The Antichrist

The Antichrist and the Devil - Luca Signorelli

The Antichrist is first a character who will appear at the end of times to lead a supreme struggle Against the Church. He will substitute his own Worship for that of God by misleading the crowds through his deceptive wonders, for he will have the very power of Satan for this purpose.

But antichrists is also the name given by Saint John to the determined adversaries of Christ, that is to say those who claim to hold "a secularized messianism" as was the case with Marxism.

This duality between the final The Antichrist and the antichrists already at work in History is explained below in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It uses the word Anti-Christ which marks the direct opposition between this person and Christ whereas the usual word (Anté) calls to mind that this character will come before the ultimate return of Christ who will defeat him.

What the Church says

The text of the Catechism strongly insists on deception. The impostor is the one (or those) who deceives through false appearances, who pretends to be someone else. It also mentions "the death and the Resurrection" of the Church understood as the assembly of believers. Followed by the triumph of Christ and the last judgment.

§ 675 : Before the advent of Christ, the Church must undergo a final trial which will shake the faith of many believers (-). The persecution that accompanies her Pilgrimage on earth (-) will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious imposture bringing to men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of the apostasy of the truth. The supreme religious imposture is that of the Anti-Christ, that is to say a pseudo-messianism where man glorifies himself in place of God and his Messiah who came in the flesh (---).

§ 676 : This anti-Christian imposture already takes shape in the world whenever one claims to fulfill in history the messianic hope which can only be completed beyond it through the eschatological judgment: even in its mitigated form, the Church has rejected this falsification of the Kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism (cf. Denzinger-Schönmetzer § 3839), especially in the political form of a secularized messianism, "intrinsically perverse" (cf. Pius XI, encyclical "Divini Redemptoris" condemning the "false mysticism" of this "counterfeit of the redemption of the humble".

§ 677 : The Church will enter the glory of the Kingdom only through this ultimate Passover where she will follow her Lord into his death and Resurrection. The Kingdom will therefore not be fulfilled by a historical triumph of the Church — by an ascending progress — but by a victory of God over the ultimate outburst of evil who will bring down from the Heaven his Bride. The triumph of God over the Revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment, after the ultimate cosmic upheaval of this passing world.

What Maria Valtorta’s work says

When?

Before this coming of The Antichrist, Maria Valtorta clearly speaks of the coming of Christ in the spirits. It is the new Pentecost predicted by nearly all Popes since Pius XI. That of his successor Pius XII evokes a Neighbore outpouring of the Spirit leading to the universal reign of Jesus:

We have firm confidence that, within a period perhaps shorter than humanly expected, evil may be stopped in its path. […] We want Jesus to reign in the world. […] We pray that Jesus hastens the day to come when a new mysterious outpouring of the Holy Spirit will enshroud all the soldiers of Christ and send them to bring salvation amid the miseries of the earth. And these will be better days for the Church and, through the Church, for the whole world.  

For her part, in 1936, Marthe Robin prophesied:  

We will witness the unity of Christians. And then there will be unity between Christians and Jews. Diabolic errors will be destroyed. This will lead to a resurrection, to immense Grace: the New Pentecost of Love. It will be preceded by a renewal of the Church. The institution will be rejuvenated by the laity’s apostolate. They will have a very important role to play. (Jean-Jacques Antier, Marthe Robin: The motionless journey, p.116).  

See also the dictation of October 28, 1943: "Here I will become their Shepherd myself..."

Maria Valtorta does not speak of a thousand-year reign of Christ in the spirits before the advent of The Antichrist, as Scripture evokes. This reign even seems brief in time. We can therefore postulate that the thousand-year reign is to be understood as a period of very great intensity where "one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day".

Who?

After the last advent of Christ in the spirits, The Antichrist will arise to whom Satan will give all his powers. His time is clearly announced by Paul speaking of the Last Days:

Let no one delude you in any way. First there must come the apostasy and the man of lawlessness must be revealed, the Son of perdition, the one who opposes and exalts himself Against everything called God or worshipped, so much so that he sits in the temple of God and proclaims himself to be God. Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you? And now you know what holds him back, so that he may be revealed in his time. The mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only the one who now restrains it will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth and by the manifestation of his coming. As for the coming of the lawless one, marked by Satan’s activity, it will be characterized by all kinds of powerful works, miracles, and deceptive signs, and by all the seductions of injustice for those who perish, because they refused to love the truth which would have saved them. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe the lie, so that all who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in unjust actions may be judged.

For Joachim of Fiore (1130-1202), The Antichrist will be a "great prelate" having a fame equivalent to that of the Pope:

Just as the beast rising out of the sea announces a powerful and impious king, who will be like Nero, and as it were emperor of the whole earth; so the one rising out of the earth will symbolize some great prelate, like Simon the magician; he will be like a pontiff on earth, he will be The Antichrist.

