The Papacy as Anti-Messiah
Before Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire, the previous religion was known as Mithraism. Mithraism is sun-worship; and in Mithraism, the sun-god (Ra) was thought to personally attend the Roman emperor.
That the Roman citizens believed their god would sit in personal attendance to the Roman emperor gave him unparalleled power and prestige in their eyes. To disobey the decree of such a demigod was not only considered treason, but (almost) heresy.
As opposed to the Nazarene faith, Mithraism was not Torah-based. The Torah teaches that it is idolatrous to worship men, and idolatry is therefore prohibited by the jealous Elohim. For this reason, the Roman emperors did little to disguise their ill feelings toward the Nazarenes. By teaching the people that the emperors were not demigods, the Nazarenes had weakened the emperor’s basis of prestige and power. No politician likes that.
The Roman emperors also initially despised the Christians, for similar reasons. Christianity also taught that one’s truest allegiance should not go to Caesar, but to Yeshua, the King of Kings. This also weakened the emperors’ power structure; but there was a way for a clever emperor to turn this to his advantage.
Because Christianity is not based on Torah, if Scripture could be misconstrued to suggest that the emperor was divine, then Constantine could adopt Christianity as his ‘official’ religion, and continue to teach the people to worship him as a demigod.
History records for us that the Roman Emperor Constantine was raised a sun worshipper. In 312 CE, while he was in the grove of the sun-god Apollo in Gaul (ancient France), Constantine claimed to have received a dream in which ‘Christ’ appeared to him, instructing him to write the first two letters of his name (XP) upon his troops’ shields. Then, the next day, he claimed to have seen a cross superimposed over the sun, at which time he was given the message, “In this sign you will be victorious” (en hoc signo vinces).
The next year, Constantine and his co-emperor issued the Edict of Milan, a document formally ending the persecution of Christians within the Roman Empire. Constantine then continued to battle with others for supremacy over the Empire; and he did in fact emerge victorious by the year 324 CE.
We should note, however, that even though he officially converted to Christianity, Emperor Constantine still reverenced the sun. His belief in Christianity was inextricably merged with his belief in sun worship, and he continued to live his life by sun-worship constructs. He continued to wage war for personal advantage, continued to rest on the sun day (in honor of the sun god), and even minted coins to the Roman sun god, Sol Invictus Mith-Ra. It is also reported that he had his wife and son beheaded, even though he considered himself to be a Christian.
About the same time he established himself as the undisputed ruler of the Roman Empire, Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea. This council blended Christianity and Mithraism, establishing the new Catholic (‘Universal’) Christian faith. This new faith took the same core of familiar Mithraic festivals, but re-named them according to Christian themes. This was done to such an extent that the accusation has been made that Catholicism (‘Universalism’) is really more Mithraism-in-disguise, than anything else.
While Constantine allowed the official version of Christianity to be practiced within his empire, it should also be noted that the Catholic Church condemned the Nazarenes as heretics, in that they continued to keep the Torah, as the Apostles had:
“Christians must not ‘Judaize’ by resting on the Sabbath; but must work on that day, honoring rather the Lord’s Day [‘Sun’ day] by resting, if possible, as Christians.
However, if any [Nazarene] be found ‘Judaizing’, let them be shut out from Christ.”
[The Church of Imperial Rome; Council of Laodicea under the Emperor Constantine; Canon 29, 336 AD]
Other translations read, “Let them be anathema to Christ”, insinuating that the Nazarenes were to be considered the ultimate personae non gratae. Thus, those who were willing to adopt Mithraic traditions would become safe from the lions in the arena, but the Nazarenes never became so.
Shut out of the synagogues in the first century by the Jews, and now thrown to the lions by the Papacy in the fourth, the Nazarene faith eventually died out. Its adherents either yielded to Roman persecution, or were killed by the gladiators for sport.
Thus, while the Christian Church would fulfill a prophetic role in helping to spread the Good News of Yeshua to the ends of the Earth, it would also serve as the means by which the faith once delivered to the saints would be snuffed out for two thousand years. It was simultaneously a blessing to the world, and a stumbling block to the faithful.
Most historians acknowledge that Constantine’s motives in blending Mithraism with Christianity had more to do with power politics than anything else. Caesar was, above all, a politician. If he had simply converted to Christianity as it existed before he co-opted it, he would not have been able to continue to pretend that he was a demigod. Had that happened, his degree of power and control over his empire would have diminished very rapidly.
If Emperor Constantine was to remain the most powerful man on the planet, he would have to find some way of re-forming Christianity around Mithraism, so that he might continue to appear an all-powerful demigod. His means of doing this was to take certain verses in the New Covenant and twist them, to make it appear as if they said things they actually did not.
If one forbids the people to read or interpret the Scriptures for themselves (as the Catholics historically did) then one can suggest that certain verses say whatever it is that one needs them to say. What Emperor Constantine needed these verses to say, then, was that he was not just an ordinary mortal.
