+Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel+
We continue here with the Apocalypse commentary written by Bishops Andrew of Caesarea in the seventh century. Please forgive the long lapse between blogs and this present lengthy blog — I wanted to cover the entire commentary on Antichrist by Archbishop Andrew in one sitting and it ran longer than expected. I hope to resume my usual blog publication of 7-10 days now as some of the issues that have prevented me from writing as often have now been resolved.
I also have corrected an error in various site articles which recently came to my attention. Paul 6, on several occasions, was photographed wearing the Jewish rationale, or breastplate with a jewel for each tribe of Israel. I mistakenly described this as the ephod, a related garment but not the breastplate he is shown wearing. My sincere apologies. This blog is being published July 15, but I have moved the date forward a day to honor Our Lady and her scapular devotion.
The Apocalypse of St. John
Chapter 13
13.2a — ‘And the beast that I saw was like a leopard’… The leopard means the kingdom of the Greeks; the bear, that of the Persians; the lion is the kingdom of the Babylonians over which the Antichrist will rule, coming as king of the Romans, and abolishing their rule when he sees the clay toes of the feet, through which is meant the weak and fragile division of the kingdom into ten.
Benns comment: The lion is a Jewish national and cultural symbol, representing the tribe of Judah. Babylonia signifies Rome and Antichrist himself or his system (St. Paul — 2 Thess. 2). If Antichrist is king of the Romans, a description also found in the Catholic Encyclopedia under Antichrist, then he is a king only of Vatican state and its Vatican 2 believers and is not a true pope. It appears that this could mean the Lion of Judah will then rule from Rome. St. Irenaeus, (125–202) best describes Antichrist: “For he being endued with all the power of the devil, shall come, not as a righteous king, not as a legitimate king obedient to God but as an impious, unjust, and lawless one; as an iniquitous and murderous apostate; as a robber, concentrating in himself a satanic apostasy, and setting aside idols to persuade men that he himself is God.”
13.2b — ‘Power and authority’… For Satan, the spiritual dragon, will give to the Antichrist all authority by means of false signs and wonders for the destruction of those unstable <in the faith>.
Benns comment: Had Catholics remained strong in their faith they would have recognized the signs well before Antichrist’s coming and would not have been fooled. Very few Catholics escaped at least some level of deception.
13.3a,b — ‘Mortal wound healed’… And one of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed. A head as if wounded, it says, is either one of the rulers who will be put to death and who will appear to rise again by him through deceitful sorcery, as Simon Magus had done who was reproached by the leader of the apostles <Peter> or the kingdom of the Romans, which, having endured some kind of wound by the division, will seem to have been healed by the monarchy, following the model of <what occurred in the time of> Caesar Augustus.
Benns comment: The second definition seems to describe what we see today. The paganism of ancient Rome has been “healed” or re-established as well as the revised version of Roman democracy.
13.11. ‘And I saw another beast which rose out of the earth’… This beast some say is the Antichrist, but to others his two horns seemed to hint at the Antichrist and the false prophet. Since it is admitted that the false prophet also is to come in his own person, we think it is not absurd to understand that the dragon is Satan, that the beast rising out of the sea is the Antichrist, and that the one present, according to the opinion of the blessed Irenaeus, is to be understood as the false prophet rising out of the earth, that is, out of the earthly and groveling way of life, having horns like a lamb, because he completely covers with sheep’s skin the hidden murderous character of the wolf, and because of his appearance of piety in the beginning, concerning which Irenaeus says, speaking thus verbatim: “About the adjutant which he also calls false prophet, he speaks, it says, like a dragon.” To him, it says, will be given the power so that he makes signs and wonders, going before the Antichrist, preparing for him “the way which leads to perdition.” The healing of the wound of the beast, we said, is the apparent union for a short time of the divided kingdom, or the restoration through the Antichrist of the destructive tyranny of Satan for a short time, or the false resurrection from the dead of one of his close associates. This one is to speak like a dragon, it says, for he will both act and speak the things of the devil, the source of evil.
Benns comment: We have explained at length in articles on Roncalli how he acted as the false prophet by making Montini a cardinal and collaborating with him in his efforts until he became Roncalli’s successor. He paved the way for Montini’s reign by being the “transition pope” who appeared as meek as a lamb but was instead a poisonous snake.
