“Europe, the Holy Father recalled, had had its eras of greatness when a common faith had animated the hearts of its peoples. Europe, he urged, could have its geopolitical greatness again, refurbished and burnished anew, if it could create a new heart. Europe, he intimated, could again forge a supernal, common and binding faith.
“Inwardly, the [six foreign] ministers winced. Pius [XII] had pointed to the greatest difficulty facing the EEC [European Economic Community] upon the day of its birth [March 25, 1957]. Beneath his words lay the warning that neither democratic socialism nor capitalist democracy nor the prospect of the good life nor a mystic ‘Europa’ of the humanists could provide the engine to drive their dream [for a new world order based on a unified Europe]. Practically speaking, their new Europe lacked a glowing center, a superior force or principle to bind it together and drive it forward. Practically speaking, their Europe lacked what this Pope had. Lacked what he was.”
– Malachi Martin, Windswept House[1]
Unfolding Biblical Eschatology*
The Bible paints quite a clear picture of the major events that precede the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth. While many of the smaller details may be difficult to interpret, the major events concerning the world’s religious, economic and political future are evident in Revelation, chapters 13, 17 and 18.
The False Prophet
A world religious figure will rise to prominence. He unites all the world’s religions into one universal religion. This religious leader looks like a man of God. He performs miracles and even looks similar to Jesus Christ (Revelation 13:11; 5:6). But, he receives his power from the Antichrist and, ultimately from Satan. He is known as the False Prophet (Revelation 19:20).
The Beast or Antichrist
A second figure comes on the scene. Whereas the first world leader is religious and unites all people under a single world religion, the second man is political and unites the world’s people under a single world government. We commonly know him as the Antichrist. The Antichrist does not only unite the world under one political system, but he establishes a single world monetary system which abolishes all private or individual business transactions that are not part of the global system (Revelation 13:17).
Strange Bedfellows
The relationship between the False Prophet and the Antichrist is an interesting one. The Antichrist (political) empowers the False Prophet (religious). But ultimately the False Prophet causes the whole world to worship the Antichrist (Revelation 13:12). The False Prophet also encourages the people of the world to subscribe to the world financial and economic system and to receive the mark of the Beast (Antichrist) which gives them access to the financial system. Thus the global economy, political authority and religion become intertwined. This all happens in the name of a unity which sounds good but is not. It is a bad unity because it is man-centered and is a unity that plots against the Lord and His Anointed. As the Psalmist asks, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” (Psalm 2:1-6)
How do we move from a world of separate economies, religions and governments to a single planetary system? This will not happen by military might, but as individual governments cede their sovereignty to become part of a one-world government. Three factors will dictate this to happen:
- First, world citizens will seek peace from terrorism through unity.
- Second, the nations will be deceived into believing that the Antichrist holds the key to the world’s prosperity, that he will solve the world’s political and financial woes. And
- Third, this unity will happen because of God’s plan: “For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled” (Revelation 17:17).
The G20 Summit
Practically, the world’s leaders will realize that their individual economies are so intertwined and the only way to solve the ever-increasing financial crises is to bring all the separate economies under one roof. Those informed regarding world affairs will recognize there exists an ever-increasing number of influential leaders who have begun to promote the idea of a global economy. The most significant of these is the G20 which in recent years has made several statements advocating such a global economy.
The Vatican
But the most startling statements were recently made in a 41 page “note” by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, published in several languages on October 24, 2011. Speaking for Pope Ratzinger, the Council’s document is filled with legal verbiage and complicated language, but is an amazing document to read. It is amazing because almost word-for-word, it bears upon the prophecies of Revelation 13, 17 and 18, and places Rome at the center of the prophetic drama![2]
The first half of the note deals with background and related philosophical issues. But the second half (points 3 and 4) calls for a single world government (point 3) and for a single world financial system (point 4)! Had we not read and studied the document, we would not have believed the statements made in it. We hope in the following few lines to summarize these points.[3]
A Call for a Single World Government
The document quotes several recent Popes to show how support for a single world ruler is very much part of the precedent and philosophy of Rome. For instance, John XXIII (1881-1963) “…also expressed the hope that one day ‘a true world political authority’ would be created.” In the document’s context, this means that John XXIII wanted to see a single world government. The document continues to state that today this teaching (of a single world government) is “even more vital and worthy of urgent implementation”
The Council continues to say that the current Pope (Benedict XVI, 1927- ) also expressed the need to “create a world political authority.” In the same paragraph the Council lists all the reasons why a single world government is desirable, things like peace and security, disarmament and arms control, the protection of human rights, the protection of the environment, the management of the world economy, the “universal common good,” [emphasis added] the protection of weaker nations from the power of stronger nations, etc.
John XXIII is further quoted as saying that in order for such a world government to be effective “it should be endowed with structures and adequate, effective mechanisms equal to its mission.” Simply stated, this means that unlike a United Nations type organization possessing little ability to enforce its will upon the community of nations, the new political structure needs to be government with “teeth” and real authority over the world’s peoples. The document concedes that the United Nations is the agency to bring this world government about, but at the same time, it needs to be a real government unlike the current UN which functions as a large committee.
