When news came that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was very ill and near death, I felt my skin grow clammy and my heart race.

For several years, I’ve had this feeling—and it’s just a feeling—that Benedict’s presence was somehow restraining the pope Bergoglio in his quest to fundamental transform the Catholic religion.

At the same time, I was perplexed as to why God permitted Benedict to hang on so long. I think most Vatican observers expected Benedict would quickly pass on after being released from the enormous duty as heir of the throne of St. Peter.

So, when Benedict’s long anticipated final decline came, it should have been a small surprise. But it wasn’t small—it came on me like a shock.

Because of the vagueness of this feeling I’ve had since 2019, I can only describe some of the thoughts it engendered in my mind.

The first thought was that Benedict and Francis would expire at roughly the same time. Some Catholics speculate that popes can’t really “resign,” or that Benedict did not resign completely. If Francis and Benedict were to die within a week or two of each other, might that indicate that Francis was never the pope and the next conclave would be choosing a successor to Benedict, at least in the celestial realm?

Another thought was that Benedict would live well beyond Francis and that a bitterly divided college of cardinals would be unable to choose a successor. Benedict would, then, be “acting” pope for an extended period. This was my happy resolution, as I imagined Benedict rolling back some of the absurdities instituted by Francis.

Finally comes the most disturbing thought. Could it be that Benedict’s life was somehow a final bulwark against the reign of the Antichrist? Has man sunk so low that it takes two popes to keep the devil at bay? Would Benedict’s death signal the beginning of a chastisement and tribulation?

It was that third thought that weighed on me these past few days.

Today, December 31, 2022, I have been watching my favorite Catholic thinkers for clues, and Dr. Taylor Marshall just pointed us to 2 Thessalonians 2:

5Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you? 6And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now restrains it will continue until he is taken out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival.

The conversion of Constantine under Pope Sylvester I (314 to 335 AD) ended the persecutions and made Christianity the official religion of Rome. Most theologians assert that this union of Church and State was the thing restraining the devil, as Paul references.

Well, today, 31 December 2022, is the feast day of St. Sylvester I. He died on this date in 335 AD. Pope Benedict also died on 31 December, 1,687 years after Sylvester. Was Benedict somehow the cotter pin holding the Church and State together? Was he Paul’s katechon?

If so, we know what to expect, again from St. Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians:

9The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, 10and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. 11For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie, 12in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness.

And the answer to the question, “what shall we do?”:

13But we should always thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginninga to be saved by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth. 14To this He called you through our gospel, so that you may share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15Therefore, brothers, stand firm and cling to the traditions we taught you, whether by speech or by letter.

“Stand firm and cling to the traditions we taught you, whether by speech or by letter.”

In other words, Christian men and women know what to do in the age of confusion and wicked deception, because it’s the same now as in the time of the Apostles. We know how to think, believe, and live because Christ and His Apostles taught us. What they taught was for this time, as it was for all the times before.

Perhaps the weirdness of having two popes was just a coincidence. And the timing of Benedict’s death on the anniversary of Sylvester’s was just a freak. Or perhaps these are signs of something about to break loose on earth. It would be difficult to imagine a time in the past 2,000 years more resembling Paul’s description of the period after the katechon’s removal than this exact time. Wickedness, deception, and false teachings are the order of the day—not just tolerated, but mandated.

If you’ve been waiting to get right with the Lord until time is running out, this might just be your last chance. Pray for me, as I am a weak man.

Here is Dr. Marshall’s talk, cued up to 19:20, the start of the critical message:

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