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May 19, 2025
Dear Brethren,
On May 8, the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church elected Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost, age 69, as the new pope. He took the papal name Leo XIV. He is the first American Cardinal to be selected to be the head of the RCC. He is a member of the Augustinian religious order. Before his elevation to pope, he was the prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
In an excerpt of his “blessing” in English, he said, “God loves us, God loves you all, and evil will not prevail! All of us are in God’s hands. So, let us move forward, without fear, together, hand in hand…. We are followers of Christ. Christ goes before us. The world needs His light.”
However, when he spoke in Italian, his greeting was entirely different—revealing the true mystery of the Catholic pagan religion and showing that it has very little to do with the true Jesus Christ. Notice: “Today is the day of the Prayer of Supplication to Our Lady of Pompeii. Our Mother Mary always wants to walk at our side, to remain close to us, to help us with her intersession and her love…. Let us pray together for this new mission, for the whole Church, for peace in the world, and let us ask Mary, our Mother, for this special grace.”
Then he gave the standard Catholic prayer to Mary: “Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
What blasphemy against God the Father and the true Jesus Christ! This clearly shows that the Catholic religion is without a doubt the modern version of the ancient Babylonian worship of Nimrod, Semiramis, and Tammuz.
Truly, Satan wants his deception to ensnare the whole world. Revelation 13 shows that he will almost succeed—“[T]hey [the whole world] worshiped the dragon, who gave his authority to the beast. And they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who has the power to make war against him?’ And a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies was given to him; and authority was given to him to continue for forty-two months” (verses 4-5).
What Does This New Pope Mean for Us Today? Many will think that Leo XIV might be the last pope—the “false prophet” of the book of Revelation. Whether he will be that false prophet or not, time will tell. The Word of God tells us that we will know by his fruits. Will he be able to perform miracles and even make fire come down from heaven? Will he enforce the “Mark of the Beast” and cause people to make images of the Beast? We will see. If he is not the last pope, will he prepare the way for him and for the coming Beast? Only time and his fruits will tell.
One thing we can be sure of is this: Babylon the Great must reach a state of grandeur in the end times, as we see in Revelation 17. We know that this final “woman”—the RCC and the last pope—“riding the Beast” and her ten kings will fight against the returning Jesus Christ and the resurrected saints: “And one of the seven angels who had the seven vials came and spoke with me, saying to me, ‘Come here; I will show you the judgment of the great whore who sits upon many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.’
“Then he carried me away in the spirit to a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet beast that had seven heads and ten horns, full of names of blasphemy. And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and was adorned with gold and pearls and precious stones [the colors of the RCC]; and she had a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominations and the filthiness of her fornication; and across her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
“And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And after seeing her, I wondered with great amazement. Then the angel said to me, ‘Why are you amazed? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that you saw was, and is not, but is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into perdition. And those who dwell on the earth, whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, shall be astonished when they see the beast that was, but is not, and yet is.
“ ‘Here is the mind that has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. And there are seven kings; five are fallen, and one is, and the other has not yet come; and when he has come, it is ordained that he remain a little while. And the beast that was, and is not, he is also the eighth, and is from the seven, and goes into perdition.
“ ‘And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but shall receive authority as kings for one hour with the beast. These all have one mind, and shall give up their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, but the Lamb shall overcome them; for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.’
“Then he said to me, ‘The waters that you saw, where the whore sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. But the ten horns that you saw on the beast shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her with fire; for God has put into their hearts to do His will, and to act with one accord, and to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God have been fulfilled. And the woman whom you saw is the great city that has royal power over the kings of the earth’ ” (Rev. 17:1-18).
We Must Watch Many Other Things in Prophecy: The world we are living in is exactly as Jesus prophesied—false prophets, wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, famine, violence, crime, and hatred—all increasing substantially. He compared the last days before His return to the last days before the Flood in Noah’s time: “Now as it was in the days of Noah [before the Flood], so shall it also be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man” (Matt. 24:37). How was it then? “And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…. Now the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt—for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth” (Gen. 6:5, 11-12).