This theologian also predicted that the last times would be those of the Spirit. They would see the appearance of a new “monastic order” dedicated to charity, the return to unity of the Easterners and the Jews, and finally the revelation of the eternal Gospel which “will intoxicate the Hearts with love”. According to what Jesus said to Maria Valtorta, The Antichrist will be a leading spiritual figure:

A very high-placed person, like a star. Not a human star shining in a human sky, but a star of a supernatural sphere, who, yielding to the Enemy’s flattery, will know Pride after humility, Atheism after faith, lust after chastity, hunger for gold after evangelical poverty, thirst for honors after a Hidden life. It is less frightening to see a star fall from the firmament than to see this creature, already chosen, fall into Satan’s snare.

How?

Echoing the Gospel’s warning about deceptive wonders, false christs and false prophets who will arise in the last days (---), Jesus warns us through Maria Valtorta:

The wise will understand Satan’s snare — or rather the countless snares of Satan — for those who possess true Wisdom are enlightened. By their fidelity to Grace, they will become pure and tried as by fire, worthy to be chosen for heaven. The wicked, however, will follow Evil and will do evil: they will not be able to understand the Good because by their own free will they will have filled their Hearts with evil. Then will come the time when the Church, outraged to an unprecedented degree, will no longer be free to celebrate the perpetual sacrifice, and the abomination of desolation will be set up on the Holy Place and on the holy places, as prophesied by the prophets and repeated by me, who does not err.

It is understood that in place of the Eucharist [the Mass] that will be forbidden and fought against, there will be a new imposed Worship: which one? We do not know, but it will be “abominable”. Jesus continues:

Daniel says: “There will be a thousand two hundred ninety days [of such outrage]. Blessed is the one who endures and reaches one thousand three hundred thirty-five days.” Terrifying as man has never known before, the last time, three years and six months, will be that during which Satan, through his son, will burn with supreme rage, for the split between the two branches of God’s people will be completed, and with it the cause of so many material, moral, and spiritual evils; he will then use his ultimate and perfect schemes to harm, ruin, and kill Christ in the Hearts as well as the Hearts acquired by Christ.

The Antichrist will therefore come only after the reunification of Christians and Jews into a single flock and, more broadly, sincere believers as announced in the Gospel.

What to do?

These apocalyptic events are ignored by many and frighten the rest. Yet Christ, who prophesies them in the Gospel, calls us to stand up and lift our heads "when these things begin to happen” because our deliverance is near.

And Paul advises us not to be shaken or alarmed by announcements presenting the Day of the Lord as “great and terrible” as imminent as long as the sign announcing it, the “great apostasy” of The Antichrist, has not been manifested. One of the characteristics of this time will be the prohibition of the Eucharist. We observe that it is more ignored by many than actively fought. Previously there will also be the prior reunification of believers into one flock. Another sign finally is the coming of the Virgin of the Last Times as prophesied by Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort and actualized by Maria Valtorta. A time of great jubilation.

While waiting for this time, Azarias, Maria Valtorta’s guardian angel, exhorts us not to remain inactive:

Raise around the Church the barrier of your prayer [for that hour]. So pray, you who are good, that the world may only die at the appointed time. Pray that God does not send his avengers to strike it, as he did with Lucifer and Adam. For, certainly, God’s decrees are eternal. But they can be modified when his justice and his honor require Love to remind the creatures that there is only one God and that no one is greater than Him. This is for the world.

In "The Gospel as it was revealed to me"

• And was not the place corrupted where the prophet Daniel lived as a slave so sacred to the Lord, made holy by the holiness of his servant who sanctified the place to the point of deserving the exalted prophecies of Christ and the Antichrist, keys to the current times and the last times?-
• Do not be like the ancient rabbis who taught the Revelation but did not believe in it, to the point of not recognizing the signs of the times and the messengers of God. Recognize the precursors of Christ in his second coming since the forces of the Antichrist are in motion.

In other works of Maria Valtorta

The Notebooks of 1943

• Catechesis of April 23 : My Angels will not need to carry weapons to win the battle Against the antichrists. My gaze will suffice. (p. 11).
• Catechesis of July 23 : It is logical that, in a world where so many spiritual lights will be dead, the reign of The Antichrist, brief but terrible, engendered by Satan as Christ was engendered by the Father, will manifest itself (p. 180).
• Catechesis of August 20 : It will be a very high-placed person, like a star. Not a human star shining in a human sky, but a star of a supernatural sphere, who, yielding to the Enemy’s flattery, will know Pride after humility, Atheism after faith, lust after chastity, hunger for gold after evangelical poverty, thirst for honors after a Hidden life… you are not destined to taste horror and consequently have only to pray for those who will have to endure it (p. 240).

