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# The Book of Daniel - Number One-Hundred and Seventy-One

Geopolitical Chess: The Vatican, Communism, and the Quest for World Dominion

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Jeff Pippenger

Published

April 1, 2024

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Key Takeaways

- Malachi Martin’s book centers on Pope John Paul II’s influential role in the global political arena, particularly in undermining Communism in Eastern Europe.
- It examines Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of “glasnost” and “perestroika” and their impact on the Soviet Union’s stability and the broader Communist regime.
- The book discusses the intricate geopolitical rivalry among the Soviet Union (king of the south), the Catholic Church (king of the north), and the capitalist West, detailing the Cold War’s covert operations and ideological warfare.
- Martin emphasizes the Catholic Church’s strategic positioning and its influence on Cold War outcomes, driven by Pope John Paul II’s leadership and the prophetic events at Fatima.
- The narrative explores the Fatima apparitions and their prophetic messages, particularly focusing on the undisclosed third secret and its supposed apocalyptic visions concerning the Church and the world.
- Pope John Paul II is depicted as a prophetic figure in alignment with the Fatima visions, tasked with combating evil and fostering spiritual renewal within the Church and globally.
- The book suggests a spiritual battle framework, with the Fatima messages advocating for the Church’s active engagement against societal and internal evils.

The book The Keys of This Blood: The Struggle for World Dominion Between Pope John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the Capitalist West, was written by Malachi Martin, and it was first published in 1990. Martin examines the role of Pope John Paul II as a transformative figure in global politics and diplomacy during the latter half of the 20th century. He discusses the Pope’s role in the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. The book presents a Catholic perspective of the dynamics that brought about the fulfillment of verse forty of Daniel eleven, at the time of the end in 1989.

Martin analyzes the internal dynamics of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, particularly focusing on Gorbachev’s policies of “glasnost” (openness) and “perestroika” (restructuring). He discusses the challenges facing the Soviet Union and Gorbachev’s attempts to reform the Communist system. He explores the geopolitical tensions and power struggles between the Soviet Union (the king of the south—the dragon), the Catholic Church (the king of the north—the beast), and what he calls the capitalist West (the king of the north’s proxy army—the false prophet). He discusses the ideological conflicts, espionage, and covert operations that characterized the Cold War era and examines the efforts of various actors to shape the future of the world.

Martin emphasizes the significance of Catholicism as a force in global politics and diplomacy. He argues that the Catholic Church, under the leadership of Pope John Paul II, played a pivotal role in shaping the course of history during this period and influencing the outcome of the Cold War. He places John Pauls’ influence in the context of the Marian apparitions at Fatima, Portugal, and identifies the influence of Fatima upon global events and the Catholic Church’s role in shaping the course of history. Martin suggests that the events at Fatima hold significant prophetic and geopolitical implications, particularly in the context of the Cold War era.

Martin explores the three secrets of Fatima, which were allegedly revealed by the Virgin Mary to three young shepherd children in Fatima in 1917. He suggests that the third secret, which was initially kept secret by the Vatican and only revealed in 2000, contained apocalyptic warnings about the future of the Catholic Church and the world. Martin argues that the events at Fatima, including the apparitions and the messages conveyed by the Virgin Mary, had significant implications for global politics and the struggle between communism and capitalism during the Cold War era.

Martin highlights the role of Pope John Paul II as a key figure in the fulfillment of the prophecies of Fatima. He suggests that John Paul II saw himself as the “bishop in white” mentioned in the third secret of Fatima and that he viewed his papacy as a mission to confront the forces of evil and promote spiritual renewal within the Catholic Church and society at large.

Martin suggests that the messages of Fatima emphasized the importance of spiritual warfare and the need for the Catholic Church to confront the forces of evil, both within and outside the Church. He argues that the events at Fatima provided a spiritual and moral framework for understanding and addressing the challenges facing humanity in the modern world. The Fatima messages represent the satanic message which conditions Catholicism to accept Satan as Christ, when he “personates” Christ at the soon coming Sunday law.

> “Satan will work miracles to deceive those who dwell upon the earth. Spiritualism will do its work by causing the dead to be personated. Those religious bodies who refuse to hear God’s messages of warning will be under strong deception, and will unite with the civil power to persecute the saints. The Protestant churches will unite with the papal power in persecuting the commandment-keeping people of God. This is that power which constitutes the great system of persecution which will exercise spiritual tyranny over the consciences of men.

> “‘He had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.’ Though professing to be followers of the Lamb of God, men become imbued with the spirit of the dragon. They profess to be meek and humble but they speak and legislate with the spirit of Satan, showing by their actions that they are the opposite of what they profess to be. This lamb-like power unites with the dragon in making war upon those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. And Satan unites with Protestants and papists, acting in consort with them as the god of this world, dictating to men as if they were the subjects of his kingdom, to be handled and governed and controlled as he pleases.

> “If men will not agree to trample underfoot the commandments of God, the spirit of the dragon is revealed. They are imprisoned, brought before councils, and fined. ‘He causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads’ [Revelation 13:16]. ‘He had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed’ [verse 15]. Thus Satan usurps the prerogatives of Jehovah. The man of sin sits in the seat of God, proclaiming himself to be God, and acting above God.” Manuscript Releases, volume 14, 162.