Here is the passage the Catholics use to suggest that the Emperor was a demigod:
15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
16 Shimon Kefa (Simon Peter) answered and said, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living Elohim.”
17 Yeshua answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Yonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
18 And I also say to you that you are Kefa (Peter); and on this rock (petra) I will build My assembly, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
19 And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
[Mattithyahu (Matthew) 16:15-19]
There are several issues which will be discussed in later chapters. The key issue at the moment is that the Catholics tell us that this passage indicates the Roman Emperor was more than just an ordinary mortal man:
18 And I also say to you that you are Peter (Petros); and on this rock (petra) I will build My assembly, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
The Catholic Church asserts that Yeshua intended to build His assembly upon an individual named Shimon Kefa personally: Therefore, whomever Shimon Kefa (Simon Peter) would designate as his successor would become the head of the Body of Messiah, as if the Messiah ruled through him.
One problem with this assertion is that Petros and petra are not the same word. Yeshua does not say He will build His Assembly upon Petros (Kefa). Rather, what He said was that He would build His assembly upon the divine revelation that He was the Messiah, the Son of the Living Elohim.
That divine revelation is the ‘this’ of verse 17:
17 Yeshua answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Yonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this (revelation knowledge) to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
Moreover, most English translations give an inaccurate rendering of verse 19:
19 And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
This inaccurate rendering seems to suggest that Kefa was in fact some sort of larger-than-life demigod. However, when we take this passage back to the Greek Text that the Roman Church asserts is the original, what it actually says is that the Apostles would bind what had already been bound, in Heaven:
19 And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will already have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will already have been loosed in heaven.
Rather than suggesting that Kefa was some larger-than-life demigod (consistent with Greco-Roman theology), what it says is that by surrendering to the leading of the Spirit, Kefa and the other Apostles became tools in the Master’s hand.
The Roman Emperor, however, saw his opportunity to lay claim to continuing demigod status, and he took it. The official Roman dogma became that this verse implies a so-called ‘Apostolic Succession.’ This doctrine of alleged ‘Apostolic Succession’ says that just before his death, Kefa allegedly passed his supernatural powers to his alleged designee (Clement), who then transferred them to the next alleged designee (and etceteras), to Emperor Constantine; and right on up to the modern day.
The Church justifies their assertion that the so-called Apostolic Succession was indeed passed to Clement, because Clement was indeed a disciple:
3 And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the Good News, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life. [Philippians 4:3]
We also know from Clement’s writings that he later became the first bishop of the Church of Rome. Catholic legend maintains that when Kefa was taken to Rome to be crucified, that before he was killed he laid hands on Clement, thereby designating him as the alleged receiver of the so-called ‘Apostolic Succession.’
The baton had allegedly been passed.
However, this legend is highly problematical. First, Matthew 16 does not speak of an ‘Apostolic Succession.’ Second, Scripture indicates that it was actually Ya’akov (James, Yeshua’s half-brother) who was originally designated head of the Jerusalem assembly. That headship was passed to Kefa after Ya’akov’s death (in Acts 12) is not proven anywhere.
Third, if headship had been given to Kefa, why would he have transferred it next to the capital city of the empire that had long subjugated Judea, and had chosen to destroy both Jerusalem and the Temple? Why would he transfer headship to the capital of the Empire that had crucified Yeshua, and would soon crucify him? It would seem a most unlikely choice.
Fourth, when we read Clement’s epistles, we see something very odd, which can perhaps only be described in political terms: A careful read of the New Covenant shows us that even though the Apostles had learned directly from Yeshua, they continued to maintain a generally humble attitude. Even Kefa (who had allegedly been handed the so-called ‘Apostolic Succession’) continued to address his fellow believers as little more than fellow bondservants, emphasizing that they too had been called to serve:
1 Shimon Kefa, a bondservant and Apostle of Yeshua Messiah, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our Elohim and Savior Yeshua Messiah:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of Elohim, and Yeshua the Messiah our Master.
[Kefa Bet (2nd Peter) 1:1-4]
Contrast this to Clement’s first epistle, in which he uses his position as the Bishop of Rome as a kind of a bully-pulpit, demanding that the assembly in Corinth conform to his doctrines and decrees:
1 The Church of God which is at Rome, to the Church of God which is at Corinth…. [1st Clement 1:1]
Clement then goes on to demand that the laity at Corinth submit itself to the clergy, setting a precedent that the Bishop of Rome could dictate orders to the other assemblies. Rather than encouraging brothers, Clement initiates a long Papal tradition of talking down to one’s alleged inferiors.
The idea of a power structure in Israel was not new: Israel had known military hierarchy since the days of Moses. What was new was that the leadership should be so haughty, and so presumptuous; and that the spiritual Nation of Israel should be led by a series of increasingly warlike, sun-worshipping demigods who relocated the spiritual center of the nation to Rome.
