The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Mark of the Beast......?

You said that RC literature confirm the pope is "God on earth".
Can you substantiate this?
I know of no RC that says this. Yes they believe the pope has the office Peter, but that seems to be a huge leap from believing the pope is "God on earth".

Tom ... I am a little surprised that you are unaware of these papal claims.

POPE GOD ON EARTH

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that HE AS GOD sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. II Thess 2:3-4

The Popes (literally) claim to be "God on earth”.

All powers, titles, glory and honour bestowed upon any one pope belongs to all popes.

All these claims have been incessantly and universally urged all down the centuries by the popes of Rome, and are still advanced, as boldly as ever, in official decretals, bulls, extravagants, decisions of canonists, sentences of judges, books, catechisms, sermons, and treatises of all kinds. There is no mistaking what they amount to.

The Pope claims Divine inspiration, his words are to be received as the words of God; no laws can bind him, he is supreme over all, the very Scriptures derive their authority from him.

"We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty" Pope Leo XIII Encyclical Letter of June 20, 1894

"The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, he is Jesus Christ himself, hidden under the veil of flesh."
Catholic National July 1895

"The Pope is the Supreme Judge of the law of the land ... He is the viceregent of Christ, and is not only a priest forever, but also King of kings and Lord of lords". La Civilta Cattolica, March 18 1871

"The Roman Pontiff judges all men, but is judged by no one. We declare, assert, define and pronounce: To be subject to the Roman Pontiff is to every human creature altogether necessary for salvation ... That which was spoken of Christ 'thou hast subdued all things under His feet', may well seem verified in me ... I have the authority of the King of kings.

I am all and above all, so that God Himself and I, the Vicar of God, have but one consistory, and I am able to do all that God can do, what therefore, can you make of me but God." Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam

By using this title Vicar of God, that is to say he is in place of God, for that is the meaning of vicar or vicarious.

"We define that the Holy Apostolic See (Vatican) and the Roman Pontiff hold the primacy over the whole world."
A decree of the Council of Trent, quoted in Philippe Labbe and Gabriel Cossart, "The Most Holy Councils." col. 1167

"Indeed, it is not to much to say that in view of the sublimity of their offices the priests are man gods."
The Dignity Of The Priesthood by Liquori pg 36.

There are many more damning statements that could be provided, but these should be sufficient to convince anyone that they are claiming that their Pope is God on earth.

Pope Nicholas I declared: "The appellation of God had been confirmed by Constantine on the Pope, who, being God, cannot be judged by man." Labb IX dist.5 96 Can. 7, Satis evidentur,
Decret Gratian Primer.


What does our Bible have to say about this subject?

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there comes a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 2 Thess 2:3-4.

Students of prophecy … this does not require rocket science intellect. This clearly is what the saints and martyrs have been telling us since the Reformation. They were burnt alive at the stake declaring the errors of Rome … and yet today this is dismissed because the claim is that the False Prophet is yet future.

Martin Luther said “… … the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist … “

John Knox of Scotland said the pope should be recognized as “the very antichrist”.

Regarding the papacy, John Wesley said “He is in an emphatical sense, the Man of Sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure.”

Thomas Cranmer said … “Wherefore it followeth Rome to be the seat of antichrist, and the pope to be very antichrist himself.”

The original Westminster Confession of Faith had this to say:
There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can the Pope of Rome, in any sense, be head thereof but is that Antichrist that Man of Sin, and Son of Perdition that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God.
Chapter 26 Article 6.

Sir Isaac Newton stated: “If the apostasy be rightly charged upon the Church of Rome, it follows that the man of sin is the pope, not meaning this or that pope in particular, but the pope in general as the chief head and supporter of this apostasy.” From Newton’s “Dissertations On The Prophecies”.

As long as the “predictions” of today’s prophecy experts are continually placed into the future, how can they be proved wrong? This is the luxury of Hal Lindsay eschatology and that system of interpretation.

Again, the Vatican hierarchy and its Pope is the … False Prophet.

************* The word “vatic” means “prophet” *********

VATIC = PROPHET = VATICAN = FALSE PROPHET

ccc

Wow, those quotes do seem to confirm what you have said.
What I said earlier was based on information I heard from both reading a bit myself, listening/reading Christian apologists and talking to Roman Catholics themselves. Though I may have missed it, this is news to me. Not that what I knew about Romans Catholicism wasn't heretical enough.

Thanks
Tom

This is the verse that sticks out when I consider post-Westminster positions on the Antichrist.

It seems clear that the Man of Sin sits in the (apostate) church. That rules out a purely secular or non-Christian candidate.

However, I am not sure that there is only one Antichrist. Perhaps the Office of the Pope is the archetypical Antichrist.

Really? Is it that clear? When I read that text, it appears that the person is OPPOSED to ALL that is called God and thus is one who is anti-religious, aka: pagan, secular and definitely not apostate nor is part of any apostate church. It then says he considers himself to have supreme authority "as God" and shows himself by doing so that "he is God", i.e., by his own estimation and that of the majority of people who doubtless are pagans as well.

To me, the verse turns on the expression "temple of God". It can be understood either metaphorically or literally. For example, Matthew Henry and Calvin regard it metaphorically, taking it to mean the church, while Jamiesson, Fausset and Brown take it to be a literal temple at Jerusalem (they may be historic premillenialists).
It can also be understood metaphorically, loosely to mean something similar to the intellectual seat of religion in general secular usage—which is how post-Westminster positions would interpret it. I am not convinced by this because it seems distant from the natural use of "temple" in the Bible.

Methinks that the Reformers, generally speaking, and many of the Postmill Puritans put too much emphasis upon Roman Catholicism, which I can certainly understand given the time they existed. And this justified angst toward Catholicism I believe was carried over into their interpretation/application of eschatology and the book of Revelation in particular. That is why I have to disagree sometimes with Calvin &co., Matthew Henry, et al. If one was not particularly familiar with Rome, the Pope, etc., and read through Revelation, I seriously doubt they would insert "Pope" for the beast, Man of Sin, but perhaps one of their own leaders. There is that tendency that exists and I think it is erroneous to do so. And, I often wonder, when those days come to pass if these figures spoken of in Revelation will be seen for who/what they are as the fulfillment of Scripture?

Me, too