Who Is the Antichrist?

In our investigation into the ten horns of Daniel 7, we identified which ten kingdoms benefited from the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Daniel told us that three of these kingdoms would fall before the arrival of the Antichrist. We also learned from Revelation 17 that the Antichrist would be Rome’s eighth type of leader. The seventh king was the King of Italy, who only reigned in the city for a “short space,” from 476 to 538. For a candidate to qualify as the Antichrist, they would have to ascend to power after three of the ten kingdoms had fallen, between 532 and March 534, and become the leader of the city following the Kings of Italy.

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Remember, in Daniel’s prophecy of a beast with ten horns, the eleventh horn—which represents the Antichrist—was described by an angel as being “diverse” from the others. The Antichrist would be a world leader unlike the other ten kings—a religious leader, not a political one. By now, you may have drawn your own conclusions on the Antichrist’s identity while reading the prior chapters. If so, you have likely determined that the only leader who fits this description is the Roman Catholic papacy.

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The idea that the papacy is the Antichrist is not new. One of the first people to draw this conclusion was Martin Luther, who wrote about the topic in his On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, first published in October 1520. To see how flawlessly the papacy fulfills all the Antichrist’s criteria, we will examine each of the Bible’s clues individually—just as we did with Mystery Babylon. In doing so, we will unravel the many layers of deception placed on the Bible’s end-times prophecies by those whom the prophecies implicate.

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The Catholic Church and the papacy have a vested interest in ensuring the Christian world misinterprets these prophecies to hide their role in God’s warnings. The Vatican wants you to assume Catholicism is a scripture-based, Christian religion, while the Bible clearly warns us it is not. You can believe the Catholic Church or you can believe God’s Word. The choice is yours.

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Why the Papacy Is the Antichrist

The Antichrist Would Come from Rome

Little discussion is required to acknowledge the Roman foundation of the papacy. The original administrative position of the papacy was the bishop of Rome, a title still bestowed upon the pope today. Emperor Constantine informally elevated the bishop of Rome over other bishops through their collaborative relationship. After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the Byzantine emperors held considerable influence over the affairs of the Catholic Church from Constantinople. Early in his reign, Justinian I realized the Roman legal system was in disrepair. His solution was to order a formal codification of Roman law called the Codex Justinianus, or the Code of Justinian.

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Before the sixth century, there was no papacy, and there was no single leader of the Catholic Church. In 533 AD, Justinian exchanged letters with the bishop of Rome, John II. In one letter, the emperor tells the bishop he is “the head of all the Holy Churches, for We shall exert Ourselves in every way (as has already been stated), to increase the honor and authority of your See.”[i] This declaration gave the bishop of Rome executive control over all other bishops and made Rome the headquarters of Catholicism for the first time.[ii] Once the letter was codified as law in the Code of Justinian, the successors of Pope John II used it to expand their grasp on power.

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Daniel 7 predicted the Antichrist would come from the Roman Empire. Daniel 9 established the connection between the Antichrist and the people who would destroy the Second Temple. When the Temple was razed by the Roman army in 70 AD, this directly connected them to the Antichrist as his “people.” As the saying goes, all roads lead to Rome.

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He “Speaketh Great Things,”

“Opposeth and Exalteth Himself Above All that Is Called God,” and

“As God Sitteth in the Temple of God, Shewing Himself that He Is God”

In a move of spectacular self-aggrandizement during the early days of the Catholic Church, Pope Gelasius I bestowed upon himself the title “Vicar of Christ” in the fifth century. The title is based on the Latin word “vicarious,” which means “substitute.” By assuming this title, Gelasius and all later popes declared themselves substitute Christs.

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While the title currently refers to the pope, its origins were very different. The first recorded use of the term vicar of Christ was by Tertullian, a prolific early Christian writer in the late second and early third centuries. Tertullian used the term in reference to the Holy Spirit, a use that was suitably aligned with scripture.[iii] In the gospel of John, Jesus promised his disciples that God would send a “Comforter” as his substitute.[1] Jesus was clear; his only vicar is the Holy Spirit, not a religious leader like the pope. By heretically declaring themselves Christ’s earthly replacement, the popes are undoubtedly speaking great things and exalting themselves.

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Pope Innocent III, the Roman pontiff from 1198 to 1216, was quoted in the Decretals of Gregory IX discussing the papal authority to transfer bishops between dioceses. He said, “For it is not man, but God, who separates whom the Roman Pontiff, who takes the place not of a pure man, but of the true God in the lands, dissolves the churches, not by human, but rather by divine authority, weighing the needs or interests of the churches.”[iv]

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When confronted with this quote, Catholic apologists ignore the central issue and make a strawman argument. Their defense of Innocent III’s heresy is to claim that the pope was not claiming to be God. They state he was only talking about the ecclesiastical authority of the pope to transfer bishops as the administrator of the church. In reality, both are true. While discussing his authority to transfer bishops, Innocent III clearly stated the Roman pontiff “takes the place not of a pure man, but of the true God in the lands.” No matter which topic he was discussing at the time, Innocent declared that the pope takes the place of God.

