Catholicism Isn't Christianity: 3 Reasons the Pope Is Antichrist

INTRODUCTION 

[This is Part 1 of the Catholicism Isn't Christianity Series] Many true Christians have asserted that the Bishop of Rome is an Antichrist (or the Antichrist, which I do not subscribe to personally). There are many obvious Biblical reasons for stating that the "Pope" or the "Bishop" of Rome is a man who tries to usurp the place of Christ (he tries to replace Christ in the hearts and minds of men and thus is an enemy of Christ). I will present three reasons why this is the case. The Apostle John tells us that there are many antichrists in the world even now and that there were many in his day as well. The antichrists in the days of the early Church were those who denied that Christ took upon Himself human flesh; they denied the Incarnation of our Lord (2 John 1:7). They also denied that Jesus was the Messiah and the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son (1 John 2:22). The word antichrist, antichristos, means “one who opposes Christ; one who either puts himself in the place of, or who makes himself the enemy or opponent of the Messiah”. Our Lord Jesus Christ exhorted His disciples to be on guard against false prophets who would claim to be the Messiah. He tells them not to be deceived, saying “... many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:5). Now when we think about the Antichrist, we know that the Bishop of Rome doesn’t question the Incarnation or the Trinity. So how then can he be Antichrist if he isn’t qualified according to the Apostle John? Even though the Bishops of Rome have been consistently orthodox concerning the doctrine of God, over time they began to oppose Christ, and take the place of Christ. In this way they have become antichrists. Any truth the Bishops of Rome espouse concerning God or His Word, then, is a Devilish plot to seduce and beguile unwitting souls; for they pattern themselves after the cunning of Satan, in that he mixes the truth with error to deceive and lead astray. 

THREE REASONS

We can see the definition of Antichrist fulfilled in the Bishops of Rome in the following three ways: 

NUMBER ONE 

They claim to be the Vicar of Christ on earth, even taking the place of God Himself, claiming absolute power and sovereign jurisdiction over all souls, within and without the Church. In claiming to be the Shepherd of all the sheep of God; the sovereign father of princes and kings; the visible and monarchical head of Christ’s Church; the Bishop of all bishops, and the teacher of all teachers... they have fallen from grace through foolishly trying to usurp the dominion and prerogatives of Christ Jesus, which is impossible. By claiming that all souls must be subject to their authority and supremacy, it is just for us to consider them as Pagan Roman Pontiffs or Caesars, instead of Christian bishops. Gregory 1, also called Gregory the Great, himself stated that to be called a universal bishop was an act of pride, utter foolishness, pernicious heresy, and a deed of Antichrist or Satan. John IV the Faster, patriarch of Constantinople, started using the title universal bishop or priest, and was condemned by Gregory. This was at the turn of the 7th century. Isn’t it astonishing that a supposed Pope and successor of Peter can condemn the very errors that Rome now espouses concerning her Antichrist leaders? Gregory condemned the title as Antichrist and Luciferian. He said that the Antichrist was rising in his own time because of such pride and arrogance. He also said that men who claim such authority for themselves desire disciples for themselves (Acts 20:30), instead of making disciples of Christ, the only universal Head of the Church. He says they desire singular eminence, they want to be greater than all else, they are puffed up with the pride of Lucifer who wanted to be like God. Sadly, from 600 AD onwards, these Scriptural-based warnings aren’t heeded, and we see nothing but pride and wickedness rise up in the bosom of Rome. Gregory called the title of universal bishop a forerunner to the Antichrist, but he coined another prideful term for the "Popes", the "Servant of the Servants of God", which in itself is extremely arrogant, because a true servant doesn't need a title; a true servant simply serves. Even after recognizing a certain demonism at work in the pride and arrogance of being the highest and greatest over all other ministers, Gregory still didn't repudiate papal claims or authority. This reveals the lust for power and dominance in the hearts of men which contradicts the teaching of our Savior who said the least would be the greatest.

