FutureMap - part 4 - an overview of the reign of the Antichrist

FutureMap 4
an overview of the reign of the Antichrist

In the years 2431 to 2433/2434 A.D.

The Antichrist is one of the ten kings. He as already defeated three other kings in 2430/2431. Now he begins his reign by making a pact with the remaining six kings. Thus the kingdom of the ten kings becomes the beast with seven heads and ten horns, that is, seven rulers holding ten positions of power.
The pact gives him absolute power over all ten kingdoms of the world. It also does away with all religion and even with any cultural elements that might present some opposition to his rule. Whereas before, the Antichrist limited or concealed his assertion of being a god, now he begins to openly proclaim himself. His claims to godhood increase as time passes.
He hates Christianity more than any other religion. Under his reign, Christianity and all Christian elements, including crosses, the Christian calendar, prayers, Bibles, and religious books are banned. Clergy and religious are hunted down like criminals. Severe penalties are given to anyone worshipping in public or in private.
However, the Antichrist's first concern is to consolidate his power. He has a good hold over the kingdom of the North, but he has only recently obtained power over the other kingdoms. Some persons, even those who are evil, rebel against him. He travels around the world to destroy any opposition, using brutal diplomacy as well as overwhelming military force. He is busy with these tasks, so the attention he brings against Christianity is limited.
The Antichrist does not succeed in completely subjugating the whole world. There are areas that pay him lip service, but disobey him behind his back, and he cannot control every square foot of land or every individual. Thus, his efforts to control the world meet with difficulties. He controls the main bodies of government, military, and commerce, but he fails to achieve a more profound level of control. Many quietly resent or oppose his reign, and he knows it and cannot do anything about it.
The greatest resistance, often merely passive resistance, comes from the kingdom of the South (Israel, the Middle East and northern Africa), where the greatest number of Christians, Jews, and Muslims reside.

About halfway through the Antichrist's reign

Having consolidated power around the world, he now turns his attention to the problem of religion. Christianity, in particular, is a serious problem for him because, by now, nearly all Christians realize that he is the Antichrist. He has been gathering intelligence information about those who resist him in the kingdom of the South, waiting for an opportune time to strike.
Now he gathers a huge task force of military ships to attack these resistors in the South. They have few weapons and little ability to use violence. He is planning a massacre, not a battle or a war.
He is so confident that he will win, he wants the whole world to watch this attack. So he arranges to have the news media (in whatever the future equivalent is of 24-hour live news) broadcast his attack.
But it will not be this time as with his previous battles. Roman Catholics from another part of the world borrow or steal ships, and they intercept him unexpectedly. They have a new weapon that can pierce his defenses. They are outnumbered, but they fight courageously and steadfastly. As his ships begin to go down around him, the Antichrist has to make a decision. He can attack with all his forces, in which case he would certainly win, despite the new weapon that they have, for they are a small force and his forces could overwhelm them. But he sees his ships going down around him, and he fears for his own life, so he turns tail and runs away, in the sight of the whole world. It is his first and only significant military defeat.
Now he has been humiliated in front of the whole world. His claims to godhood are severely damaged. He is extremely angry, beyond words. He finds out that those who intercepted his forces were Roman Catholics. He knows that he can no longer go around the world using mere military force to subjugate the peoples to his rule, for this new weapon could be used against him. So, he takes council with former Roman Catholics, with apostates and severe heretics, about the Roman Catholics.
They advise him that Catholics depend upon the Eucharist for strength and the Pope for leadership. Together, they devise a plan: to destroy the Church from the inside. The Antichrist gives authority to these apostate Catholics to reopen churches and to have control of the institutional Church. They set up their alternative to the true Catholic Faith, that is, a badly altered version of Catholicism, with the abomination of desolation (a perverse imitation of the Most Blessed Sacrament) and perverse, invalid versions of the Sacraments, and an invalid pope, that is, an antipope. His goal is to defeat the Christians by controlling the Christian faith, and to obtain control over the rest of the world by altering the culture and beliefs of the world to think that he is a god and so to worship him. Previously, he tried to force the world to worship and obey him, but force had only limited effectiveness.
They elect a woman pope, who becomes a close advisor and assistant to the Antichrist. She advises him as to what to say and how to act, so as to pretend to be the Christian Messiah. She tries to convince Christians to worship him. She directs the perverse version of the Catholic faith in a way that pleases and even exceeds the apostates and severe heretics who support her. This woman is the false prophet of the Book of Revelation. Her election as Pope cannot be valid, because every Pope must be a bishop and no woman can ever be validly ordained as a bishop (not even after Jesus the true Christ returns).