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Innocent III does not stand alone in his haughtiness and self-importance. Factually, many popes have said bizarre and outlandish things that contradict scripture. Another example is Boniface VIII, who wrote in his 1302 papal bull Unam Sanctam, “Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.”[v] Boniface would also state, “The pope is of so great dignity and excellence, that he is not merely man, but as if God, and the vicar of God…The pope is of so great dignity and power, that he constitutes one and the same tribunal with Christ…so that whatsoever the pope does seems to proceed from the mouth of God…The pope is as God on earth.”[vi]

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Similarly, Pope Pius V, whose pontificate lasted from 1566 to 1572, once claimed, “Christ entrusted his office to the chief Pontiff;…but all power in heaven and in earth had been given to Christ;…therefore the chief Pontiff, who is his vicar, will have this power.”[vii], [viii]

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In 1894, Pope Leo XIII’s Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae: The Reunion of Christendom went further. In addressing all “venerable brethren, all Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops and Bishops of the Catholic world,” Leo XIII said, “We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.” This was not only a reference to the pope, but to all Catholic leaders.[ix]

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Cardinal Joseph Sarto, who would later become Pope Pius X, was quoted in the January 1, 1895, issue of Evangelical Christendom as having said the pope “is Jesus Christ Himself, under the veil of the flesh.”[x] As you can imagine, the publication of a significant cardinal saying something so unambiguously sacrilegious caused a firestorm in the Christian and Catholic communities.

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Catholic apologists are quick to discredit this quote by saying Evangelical Christendom is a Protestant source. While true, there is a flaw in this argument. The Catholic periodical Le Catholique National also printed an excerpt of the cardinal’s speech in an issue published on July 13, 1895. Le Catholique National quoted Cardinal Sarto this way: “The pope is not only the representative of J.-C. [Jesus Christ], but he is J.-C. himself, hidden under the veil of the flesh. Does the pope speak? It is J.-C. who speaks. Does the pope grant a pardon or pronounce an anathema? It is J.-C. who pronounces the anathema or grants grace. So that, when the pope speaks, there is not to examine, but to obey; one should not criticize its decisions or discuss its precepts. Therefore, everyone, even wearing the crown, must be subject to it by divine right. Here we are! Everything, to end in the absolute domination of the pope!”[xi]

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Later that year, a Venetian priest named Don Marino Tommates wrote to Cardinal Sarto to get his side of the story. The Cardinal replied, “I have read all the homilies I have made since my coming here in Venice, and only in the sermon for the anniversary of the election of the Holy Father, I said these exact words: ‘The pope represents Jesus Christ Himself, and therefore is a loving Father. The life of the pope is a holocaust of love for the human family. His word is love. Love, his weapons; love, the answer he gives to all those who hate him; love, his flag—i.e., the Cross, which signed the greatest triumph on earth and in heaven.’” Don Marino then wrote to the Catholic Truth Society on January 10, 1896, to provide Cardinal Sarto’s response.[xii]

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The main problem with this defense is that the speech Sarto is quoting is not the same homily. The homily initially called into question by Evangelical Christendom was delivered in Saint Mark’s Basilica the day after Cardinal Sarto entered Venice, on November 25, 1894.[xiii] His letter to Don Marino, written sometime before January 10, 1896, referenced a homily from the anniversary of the election of Pope Leo XIII on February 20, 1895—nearly two months after the January 1, 1895, issue of Evangelical Christendom published his original sacrilegious quote.

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Both Don Marino’s letter to the Catholic Truth Society and the homily Sarto referenced in his own defense were dated well after the accusations of heresy were published in Evangelical Christendom. When these conflictions in Cardinal Sarto’s defense are cited, Catholic apologists desperately resort to discrediting the Protestant periodical as prejudiced and claiming the Catholic source Le Catholique National was not a real newspaper. If the publication were fictitious, it would have been a simple task to discredit it in Cardinal Sarto’s time. The Swiss publication is not only real, but it is still stored in the library at the University of Bern today.[xiv]

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Another problem for Sarto’s defenders is the Catholic Truth Society—the same organization Don Marino wrote his letter to—cited the same quote from Le Catholique National in one of its own publications in 1896.[xv]

 

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“A New Papist Transubstantiation,” July 13, 1895 issue of Le Catholique National.[xvi]

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​​​​More recent popes have also made sacrilegious statements. John Paul II dismissed the ability of Christians to obtain forgiveness of sins “directly from God.”[xvii] His original heretical quote was found in the apostolic exhortation entitled Reconciliation and Penance, where he wrote that the Catholic sacrament of confession “is being undermined by the sometimes widespread idea that one can obtain forgiveness directly from God, even in a habitual way, without approaching the sacrament of reconciliation.”[xviii] When attempting to inspire Catholics to go to confession more frequently, he instead ridiculously claimed that God cannot forgive sins unless he hears of them from a Catholic priest.

These quotes placing the pope on an equal or higher level than God and Jesus are exactly what John warned against in I John 2:22-23.

 

I John 2:22-23

22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknow­ledgeth the Son hath the Father also.

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Before Whom Three of the Ten Kingdoms Will Be “Plucked Up by the Roots“

Daniel was definite—before he saw the Antichrist’s eleventh horn on the head of the Roman beast in his dream, he watched as three of the other ten horn kingdoms were defeated. In Daniel 7:8, the prophet wrote, “There came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots.” Later, in verse twenty, Daniel used the phrase “before whom three fell.” It is evident from Daniel 7 that three—and only three—of the ten horn kingdoms would be eradicated before the Antichrist reached his full power.

