Now, the false prophet could not literally have two sacraments, for in its symbolism of apostate ideologies that deceive man, he is completely devoid of any spiritual goodness, but JPII, who, on one occasion, spoke of the FP as, on one level, materialism, speaks of the devil as plagairizing the sacraments, such as how the devil plagairizes Marriage and the Eucharist with fornication and gluttony/drunkenness. So I suggest something similar: for just as Christ’s full Redemptive power through sanctifying grace finds its greatest expression in the “seven” sacraments, so, the false prophet, as the ultimate heresy “2 horns”], speaks of a deceptive “salvation” and fulfillment in a total mockery and diabolical twisting of the “2” sacraments of heresy, Baptism and Marriage.
Now, note, Baptism and Marriage most aptly express the two great relationships that we have to God as Christians: we are the children of the Father, and we are [collectively] the spouse of Christ. Note also that Baptism establishes this spiritual “childhood” in the sense of total dependence upon a loving God who must help us, teach us, guide us, etc. Also, in Baptism, we receive already of the fruits of the Spirits and an initial infusion of the virtues and fruits of holiness, all of which are intended to nourish us to do what the meaning of our existence is: to offer ourselves totally to others and God in love and self-giving and sacrificing. This most adequately also expresses the meaning and purpose of marriage, which ultimately points toward unity with God, a deep and unfathomable immersion in ultimate, infinite self-giving love and truth.
Hence, the FP, as apostate worldliness, sin, and materialism, twists these realities diabolically into their evil counterparts. Hence, just as Baptism inaugurates one on the journey of salvation and makes one a child of God, being totally dependent on his Love, Help and Truth, so the counterfeit of Baptism makes one a child of the devil, bearing the imprint of the opposite of love and dependence: selfish ambition and immoral passions and the ultimate INdepedence, that is, like the devil, the total negation of one’s dependence upon God, believing oneself to be “one’s own god,” in ultimate pride, “knowing good and evil”, independent not only of Christ, His Church, His Scripture, but even of ANY religion, and believing that, just as Baptism points us to the only thing that can ultimately fulfill us [God], that the material creation alone will suffice, that it will sustain us and satisfy us.
Also, for whereas Christian Marriage ultimately speaks of self-less sacrificial, totally-self-giving love, calling one to be in union not merely in some physical sense, but, ultimately, spiritually with the other, so the FP’s counterfeit of marriage is cheap, lustful, superfiicial fornication with the world, believing that one can ultimately be fulfilled by the selfish and vain aspirations of prideful worldly and superficial pursuits, seeking to “get” and “take” pleasures and recognitions for oneself, instead of giving and offering oneself in love.
we might also then draw the contrast between the “woman” and the “whore”, that is, between Christ’s Spouse, the woman of Revelation 12, the Chuch, and the “Whore of Babylon”, the unfaithful fornicater who joins herself to the “world”, that is, the enemy of Christ.