They continue to say that such an Authority must have “global reach,” not by “force, coercion and violence but should be the outcome of free and shared agreement….” Revelation 17:17 says that the world’s nations will willingly hand over all their authority to the Antichrist. Note the Council’s use of the word “Authority” with a capital letter. This is their term for what the Bible calls the Antichrist. Variously, the Council employs the terms “Authority,” “world Authority,” “world public Authority” and “global Authority,” always with a capital “A”. Revelation 13 and 17 speaks seven times about the Antichrist having “authority”.
The document speaks about the need for all nations to be part of this system and that none should be excluded: “…the world Authority should consistently involve all peoples….” Revelation 13:7 says: “And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.” The note says that policies must be binding on all and that the Authority should have “universal jurisdiction.”
A Call for a One World Financial System
In the fourth section that deals with a global economy they say there is a need for “…the commitment to create some form of global monetary management” and “one can see an emerging requirement for a body that will carry out the functions of a kind of “central world bank” that regulates the flow and system of monetary exchanges….” They then speak of the need for such a world economy to be under the control of the world government. Revelation 13:16-17 says that the False Prophet “causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” In this document, The Vatican pledges its commitment for planetary financial control, calling for the fulfillment of this prophecy to the letter!
A One World Religion
Before continuing with the closing comments of this document, note that Revelation 17:5 refers to “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots.” In the past, many have believed that this unequivocally references the Church of Rome (the mother of harlots) and that the “daughter harlots” are the rest of the false religions. Many have believed that Babylon is not necessarily a reference to Rome alone, but to all forms of false religion. However, this document is causing many to reconsider their view.[4] Had we not verified that this document indeed was produced in the Vatican at the very highest levels, we might have discounted it as a fake. It seems simply too surreal that the note calls for the implementation of prophecy in such minute detail. We must assume that the Pontifical Council knows what Revelation teaches on this subject, and yet is willing to identify itself intimately with the False Prophet, the Great Harlot and Babylon the Great.[5]
May we also remind you that the tower of Babel was man’s attempt at “global” unification centered on man, and against God, and that the Lord was so displeased that He made them speak different languages that caused division and the scattering of mankind. God is all for unity, but it has to be a godly unity centered on the Lord Jesus Christ. God is against unity that has man as the focus, especially when that unity is used to oppose God as they did at Babel and as they will in the last days. Babel is the Hebrew name for Babylon—they are the same place, but more than that, Babylon is a philosophy and a spirit. The Babylon(s) of Revelation 17 and 18 are a revival of the Babel of Genesis 11, and represent the same anti-God and man-centered philosophy. Both are the pinnacle of all anti-God and Antichrist structures (puns intended).
Conclusion
The Vatican document concludes with the following lesson: Referring to Genesis 11, they spin the tower of Babel to mean that diversity (as opposed to unity) is as a result of selfishness and leads to division. It further states that Babel is a warning of what happens when we don’t stick together and when nations choose to separate. The document very clearly calls for mankind to reverse the effects of Babel and to return to the process of building a unifying (and God-defying) structure. To sum up, they are literally calling for the rebuilding of Babylon, not of physical Babylon in modern day Iraq, but a political, financial, and spiritual Babylon pictured and prophesied of in Revelation 17 and 18!
Quoting the final sentence of the document verbatim: “Only a spirit of concord that rises above divisions and conflicts will allow humanity to be authentically one family and to conceive of a new world with the creation of a world public Authority at the service of the common good.”[Emphasis added]
The goal this document calls for is not a pipe dream. It will come to pass, precisely as the Bible has predicted and exactly as they are envisioning it. Keep in mind that Rome is not isolated from the rest of the world’s religions.[6]
All this indicates that the end is closer than we like to think, and that everything is ready for the fulfillment of the final end-time prophecies. “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her (Babylon), my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues’.” (Revelation 18:4).
“And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!’. . . The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’ And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore”
(Revelation 18:2, 9-11)
(Revelation 18:2, 9-11)
*This article was a joint project of the Discernment Research Group, and is based primarily on an original article by Pastor Anton Bosch, “Vatican Fulfills Prophecy,” issued November 14, 2011. This article is included in the context of an ongoing article series on eschatological doctrinal aberrations.
Endnotes:
1. Malachi Martin, Windswept House, (Main Street Book, 1996), p. 2, describing a 1957 meeting with the Pontiff and the six Foreign Ministers who were “partners in the creation of a new Europe” signing “the treaties of Rome… to create the European Economic Community” (p. 1). The statements in brackets are our own for purposes of clarity. This quotation is interesting for several reasons, including the behind-the-scenes-history, but also to illustrate the point that in order to achieve a new world order there must be a global religion to bind people to its unified vision and purpose. Martin’s book is a frightful look at a false church arising.
2.The full text can be read on the official site of Vatican Radio: http://www.news.va/en/news/full-text-note-on-financial-reform-from-the-pontif
3.
We have paraphrased their statements simply to strip the text of verbiage and make it more accessible to readers who are not lawyers or theologians. We have endeavored to not alter or exaggerate anything they have said.
4. A fascinating history of Rome’s ecumenical activities engaging all the world’s religions, from the perspective of an orthodox Catholic who opposed this, can be found in Malachi Martin’s book The Jesuits (Simon & Schuster, 1987).
5. No small wonder, then, when the “apostles” of the New Apostolic Reformation are boldly calling for a global church order that sits atop seven mountains, in a literal fulfillment of Revelation 17:9: “And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.”
6. In The Berean Call of November 2011, Dave Hunt provides detailed evidence that many influential evangelical leaders in America support and endorse Rome, its leaders and its agenda.