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The First Horn: The Alemanni [c.496 AD]

History tells us that the first of the ten horn kingdoms to collapse was the Alemanni. The Alemanni were a confederation of Germanic tribes ruled by a king. Their lands bordered the territory of the Ripuarian Franks, whom they frequently raided. Late in the fifth century, the Franks suffered heavy losses during a full-scale invasion by the Alemanni. Sigebert the Lame, king of the Ripuarian Franks, sent a message appealing for help to his ally, Clovis, the king of the Salian Franks. Clovis quickly raised an army and marched to Sigebert’s aid.

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There are few details in the historical record about the Battle of Tolbiac, which is believed to have occurred in 496 AD. According to the writings of Gregory of Tours, Clovis felt his army was on the verge of losing the battle. Distraught, he cried out in prayer to the God of his Catholic wife, Clotilde. Upon the conclusion of the prayer, the king of the Alemanni was killed by an ax, causing the German soldiers to flee. As a result of the battle, the Alemanni kingdom was lost, and Clovis converted to Catholicism.[xix]

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The Second Horn: The Heruli [c.508 AD]

The second of the ten kingdoms to fall was the Heruli. The Heruli tribe allied with the Huns during the legendary Hunnic warrior Attila’s conquest of Roman Gaul in 451 AD. However, they did not establish a kingdom until the collapse of the Hunnic alliance following Attila’s sudden death in 454.

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Their kingdom, located in modern Austria, was short-lived. After Attila’s death, the Heruli chose a new ally, Odoacer, who had created his own alliance from many of the same tribes and clans that had allied with the Huns. With his military power increased, Odoacer marched on Ravenna and conquered what remained of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. The Heruli were such a considerable part of Odoacer’s alliance that historians often consider his kingdom Herulian.

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In 489, Theoderic, the king of the neighboring Ostrogoths, invaded Italy and began a series of battles against Odoacer and his men. After several years of fighting, Theoderic arranged a banquet with Odoacer to supposedly forge a peace treaty between the two men in March of 493. During the banquet, Theoderic betrayed Odoacer and assassinated him with his own sword.

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Odoacer’s alliance, much like Attila’s, disintegrated upon his death. The Heruli suffered heavy losses on the Italian peninsula as Theoderic executed many of Odoacer’s supporters.[xx] Eventually, the Heruli allied with Theoderic and retreated to their original territory, residing there until their kingdom was conquered by the Lombards around 508.[xxi] With the loss of their kingdom, the second horn was “plucked up.”

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The Third Horn: The Burgundians [532 AD]

Not much is known about the downfall of the third horn kingdom, the Burgundians. In 523 AD, the Kingdom of Burgundy was invaded by the four sons and heirs of the Frankish king Clovis I. The king of the Burgundians, Sigismund, and his brother, Godomar, led the defense against the Frankish incursion. The battle resulted in a clear Frankish victory. In the aftermath of the battle, Sigismund was executed and succeeded as king by Godomar. The new king later rallied his allies and regained the Burgundians’ lost territory.

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The following year, the Franks again fought the Burgundians at the Battle of Vézeronce. Godomar repelled the Franks’ assault and personally killed one of Clovis’ four heirs. However, the next Frankish attack would be far more successful. Years later, in 532, the Franks decisively defeated the Burgundians at the Battle of Autun. At the conclusion of the battle, Godomar was killed, and the Kingdom of the Burgundians was brought to an end.[xxii]

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Correctly identifying the ten kingdoms and their dates of defeat provides a historical range for when the Antichrist must reach his full power. Daniel predicted that exactly three kingdoms must be defeated before the Antichrist arrived, so the Antichrist must have received his power between the fall of the Burgundian Kingdom in 532 and March 534, when the Vandals became the fourth kingdom to collapse. This narrow date range, along with the fact that Justinian elevated the bishop of Rome to the “head of all the Holy Churches” in 533, proves the papacy is the Antichrist and provides additional evidence that the Futurist interpretation of the end times is false.

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He Would Subdue Three Kings

In Daniel 7:24, the prophet wrote that the Antichrist would “subdue three kings.” The three kingdoms that Daniel prophesied would be subdued by the Antichrist cannot be the same three horns “plucked up by the roots” before the Antichrist came to power. Instead, the kingdoms subdued in verse twenty-four were the three conquered by Catholic allies of the papacy.

 

Daniel 7:24

24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.

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The First Horn Subdued by Papal Allies: The Vandals [534 AD]

The next kingdom to fall, and the first subdued by the papacy, was the Vandals, who ruled North Africa, Corsica, and Sardinia from 435 until 534. This kingdom’s growth coincided with the decline of the Roman Empire. After expanding their realm in North Africa through land battles, the Vandals conducted naval raids across the Mediterranean Sea, enriching themselves at Rome’s expense. The Vandals even sacked Rome for fourteen days in 455.[xxiii]

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When Justinian became Byzantine emperor in 527 AD, the Vandals were still the most significant threat to Rome. In 530 AD, a man named Gelimer led a revolt that deposed the penultimate Vandal king, Hilderic. Hilderic was a childhood friend of Justinian, who immediately demanded that the king be released from captivity. Gelimer, an Arian Christian, disregarded the Catholic Justinian’s ultimatum and began persecuting the Nicene Catholics in Vandal territory, further angering the emperor.

