18.

 Originally the pope of Rome was the first among equals of the bishops of the Church. When Rome withdrew from the Church, it was impossible, of course, that the pope could fulfill this position. According to the canons of the Church, in the event of the presiding bishop's falling into heresy or being unable to govern, the remaining Orthodox bishops must assign the presidency to the senior bishop who is Orthodox. What would have to occur for the pope of Rome to once again be the first among equals?

            Rome would have to abandon all its heretical dogmas and other illicit innovations and convert to Orthodoxy. Such would entail its rejecting its lust for power and its aspiration to subordinate other bishops under its authority — that is, the idea of papal supremacy. It would likewise entail its rejecting the doctrine of papal infallibility, something invented in 1870 and still taught by the Roman Catholic Church today, despite the fact that — to the Latin Church's own admission — many Roman popes were heretics, and despite the fact that the second chapter of the book of Galatians shows that the Apostle Peter himself was not infallible.

            [Professor's addendum: Both papal supremacy and papal infallibility are the result of earlier heresies and are a root of further heresies. There are Roman heresies worse than these].

            While the loss of the Church of Rome and so many of its faithful has always weighed heavily upon Orthodoxy and has left an unhealed wound, and while Orthodoxy would always welcome Rome's return, such a return is not likely. Rome has been estranged from Christ's Church for one thousand years. Given the Latin Church's ideology and aggressive politics, its “lies, intrigue, deception, fanaticism and villainy” (as Dostoyevsky put it), and most of all its boundless malice and bloody atrocities against Orthodox Christians throughout the centuries, one cannot even begin to imagine that Rome will ever return. While many individual Catholics convert to Orthodoxy and find a home in it, Rome shows an interest only in destroying Orthodoxy and preparing the way for the throne of the antichrist.

            In his book The Keys of This Blood: the Struggle for World Dominion Between Pope John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev and the Capitalist West (1990), the Roman Catholic writer Malachi Martin shows the papacy's role in this struggle. While Pope John Paul II was convalescing after the near-fatal attempt on his life in St. Peter's Square, he had what he falsely believes was a vision of the Mother of God. In the vision, the pope states, he was told not to lift a finger to clean out the Latin Church, that it is already too late. Instead, he is to await a cataclysmic event ... an event that will fission human history, splitting the immediate past from the oncoming future. It will be an event on public view from the skies, in the oceans, and on the continental landmasses of this planet. It will particularly involve [the] sun.

            It is not known if the cataclysm will be another world war or natural events, or a combination of both, or if it will entail something supernatural. The pope indicates that the disaster cannot be averted, that the die is cast — but, he believes, it will be a good thing, for it will bring down all the governments and economic systems of the world, including capitalism, which he has always equated with materialism. Out of such chaos, the pope says, the papacy will rise triumphantly to lead the world into a “new world order” of peace above and beyond ideologies, political and economic. Martin writes that the pope believes that “this geopolitical mission he has chosen to fulfill as pope will be crowned with a success that has never registered in the life of any preceding pope.” Thus, as John the Baptist was the herald of Christ at the Jordan, so the pope will be the satanic herald of the antichrist in the new world order.

            To those readers who wonder how the anti-Christian media can at once belittle Christianity yet exalt the pope, the answer is obvious. The media accords the pope the worldly glory and advertisement he seeks because he is an obedient instrument of the globalists. That is, they know that in the time of the united world government, they can count on the pope to make urgent appeals for all humanity to bow down and accept the one-world ruler, the antichrist.

            In 1990, Pope Wojtyla issued a statement that the “messiah” is presently walking on the face of the earth and that all humanity should be prepared to accept him when he is finally revealed. (It is not clear if this statement was issued in an encyclical as it was mentioned only briefly in a newspaper article).

            To these evil words spewing forth from the mouth of the pope, Christ replies: “And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is the Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not; for false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect” (Mk 13:21-22).

            Moreover, the Russian monks of the Solovki Monastery handed down the answer that St. Zosimas gave when his disciples asked him how to recognize the antichrist in the end times. St. Zosimas replied: “When you hear that Christ has come to earth or has appeared on earth, know then that this is antichrist.”

            If anyone claiming false visions appears in the desert, Christians are not to go out, nor are they to look down to the earth for Christ any more, even though the pope is telling them to do so. The true Messiah, Christ, Whom the pope rejects, came in the flesh two thousand years ago. The Savior will not again come from this world, but He is to descend from Heaven. Also, He will not come alone as before, but escorted by myriads of angels; and not secretly, but openly, shining like lightning (Mt 24:27). Therefore, let all readers beware of the herald of the antichrist, the pope of Rome.