13.12–13 — ‘Working great signs’… It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and causes the earth and its [inhabitants to worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. And it works great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of men. In imitation of the Baptist, who brought believers to the Savior, the forerunner of the rebellious false Christ will perform all things, it says, through sorcery for the deception of people, <for them> to consider the Antichrist to be God, <the Antichrist> witnessed to by the worker of such marvels and receiving indisputable glory. For the lie, to deceive people, strives eagerly to imitate the truth. It is no wonder in the eyes of the deceived, fire will be seen coming down from heaven, since we have learned also in the story of Job that this one <Satan> has slandered and has consumed his <Job’s> flocks <by fire> by divine permission and satanic operation.
Benns comment: Roncalli is given “judicial permission” to deceive the elect — this is punishment for sin (Zach. 11: 7; 2 Thess. 2, 11-12). As Rev. Henry Coleridge (1883) states in one of his sermons: “…Antichrist is to be supported and recommended to mankind by all the power of the devil ‘in all power and signs and lying wonders,‘… This permission of God to Satan is judicial.”
13.14a. — ‘And through the signs which were given to him’… He deceives, it says, those who have hearts dwelling entirely on the earth. For those who have acquired “citizenship in heaven” the perception does not deceive, because they have been made perfectly secure by the prophecy of his coming.
Benns comment: Materialism being rife today, no one longs for heaven or dwells there in their heart. They are entirely hypnotized by technology and earthly pleasures.
13.18. — ‘The number of the beast, 666’… The exact sense of the numerical cipher, as well as the rest of the things written regarding this, time and experience will reveal to those who live soberly. For, as some of the teachers say, if it were necessary to know clearly such a name, the one who had beheld it would have revealed it. But divine grace was not well pleased to set down the name of the destroyer in the divine book. As in exercises in logic, many names are to be found contained in this number, according to the blessed Hippolytus and others, both proper nouns and common nouns. First, proper nouns, such as “Lampetis,” “Teitan,” through the diphthong, τενῶ forming the future of the verb, according to Hippolytus, and likewise “Lateinos,” just as “Benedict” is interpreted as “one who is blessed” or “blessed” perhaps in imitation of the truly blessed one, Christ our God. Then common nouns “wicked guide,” “real harm,” “slanderer of old,” “unjust lamb”— these he will be called by those opposing his deception, rendering the appropriate “opinion in shame.”
Benns comment: It seems then that the name Benedict or Benedicto(i)s, from the earliest times, was suggested as a possible name of Antichrist! We have mentioned before that this is also the opinion of a learned Scripture commentator. In his massive work on the Apocalypse, printed in Spanish in Quito, Ecuador in 1954, Dr. Anton Bileham, holding doctorates in both philosophy and theology, wrote: “We firmly believe from now on, that such a name Benedictos, whose number, in Greek, language of the Apocalypse equals 666. B (2) E (5) N (50) E (5) D (4) I (10) C (20) T (300) O (70) S (200) = 666… Then Antipope Antichrist was called Benedictos.” The Traditionalist Mexican priest, Fr. Joaquin Saenz-Arriaga, in his 1970s work Sede Vacante tells us that ‘The Golden Book of Noble Italian Heritage,’ states that Paul 6 was descended from the deBenedicti(o)s family and that this family was “…of Hebrew origin.” The book lists Montini’s ancestor as the great-grandfather of Pier deLeoni, the anti-pope Anacletus II.
Chapter 14
14.8 — ‘Babylon the great has fallen’… Babylon is the name he significantly gives to the confusion of the world and to the tumult of daily life, which, as much as he foretells, is not yet to end. The wine of desire of fornication he calls not only the Bacchanalia of idolatry and the alienation of the mind, but also the drunkenness and lack of control which derives from each sin, according to which all those who are unfaithful to God, according to the saying of the Psalmist, will be utterly destroyed. Such a Babylon finally falls, and is completely overthrown in the appearance of the Jerusalem above, while the workers of transgression are sent “to the eternal fire.
Benns comment: Confusion, idolatry and “alienation of the mind” — there can be no better description of what we are experiencing today than this. It is truly amazing this was all foreseen so long ago.