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One of the primary objectives of Justinian’s reign was his Renovatio Imperii Romanorum, or “Renewal of the Roman Empire,” campaign, which sought to reconstitute a united Roman Empire. The Vandals became the first target of this crusade when Justinian dispatched his best general, Belisarius, to deal with Gelimer in June 533 AD. After only nine months, the Vandal Kingdom was annihilated, and the papacy had subdued its first horn.[xxiv], [xxv]

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The Second Horn Subdued by Papal Allies: The Baiuvarii [c.550-554 AD]

Sometime in the early 550s, the Baiuvarii were subjected to the rule of the Frankish Kingdom to the northwest. From no later than 554, the House of Agilolfing ruled Bavaria as a Duchy under Frankish rule. By this time, the Franks were Catholic allies of the papacy, making the Baiuvarii the second kingdom subdued by the papal Antichrist.[xxvi]

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The Third Horn Subdued by Papal Allies: The Ostrogoths [554 AD]

From 493 until 538 AD, the bishop of Rome was heavily influenced by another of Daniel 7’s ten kingdoms, the Ostrogoths. During the Ostrogothic papacy, as this era is called, the Ostrogothic kings selected and controlled the bishop of Rome.[xxvii] Throughout his reign, Theoderic had control over much of the territory of the former Western Roman Empire. He ruled as the king of the Ostrogoths in Italy, regent of the Visigoths, and hegemon over both the Vandals and Burgundians before their kingdoms collapsed.[xxviii]

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In 526 AD, Theoderic died. His death triggered a series of leadership disputes amongst various claimants to the Ostrogothic throne until a regent queen named Amalasuntha was deposed by her cousin, Theodahad. Justinian supported the dethroned and exiled queen, who was later assassinated in 535.

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The queen’s murder was the excuse Justinian needed to divert Belisarius and his army into Italy to confront Theodahad. Fresh off his victory against the Vandals, Belisarius landed in Sicily and fought northward through the Italian peninsula. The Byzantines eventually freed Rome from the control of the Ostrogoths in March of 538 AD.[xxix] The residents of Rome were hostile to their Ostrogothic occupiers. Realizing their chances of defeating Belisarius and his Byzantine army were weakened by this untenable relationship with their subjects, the Ostrogoths—now ruled by Vitiges—fled the city through the Flaminian Gate in the north while Belisarius marched into it unopposed through the Asinarian Gate in the south. Following an Ostrogothic counter-attack and siege which began in 537, Rome was reclaimed by the Byzantine forces in March of 538.[xxx] By the end of the Gothic War in 554, the Catholic Byzantines had seized the Italian peninsula and conquered the Ostrogoths—and the papal Antichrist had subdued a third kingdom.[xxxi]

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Diverse From the First Ten Kings

The papacy also fulfills Daniel 7:24’s prediction that the Antichrist “shall be diverse” from the other ten kings. The authority held by the first ten kings was exclusively political. In contrast, the pope was primarily a religious leader, albeit one who gained temporal power and influence over all of Christendom.

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The Eighth King of Rome

In Revelation 17:11, we were told the Antichrist would rule Rome as the city’s eighth king. Like Daniel’s ten kings, each king represents a leadership position, not an individual person. The sixth different type of leader to rule Rome—the king that “is” because it reigned when Revelation was written in 95 AD—was the emperors. The seventh king was the position of “King of Italy.” This title was held by both Odoacer and the Ostrogothic kings, who lost control of the city of Rome in 538.

 

When Justinian wrote his 533 letter to John II declaring the bishop of Rome “the head of all the Holy Churches,” this elevated his bishopric to the administrative head over all Catholicism.[xxxii] Once the Byzantines forced the Ostrogothic army away from the city in 538, the new bishop of Rome, Pope Vigilius, used this novel religious significance to fill the political power vacuum created by the eviction of the King of Italy, Vitiges, and his Ostrogothic army.[xxxiii] When Pope Vigilius became the political leader of Rome in 538, the papacy’s temporal power was realized, making the papacy the eighth “king” of Rome after the seventh king had fled.

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A Deadly Wound That Would Be Healed and Three Stages of the Beast

Both the Antichrist beast of Revelation 13 and the scarlet beast Mystery Babylon sat upon in Revelation 17 contain similar allusions to the timeline of idolatrous religion beginning in the time of Daniel. Revelation 13 mentions a deadly wound on one of the seven heads of the Antichrist beast, which was later healed. This head of the beast had three stages—before being wounded, a period where it was dead, and after the wound was healed and the head was revived. Similarly, the scarlet beast of John’s Mystery Babylon vision also had three stages: “was,” “is not,” and “yet is.” The beast’s head “was” before it was fatally wounded, after which it “was not.” When the deadly wound was healed, the beast reached the “yet is” stage.

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The Antichrist beast had seven heads, likely a metaphor for the many idolatrous pagan religions. Only one—the head representing the sun cult of Babylon—was wounded to death. It was not Mystery Babylon herself who “was, and is not, and yet is,” it was the beast she sat on—Babylonian idolatry.