In the years 2433/2434 to 2437 A.D.

A major worldwide drought occurs, continuing for three and one half years.
The two prophets of Revelation are sent by God and they preach against the Antichrist and the false prophet (i.e. the antipope) for 1260 days. They can strike any part of the world, or the whole world, with any affliction that they choose by merely a few words of prayer to God. The Antichrist and the false prophet can do nothing against them until the end of the 1260 days.
A part of the Church flees by air to a remote place in the world (I do not know where). There a part of the Church is preserved from most of the sufferings of the last half of the Antichrist's reign. The Mass and the true Eucharist continue uninterrupted there. This part of the Church is tasked with praying and sacrificing for those who will be persecuted and martyred.
Around the world, churches open again and people are invited to worship under the guise of Christianity and Catholicism. But these are not representative of true Christianity and true Catholicism. Instead, people are instructed to worship the Antichrist as if he were the Messiah, and to obey the false prophet, a woman antipope. These churches have a perverse imitation of the Eucharist, called the abomination of desolation. In fact, these churches do not offer any type of true worship of God, not even with distortion. What they are worshipping is evil: the devil, the Antichrist, and the false prophet.
Whoever willingly receives the abomination commits a mortal sin and is deserving of Hellfire (unless they repent).
During this same time period, the true faithful are hunted down and massacred, without any pretext of a trial or of due process of law. The Antichrist's aim is to completely destroy the true Church, and to replace it with a Church that worships him (but, of course, he does not succeed). The two prophets of Revelation continue to preach openly and to afflict the followers of the Antichrist and the false prophet, thus weakening their claims and refuting their many errors.

In the year 2437 A.D.

In order to bring the Antichrist's reign to an end, God permits the two prophets to be killed at the end of their 1260 days of prophesying. The whole world rejoices because these two had afflicted the world with many different types of sufferings throughout those 1260 days. They refuse to allow these two men to be buried. They celebrate a worldwide holiday, exchanging gifts and expressing joy at the death of these two men. And they watch their dead bodies lying in the streets of the city of Jerusalem on worldwide television (or whatever the 25th century equivalent is of television).
Foolishly, the Antichrist and the false prophet proclaim that the death of these two men means that the Antichrist is a true god and that the teachings of the false prophet are the truth.
Then after three and one half days, in the sight of the whole world, God raises the two prophets from the dead. The whole world hears God say 'Come up here.' And the whole world watches the two prophets be assumed into Heaven. Thus the arguments of the Antichrist and the false prophet are proven false by this act of God.
Suddenly, the Antichrist and the false prophet have lost their appeal; their words are no longer convincing. For the two prophets claimed that Jesus is the true Christ; and the whole world saw the two prophets be raised from the dead and go up to Heaven. The kingdom of the Antichrist falls into turmoil and confusion. People are no longer obedient to him. They no longer attend the false worship promoted by the false prophet (the antipope).
The Antichrist and the false prophet take council as to what to do next.
They try various approaches: lies, tricks, bribes, threats, whatever else they can think of. Nothing works. So they decide that the only way to counter the assumption into Heaven of the two prophets is for the Antichrist to appear to ascend to Heaven himself. Of course, they do not even intend to go up to the real Heaven. They merely plan to have an event, a show, where the Antichrist appears to go up to Heaven in glory.
About 30 days after the assumption of the two prophets, the Antichrist begins his fake ascension. He and the false prophet try, in every way they can think of, to get the whole world to watch (but the world is very skeptical). His fake ascension is brought about with technology and the help of fallen angels.
As the world watches, he rises up into the sky. But the Archangel Michael appears, and smothers him (so that he had trouble breathing), and throws him down to the ground. The Antichrist is broken and severely wounded, but he does not die. He lays there on the ground in the sight of the whole world.
Now belief in the Antichrist and the false prophet is broken. The world erupts into turmoil and chaos and it seems that no one is in charge. The people will not listen to the appointees of the Antichrist or those of the false prophet.
Now the First Fruits (certain faithful Christians of that time who have original sin but no personal sin whatsoever) come out of their homes and hiding places, along with the rest of the faithful who have survived the Antichrist's reign. And they preach: "Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is near." They preach that Jesus the true Christ will return very soon. They offer repentance to the world. And that part of the Church that was preserved in a remote area returns and begins to offer the true Mass to the whole world.
Then, after a brief time of repentance is given to the world (lasting 45 days), Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary return from Heaven to earth.

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by Ronald L. Conte Jr.
last updated November 12, 2006