Antichrist is a symbol of both the pope of Rome, and Satan, for the pope of Rome is Satan’s earthly representative. “Thus Satan usurps the prerogatives of Jehovah. The man of sin sits in the seat of God, proclaiming himself to be God, and acting above God.” Satan intends to so control the world when he takes control that he will dictate “to men as if they were the subjects of his kingdom, to be handled and governed and controlled as he pleases.” In order to have a religious throne to rule from He created the Catholic Church, and in order to have a political throne to rule from he created the United Nations.

> “This compromise between paganism and Christianity resulted in the development of ‘the man of sin’ foretold in prophecy as opposing and exalting himself above God. That gigantic system of false religion is a masterpiece of Satan’s power—a monument of his efforts to seat himself upon the throne to rule the earth according to his will.” The Great Controversy, 50.

The miracle of Fatima, and its satanic prophecy is what Satan has employed to prepare a prophetic setting that allows Catholicism to quickly surrender their church into His control, when he appears, and personates Christ. His personation of Christ begins at the soon coming Sunday law, represented in verse sixteen, verse twenty-two, verse thirty-one and verse forty-one of Daniel chapter eleven.

> “By the decree enforcing the institution of the Papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with Spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.” Testimonies, volume 5, 451.

At the Sunday law in the United States, the “time has come for the marvelous working of Satan.” In Revelation chapter thirteen, verse eleven, the United States “speaks” as a dragon, and then in verse thirteen, which is simply identifying what happens when the United States “speaks,” by passing the Sunday law, Satan appears to call fire down out of heaven.

> “Servants of God, with their faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, will hasten from place to place to proclaim the message from heaven. By thousands of voices, all over the earth, the warning will be given. Miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and signs and wonders will follow the believers. Satan also works, with lying wonders, even bringing down fire from heaven in the sight of men. Revelation 13:13. Thus the inhabitants of the earth will be brought to take their stand.” The Great Controversy, 611, 612.

The messages of Fatima were confirmed by a miracle that was testified to by the atheistic government newspapers that attended the event in order to refute the claims that had been made about the so-called Virgin Mary visiting the three children on the thirteenth day of the month from May until the miracle on October 13, 1917. Every atheistic news organization that was at Fatima at the time of the miracle confirmed the event. It was a genuine miracle (of Satan).

As Malachi Martin identified in his book, Pope John Paul was guided by his devotion to Mary of Fatima. The secret prophecy of Fatima, that was not revealed until the year 2000, was of course a satanic prophecy, but in the last days Jesus repeats the first days. The oldest book in the Bible, the first book that Moses wrote is the book of Job, and it identifies that Job, who represents the one hundred and forty-four thousand, for all the prophecies are fulfilled most perfectly in the last days. Satan, in the story of Job, is allowed to bring death and destruction upon Job, for the purpose of testing Job. The miracles that Satan is allowed to accomplish in the last days, are genuine miracles. They are satanic miracles, but God has allowed Satan to accomplish his crowning act, for the same purpose that he allowed Satan to test Job.

> “Many endeavor to account for spiritual manifestations by attributing them wholly to fraud and sleight of hand on the part of the medium. But while it is true that the results of trickery have often been palmed off as genuine manifestations, there have been, also, marked exhibitions of supernatural power. The mysterious rapping with which modern spiritualism began was not the result of human trickery or cunning, but was the direct work of evil angels, who thus introduced one of the most successful of soul-destroying delusions. Many will be ensnared through the belief that spiritualism is a merely human imposture; when brought face to face with manifestations which they cannot but regard as supernatural, they will be deceived, and will be led to accept them as the great power of God.

> “These persons overlook the testimony of the Scriptures concerning the wonders wrought by Satan and his agents. It was by satanic aid that Pharaoh’s magicians were enabled to counterfeit the work of God. Paul testifies that before the second advent of Christ there will be similar manifestations of satanic power. The coming of the Lord is to be preceded by ‘the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness.’ 2 Thessalonians 2:9,10. And the apostle John, describing the miracle-working power that will be manifested in the last days, declares: ‘He doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do.’ Revelation 13:13, 14. No mere impostures are here foretold. Men are deceived by the miracles which Satan’s agents have power to do, not which they pretend to do.” The Great Controversy, 553.

The messages of Fatima in Malachi Martin’s book are represented as the prophetic structure of Catholicism in the last days, in relation to an internal struggle within the church, that can be represented as either the good pope versus the bad pope, or the conservative pope versus the liberal pope. The conservative, and according to Martin’s reading of the miracle, the good pope, bases his understanding upon the First Vatican Council, also known as Vatican I, which took place from December 8, 1869 to July 20, 1870, convened by Pope Pius IX and primarily focused on defining the dogma of papal infallibility and addressing various theological and doctrinal issues facing the Catholic Church at the time. The Second Vatican Council, commonly known as Vatican II, was held much later, from October 11, 1962 to December 8, 1965. It was convened by Pope John XXIII and continued by Pope Paul VI after John XXIII’s death.