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After Xerxes’ religious suppression in response to the Babylonian revolts of 484 BC forced the city’s priests to flee, the Babylonian sun cult became a religion without an official home. It migrated westward, first to the Anatolian city of Pergamon, then to Rome. In neither city was it the primary religion the way it had been in Babylon. Although the religion was popular under the pagan emperors, it was never the main religion of Rome. The beast “was” before the revolts in 484 BC wounded it to death. When Revelation 17 was written, the angel said the beast “is not,” as its wound had not been healed.

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After Constantine’s 312 AD conversion, his 313 Edict of Milan legalized all religions, including Christianity. Constantine proceeded to infuse Christian ideas into the Babylonian sun cult being practiced in Rome and created a new pagan religion masked as Christianity. During his reign, Catholicism became the most popular religion practiced in Rome. Through the creation of this new religion Babylonian idolatry was revitalized—an event which fulfilled the “yet is” stage of the beast and the healing of its headwound.

 

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Comparison between the Antichrist beast’s deadly wound in Revelation 13

and the three phases of the Mystery Babylon scarlet-colored beast,

“was,” “is not,” “and yet is” in Revelation 17.

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He Gets His “Seat and Great Authority” from Satan

This prophecy has a straightforward fulfillment. The Bible explains that the Antichrist would be the leader of Satan’s false church of Mystery Babylon. Since Mystery Babylon represents the Catholic Church, and the pope is the head of Catholicism, he receives his seat and authority from Satan. Based on this Biblical evidence, it is simple to see how the pope—who certainly has great authority and a seat in Rome—qualifies as the Antichrist.

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“Power was Given Him Over All Kindreds, and Tongues, and Nations”

In John’s Mystery Babylon vision, an angel explained the waters signified many “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” The Antichrist sea beast in Revelation 13 is described similarly. In that vision, John learned this beast would have power “over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.”

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The Roman Catholic Church has locations nearly worldwide. Its papacy has ecclesiastical authority over these parishioners, no matter which nation they live in or what language they speak. The correlation between the papacy and the Bible’s Antichrist is incontrovertible.

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He Will Use Satan’s Power, Signs, and Lying Wonders to Deceive “Them that Perish”

Christians and Catholics alike believe the forces at work in the spiritual universe have incredible power to work miracles—either for good or evil. The Catholic Church has classified many miracles—some of which can be reasonably convincing—including centuries-old bodies of saints that never decay, the healing water of Lourdes, Marian apparitions, stigmata, miracles of levitation, the regular liquefication of the fourth-century blood of Saint Januarius, and many more.

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The Catholic Church credits God for these miracles and tells us they are evidence of his power. But since the Bible tells us a false church would arise with a description that irrefutably matches the Catholic Church, why should we believe them? After all, God is not the only being with the supernatural power to work miracles—Satan could just as easily use signs and wonders to intentionally convert people to Catholicism.

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Whoever you believe the Antichrist to be, the Bible is clear that he will be a false Christian leader and an instrument of Satan on earth. As Paul wrote in II Thessalonians 2:9, the Antichrist’s arrival would be “after the working of Satan.” The Bible explains the Antichrist will have access to Satan’s power, signs, and wonders to deceive would-be Christians, effectively blocking their path to Heaven without them ever realizing it.

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He Will Change the Times and Laws

There is no mention in the Bible of God changing the Sabbath day from Saturday to Sunday. In fact, evidence of Jesus’ apostles observing the Sabbath after Christ’s resurrection is found throughout the book of Acts.[xxxiv] According to the Codex Justinianus 3.12.3, the first law mandating the formal observance of Sunday as a holy day was issued by Constantine. This law was not released with a Christian title, such as Sabbatum (Sabbath) or Dies Domini (Lord’s Day), but instead under the pagan solar title Dies Solis (Day of the Sun). Along with his co-Consul, Crispus, he decreed, “On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.”[xxxv] The ancient Romans had always observed their holy day on Sunday, as evidenced by Constantine’s usage of the adjective “venerable.” However, the emperor merely legally required every Sunday to be a day of rest. At this point, nothing related to the times had been changed.

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Less than three decades after Constantine’s death, the 364 AD Council of Laodicea officially changed the weekly Catholic holy day from Saturday to Sunday. The council’s twenty-ninth canon proclaimed, “Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honour, and, as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ.”[xxxvi]

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In his late-nineteenth-century American publication The Catholic Mirror, Cardinal James Gibbons confirmed the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the substitution. “The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her Divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday,” he wrote.[xxxvii]

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Jesus told us he did not arrive on earth to rewrite Jewish religious laws or customs but to fulfill the prophecies made centuries earlier. In fact, he advised us to observe the old laws and commandments.[2] Most of the ancient Jewish laws are found in the Torah, preserved for Christians as the first five books of the Bible. Among those laws are the Ten Commandments, listed in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. The fourth commandment instructed the Jews to “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”[3]

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Jesus said he was not here to destroy the law, which includes the Ten Commandments. In fact, Jesus even said he was “Lord even of the Sabbath day.”[4] He never mentioned changing the holy day to Sunday or abolishing the Sabbath in any way. The Roman Catholic Church’s role in changing the weekly holy day from Saturday to Sunday is still more evidence that the pope is the Antichrist.