To claim that our Lord Jesus Christ established Peter and his successors as supreme overlords of the Church of God is completely opposed to the teaching of the Apostle Peter himself. Peter teaches that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, that He alone holds the position of sovereign King and Lord. In the theology of the Roman Church, they pretend that they believe this, claiming that Christ is above all as the Invisible Head of the Church. But this is pure pretense. They have equated standing upon the rock of Peter with being inside or outside of the Church, ie., being saved or unsaved, even though the confession of Peter is the rock upon which the Church is built, and Christ Himself is the Rock and only foundation of the Church, as the earliest fathers attest. 1 Corinthians 3:11 says: “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” We find many blasphemies contrary to the teaching and office of our Lord Jesus Christ in the statements of Roman Bishops. We read various blasphemous papal bulls, such as the following, in which the magisterium solemnly "declared, defined and pronounced" that “... it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff” (Unam Sanctam). The heresiarch "Popes" have added to the Gospel of our Lord by declaring that the saints must be subject to their demonic and ungodly authority to be saved. They have believed themselves able to the faith by their papal decrees. They do not preach the pure Gospel of grace, whereby a sinner is justified by God’s grace through faith in Christ. A sinner must also trust in the Papal authority and its Satanic and unscriptural decrees to be saved. Leo the 13th claims that the Pontiffs occupy the place of God on earth (Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae - On the Chief Duties of Christians as Citizens), stating that “... the supreme teacher in the Church is the Roman Pontiff.” He also states that “union of minds, therefore, requires, together with a perfect accord in the one faith, complete submission and obedience of will to the Church and to the Roman Pontiff, as to God Himself.” Leo the 23rd in his homily to the bishops and faithful assisting in his coronation stated: “The Saviour Himself is the door of the sheepfold: ‘I am the door of the sheep.’ Into this fold of Jesus Christ, no man may enter unless he be led by the Sovereign Pontiff; and only if they be united to him can men be saved, for the Roman Pontiff is the Vicar of Christ and His personal representative on earth.” A final example is from Leo the 10th in which he reaffirms the previous teaching of Unam Sanctam, stating: “Where the necessity of salvation is concerned all the faithful of Christ must be subject to the Roman Pontiff, as we are taught by Holy Scripture, the testimony of the holy fathers, and by that constitution of our predecessor of happy memory, Boniface VIII, which begins Unam Sanctam” (Fifth Lateran Council). Scripture teaches that if any man adds to the Gospel, such as a doctrine that states that one must be subject to the Bishop of Rome as the "Sovereign Pontiff" and "Vicar of Christ", let him be anathema (Galatians 1:8-9). The Roman church, after the death of the Apostles, had bishops/presbyters and deacons, as described in the First Epistle of Clement. Only after over 600 hundred years did the Roman Bishop declare himself supreme – thus becoming the authoritarian, antichrist tyrant he has been for many centuries. The Bishop of Rome has clearly forgotten that the early Church taught that all bishops were equal and that Christ was the sole Head of the Church, whether visible or invisible. 

We stand in the grace of God and in hope of eternal life through faith in Christ; not through submitting to the Pope. Romans 5:1-2 makes this explicit: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Our Lord said very clearly: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” The Gospel is simple, but Rome in her apostasy has abandoned the truth. The "Popes" are blind men leading the blind into the pit of perdition.

A glance at the section on the power and primacy of the Roman Pontiff in the decrees of the First Vatican Council is very telling. The departure of the Roman church from the grace of Christ is immense and incredibly saddening. It is stated that all faithful Christians must believe that the Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiffs hold a “world-wide primacy” and that they are the supreme shepherds of the Church universal, holding a “pre-eminence of ordinary power over every other church”. If that doesn’t sound like the office of Antichrist to you, just listen to how they end this section: “So, then, if anyone says that the Roman pontiff has merely an office of supervision and guidance, and not the full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the whole church, and this not only in matters of faith and morals, but also in those which concern the discipline and government of the church dispersed throughout the whole world; or that he has only the principal part, but not the absolute fullness, of this supreme power; or that this power of his is not ordinary and immediate both over all and each of the churches and over all and each of the pastors and faithful: let him be anathema.” So, then, I am going to Hell apparently – not because of my sins and rejection of the Gospel, but because I don’t believe that the Bishop of Rome is somehow all-powerful. Well, Rome can say whatever they like, but in reality they are only damning themselves through teaching such noxious heresy. I will continue trusting in Christ alone for my salvation while sitting under the teaching of His inerrant and sufficient Word. I hope you join me! 

Many more examples could be adduced, but these will suffice for now. When considering that our Lord Jesus Christ holds all authority in Heaven and on Earth, and that the true Holy Father committed all judgment to Him, the diabolical pontifications of the Roman Bishops concerning their supposed keys to the door of salvation are repugnant and obviously asinine and violent. By their seditious proclamations they have set themselves up in the place of Christ, and they have shunned His gloriously free gospel of grace and salvation that comes only through faith. To claim that one must be subject to a mere man to be saved instead of Christ alone is adding to the Gospel and is a damnable heresy (2 Peter 2:1). The Roman church and her bishops are culpable of wild and treacherous eisegesis of Matthew 16:18 of which Peter himself, nor anyone else in the early church ever believed or taught. What our Lord said to Peter can rightly be said to every Roman bishop since 600 AD: “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offense unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” They have denied the Lord who bought them; they are clouds without water; and spots and blemishes in our love feasts. Our Lord said that the least would be the greatest, and the greatest the least, and the chief amongst the brethren the servant of all. Remember our Lord washing the feet of His disciples, and Him telling us we should do the same. Contrary to the teaching of our Lord, the Roman bishop has made himself the center of authority and power and claims jurisdiction over the soul of every Christian in all the world, as if he is Christ himself. Such blasphemy must be repudiated by all true Christians with all force for the salvation of poor and simple souls. We are to be subject to Christ and His Word above and beyond all authorities in the Church. Therefore, believing such statements from Roman bishops leads to deception and ruination and turns a believer away from trusting in and submitting to Christ alone. Only someone with a carnal mind and sinful heart would hold to the anthropological and demonic doctrine of Ultramontanism, seeing that the Papal antichrists openly oppose and try to usurp the sovereign dominion and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