14.9–10 — ‘If anyone worships the beast’… If anyone, it says, bows down to the beastly Antichrist and pursues the ungodly lifestyle modeling him, and either in word or in deed proclaims him God — for this can be clear by the mark given on the forehead and hand — he also will partake with him of the drink of the cup of vengeance, on the one hand unmixed and separated from the divine mercies because of the righteous judgment, on the other hand having been poured with various punishments on account of the multiplicity and variety of its self-chosen wickedness. Appropriately is the punishment called the wine of wrath, being a consequence of the wine of impiety, making drunk those drinking from it, so that “whoever sins through them is also punished through them.”
Benns comment: We have explained before that the mark on forehead and hand indicates induction by false baptism and ordination into the Antichrist cult. Rev. E.S. Berry commented in 1921: “Antichrist and his prophet will introduce ceremonies to imitate the sacraments of the Church. In fact, there will be a complete organization, a church of Satan set up in opposition to the Church of Christ… Their ceremonies will counterfeit the sacraments and their works of magic be heralded as miracles.”
Chapter 16
16.12 — ‘The drying up of the Euphrates’… Probably by divine permission the Euphrates is lessened to give passage to the kings of the nations for the purpose of them utterly destroying one another and the rest of humanity, which <kings> we think were set into motion out of parts of Scythia recalling Gog and Magog, according to that which is brought out later in the Apocalypse. Probably the Antichrist also will come from the eastern areas of the land of Persia, where political the tribe of Dan originates from the root of the Hebrews, together either with other kings or with rulers designated with a royal name, to cross over the Euphrates bringing bodily or spiritual death upon people, upon some <bodily death> through faith and patient endurance, and upon others <spiritual death> through cowardice and weakness.
Benns comment: The Euphrates has almost completely dried up. This battle may be physical, spiritual or both. If physical, it has not yet occurred. This is discussed in the article Spiritual Teotwawki in the Catacombs section of the website.
16.13, 14 — ‘Frogs and assembling for battle’… From these it is shown that the same person is both the devil as a dragon, and the Antichrist as the beast, and the false prophet as another <different> from these, as has been mentioned. From these, it says, are going out spirits similar to frogs through their green poison and uncleanness and sliminess and their creeping toward the wet reptilian pleasures of the evil powers which by the commands of the devil and false Christ and false prophet are manifested by mouth, which will show deceitful “signs and wonders to people,” as we will become aware by what follows. The false signs which are operated through the demons, it says, <will cause> those persuaded by them to march into war on “the great and terrible day of God,” “judge of the living and dead,” over which, having been entirely defeated, those fighting against God in vain will lament, bewailing their prior error.
Benns comment: Certainly the usurpers in Rome have handily deceived everyone and poisoned their minds with their reptilian sliminess. The troops in America and NATO countries, if they are called to such a battle, may mistakenly be led to believe they are fighting FOR God, not against Him.
15-16 — ‘I am coming like a thief’… The watchfulness and guarding the garments mean vigilance in good deeds. For these are the garments of the saints, of which he who is deprived will need to be ashamed, since he is naked and full of indecency. <The Hebrew word> Armageddon is interpreted as “deep cut” or “that which is cut in two.” For there, the nations, being gathered together, being minded to follow, and being commanded by the devil, who delights in the blood of people, are to be cut down.
Benns comment: We cannot say to ourselves that because nothing is happening the way we expect, God will not soon come to judge the nations; this is exactly what the devil wants. If the battle of Armageddon is a physical battle, the military mighty of the nations will be destroyed.
16.17-18 — ‘It is done’… That is, the divine command is accomplished. The flashes of lightning, voices, and thunders mean the amazing nature of these occurrences and the future coming of Christ, just as in ancient times <they meant> the descent of God upon Mount Sinai. The earthquake <is> an alteration of all things in existence, as the Apostle had understood: “Again once and for all I will shake not only the earth but also heaven.”
Benns comment: As speculated in Spiritual Teotwawki, this event could well be a worldwide pole shift, something referred to in Holy Scripture. Rev H. B. Kramer also shares this opinion.
16.19a — ‘Great Babylon remembered’… For now both Jews and Samaritans, for fear of the pious ones who reign, hide their private wishes, and with us they appear to be assigned to their distinct lot, not daring to rebel. Likewise the genuine Christians find themselves mixed together with those possessing only the name <of Christian>.
