When Pope Leo recently “quoted” Jesus in a public address, I discerned something IMMEDIATELY that sent chills down my spine. I have been considering heavily in recent years the idea that the papacy is the source of what will either cause people to fall for the antichrist when he rises, or be the source of the antichrist in and of itself. I immediately recognized something not just in what the Pope said but in his obvious manipulation that brought that question to the forefront for me again.
The moment I am referring to, the one when it really hit me, was when Pope Leo gave a public address in which he quoted Jesus… or so he said.
“Jesus told us, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, but woe to those who manipulate religion in the very name of God for their own military, economic, or political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.’”
That sounds like scripture to those who do not or have not read it. It has the rhythm, the weight, and the Pope would be assumed to be a man of authority on scripture. But it isn’t scripture. The actual verse (Matthew 5:9) says this:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
That’s it. Nothing more. Jesus said nothing in Matthew 5:9, or anywhere else in scripture, about political manipulation or dragging sacred things into filth. The Pope invented it, attributed it to Christ, and spoke it to the world as though it were true.
I’ve been sitting with that for several days now, and what it opened in and for me wasn’t just the outrage many on social media are expressing based on their own feelings of betrayal or offense. For me, it was immediate recognition. I’ve seen this before. We all have.
We saw it first in the garden.
The Oldest Strategy
Take a moment to remember all the way back to Genesis, and the Garden of Eden. The serpent didn’t walk into Eden denying God outright. That would have been too obvious. Instead, he started with a question.
Did God really say…? (Genesis 3:1)
Then he added. He reframed. He inserted words that weren’t there and used them to serve a very different agenda. The manipulation wasn’t in the denial. It was in what got slipped in between.
This is not a new strategy. It is the oldest, and most common, form of manipulation and it has a very old author.
When a man who claims to represent Christ on earth puts words in the mouth of Christ that Christ never spoke, to justify a political position, that is not merely bad theology. That is a pattern. A very old, very recognizable pattern, which brought me back to Daniel.
What Daniel Saw
In Daniel 2, King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a towering statue made of different materials. Gold, silver, bronze, iron, and iron mixed with clay. Daniel interpreted it: four successive world empires, followed by a divided kingdom, followed ultimately by a kingdom not made with human hands, the kingdom of God, which would never be destroyed.
History filled in those names: Babylon. Medo-Persia. Greece. Rome. And then, the fragmented nations of Europe, iron and clay that never fully bond, exactly as Daniel described. But Daniel didn’t stop there.
In Daniel 7, he had his own vision. Four beasts from a churning sea. The same pattern: lion, bear, leopard, and then a terrifying fourth beast with iron teeth, which was Rome. Out of this fourth beast rose ten horns, the fragmented nations of the divided empire. And then, among those ten horns, something else appeared.
A little horn.
This horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words. (Daniel 7:8)
Daniel watched it carefully. What he saw deserves to be read slowly:
He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time. (Daniel 7:25)
A religio-political power, rising from Rome, coming after the division of the empire, speaking against God, persecuting his people, claiming authority to change times and law, operating for a specific prophetic period – a time, times, and half a time, which in prophetic reckoning equals 1,260 years.
Students of church history, like myself, will recognize this. The papal system rose to temporal power in 538 AD and held that power until 1798, when Napoleon’s general took Pope Pius VI captive, a span of exactly 1,260 years. And Rome has openly boasted that it changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. The language of Daniel 7:25 is not vague. It describes a system that believes it has the authority to alter what God himself ordained.
Revelation Builds on What Daniel Started
Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 are walking in the same direction.
The beast from the sea in Revelation 13 carries the same marks. It receives its power from another, speaks blasphemies against God, makes war with the saints, and operates for 42 months, which is again 1,260 years in prophetic time. Revelation 17 describes a woman riding that beast, a great city ruling over the kings of the earth, dressed in purple and scarlet, drunk with the blood of the saints.
These are not new or fringe interpretations. They were the settled understanding of the Protestant Reformers, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Wesley, men who had lived under this system and recognized it plainly in scripture. The historicist reading of prophecy, which traces these symbols through actual church history rather than projecting them all into a future moment, is the oldest Protestant interpretation on record.
Paul described the spirit of it very clearly:
Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:4)
That is language about a system claiming divine authority on earth. The papacy claims exactly that. Papal infallibility. The authority to stand in the place of Christ. The power to forgive sins. The right to change God’s law. These are not accusations. They are documented claims the institution makes about itself.
But Who Is Actually Christ’s Representative on Earth?
Jesus answered this himself, before he left.
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth. (John 14:16-17)
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. (John 14:26)
It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. (John 16:7)
Jesus did not say: I will send you a pope.
He said: I will send you the Holy Spirit, who will guide you into all truth. The Holy Spirit is Christ’s representative on earth. Not a man in Rome. Not an institution of earthly priests positioned between you and God.
Scripture is equally clear that there is one mediator:
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5)
One. Not a priest. Not Mary. Not a pope. One.
The Pattern Is the Point
What Pope Leo did, putting fabricated words in the mouth of Christ, was not an isolated mistake. It fits a centuries-long pattern of a system that has consistently placed its own authority above the plain word of scripture.
From an explanation I recently read from Dr. Shay Barrington:
The Word of God says Scripture is God-breathed. Rome says the church gave us the Bible.
The Word of God says do not add to his word. Rome adds tradition as equal authority alongside it.
The Word of God says God alone forgives sins, and Christ is our one High Priest who entered the heavenly sanctuary on our behalf. Rome places earthly priests between God and man, and repeats the sacrifice of the mass as though the cross were not enough.
The Word of God says judgment comes after death. Rome invented purgatory.
The Word of God says Jesus is the head of the church. Rome places the pope in that seat.
The Word of God says the little horn would think to change times and law. Rome boasts openly that it changed the Sabbath.
When a system’s entire structure depends on placing human authority above God’s word, then putting invented words in the mouth of Christ is not a surprise. It shows a consistent pattern of spiritual gaslighting from a system that has never truly served God.
This Is Not About Hating Catholics
Please, understand this. This is not contempt for the millions of people who have loved God sincerely within Catholicism. God sees every heart, and he has people reaching toward him in every tradition. This is about a system, a religio-political institution, and what scripture says about it.
And remarkably, scripture itself calls God’s people out of that system:
Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. (Revelation 18:4)
That is a word of rescue, not condemnation. It assumes God’s people are there. It calls them toward him.
Where It Ends
Here is what Daniel saw at the end of all of this, and it is worth holding onto when the world feels heavy:
Then the court shall be seated, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it forever. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. (Daniel 7:26-27)
The little horn does not win. The system does not have the last word.
God judges. God delivers. The kingdom, the one Daniel saw as a stone cut without hands, growing until it filled the whole earth, is given to the saints.
This is not a reason for fear. It is a reason to study. To test everything against scripture. To hold fast to Christ alone, who is our one Mediator, our High Priest, our Lord.
Not a man in Rome. Not an institution that claims to stand in his place.
Him.
Only Him.
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. (Isaiah 8:20)
Twin Tree Project 
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