The Bible doesn’t say anything about popes so where do we get the idea that this pope is the 2nd to the last one of the End Times?
It’s true that the Bible makes no mention of Popes. The view that the current pope is the next to last one comes from a remarkable extra-Biblical prophecy given by an Irish Catholic Bishop named St. Malachy in 1139 AD.
He predicted that a total of 112 men would hold the office of Pope from then till the End of the Age and gave cryptic descriptions of each one that have all been reasonably accurate, lending credibility to the prophecy. The last pope, called Peter the Roman, “will feed his flock amid many tribulations; after which the seven-hilled city (Rome) will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people.”
Pope Benedict is number 111, next to last on St. Malachy’s list, something that caught the public’s attention around the time the Pope was being selected.