NUMBER TWO 

Roman Bishops claim infallibility in their solemn definitions of Catholic dogma. Chapter four of the First Vatican Council, the section on the “infallible teaching authority of the Roman pontiff” states: “we teach and define as a divinely revealed dogma that when the Roman pontiff speaks EX CATHEDRA, that is, when, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole church, he possesses, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed his church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals. Therefore, such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves, and not by the consent of the church, irreformable. So then, should anyone, which God forbid, have the temerity to reject this definition of ours: let him be anathema.” The Council claims that the Roman Pontiffs do not have the power to make known any new doctrine by such revelatory power, but only that their supposed apostolic teaching and definitions can only religiously and faithfully guard and expound upon the deposit of faith transmitted by the Apostles. So then, logically, we must believe that every dogmatic pronouncement of Roman Pontiffs, including the one we have already examined, that of being subject to the Roman Pontiff for salvation, were taught by the Apostles of the Lamb and are included in the deposit of faith that they handed down to us by the inspiration and power of the Holy Spirit. We must also believe in the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the mother of God and that she is the Mediatrix of all Graces. We must also believe that the Pope has universal jurisdiction over all Christians and that he has this special function of infallibility. If we don’t believe even one of these things, we are anathematized by the Apostles themselves, and excommunicated by our Lord from the true church and faith according to this council's repugnant teaching. 

Please understand what subscribing to these doctrines means. First, it means that you actually believe the Apostles taught these and other things and that they handed down such doctrines to the early Church and to us believers two thousand years later to be believed, even though these capricious pronouncements are almost two thousand years removed from the ascension of our Lord and the death of the Apostles. Second, in order to remain intellectually honest, you must be willing to believe that every other Christian who isn’t part of the Roman church is a heretic and will be eternally damned for not holding to these decrees, namely that all other believers regardless of denominational status are not members of Christ’s body and that they do not or cannot possess the Holy Ghost. Third, you must believe that Scripture isn’t sufficient for all doctrine and practice in the Church, and that divine revelation from God isn’t finalized in the Bible. This opens you up to a Roman bishop pronouncing something completely unfounded Biblically, say, tomorrow morning, and requiring you to believe it for salvation. As the council states, you must believe that the Roman See is absolutely incapable of pronouncing any error, that they have the gift of never-failing faith, and that they are completely unblemished by way of false teaching or proclaiming sin. Yet, having to believe anything other than the Gospel for salvation is extremely problematic, is it not? Fourth, keeping the Law of the Popes, which they require of you for your supposed salvation, is a type of the Galatian heresy. Repentance towards God and trusting in Christ for salvation is not enough for Roman bishops, therefore they are committing the Galatian heresy and severing themselves and their followers from the grace of Christ. They impose their own Pharisaical laws and traditions in the place of Christ’s commandments and the law of the Spirit. They replace the mercy and love of God freely received through faith in Christ with obeisance to their despotic and arbitrary will. It's the same type of sin as the Galatian heresy, which was when the Jewish believers were telling Gentile believers that they had to be circumcised and obey the laws of Moses to be saved, which was a false and anathematized gospel. You cannot serve two masters. You can either serve and love the Lord, or serve and love the Pope. 

True Christians will continue to proclaim that GOD’S WORD ALONE IS INFALLIBLE. God’s Word is absolutely trustworthy, inerrant, inspired, authoritative, clear, sufficient, and powerful. Isaiah 8:20 says: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” It is obvious that in claiming revelatory powers, the Bishop of Rome grants himself the authority of a holy prophet or apostle, and places himself and his decrees next to the authority and infallibility of Sacred Scripture. Yet we know that: "For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1:21). In reality the "pope" actually surpasses and forsakes Sacred Scripture by proclaiming unbiblical, unorthodox, and non-apostolic dogmas that have absolutely no basis at all in the Word of God. 2 John 1:9 states: “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.” The Bishop of Rome believes that he has the final say in the authoritative interpretation of Scripture and that he can bind the consciences of men with unscriptural dogmas. It is blasphemy to claim that the words of a mere mortal are infallible and to give them the same authority as the words of our Lord Jesus Christ or His holy inspired prophets and apostles found in Sacred Scripture. To do so is to completely forsake the doctrine of Scripture and Biblical Christianity and set-up a pseudo-Christian cult. The Bishop of Rome shows himself to be Antichrist in claiming the ability to add articles to our Christian faith and practice that God in no way commands us to believe. 