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Some within Christianity advocate for changing the weekly holy day back to Saturday, a concept referred to as “Sabbatarianism.” This website does not advocate Sabbatarianism or changing the Christian holy day back to Saturday. The reason for investigating this topic here is to demonstrate one of the ways that the papacy “changed the times”—as Daniel 7:25 told us the Antichrist would do.

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Technically, the Bible does not identify which day should be the Sabbath; it just says that the Sabbath needs to be observed every seventh day. Paul wrote in Colossians 2:16-17 that the Sabbath as practiced by the Jews of the Old Testament was a “shadow of things to come.” He told Christians not to allow others to judge them for eating meat, for what they drink, or for how they observe holy days—as if he was speaking against some of the many ways the Vatican would regulate its parishioners.

 

Colossians 2:16-17

16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

 

The popes did not stop at changing the weekly holy day. With the help of Constantine and other political leaders, the Vatican altered many pagan festivals into Catholic holy days. Christmas,[xxxviii] Easter,[xxxix] All Saints Day,[xl] and even Saint Valentine’s Day[xli] are just a few of the many Catholic holidays that originated as usurped pagan festivals that were adopted to make converting pagans less arduous.

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Pope Gregory I detailed a similar strategy to assimilate pagans in a now-famous letter he sent in 601 AD to the abbot Mellitus, a missionary in Kent, England. The letter explained the pope’s decision to repurpose the pagan temples of Britain as Christian shrines to ease the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. “The temples of the idols in that nation ought not to be destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed;” he wrote. “Let holy water be made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected, and relics placed. For if those temples are well built, it is requisite that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the true God; that the nation, seeing that their temples are not destroyed, may remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true God, may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they have been accustomed.”[xlii] Gregory decided it would be easier for his missionaries to convert British pagans if the Catholics reused their temples, just as pagan holidays had been adopted years earlier.[xliii]

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If this is not enough evidence to support the papacy’s fulfillment of the phrase “he will change the times,” Pope Gregory XIII changed quite literally all the times in the year when he created the calendar system currently used in most of the world, the Gregorian calendar. A slight inaccuracy in the Julian calendar had overestimated the length of the year by about twelve minutes and 14.75 seconds, which amounted to a difference of sixteen days between the time of Julius Caesar and Gregory XIII. Gregory reset the calendar back to where it was in 325 AD during the Council of Nicaea, based on the vernal equinox being March 25 that year. This date change was implemented by advancing the calendar from October 4 to October 15 in 1582.[xliv]

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Daniel 7:25 predicts the Antichrist will change not only the times but also the laws. This half of the prophecy is simple to comprehend. The pope has power over canon law and changes it with some regularity. The current canon law, enacted in 1983, declares the pope has “supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power” in the Catholic Church, including legislative authority over religious law. Canon 331 of the Vatican’s Code of Canon Law explains, “The bishop of the Roman Church, in whom continues the office given by the Lord uniquely to Peter, the first of the Apostles, and to be transmitted to his successors, is the head of the college of bishops, the Vicar of Christ, and the pastor of the universal Church on earth. By virtue of his office he possesses supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely.”[xlv]

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Undoubtedly, the pope is most responsible for changing canon law and, with it, the religious practices, ceremonies, customs, rules, and rituals of the Catholic Church. Papal bulls, briefs, motu proprio, edicts, and decrees are all official documents the pope can write whereby he can change religious laws. However, the pontiff can also “change the laws” in other ways. The bishop of Rome significantly influenced the Roman civil laws in the Code of Justinian during the latter part of the empire.

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He Will “Make War with the Saints”

In its history, the papacy consistently persecuted, punished, and martyred true Christians. The Middle Ages and Counter-Reformation were incredibly difficult times to be a faithful Christian. The Catholic Church persecuted and suppressed pre-Reformation Protestant groups, including the Albigensians, Waldensians, and Hussites; imprisoned and executed Christians through the Inquisitions in Spain, Portugal, and Italy; and fought the European Wars of Religion against Protestant nations. This period of persecution, murder, and war can easily be described as “making war with the saints.”

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Who Was the Restrainer?

In Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, he wrote of a restrainer who would keep the Antichrist contained. Only after this restrainer was removed would the Antichrist be revealed. In II Thessalonians 2:7, Paul explained the Antichrist’s “mystery of iniquity” was already active during his lifetime. The many counter-scriptural ideas and systematized rituals that would become the prevailing doctrine of Catholicism were already at work within the Christian community, even in the first century.

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However, the “restrainer” was also in place at that time, and his power inhibited these heretical ideas. Eventually, the restrainer would “be taken out of the way,” indicating his presence would no longer limit the power of the papacy and the Catholic Church.