Sounds just like today! Jesus described the cause of these conditions which are plaguing the entire world: “Now all these things are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to affliction, and shall kill you; and you shall be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then shall many be led into sin, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another; and many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many.” Then He identifies the two great evils behind all that is wrong in today’s world: lawlessness and a lack of love. Notice: “And lawlessness shall be multiplied and the love of many [the majority] will grow cold” (Matt. 24:8-12).
First, lawlessness is transgressing the laws and commandments of God—for “sin is lawlessness” (I John 3:4). Second, the love of many will grow cold. Instead of loving one another, hatred and malice fills people’s hearts. The apostle Paul describes it this way: People will be “foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving all kinds of lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another” (Titus 3:3).
Paul adds this: “Know this also, that in the last days perilous times shall come; for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, braggarts, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, despisers of those who are good, betrayers, reckless, egotistical, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; having an outward appearance of godliness, but denying the power of true godliness … being driven by all kinds of lust. They are always learning but are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth … [while] brazenly standing against the truth; they are men of depraved minds, reprobate in respect to the faith” (II Tim. 3:1-5, 6-8).
Because of all these conditions taking place at the same time, the world is being set up for Satan the devil’s complete deception of the whole world (Rev. 12:9). Here is why this grand deception will come: “For the mystery of lawlessness is already working; only there is one Who is restraining at the present time until it arises out of the midst [out of the midst of Babylon the Great]. And then the lawless one will be revealed (whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth, and will destroy with the brightness of His coming); even the one whose coming is according to the inner working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who are perishing because they did not receive the love of the truth, so that they might be saved. And for this cause, God will send upon them a powerful deception that will cause them to believe the lie, so that all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but who took pleasure in unrighteousness” (II Thess. 2:7-12).
We must always be watching world events. But more importantly, we must watch our own spiritual condition—so that we do not slumber and sleep, as our day of reckoning comes.
The Feast of Pentecost—June 1: The Feast of Pentecost will be here before we know it. We will have the messages prepared and sent out to you, as well as having them on our websites. This is the great firstfruits harvest, actually picturing the coming first resurrection of all the saints. This will be fully covered in the Feast messages of day 49 and day 50.
Brethren, even though the times ahead will be characterized by trouble and lawlessness, we will—through the power of the Holy Spirit—have the faith and courage we need to continue to love and obey God the Father and Jesus Christ, in spite of everything.
Once again, we thank you for your love and prayers, as well as for your dedicated support for the work of the ministry—which is here to serve the brethren and preach the gospel to the world. We pray for you every day. We pray for your healing, your spiritual growth and strength, and that you will continue to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and being. May God’s love, grace, and blessings be with you in everything.
With love in Christ Jesus,
Fred R. Coulter
FRC
What follows is the Preface to our new 300-page book, The Love of God.
This book is an in-depth study of the love of God as revealed in the Bible—from Genesis to Revelation. The Holy Scriptures tell us that the Creator God is love! Furthermore, God’s love is everlasting, because He is eternal—living forever. His magnificent love is manifested in everything He has created and made—from the greatest galaxies in the heavens to the smallest invisible nano particle.
But greater than the creation of the heavens and the earth is God’s creation of mankind. The Almighty God, in awesome love, personally formed the first human beings with His own hands—made in the image and likeness of God—Adam and Eve, male and female. He gave to them all the attributes of human life for good—the spiritual, the physical, the mental, the emotional, and every other aspect of human existence. In His great love, God created within them the ability to reproduce themselves through a loving relationship—children after their own kind, after their own likeness.
In a prayer of awe and wonder to God about His creation of mankind, King David wrote: “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens!… When I consider [deeply ponder] Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? For You have made him a little lower than God and have crowned him with glory and honor.
“You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the birds of heaven, the fish of the sea, and all that pass through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!” (Psa. 8:1, 3-9).
Think on this: God has made us a little lower than God Himself. This reveals that God has something greater and profoundly personal for everyone who truly comes to Him. First, His love and purpose for mankind is only revealed in the Scriptures—the Word of God. Second, God reveals His salvational love and purpose through the power of the Holy Spirit, which He gives only to those who are His—the true, faithful believers who are called, chosen, baptized, and have received the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of the truth!