Benns comment:Again, I am amazed that he foretells here that all of us will simply be referred to as Christians, with no distinction of Catholic, Protestant, etc. It must be remembered that the Samaritans worshipped idols and the Jews in no way counted them as Jews proper.
16.20b — ‘EVERY island fled away’… Islands are the churches, and mountains are the leaders of them, we are taught to discern from the divine Scriptures. These flee at the time of attack, being foretold <as> we have heard for ourselves from the Lord, saying: “Then they will flee from the east to the setting sun, and those from the west to the east.” “For there will be great tribulation of a sort which has not happened from the foundation of the world, nor ever will be.” Some being tormented on account of sin, others enduring these difficulties patiently in a test of virtue, not only in those difficulties will they be tormented by the Antichrist for the sake of Christ, but also in flights and in the miseries in mountains and in caves, which, in order to preserve piety, they will prefer to the way of life in the city.
Benns comment: Could this foretell that the churches and their leaders will be generally abandoned? The way things are shaping up, with all the veils being ripped form their transgressions, it seems entirely possible. Those recognizing the times have already fled from the cities, but this could mean a more general flight, in panic mode.
16.21 — ‘And great hailstones, heavy as a hundred-weight <talent>, fell on people from heaven. And people cursed God for the plague of the hail, so very great was this plague.’
Chapter 17
Benns comment: Throughout Apocalypse, regardless of the severity or number of the chastisements, people curse God and fail to repent. This is indicative of the far-reaching consequences of the operation of error. Today it feels like all of us are caught in a web of lies wherever we turn.
17.1-3 — ‘Golden cup’… Some understood this harlot to mean ancient Rome lying upon seven mountains, the seven heads of the beast which bears her to be the seven most impious kings from Domitian until Diocletian, <kings> who persecuted the Church… For ancient Rome from long ago lost the power of its kingdom, unless we suppose the ancient rank were to return to her.
Benns comment: The “seven heads” spoken of in Apoc. 13:1 are the seven empires. But then we go to Apoc. 17: v. 9, which tells us that, “The seven heads are seven mountains and they are seven kings upon which the woman sitteth.” This could also refer to seven dioceses, not mountains, ruled by seven Novus Ordo kings — the “cardinals,” and later “bishops” appointed by the usurpers who were the “heads” of these dioceses. As explained in the blog HERE, during his reign as false pope, Roncalli reorganized the dioceses of Rome and added a seventh diocese, making all the bishop-cardinals of the diocese answerable only to him.
17.6-7 — ‘Woman drunk with the blood of the saints’… Wherefore, the ancient Babylon was also given the name “the charming harlot, leader of sorcery,” and ancient Jerusalem heard, “You have the appearance of a harlot,” and the older Rome was addressed as Babylon in the Epistle of Peter… or the Old Rome or the New, or taken generally as the kingdom in one unit, as it is said. For in each of these <cities> various sins had been born, and blood of the saints poured out, some more, some less, we have learned. And the blood of the martyrs <shed in the former Rome> until Diocletian…
Benns comment: The whore here represents the infidelity of the usurpers to the Bride of Christ. This also refers to the fact that Rome has dallied with the American government and allowed its funds to be spent in woefully sinful ways throughout the world. Modern commentators have speculated that Babylon the Great is the worldwide monetary system established by the cabal, and that when Babylon falls, it will mean not only the fall of Rome but America as well.
17.9a. — ‘Here is the mind that has wisdom’… Since the things being interpreted are spiritual, spiritual wisdom is needed to understand what is said, and not worldly <wisdom>.
Benns comment: This emphasizes the need for those reading this biblical book to look first for its spiritual meaning, not for the Protestant-inspired predictions of various government leaders as Antichrist or an embedded mark of the beast, etc.
17.10 — ‘The seven kings’… The blessed Hippolytus understood these to mean ages, of which five have passed by, the sixth still stands, during which the apostle saw these things, and the seventh, which is after the 6,000 years, has not yet come, but, coming, it must remain a little while.
Benns comment: If the sixth age still stood during Hippolytus’ time, we are living in the very last days of the seventh age, following the end of the age of the Church. This both St. Thomas Aquinas, the early Father Victorinus, and now Archbishop Andrew believed.