 

II Thessalonians 2:6-9

6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

 

The evidence Paul provided in II Thessalonians 2 indicates the restrainer represents the pagan Roman emperors. The emperors persecuted Christians until Constantine’s Edict of Milan. Even through Rome’s “Christian” period, the emperors retained full temporal power over all political and social issues. However, in Rome’s post-Constantine era, the Catholic Church held its first ecumenical council, developed the Nicene Creed, crafted the polytheistic doctrine of the Trinity, and became exceptionally wealthy. With the Catholic Church’s blessing, Constantine and later emperors persecuted any Christian sects that did not adhere to the Catholic interpretation of Christianity through punitive legal action and force.[xlvi], [xlvii]

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The Church’s power and heresy increased exponentially between the fall of Rome in 476 and the city’s 538 Byzantine reconquest. During this period, the bishop of Rome took the self-aggrandizing title of “Vicar of Christ” and was given power over all Catholicism. After 538, with their novel political influence in hand, the popes severely persecuted any individuals or groups who did not conform to their opinions of what Christianity should be, just as you might expect the Antichrist to do.

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Summary

The Papacy Fulfills Every Element of Biblical Antichrist Prophecy

• The pope is in Rome (Daniel 7:7-8, 9:26, Revelation 17:9)

• The popes have historically spoken “great things” (Daniel 7:8, 7:11, 7:25, II Thessalonians 2:4, Revelation 13:5)

• The bishop of Rome received administrative power over the Catholic Church in 533 after exactly three kingdoms had fallen (Daniel 7:8, 7:20)

  • The third horn to lose its kingdom was the Burgundians in 532 AD

  • The fourth horn to lose its kingdom was the Vandals in 534 AD

  • The bishop of Rome received power as the “head of all the Holy Churches” in 533 AD between the collapses of the third and fourth kingdoms (Daniel 7:8, 7:20)

  • All ten kingdoms no longer exist, proving the Futurist interpretation of a single, future Antichrist cannot be true

• Catholic allies of the papacy also conquered three kings—the Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Baiuvarii (Daniel 7:24)

• The pope was the eighth king of Rome, receiving temporal power after the seventh king, the King of Italy, in 538 AD (Revelation 17:11)

• The pope is a religious leader, not only a political leader, which makes him “diverse” from the other ten kings who arose from the fall of the Western Roman Empire (Daniel 7:24)

• The popes claim to be substitutes for Christ by assuming the title “Vicar of Christ” (Daniel 7:8, 7:11, 7:25, II Thessalonians 2:4, Revelation 13:5)

• The pope has power over many different “kindreds, and tongues, and nations” (Revelation 13:7, 17:15)

• The popes have changed the times and laws (Daniel 7:25)

• The popes “made war with the saints” when they martyred countless Christians for their faith (Daniel 7:21, 7:25, Revelation 13:7, 17:6)

 

The Restrainer

• Represents the pagan Roman emperors, who kept the Catholic papacy under control until they were taken out of the way with Constantine’s conversion in 312 AD

 

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[1] John 14:16-18, 26 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you…26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

[2] Matthew 5:17-18 17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Matthew 19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

[3] Exodus 20:8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

[4] Matthew 12:8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day.

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[i] Justinian I. 1932. “The Code of Justinian - Book I - Title I.” In The Civil Law, Vol. XII, by Samuel Parsons Scott, 9-15. Cincinnati: The Central Trust Company.

[ii] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2023. Papacy. July 7. Accessed August 29, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/papacy.

[iii] Tertullian. 1903. “On Prescription Against Heretics.” In The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. III, by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, 243-263. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

[iv] Pope Innocent III. c.1260. Decretalium D. Gregorii Papae IX, Book I, Title VII, Chapter III. Compilatio. Accessed August 30, 2023. https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/gregdecretals1.html.

[v] Pope Boniface VIII. 2020. Unam Sanctam. February 20. Accessed August 29, 2023. https://www.papalencyclicals.net/bon08/b8unam.htm.

[vi] Guinness, Henry Grattan. 1887. “The Daniel Foreview of Romanism.” In Romanism and the Reformation, by Henry Grattan Guinness, 25-26. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

[vii] Review and Herald Pub. Assn. 1911. “Lying for the Glory of God.” In The Protestant Magazine, Vol. III, No. I, 13.

[viii] Barclaii, Guil. 1609. “Depotestate Papae in Principes Cristianos.” In De Potestate Papae: An & Quatenus in Reges & Principes Seculares ius & Imperium Habeat, by William Barclay, 218-219. Franciscum Du Bois, & Iacobum Garnich.

[ix] Pope Leo XIII. 2020. Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae. February 20. Accessed August 29, 2023. https://www.papalencyclicals.net/leo13/l13praec.htm.

[x] The Evangelical Alliance. 1895. Evangelical Christendom, January 1: 15.

[xi] Michaud, Prof. Dr. E. 1895. “A New Papist Transubstantiation.” In Le Catholique National, No. 18, July 13: 1.

[xii] The Catholic Truth Society. 1896. “Does the Pope Claim to be God?” In Publications of the Catholic Truth Society, Vol. XXIX, by The Catholic Truth Society, 11. London: Catholic Truth Society.

[xiii] Dal-Gal, Hieronymo. 1954. Saint Pius X, The New Italian Life Of The Saint, translated by Thomas F. Murray, 104-107. Dublin: M. H. Gill and Son Ltd.

[xiv] Swisscovery Universität und PH Bern. 2023. Le catholique national : organe des catholiques-chrétiennes de la Suisse romande. Bern, December 21. https://slsp-ube.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=41SLSP_UBE:UBE&search_scope=MyInstitution&tab=LibraryCatalog&docid=alma99116695770805511&lang=en&context=L&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&query=any,contains,catholique%20national&offset=2.