The last days of Catholicism, as Martin expressed it, identifies the struggle between the infallibility and primacy of the church of Rome as set forth in Vatican I, versus the liberalism that is currently on display by Francis the woke-pope, and represented in the documents of Vatican II. Martin suggests that within the struggle for these two approaches of controlling the church, the third world war breaks out, and Jesus returns, comes down to earth and places his blessing upon the good pope and takes the throne of the Catholic church.

In verses thirteen through fifteen, of Daniel eleven, the history that immediately precedes the Sunday law of verse sixteen, describes the third and final battle of the proxy wars. It is the battle that follows Putin’s victory in verses eleven and twelve, but in the middle of those three verses, verse fourteen identifies when Catholicism enters into the history of the last days.

According to Isaiah the whore of Rome is forgotten during the symbolic seventy-year reign of the sixth kingdom of Bible prophecy. The first time the papacy was enthroned upon the earth in 538, the waymark that preceded her enthronement was the decree of Justinian in 533.

The history surrounding Justinian’s decree identifies that Justinian sought to consolidate his control over his kingdom by bringing an end to the religious argument that had been causing turmoil in the kingdom. That argument was whether the church in Constantinople in the east, or the church in Rome in the west was the head of the so-called Christian church. In verse thirteen, the last president of the United States will be confronted with a controversy that forces him to parallel the history of Justinian, and declare that the Catholic church is the head of the churches, and the corrector of heretics, in order to establish the necessary political support to consolidate his power.

We should not place any confidence in the satanic predictions of Fatima, but we are required to see what is revealed in God’s Word. In the beginning of the twentieth century both horns of the earth beast entered into their third generation, which is the generation of compromise. The Republican horn surrendered its financial system to the world bankers, which trace their origins back to the house of the Red Shield, the Rothschilds, and its mysterious connection with the Illuminati, Freemasonry, secret societies and the Jesuit order. Sister White directly warns of these entities. During the same period of time Laodicean Adventism, as the Protestant horn, surrendered its educational and religious institutions to the governing of the world.

In that very time period, the modern king of the south begins its history with the Russian Revolution, and the modern king of the north begins its history with the miracle of Fatima. As Malachi Martin emphasizes in his book, beyond the internal struggle of the good and bad pope, the Fatima messages identified the struggle of Catholicism against atheism in general, but more specifically against the atheism of Russia. The secret that the pope in 1917 was to act upon contained the (satanic) promise, that if the pope would call a conclave and dedicate Russia to the Virgin Mary, then there would not be a second world war. It also identified that if the pope refused Russia would spread its philosophy far and wide and there would then be another world war.

The second world war included the war of Catholicism against the Communism of Russia. Catholicism’s proxy army in that war was Nazi Germany. The papacy always employs proxy armies. In 1933 the Catholic church, through the work of Cardinal Pacelli, signed a concordat with Adolph Hitler that allowed Hitler to take control of Germany, and by Hitler’s own testimony, that contract (concordat), was what allowed Hitler to solve the Jewish question. The Nazi’s were the papacy’s proxy against atheistic Russia in World War II, and in the second battle of the proxy wars, now being accomplished in the Ukraine, it is being carried out by another Nazi proxy army.

We will continue this study in the next article.

> “Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.

> “As spiritualism more closely imitates the nominal Christianity of the day, it has greater power to deceive and ensnare. Satan himself is converted, after the modern order of things. He will appear in the character of an angel of light. Through the agency of spiritualism, miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and many undeniable wonders will be performed. And as the spirits will profess faith in the Bible, and manifest respect for the institutions of the church, their work will be accepted as a manifestation of divine power.

> “The line of distinction between professed Christians and the ungodly is now hardly distinguishable. Church members love what the world loves and are ready to join with them, and Satan determines to unite them in one body and thus strengthen his cause by sweeping all into the ranks of spiritualism. Papists, who boast of miracles as a certain sign of the true church, will be readily deceived by this wonder-working power; and Protestants, having cast away the shield of truth, will also be deluded. Papists, Protestants, and worldlings will alike accept the form of godliness without the power, and they will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium.

> “Through spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race, healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new and more exalted system of religious faith; but at the same time he works as a destroyer. His temptations are leading multitudes to ruin. Intemperance dethrones reason; sensual indulgence, strife, and bloodshed follow. Satan delights in war, for it excites the worst passions of the soul and then sweeps into eternity its victims steeped in vice and blood. It is his object to incite the nations to war against one another, for he can thus divert the minds of the people from the work of preparation to stand in the day of God.

> “Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows. When he was suffered to afflict Job, how quickly flocks and herds, servants, houses, children, were swept away, one trouble succeeding another as in a moment. It is God that shields His creatures and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer. But the Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what He has declared that He would—He will withdraw His blessings from the earth and remove His protecting care from those who are rebelling against His law and teaching and forcing others to do the same. Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard. He will favor and prosper some in order to further his own designs, and he will bring trouble upon others and lead men to believe that it is God who is afflicting them.” The Great Controversy, 588, 589.

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