17.11 — ‘The beast’… And the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth, but it is from the seven, and it goes to perdition. The beast is the Antichrist; as the eighth he will be raised up after the seven kings for the purpose of deceiving and desolating the earth. From the seven, as from one of them, he will spring forth. For he will not come from another nation, along <the lines> of the things we have already said, but he will come as king of the Romans for the purpose of the dissolution and perdition of those who were persuaded by him, and after this he will go forth into the perdition of Gehenna.
Benns comment: Both these verses above addressed in our Seven Kings blog; see link in 17.1-3
Chapter 18
Chap. 1818.2-3a — ‘Babylon the Great is fallen’… How did the present Babylon water the nations with the wine of her own fornication? By becoming altogether the leader in all these transgressions and by her sending to the cities subject to her, through gifts, rulers who were the enemies of truth and righteousness.
Benns comment: This confirms the role played by world government in the fall of Babylon Rome. And we know who rules these governments.
18.3b. — ‘And the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her’… On account of the excesses from unjust riches, it says, extending to that which is far above necessity and behaving insolently toward those in need, it has become a matter of profit to the merchants of the earth.
Benns comment: The sending of billions to the Ukraine and Israel while America and other countries are struggling to survive and are denied sufficient medical care, fair wages and adequate housing is reflected here.
18.4–5 — ‘Come out [of her], my people’… As was declared to Lot in Sodom, “Escape, saving your own life,” and in Isaiah, “Come out from her and be separate, and do not touch the unclean,” likewise he speaks here. For close association with those who provoke God is shunned.
Benns comment: There is still time for those just now realizing what has really happened to leave the company of the unGodly and escape, but that window of opportunity will soon be closing.
18.13c–14 — ‘and human souls…’ Neither will they trade the souls of human beings, it says, by enslaving free people, nor will you have enjoyment as formerly by costly and splendid items.
Benns comment: Human trafficking in both souls and bodies will finally come to an end when Babylon is destroyed.
18,15-17a — ‘Weeping and mourning’… He leads them by this vision to the sufferings of this Babylon, by the lamentations over her describing the magnitude of the calamity which will prevail over her, the very one who formerly boasted of her royal status.
Benns comment: How often has our government announced we are the greatest nation on earth? And how brazen the deceit perpetrated by Rome in presenting itself as the one, true Church Christ established? “I sit a queen and am no widow and sorrow I shall never see” (Apoc. 18: 7). Both the Novus Ordo and LibTrads proudly voice Christ’s promise to be with the Church until the consummation to prove they are indestructible. But they fail to factor in coming of Antichrist and the destruction of Babylon.
18, 21-24 — ‘Thus with violence will Babylon the great city be thrown down, and will be found no longer’… the demolition of Babylon will be complete, so that not even a trace of her will be preserved afterwards. For this is what is meant by the disappearance of the harp players and the musicians and the rest. The cause, it says, is that all the nations were deceived by her own particular sorcery and she has become the vessel of the blood of the prophets and the rest of the saints. Possibly what was signified by all these is the impious Babylon of the Persians, since it received the blood of many saints through various times up to the present, since by both sorceries and trickeries they rejoiced from beginning to end.
Benns comment: The thought of Rome’s destruction and with it all the beautiful churches and treasures of the Vatican is heartbreaking but they have been tainted by the evil people who have dared to defile them. Henry Cardinal Manning cites numerous approved theologians who agree that at the end, Rome will be destroyed. It is my opinion that America will also be punished, being afflicted with natural disasters, perhaps the same “great earthquake” that destroys Rome.
Chapter 19
19.20b. — ‘These two will be thrown alive into the lake of fire’… Perhaps these will not die a common death, but in the twinkling of an eye those made immortal are condemned to a second death in the lake of fire, as the Apostle says concerning other people: “They will not sleep but they will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” These likely will go to judgment, but those <two> who presented themselves as impious and anti-gods, not into judgment but <directly> to condemnation. If this does not appear <to be so> to some, on account of the statement of the Apostle that the Antichrist is to be “destroyed by the breath” of the divine command, also it is to be found in a saying of a certain one of the teachers that some are to be living after the destruction of the Antichrist, those blessed by Daniel; we will say that the two living in incorruptible bodies, after their tyranny had been abolished by God, will be delivered to the fire of Gehenna, which to them will be death and destruction by the divine command of Christ.