In Second Thessalonians, the Apostle Shaul warned the first century believers of a Man of Sin who would sit in a coming Temple, pretending to be Elohim Himself:
3 Do not let anyone deceive you in any way, because that Day will not come unless first comes the falling away, and the Man of Sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 the one opposing and exalting himself over everything being called Elohim, or object of worship, so as for him to sit in the Temple of Elohim as Elohim, showing himself that he is Elohim.
[2nd Thessalonians 2:3-4]
1st John 3:4 tells us that sin is the transgression of the Law. Therefore, if sin is the transgression of the Law, the Man of Sin in verse 3 might well be called the Man of Lawlessness: And who has done more to teach against the Law, than the Pope?
7 For the mystery of Lawlessness is already at work; only he is holding back now, until it comes out of the midst; 8 and then the Lawless One will be revealed, whom YHWH will consume by the spirit of His mouth….
[2nd Thessalonians 2:7-8]
In the First Century, the Lawless One had yet to be revealed, and Shaul wrote about a future revelation. Because of this, the majority of the Christian world still looks for a coming anti-Messiah, not realizing that he has been in power for some 1700 years already.
The Pope not only sits in a kind of a Temple, showing himself as Elohim, but he also fulfills the prophecy of Daniel 7:25. Daniel 7:25 speaks of a ‘Little Horn’ who would attempt to change the appointed Festival times, and the Law. He would also seek to exterminate the Nazarenes, thereby ‘wearing them out’ for 3-1/2 prophetic years:
25 “And he (the Pope) shall speak words (contrary to) the Most High; and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he intends to change the appointed (feast) times and (the) Law. And they (the saints) shall be given into his hand for a time, and times, and half a time.” [Daniel 7:25]
This reference to the saints being given over into the Papacy’s hand for ‘a time, times and half a time’ is a reference to the approximately 1260 years in between the formation of the Roman Catholic Church dogma (in the early 300’s), until the Protestant Reformation finally got under way (in the late 1500’s).
The time, two times and half-a-time in this passage is a reference to 3-½ prophetic ‘times’, meaning 3-½ prophetic years.
There are 360 days in the Hebrew calendar, and when one multiplies these 360 days in a year times the 3-1/2 prophetic years, one gets 1260 prophetic days, which correspond to 1260 earth years.
Scripture tells us that the Messiah is the head (or leader) of every man (1st Corinthians 11:3). The implication is that while there has often been leadership in Israel, it was never supposed to be self-appointed (but was always supposed to be appointed by Elohim). For someone to intentionally exalt himself as a kind of a demigod (claiming to be a stand-in for the Messiah) is the very foundation of the spirit of anti-Messiah.
It should be noted that contrary to popular belief, in Greek, the term ‘anti’ does not mean ‘against.’ Rather, it means ‘instead of’, or ‘in the place of.’ Therefore, an anti-Messiah is not someone who tries to destroy the Messiah, but someone who pretends to be the Messiah, or His literal representative. How interesting, then, that the Pope claims the title ‘Vicar of Christ’, by which he claims to be the vicarious representative of the Messiah, on earth.
All of this is strictly against the Torah, and against Yeshua’s Words. Yeshua not only said to call no man ‘rabbi’, but He also said to call no man on earth our Father:
8 But you, do not be called 'Rabbi'; for One is your Teacher: the Messiah; and you are all brethren. 9 “And call no one on earth your ‘Father’, for One is your Father; the One in heaven.”
[Mattithyahu (Matthew) 23:9]
Yeshua’s Words are plain enough: Do not call any man on earth your Father. However, the term Pope literally translates to ‘Papa’ (or Father).
Further, the Pope’s crown (or mitre) is inscribed with the title ‘Vicarius Philii Dei.’ This title literally means, ‘In-Place of the Son of the Deity’, or ‘Instead-of the Son of the Deity.’ The Pope’s title, then, is the exact definition of the term anti-Messiah.
Further, certain languages assign numerical values to each of their letters. Greek is this way. When one adds up the Greek numerical value of the Latin title that is inscribed on the Pope’s crown, ‘Vicarius Philii Dei’, one gets the numerical value of six hundred and sixty six:
18 “Here is wisdom: Let the one having reason count the number of the Beast, for it is the number of a man, and its number is 666.”
[Revelation 13:18]
The Book of Genesis is generally considered prophetic, as it sets the pattern for the same type of events to recur later on in Scripture.
Notice, then, that even back in the Garden of Eden, the Adversary appeared to Eve and tried to get her to abandon YHWH’s commandments, by implying that there would be no negative consequences for disobeying YHWH’s Laws:
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which YHWH Elohim had made. And he said to the woman, "Has Elohim indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"
2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, Elohim has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die’.”
The Catholic ‘Vicar of Christ’ does essentially the same thing by insinuating that we can inherit eternal life, while disregarding the Marital Covenant:
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die, 5 for Elohim knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Elohim, knowing good and evil.”
[Breisheet (Genesis) 3:4-5]