NUMBER THREE

Being the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope bears the foremost responsibility in leading countless souls to the fires of Hell. In having millions of souls subject to his demonic doctrine and office, the Pope reveals his Antichrist nature. There is no other person on the face of the planet that holds the same amount of power as the Pope. In the condemnation and murder of true Christians and innocents who rejected his power, the futile, Satanic and fruitless doctrines of sacrificial masses, purgatory, indulgences, pilgrimages, venerations and invocations, and all other Papal innovations to the Christian faith, the Bishop of Rome has erected a system of worship entirely opposed to the worship of Christ as the chief mastermind and commander of vain religion against our Lord Jesus Christ. All of the Satanic false miracles of relics and apparitions upheld and promulgated by the Papacy reveal the Satanic nature of their antichrist office, wherein false signs and wonders are performed to deceive even the elect if possible and to establish idolatry and adultery against God. In opposing everything that is worshiped and that is called God by assuming to himself divine prerogatives, and by declaring himself to hold the place of God in the temple of God, (in the spiritual sense being the church of God), the Pope has most definitely been one of the foremost adversaries of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Pope, by intruding into the temporal and political spheres, has manifested his filthy desire for power and lucre and spoil, as well as pomp and majesty, by dominating kings and princes and presidents, and by blending the Christian religion with the power of the sword, in which he and his accomplices have shed the blood of countless thousands. He has bowed to Satan to receive the rule over the kingdoms of the world (Matthew 4:9). The princely "Popes" want their feet and ring kissed; they want the whole world to bow down and worship and obey, as Pius V clearly stated in Regnans in Excelsis, the supposed sentence of excommunication declared against Elizabeth the 1st, wherein it is written that God has appointed that the “pope of Rome…” is the sole “ruler over all peoples and kingdoms,” and that he has been granted ability “to pull up, destroy, scatter, disperse,” and “plant and build…” in all nations, as if he were Jeremiah the Prophet. See, the Queen of England is not the Queen in her own realm – the Pope is King over every realm whatever! Christ is no longer the universal King of the Nations, the Pope is! Again this sort of behavior and speech is a tell-tale sign of Antichrist. “According to their theory, there was strictly but one ruler on earth – the Pope. In him all authority was centered. From him all rule and jurisdiction emanated. From him kings received their crowns, and priests their miters. To him all were accountable, while he was accountable to no one save God alone.” The Papal Tiara is another emblematic sign of Antichrist, in which, at a Pope’s coronation, when the Papal Tiara was still in use and was about to be received, the following blasphemy would be uttered: “Receive the tiara adorned with three crowns and know that thou art father of princes and kings, ruler of the world, vicar on earth of our Saviour Jesus Christ…” Even in our day, it cannot be questioned that the Vatican is a diabolical meeting place for Satanic politicians who need the backing of the "Pope" for their sinister plots and plans. The "Popes" behave similarly to Lucifer who desired to be like the Most High and assume His prerogatives (cf. Isaiah 14). Alongside ambition, sexual deviance, arrogance and filthy lucre, (think the Borgias for example), another blatantly evident manifestation of Antichrist is found in the Papal church’s criminality and cover up concerning sexual abuse. “In recent times the endeavors made to cover up the abhorrent conduct of pedophile, sodomite priests throughout the world and to prevent the matter from being brought before the civil courts is indicative of the fact that Rome still regards her priests to be above subjection to civil law.” The "Pope" teaches Roman Catholics to set up two idols in their hearts, namely himself first of all, and secondly the blessed mother of God. May the Satanic Papacy who, through their Satanic power, promulgates such heresies and profanities against Almighty God, be anathema. 

CONCLUSION

The wickedness and tyranny of the "Popes" cannot be overstated. The Papacy must be denounced for what it is: the embodiment of Antichrist. Roman Catholicism is an apostate, pseudo-Christian cult that opposes and replaces the grace of Christ in the hearts of men. No good and true Christian should revere, support, endorse, accept, love or value the Papacy in any way, shape or form. The Bishops of Rome have made themselves enemies of Christ and His Church through their pernicious errors and innovations. They are enemies of the true and pure gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We must vehemently rebuke such ungodliness without compromise in order to snatch as many souls from the Romish fire as possible. The Papal church has anathematized itself and Roman Catholics must repent.