Benns comment: I have speculated that Roncalli and Montini will be the first to be resurrected for the Final Judgment and hence physically thrown into the lake of fire for all the faithful to see. If some are to be living after the destruction of Antichrist, maybe this means after the death of Antichrist, as St. Thomas Aquinas says may well happen.
Chapter 20
20.1-3; 5-6 — ‘1000 years’… The one thousand years, therefore, is the time from <the year of> the Incarnation of the Lord until the coming of the Antichrist… they will exercise priesthood and reign with Christ, as we see it, these things signifying to us one thousand years until the loosening of Satan and the deception of the nations, not as being then deprived of the kingdom, but as more certainly and very clearly, they will possess it by the passage of temporal things and arrival of eternal things. For the time will be short after the loosening of the devil until the judgment against him and the punishment of Gehenna. Therefore, they will be priests of God and of Christ is thought to be a repetition of the foregoing. For the things seen now, through the trial and the end result of things, the rewards of the saints and wonders were then destined to be when they were seen by the Evangelist, as was said. So then, since there are two deaths, it is necessary to understand that there are also likewise two resurrections. First, then, physical death, given as the penalty for humankind’s disobedience; the second, eternal punishment. The first resurrection is being brought to life out of “dead works,” the second, the transformation from bodily corruption into incorruption.
20, 7-8 — ‘Satan loosed’… Some, I don’t know how, explain the aforementioned time of one thousand years as the three-and-a-half years from the baptism of Christ until his ascension into heaven, after which they conjectured that the devil is to be loosed. Others said that after the completion of the six thousand years, the first resurrection of the dead is granted only to the saints, so that in this earth, in which they displayed endurance, they will enjoy delight and honor for one thousand years, and after that the universal resurrection will occur, not of the just only but also of the sinners. It is unnecessary to note that the Church has accepted none of these… it is not necessary to understand the one thousand so much by the <literal> number
Benns comment: The two verses above deny the claims of the Judaizers expecting an earthly millennium. Archbishop Andrew is right in leaving this determination to the Church. Pope Pius XII condemned the idea of Christ reigning with the saints during an earthly millennium.
20.9-10 — ‘Camp of the saints’…There, they say, the Antichrist will sit in the Temple of God, either in the Judaic one, the old divine Temple, which was destroyed on account of the recklessness against Christ and is <still> expected by the God-fighting Jews to be rebuilt by him, or in the real divine Temple, <that is> in the catholic Church, usurping that which is inappropriate for him and “representing himself as being God,” according to the divine word of the Apostle. But not for long; it says, fire comes down from heaven, either a visible fire as <happened to> the two commanders of fifty men in the presence of Elijah, or the coming of Christ in glory will destroy them “by the breath of his mouth” and the aforementioned nations, also devouring their general, the devil, and he <Christ> will deliver <the devil> to the lake of fire together with the Antichrist and the false prophet to be tortured forever and ever.
Benns comment: How long is long in God’s time? We have explained before that the 1,260 days or three years and a half are probably references to the heighth of Antichrist’s reign (Dec. 1965, closing of the false Vatican 2 council until April of 1969, introduction of the Novus Ordo Missae). So the actual length of his reign or continuation of it through his “successors” could be much longer. Here is measured not how many physical bodies perished during his reign and that of his system but the vast number of souls he and the other usurpers managed to murder.
20.11 — ‘Sky fled away’… Methodios in the treatise On the Resurrection reported thusly: “It is not acceptable to say that everything is to be utterly destroyed and that there will not be any earth and air and sky. For the whole world will be consumed in a cataclysm of fire coming down for purification and renewal. It will not come for absolute destruction and ruination.” And going forward he says, “And Paul testifies clearly saying, ‘For the earnest expectation of creation awaits the revealing of the sons of God.’ For creation is subject to futility, not willingly, but by the one who subjected it in hope, that even the creation itself will be freed from the bondage of corruption.”
Benns comment: God will somehow bring heaven down to earth and the earth will be renewed. We are not meant to know or understand how or when this will happen. We know only that God is incapable of error or lying and ever true to His Promises.
