I'm not completely through it, just yet, but I'm almost ready to call this the greatest book I've ever read, other than the Bible. Don't let the title fool you - it isn't just about the pope, and it isn't just about the catholic church. This book is about how the tributaries of human history both spring from and flow into Biblical truth. For me,it is as if scales fall from my eyes as I read. I know this seems a rather gushing review; almost too gushing. But its how I feel, and I wish I could give it to every Catholic in the world. And anyone else open-minded enough to consider its message.
This book is an anti Catholic smear. Lets get one major thing the authors get wrong out of the way first. Catholics do not worship either the Blessed Virgin Mary nor do they worship the saints. Both are honored, the Blessed Virgin Mary as the mother of Jesus, and the saints as people who have allowed God to work in and through their lives to do His will. Both are given to the faithful as people to emulate and study to help the faithful let the Lord work more fully in their own lives.
One of the other real problems is that the authors get their own prophecies wrong. The two men they suggest may be the next pope (and thus the Anti-Christ) after Benedict XVI, did not become pope. Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis I. I leave the readers of this review to their own beliefs on the likelihood of Pope Francis being the Anti-Christ. For the record I reject that belief.
The one thing they did get right is that the pope is only infallible when he speaks on faith and morals when speaking "ex cathedra" (meaning "from the chair" ).
One of the other real problems is that the authors get their own prophecies wrong. The two men they suggest may be the next pope (and thus the Anti-Christ) after Benedict XVI, did not become pope. Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis I. I leave the readers of this review to their own beliefs on the likelihood of Pope Francis being the Anti-Christ. For the record I reject that belief.
The one thing they did get right is that the pope is only infallible when he speaks on faith and morals when speaking "ex cathedra" (meaning "from the chair" ).
This book is a classic example of why non-Catholics shouldn't go to other non-Catholics for information on the Vatican and Catholicism. This books contains so many easily refuted Catholic smears its laughable. I threw my copy in the trash rather than post it and have another poor soul deceived as to what Catholicism is about
When I first picked this book up I thought it was going to be on the Prophecy of the Popes. It starts out that way and then quickly goes into extreme End Times Conspiracy theory. It touched on everything from the Freemasons, Illuminati and the Papacy performing secret rites to bring the anti-Christ in our times, to the designs of Washington DC and the Vatican having Masonic symbology and power spots for Pagan Gods to the Catholics purposely tampering with their line of Pope Succession and the Prophecy of the Popes to make the End Times come alive. Though I thought the history of the popes and the Catholic religion was interesting (same thing you read in most religious history books). I thought the rest of it was pure Conspiracy Theory. This book would have probably had a more profound effect on the reader if it was read before 2012, since this book subscribes to that being the beginning of the end for us. Or before Pope Benedict stepped down and Pope Francis took over. The authors spent numerous chapters with their predictions of the final pope (BTW according to Malachi's Prophecy Pope Francis is in the slot of the final pope). Of course they were way off base. Like I said the papal history was interesting and the parts on the history of the prophecy was interesting the rest is garden variety end times theories. They did tear the Catholic religion to shreds but most End Times books feel the Catholic church is a big part of the End Times. And you have to admit the Catholic Church really wasn't that "holy" during the Middle or dark ages. A lot of corruption and a lot of Sin. And on a side note, if you are to write a book on a certain subject, don't use a previous book that you wrote as a reference source to prove your point. Which this author did many times. I don't think it holds much weight in proving your point.