The Notebooks of 1944

• Catechesis of January 25 : This Antichrist, perfection of Horror as I was the perfection of Perfection, will torment beyond measure those who will form my small faithful troupe and remain my Disciples. He will do so by using his countless armies, symbolized by the ten horns, his jaws with iron teeth, his fierce feet, and finally his small horn, symbol of the extraordinary spite with which Satan will endow his son to corrupt humanity, while he will seduce it by his lying mouth to be worshipped as God. Little by little, the small horn will grow to harm; the satanic intelligence will grow to make the mouth say the most disturbing lies, it will grow in power as I have grown in wisdom and in Grace, armed with eyes to read the thoughts of holy men and kill them with this thought… After the precursors of The Antichrist will come The Antichrist himself. (p. 92).
• Catechesis of April 9 : Even if all seems lost, have confidence. Even if the abyss of Evil spews forth its demons to torment the earth and fertilize it so that it engenders The Antichrist, even if the abyss of the heavens seems to close at the order of the Father from whom we proceed, we, the Word and the Spirit, are still at work and love you to Save and defend you (p. 264).

The Notebooks from 1945 to 1950

• Catechesis of April 15, 1945 : I told you at the beginning of this work and in the midst of this tragic War, and I repeat it to you: "This War is one of those that prepare the times of The Antichrist.″ Then will come the era of the living spirit. Blessed are those who prepare for It. Do not say: "We will not be there.″ Not you, not each of you. But it is stupid and contrary to charity to think only of oneself. From atheistic fathers come atheistic children. From lifeless fathers come lifeless sons. And your sons and your sons’ sons will have such a need for spiritual strength for this hour! (p. 54).
• Notes from September to November 1950 : In truth, these new evangelizers already exist, even if the world partly ignores and partly fights them. But they will become more and more numerous and when terror seizes the fools who today mock the new evangelizers, the world, after having ignored, mocked, or fought them, will turn to them to be strength, hope, and light in the Darkness, in horror, in the storm of the persecution of the antichrists. For while it is true that the false prophets serving The Antichrist will be increasingly numerous before the end of times, it is equally true that Christ the Lord will oppose them with his servants in ever greater numbers, raising up new Apostles where one least expects it (p. 563).
• Notes from September to November 1950 : The coming times will be times of War, not only materially but especially between materialism and spirit. The Antichrist will seek to lure rational beings into the quagmire of a bestial life. Christ will seek to prevent this denial, not only of Religion but even of reason, by opening new horizons and paths illuminated by spiritual lights, and by raising in those who do not openly reject him a powerful awakening of spiritual life, with the help of these new evangelizers not only of Christ but also of the Mother of God. (p. 564).
• Notes from September to November 1950 : He (John in the Apocalypse) saw everything through his first vision. The final consequence is the result of the first consequence. This repeats by cycles over the Ages, increasingly accentuated as the Church grows. It is logical, Good and painful, that it be so. For The Antichrist hates and fights Christ more as His affirmation and triumph in the saints grow stronger. Does the Mystic Body achieve victories? The Antichrist increases his power and unleashes more atrocious battles. Indeed, if Christ wants to triumph, as He should, The Antichrist wants it just as much, and his Violence increases as Christ triumphs more in order to defeat and overthrow Him. Oh, he will not succeed! Christ is the Victor. But he hopes and tries. And since it is impossible for him to win a collective victory over the entire People of God, he seeks individual or national victories, by diverting minds, possessing souls, tearing peoples from the Church. (p. 575).

In fundamental Christian texts

In the Bible

• Let no one deceive you in any way. First there must come the apostasy and the man of lawlessness must be revealed, the Son of perdition, the one who opposes and exalts himself Against everything called God or worshipped, so much so that he sits in the temple of God and proclaims himself to be God. Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you? And now you know what holds him back, so that he may be revealed in his time. The mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only the one who now restrains it will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth and by the manifestation of his coming. As for the coming of the lawless one, marked by Satan’s activity, it will be characterized by all kinds of powerful works, miracles, and deceptive signs, and by all the seductions of injustice for those who perish, because they refused to love the truth which would have saved them. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe the lie, so that all who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in unjust actions may be judged.
• Little children, it is the last hour. You have heard that the antichrist is coming; and now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They left us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might be made clear that they all are not of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I did not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.
• Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is already in the world.
• For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such is the deceiver and the antichrist!
• The book of Revelation.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church

• The final trial of the Church.

Action of a person (called an "apostate") who renounces their Religion and faith, who publicly abandons their Religion (to adopt another or not). It thus announces their choice to religious representatives.