January 26, 1999. John Paul II arrives. Several U.S. high dignitaries kiss his ring. The President of the United States of America addresses him: “Your holiness… Welcome… back to America… Holy Father… We honor you… Keep lighting the way for all of us and all of the world.”
John Paul II is the man who has dedicated his “pontificate” to exalting “the Virgin Mary.” The real mother of Jesus is no longer a virgin (see Insight #12). Therefore, today’s “virgin Mary” is not Jesus’ mother. One of the many titles Rome bestows upon this “virgin” is “queen of heaven.” Is the man holy who dedicates his “pontificate” to the “queen of heaven”? Ask Jeremiah. Jeremiah reproved the Jews who “burned incense to the queen of heaven.” He called it “evil…abominations” (Jeremiah 44:16-22).
Is the man holy who accepts the title “Holy Father”? “Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven” (Matthew 23:9). Read the context to see what Jesus says of religious leaders who wear clerical garb, who love seats of honor (not to mention a throne), and who relish religious titles.
2 Thess. 2:1-12 prophesied of such a one. One who “sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” One example of this is accepting the title “Holy Father.” “The temple of God” in the N. T. is the church (1 Cor. 3:16). Since 2 Thess. speaks of all this as “the falling away,” it must mean the fallen church. 2 Thess. calls him the “man of sin…whose coming is…with…strong delusion.” This prophecy is to warn us. Some are now so deluded they honor him as “your holiness.”