2012: End of the world as we know it?

Book Review

By Mila D. Aguilar

Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope is Here by Thomas Horn and Chris Putnam, ⓒ 2012

This book should be of interest to those concerned with end-times scenarios. Based on numerous sources not excluding pagan prophecies and the Bible, it is very definite about its prediction that 2012 is the year of the ascension to power of the Antichrist.

I first encountered news of the title in May or June (it came out in April) but could not get a copy of it until now, when it’s finally on Kindle. That I should bother with it at all could be cause for wonder. I read through the whole of it out of curiosity and am now convinced by its mountain of evidence and historical data, and even a little teary-eyed by the horrifying iniquities it outlines in great detail.

I have never really believed that the Antichrist could be the Roman Catholic Pope, since purveyors of the idea have been American evangelists who barely scratched the historical surface and seemed to have nothing to go on except their prejudices. I have always thought that they were merely deflecting the finger away from their own beloved country.

But Thomas Horn and Chris Putnam go through the whole history of the Roman Catholic Church not only from the so-called conversion (which they question) of Constantine but from Paul’s evangelization efforts in Rome, as well as the dubious claim that Peter was its first bishop and died there.

Page by excruciating page, they demonstrate how Benedict XVI, the current Pope, will give way either by resignation, natural death or murder to the last Pope, who will be the Antichrist. That Antichrist will likely, by their calculations, after overseeing the destruction of Rome according to Malachi’s prophecy, transfer his headquarters to Jerusalem, where he will declare himself to be God.

This the authors accomplish using the prophecy of Malachi, a Catholic bishop in the Middle Ages, the calculations of Rene Thibaut, a French Jesuit who wrote in 1951, and the more recent revelations of Malachi Martin, another Catholic (who was murdered after his allegations), as well as hundreds of other sources and documents.

What really drew me to read the book thoroughly, however, was the authors’ equally detailed history of Washington, D.C. Though they do not mention it, Washington, D.C., like Rome, sits on seven hills (as does Jerusalem and 57 other cities, for that matter). As I read more than a decade ago when I was researching for a course I taught on early American literature, most of the founding fathers of the United States were deists. 

Deists are people who believe that at one point, God left humanity to itself to make its own future. But that is not the end of it, although it’s bad enough. The two authors specifically mention George Washington and Benjamin Franklin as not only deists, but Freemasons as well, with a very specific agenda for a far future that prophesies 2012 as their defining moment. In fact, they pinpoint the two key American political founders as firm believers in dark magic, sorcery and the Nimrod/Osiris/Apollo legend.

The belief of Freemasons, contend the two authors, is that they birthed America for the purpose of giving rise in 2012 to the new Nimrod/Osiris/Apollo, who would become President of the New World Order. To effectuate such a rise, they built Washington D.C. on  the same exact pattern as Rome, with an obelisk (the Washington Monument) facing the Capitol Dome (a replica of the Vatican main building which houses the Pope).

It sounds weird on the surface, but if you read through the historical gamut of the two capitols in the book, you will begin to see that they are intricately bound together by very dark spiritual forces led through the ages by -- you guessed it -- the Freemasons, the Illuminati, or whatever else you may call them, who are today even more deeply ensconced in the Vatican and continue to ensure the sorcerous inauguration of the U.S. President.

These dark spiritual forces are poised to impose, by the end of 2012, a New World Order which seems peaceful on the surface but actually creeps in on humanity’s personal freedoms and, more objectionably, does so to forestall the Second Coming and millennial reign of Jesus Christ, which has always promised to bring about genuine peace together with personal freedoms.

The book comes out with a rather convincing picture, if you ask me.

For all its mountain of research and its commendable efforts to tie up this research with the Bible, however, the book has its flaws, and these are with regard to its eschatology. 

Thus, while it exceeds all other American evangelical “prophecies” in its admission of a U.S. role in the end-times (the others deny it vehemently, even going so far as to say that the U.S. is not in the Bible), it falters in seeing what the specific role of the U.S. is.

One reason may be that, when the book was written earlier in the year, Obama seemed to be a goner as far his reelection was concerned. Romney was then a rising star and had virtually clinched the Republican nomination. Nevertheless, the authors proceeded with their thesis that Obama’s actions after winning the 2008 elections showed an ambition to become the Apollonian apotheosis of George Washington as dreamed of by Freemasonry.