The apostle Paul makes this abundantly clear: “And my message and my preaching was not in persuasive words of human wisdom; rather, it was in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power; so that your faith might not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God:
“Now we speak wisdom among the spiritually mature; however, it is not the wisdom of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing. Rather, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom that God foreordained before the ages unto our glory, which not one of the rulers of this world has known (for if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory);
“But according as it is written, ‘The eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things—even the deep things of God.
“For who among men understands the things of man except by the spirit of man which is in him? In the same way also, the things of God no one understands except by the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is of God, so that we might know the things graciously given to us by God; which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit in order to communicate spiritual things by spiritual means. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (I Cor. 2:4-14).
God the Father’s personal love is expressed in one of the most often quoted verses in the New Testament. Yet, because of its apparent simplicity, when anyone reads it they may think that they understand it on an emotional level—it is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son [Jesus Christ], so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but may have everlasting life.” The Greek word translated as “believes” is the present tense participle pisteuon, which means “the one who believes,” or “the one who is believing.” It is more than a mere mental or verbal acknowledgement, profession, or confession. It means, “the one who is continually believing in Him.” Such belief is an ongoing, deep, inner conviction of faith accompanied by loving obedience to God the Father and Jesus Christ.
Thus, there are deeper spiritual meanings contained in this verse that go beyond a simple profession of belief in God or that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
John the Baptist proclaimed this about Jesus: “Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Later, Jesus said this of His coming crucifixion: “I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep…. Just as the Father knows Me, I also know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep…. On account of this, the Father loves Me: because I lay down My life, that I may receive it back again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down and authority to receive it back again. This commandment I received from My Father” (John 10:11, 15, 17-18).
While most mainstream Christian preachers talk of Jesus’ sacrifice and talk of God’s “unconditional” love, they rarely mention that believers must also love God in return. Jesus teaches that we are to have an active, spiritual love for God the Father and the Son. He made this very clear when He was challenged as to which commandment was the greatest commandment. Notice His answer: “And one of them, a doctor of the law, questioned Him, tempting Him, and saying, ‘Master, which commandment is the great commandment in the Law?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment’ ” (Matt. 22:35-38). This is how we are to personally love God—with all our being!
He went on to show that we are duty bound to love our neighbor as well: “And the second one is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (verses 39-40).
Before His crucifixion, on the night of His last Passover, Jesus amplified our love for Him and for God the Father and Their love back to us through the power of the Holy Spirit. As you will see, this two-way love is deep and profound. Moreover, this two-way love is quite conditional; it is not unconditional such that one can live any way they desire and still receive salvation.
Jesus said: “If you love Me, keep the commandments—namely, My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that it may be with you throughout the age: even the Spirit of the truth, which the world cannot receive because it perceives it not, nor knows it; but you know it because it dwells with you, and shall be within you.
“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world shall see Me no longer; but you shall see Me. Because I live, you shall live also. In that day, you shall know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.
“The one who has My commandments and is keeping them, that is the one who loves Me; and the one who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him.”
Continuing: “Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, what has happened that You are about to manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. The one who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word that you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s, Who sent Me’ ” (John 14:15-24).
As you progress through each chapter of this book, you will discover that the Word of God is amazingly profound and far-reaching—filled with almost unfathomable truth. This is true even of a single verse like John 3:16. You will come to see new meaning for your life as you begin to truly understand God’s deep love for you—and as you, in turn, learn to show steadfast, faithful love for God the Father and Jesus Christ.
Bible and Interlinear Distribution Program
Our program of distributing Bibles and Interlinears continues to be a great success! We still have a lot of Bibles and Interlinears left—so feel free to request additional copies if you can place them into the hands of those who have a sincere desire to study the Scriptures. After all, what better gift can you give someone than the very Word of God! You can order copies individually or by the box—calfskin, 8 in a box; paperback, 8 in a box; vinyl, 6 in a box; and Interlinears, 4 in a box. Thank you and keep up the good work!
