Jehoshua is on the throne of David in New Jerusalem and He is the King of a New Israel
Revelation 13:3 (KVJ) 3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. Ask most people in Christendom what the healing of the deadly wound concerning the antichrist is and they will tell you that is a future political figure that gets shot in the head and then is miraculously healed. This has been the common understanding of the deadly wound over the last few decades. This new definition of the deadly wound of antichrist is a result of dispensationalism which teaches that much of bible prophecy is future. This doctrine rose to the surface of Christendom in the 1800's and came to prominence in the Church in the 1900's especially in the second half of that century. John Darby and C.I. Schofield are the two most well known names who promoted this doctrine in the 1800's and early 1900's. Part and parcel with this doctrine is the teaching of a secret rapture of the Church and a heavy emphasis on ethnic Jews and a national state of Israel for the end times. This teaching also reintroduced to the Church the teaching of a future earthly millennium. This is just some background on where the new understanding of the deadly wound comes from within Christendom. The understanding of a future political antichrist that would one day receive a literal head wound and then somehow be miraculously healed is an inevitable child of dispensationalism. Fast forward to the last 35 years or so, and a sort of a rapture mania has ensued in the world of Christendom. Whether it was false prophecies from Hal Lindsey or Chuck Smith concerning the rapture or a plethora of books and movies produced to entertain and scare people all a the same time, this rapture madness has captured the imagination of much of the Church world in America. The most noteworthy books and movies are the fictional "Left Behind" series of Tim Lahaye fame. Never mind that Tim Lahaye had connections with Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church, which is a dangerous cult as Moon claimed to be a Messiah, the evangelical world ate up the Left Behind series. Influential Christian Kirk Cameron was in at least one of the movies. Even many of the Hebrew Roots and Messianic groups have gotten into the futurism sweepstakes. While not all of them subscribe to a secret rapture they still have been deceived by the futurism that gives birth to other false ideology such as an emphasis on earthly Jerusalem, a rebuilt Temple, a future 1,000 year millennium on earth and also a future political antichrist. Why is futurism such a dangerous deception? Because the very thing that these secret rapture folk and future antichrist folk are looking for is already happening right under their noses. Having a proper understanding of prophecy in terms of time fulfillment is important because it sets the tone for how we will view everything else concerning prophecy. Up until the rise of dispensationalism in the 1800 and 1900's, most of the Church believed in the Historicist view of prophecy which teaches that the book of Revelation has been unfolding since the time period it was written and that it will continue to unfold until the New Heaven and New Earth. This view is crucial in being able to identify the antichrist. If we go strictly by a futuristic view of bible prophecy then quite simply the Pope does not qualify as the antichrist. However, with the Historicist understanding of prophecy there is no other option but to conclude that the Papacy is the antichrist of bible prophecy. Most who hold to the Historicist view of prophecy believe that the 3 1/2 years (1260 days i.e. years, day for a year principle) of the antichrist reign began in 538 AD which was the time of Justinian's decree (534-538 AD) giving the Papacy full authority over the Churches of Christendom. The Papacy conquered the last of the three horns it was prophesied to pluck up in 538 AD. The three horns were Arian Christian tribes/nations. Revelation 13:4-5 (KJV) 4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? 5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. With the reign of the Papal antichrist beginning in 538 AD, and if the reign was prophesied to be 42 months or 1260 days (years in a day for a year principle), the end of this reign brings us to 1798 AD when the French army captured the Pope who ended up dying in captivity. Revelation 13:10 (KJV) 10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. This time prophecy is significant because it helps us to discern the nature of the deadly wound and the timing of it. If the reign of the Papal antichrist ended in 1798 AD then it makes sense that this is when the deadly wound occurred. It was at this time that the Papacy in particular and the Vatican in general lost it's civil power and authority. However, I would submit that the deadly wound consist of not only a loss of civil power but also a loss of religious authority. Most bible students acknowledge that the Protestant Reformation which began in 1517 accomplished such a loss. This is the very reformation that is being celebrated by Protestants and Catholics alike on October 31st of this year. The Protestant Reformation opened the floodgates for many people to come out of the dark superstitions of the Catholic Church. The once invincible Catholic Church lost a good portion of it's authority in Western Christendom. The end result of this reformation was the formation of hundreds of denominations and sub groups of those denominations. Those who came out of the Roman communion disavowed allegiance to the Papacy and that the Roman Holy See had any authority over Christians. The Catholic Church would never be the same in terms of absolute power and authority within Western Christianity. From a numbers standpoint the Catholic Church is as strong as ever due to their missionary efforts in the Americas but percentage wise they don't have control over Christendom in general. So if the deadly wound happened in a two stage process, first religious and then political/civil, it makes sense that the healing of that wound will also be two-fold. Student of bible prophecy acknowledge that the civil/political aspect of the Papacy's deadly wound was healed in 1929. It was in this year (1929) that the Latern Concordat was signed between the Italian government and the Vatican re-establishing the political power and diplomatic standing of the Catholic Church, which had been lost when Italy seized Rome, the last of the Papal states, on September 20th, 1870. The news headline of this treaty is pictured below. It is not just the 1929 treaty that has given the Papacy back civil/political power, it is also an increasing influence in world affairs given to it by the United States of America and the United Nations. For example, Pope John Paul II joined forces with Ronald Reagan to take apart the communist Soviet Union which was an atheistic government. This is not a conspiracy theory as even the mainstream Time magazine covered this and put both the U.S. president and the Roman Pope on their cover with the title "Holy Alliance" (pictured below). Hopefully I have shown in this article how the office of the Papacy is starting to look like it fits the seat of the antichrist thereby being the one that receives a deadly wound which then is healed. In Part 2, we will look further at the healing of the Papacy's civil/political power during Pope Francis regime.
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