The authors were not able to relate their analysis of Obama to their very carefully laid-out history of Washington D.C. If they had, they would have concluded that no matter who wins the U.S. election in 2012, even if it were Mitt Romney (a Mormon who like all Mormons think that the United States was designed to save the world), that winner will be a key figure in the era of the Antichrist, if not the political Antichrist himself (conceding the spiritual Antichrist to be the Roman Catholic Pope).

But the failure may also be due, as I said, to an eschatological misreading. While they identify the woman clothed with the sun and topped by a crown of twelve stars in Revelation 12 as Israel and the dragon which persecutes her as the Roman Empire which morphed into the Vatican after Constantine, and while they also identify Mystery Babylon in Revelation 17 as, again, the Vatican, they are silent on the Beast in the latter.

We must remember that Mystery Babylon sits on the Beast in Revelation 17. This beast is like none of the others described in both Daniel and the Revelation: it has seven heads and ten horns. “This calls for a mind with wisdom,” says the angel who explains the beast to John:

“The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.” (Rev 17:9-11)

I often wonder how it is that today’s prophets miss the fact that there was a G7 (Group of Seven) that became the G8 with the inclusion of Russia, and especially that the U.S. is and for a long time to come will still be at the head of this G8.

As for the ten horns, the angel describes them in this way:

“And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast. They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.” (Rev 17:12-14)

Are not the Arabic nations of today, their oil interests interlocking with U.S./British/multinational corporations, part of the Beast? Are they not “of one mind”? Have they not, through their business interests and lack of military might, “hand(ed) over their power and authority to the beast”? Are they not making war on the Lamb?

We must remember that this is not the end of the angel’s description of the ten horns. He says further:

“And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.” (Rev 17:16-17)

If the prostitute, Mystery Babylon, is the Vatican as the authors say, and the Antichrist or last Pope is likely to transfer his headquarters to Jerusalem by ruse, would it not be logical that the ten horns, if they are the Arabic nations, hate her, and will sooner or later attack her whether in Rome or in Jerusalem, even if the Vatican makes a great show of ecumenism now and into the future?

The truth is that while there is a Mystery Babylon, a spiritual Babylon personified by the Vatican, there has to be an eco-political Babylon because the Vatican by itself, without economic, political or military might, could only mesmerize the world through sorcery and not much else.  And that eco-political Babylon could not but be the recognized capital of the multinational imperialist Beast headed by the United States, which in Revelation 18 burns down in an hour and is mourned by the merchants and sailors of the world. Why don’t American evangelists admit its connection with 9/11? Why did everybody start seeing the Second Coming coming after 9/11, if they honestly did not see the connection?

We must also remember that when Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, comes down from heaven with his host of angels and saints, He binds Satan and throws the Beast and the false prophet into the lake of fire and sulfur. The false prophet is described as the one “who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image.” (Rev 19:20b) Wouldn’t this more correctly be, as the authors themselves outline, the Vatican? And if so, wouldn’t the Beast be, more correctly, the beast of economic and political conquest, the beast of empire, the beast of imperialism?

Extending the question further, wouldn’t the Antichrist then be, more accurately, the President of the United States who becomes the President of the World, Nimrod/Osiris/Apollo reborn?

Or will the character of the Antichrist be shared between the U.S./World President and the last Pope?

We have only a few months to know -- IF the analysis of the authors is correct.

2012 indeed, by all indications whether in current events or historical precedents as ably outlined by the authors, seems to be the year of the definitive appearance of the Antichrist.

As to whether 2016 will be the year of the coming of the Lord, as hopefully enunciated also by the authors because it is within a 3½ year scheme, we should be less sure. After all, the “man in white linen,” presumably Jesus Christ, told Daniel:

“And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days. Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days.” (Daniel 12:11-12)

If the passage means that the time between the abolition of the regular burnt offering and the setting up of the abomination that makes desolate is 3.5 years more or less, and that we have but to wait one or two months after that (1,335 days is approximately 3.65 years), then perhaps we can say with relief that by 2016 the earth will joyfully be in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But if the passage means that we have to wait another 3.65 years, then at the earliest, we can lay physical eyes on the Lord only in 2019.

That will be after the 70th anniversary of the state of Israel, which is really more likely.

Whichever, the only caveat is to be prepared -- through repentance, acceptance of Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, and purification and sanctification by His divine grace.