[xv] Smith, Sydney F. 1896. “Does the Pope claim to be God?” In Publications of the Catholic Truth Society, Vol. XXIX, 10. London: Catholic Truth Society.

[xvi] Michaud, Prof. Dr. E. 1895. “Une Nouvelle Transubstantiation Papiste.” In Le Catholique National, No. 18, July 13: 74-75.

[xvii] Schanche, Don A. 1984. “No Forgiveness ‘Directly from God,’ Pope Says.” In Los Angeles Times, December 12: 11.

[xviii] Pope John Paul II. 1984. Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliation and Penance of John Paul II to the Bishops Clergy and Faithful on Reconciliation and Penance in the Mission of the Church Today. December 2. Accessed August 30, 2023. https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_02121984_reconciliatio-et-paenitentia.html.

[xix] Gregory of Tours. 1916. “The Second Book.” History of the Franks, translated by Ernest Brehaut, 39-41. New York: Columbia University Press.

[xx] Smith, William. 1854. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, Vol. I. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company.

[xxi] Sarantis, Alexander. 2010. “The Justinianic Herules: from Allied Barbarians to Roman Provincials.” In Neglected Barbarians, edited by Florin Curta, 361-402. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers.

[xxii] Wood, Ian. 2014. The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450-751. New York: Routledge.

[xxiii] Heather, Peter. 2005. The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[xxiv] Procopius II. 1916. History Of The Wars, Books III & IV. Translated by H. B. Dewing. London: Wiiliam Heinemann.

[xxv] Warner, David A. 2001. “Renovatio Imperii Romanorum.” In Medieval Germany: An Encyclopedia, edited by John M. Jeep, 469-470. New York and London: Garland.

[xxvi] Goffart, Walter. 2010. Barbarian Tides: The Migration Age and the Later Roman Empire, 219. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

[xxvii] Löffler, Klemens. 1913. “Ostrogoths.” In The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11, edited by Charles Herbermann. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

[xxviii] James, Edward. 2014. Europe’s Barbarians, AD 200-600. London and New York: Routledge.

[xxix] Dupuy, Richard Ernest, and Trevor Nevitt Dupuy. 1993. “The Opening of the Middle Ages: 400-600.” In The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History: From 3500 BC to the Present, 203. New York: HarperCollins.

[xxx] Barker, J. Walton. “Belisarius.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, February 25, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Belisarius.

[xxxi] Procopius II. 1919. History of the Wars, Books V & VI. Translated by H. B. Dewing. London: William Heinemann.

[xxxii] Justinian I. 1932. “The Code of Justinian - Book I - Title I.” In The Civil Law, Vol. XII, by Samuel Parsons Scott, 9-15. Cincinnati: The Central Trust Company.

[xxxiii] Elliott, Edward Bishop. 1862. “Uprooting of Three Horns, Out of the Ten, Before the Beast.” In Horae Apocalypticae, Vol. III, by Edward Bishop Elliott, 167-172. London: Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday.

[xxxiv] Acts 13:14, 13:27, 13:42-44, 15:21, 16:13, 17:2, 18:4 (KJV).

[xxxv] Schaff, Philip. 1867. “The Civil and Religious Sunday.” In History of the Christian Church, Vol. II, 378-386. New York: Charles Scribner & Co.

[xxxvi] Hefele, Carl Joseph. 1896. “Synod of Laodicra.” In A History of the Councils of the Church, Vol. II, 316. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.

[xxxvii] Gibbons, James. 1893. The Christian Sabbath. 29. Baltimore: The Catholic Mirror.

[xxxviii] CBS News. 2018. The Unexpected Origins of Popular Christmas Traditions. December 25. Accessed September 8, 2023. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-unexpected-pagan-origins-of-popular-christmas-traditions/.

[xxxix] McDougall, Heather. 2010. The Pagan Roots of Easter. April 3. Accessed September 8, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/apr/03/easter-pagan-symbolism.

[xl] Kiger, Patrick J. 2023. How the Early Catholic Church Christianized Halloween. September 6. Accessed September 8, 2023. https://www.history.com/news/halloween-samhain-celts-catholic-church.

[xli] Seipel, Arnie. 2022. The Dark Origins of Valentine’s Day. February 14. Accessed September 8, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133693152/the-dark-origins-of-valentines-day.

[xlii] Bede. 1949. Bede: The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Books I and II. Translated by Michael MacLagan. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

[xliii] Markus, R. A. 1970. “Gregory the Great and a Papal Missionary Strategy.” In Studies in Church History, Volume 6: The Mission of the Church and the Propagation of the Faith, 29-38. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[xliv] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2023. Gregorian calendar. June 20. Accessed September 8, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gregorian-calendar.

[xlv] The Roman Catholic Church. 2023. Code of Canon Law. July 7. Accessed September 7, 2023. https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib2-cann330-367_en.html#SECTION_I.

[xlvi] Duffy, Eamon. 1997. Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes, 27. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

[xlvii] Chadwick, Henry. 1990. “The Early Christian Community.” In The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, edited by John McManners, 56. Oxford: Oxford University Press.