage a bloody war against the saints. This war shall be closely followed by the end of the world and the last judgment. This is, as may be easily seen, the error of the millennium which has long since been refuted by the Fathers St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and many others. [Ed. note - St. Irenaeus, 180 A.D., is earlier and principle in refuting this error. It is noteworthy that St. Irenaeus teaches - as the Church always has as well - that Christ will return to earth and reign with all His saints resurrected then and all the angels of the Father. The false idea of the millenium, sometimes erroneously attributed to St. Irenaeus, is that only some of the saints will be resurrected for a thousand years or that Gog and Magog are separated by a thousand years from Antichrist; impossible, for Gog is Antichrist or termed the Dajjal in Islam. The true "millenial" teaching is, as St. Irenaeus and the Church from the beginning with her Lord has always confessed, that Our Lord Jesus Christ will return at His Parousia and reign for a "thousand years" meaning the beginning of that first of the eternal ages, which will never end. ] It is probable that Gog and Magog mean Antichrist's combat against the Church. According to Bellarmine, Gog will be Antichrist himself and Magog will be his army. Because Ezechiel always desig­nates Gog as a leader and Magog as a region (Ezech. 38-39), Magog, it is true, is regarded as being the Sythian nation. In Genesis (10:2) the second son of Japeth is said to have borne this name, and the country in which he settled was naturally called after him, and this country, ac­cording to Josephus, is Scythia. In employing this term to designate the army of Antichrist, we are led to infer that the men composing it will be orientals, or what seems more plausible, that his soldiers will possess all the brutality of those barbarous people. [Ed. note - the Khazars as Judaist Gog and Magog fit quite well.]