The big news this week was the resignation of the Roman Catholic pope, Benedict XVI. Then, within twenty four hours, St. Peter’s basilica in Vatican city was struck by lightning.

Lightning strikes St. Peter’s basilica within hours of the Pope’s resignation

Immediately, there was a flurry of articles about the prophecies of the twelfth century “saint” Malachy. As I detailed in my article “Petrus Romanus, the last pope”, there has been a lot of excitement and speculation over when Benedict will leave office, and who will replace him, precisely because of these prophecies.

The addition of a lightning strike certainly adds drama to the mix!  Satan is an expert at the dramatic, just look at Hollywood!

The ancient book of Job shows us that Satan has the ability to control the weather, so please don’t think that a lightning strike holds any significance, from God’s perspective. (See Job 1:18-19) It could just as well be that Satan is doing his best to get the world’s attention. I’d say he’s got it!

But why would Satan go out of his way to attract attention to the selection of the next pope? Well for one the “Saint” Malachy prophecies predict that this will be the last pope. If the Malachy prophecies are Satanic in origin, then Satan would naturally want to do his best to make them seem legitimate.

To put it bluntly, the “Saint” Malachy prophecies are indeed Satanic. Their purpose is to deceive.

Don’t be surprised if some Satanic prophecies do indeed come to pass.  The bible warns us that this can happen.  You can know the truth if you stick to the Word of God;

 1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,  2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;  3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 13:1-3

Many have noted that the biblical standard for prophecy is 100% accuracy, but the truth is, it is more than 100%.  It is 100%, plus consistency with the teachings of the bible!

Could it be that Satan has something rather nasty in store for the next pope? I think so. With the European economic crisis deepening day by day, Europe is set up to accept a fascist type of dictator, to provide a fiscal solution, and he will need a spiritual partner…the pope.

Since Satan always has his counterfeits, he will surely produce a counterfeit of the Antichrist, and the false prophet. He will arrange counterfeits of as many events from the book of Revelation has he can. As I have shown in The Spirit of Prophecy, he has been working on a number of these deceptions for some time now. He will also arrange the demise of these men in a war that closely approximates the biblical Armageddon.

Think about it; If the “Antichrist” and false prophet are destroyed, then the next thing on the biblical agenda is the return of Christ. All Satan has to do is to convince the world that another pair are the Antichrist and False Prophet. Then, when he destroys them they will expect a Saviour, and then he will present his Antichrist to the world!

This is why Jesus said Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as YE THINK NOT the Son of man cometh. (Matthew 24:44) Who are the people Jesus refers to as “ye”? They are the people who are reading the bible at that time. The verb “think” in this sentence is an active verb. It does not mean that they are not thinking of His return, but rather they are thinking that He will not return. Why would they think this? The answer is precisely because they think that Armageddon is over and Christ has already returned! Their Christ, of course, is the Antichrist!

So how is it that people reading the bible can get the opposite message of what was intended? If you read it with the wrong worldview, if you have a tendency to allegorize things that were meant to be literal, if you forget to pray, you can become an Antichristian! This is why you need to accept the literal, plain-sense meanings found in Scripture. When it says there is a place called Hell, believe it! When it says you are a sinner heading for Hell, you’d better believe it! The whole human race is in this predicament, and God must satisfy justice, because that is His character. This is why Christ died, and this is why He will return and not another. He is the only one worthy to rule, and to judge the world!

So, what do I expect to come during the reign of the next pope? I think it is highly likely that the Psalm 83 war will occur during that time. It is probable that the next pope, along with a European leader, will broker a peace treaty between Israel and the Arabs, in the aftermath of that war. I also think this peace treaty will allow Israel to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

This peace treaty will be one that works, for a time, and both Israel and the Arabs will prosper. This treaty will guarantee Israel’s security, and allow them to give up their nuclear weapons, which they will have used during the Psalm 83 war. I think it is this treaty that will identify the European leader as the Antichrist, in the minds of many prophecy “scholars”, and the pope as the false prophet. This peace will be interrupted by the Gog and Magog war, several years later. (Seven years, perhaps?)

I am quite sure that, during this time, the post-tribbers and amillennialists will be telling us “You were wrong! Here we are in the middle of the Tribulation and the rapture hasn’t happened yet! Admit it, you were wrong!” They are missing a whole bunch of things, among which is the fact that the Tribulation will not begin until AFTER the Gog and Magog war, of Ezekiel 38-39.  They miss the love of God for the Church.  They miss the fact that the entire seven years of the Tribulation is Israel’s time, not the Churches.

I expect that since the European leader will have given Israel a guarantee of security, in exchange for relinquishing their nuclear weapons, that this will provide motivation for one of the Gog and Magog combatants to preemptively destroy the city of Rome, when both the pope and European leader are present. This will ensure that Europe does not interfere when the Russo-Iranian coalition invades Israel.

This will also ensure that most Protestants and Catholics will interpret this to be the destruction of the City of Seven Mountains, of Revelation 17. They will reason that since this was fulfilment of Revelation 17 and 18, there is nothing to stop the world’s religions from uniting. So they will unite, and since Rome will be a ruin, they will have to choose another capital city. I think that city will be in, or near, Babylon, Iraq. I expect that the New Apostolic Reformation, with their “Seven Mountain Mandate”, will play a major role in this new religious entity. They will proclaim the thousand year reign of “the Christ” and then the Great Tribulation will be about to begin!