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Is the Papacy the Antichrist?

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  • Is the Papacy the Antichrist?

    The first written history suggests Arnulf, the archbishop of Reims in the 10th century identified the Papacy as the Antichrist. Later Joachim of Fiore in the 12th century preached the Papacy was the Antichrist. And the archbishop Eberhard II in 1240 also related the papacy to the Antichrist. This led to the martyrdom of many Albigenses, Anabaptists, and others who in part embraced his views. Synopsis of the End Times; A look at the popular beliefs of today by Mike Morrill.
    Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:4; [The Man of sin] “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:4) (KJV 1900)
    The bible teaches that Christendom is the temple of God. All the Reformers believed the Papacy is the Antichrist of Scripture who sits in God’s Temple throughout Christendom. Following is a list of Reformation-era creeds and others who provide evidence of this.

    “The Antichrist and the Reformation”

    During the time of the Reformation and following, Christians in every English-Baptist, Lutheran or Protestant and Reformed Church, believed the Papacy was the Antichrist. This fact remains set in the books and creeds of Christendom to this day. Several examples follow;

    From The Westminster Confession which also with some adjustments became the 1st and 2nd London Baptist Confessions.

    Chapter XXV Of the Church

    VI. There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can the Pope of Rome, in any sense, be head thereof. but is that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalts himself, in the Church, against Christ and all that is called God.

    And from the preface to the Canons of Dort;

    For this Church being by God’s mighty hand set free from the tyranny of the Romish Antichrist, & from the fearful idolatry of Popery.....
    Martin Luther declared, “We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist.” (Aug. 18, 1520). According to The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, by LeRoy Froom. Vol. 2., pg. 121.

    I shall briefly show that (Paul’s words in II Thess. 2) are not capable of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the Papacy.” According to Institutes of the Christian Religion, by John Calvin.

    John Knox concluded that the Papacy was “the very antichrist, and son of perdition, of whom Paul speaks.” The Zurich Letters, by John Knox, pg. 199.

    “Whereof it followeth Rome to be the seat of antichrist, and the pope to be very antichrist himself. I could prove the same by many other scriptures, old writers, and strong reasons.” (Referring to prophecies in Revelation and Daniel.)
    Works by Cranmer, Vol. 1, pp. 6-7.

    “the pretended Vicar of Christ on earth, who sits as God over the Temple of God, exalting himself not only above all that is called God, but over the souls and consciences of all his vassals, yea over the Spirit of Christ, over the Holy Spirit, yea, and God himself...speaking against the God of heaven, thinking to change times and laws; but he is the son of perdition (II Thess. 2).Roger Williams (1603-1683) (First Baptist Pastor in America):” The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, by Froom, Vol. 3, pg. 52.

    Cotton Mather (1663-1728) (Congregational Theologian): “The oracles of God foretold the rising of an Antichrist in the Christian Church: and in the Pope of Rome, all the characteristics of that Antichrist are so marvelously answered that if any who read the Scriptures do not see it, there is a marvelous blindness upon them.” According to The Fall of Babylon by Cotton Mather in Froom’s book, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Vol. 3, pg. 113.

    John Wesley (1703-1791) (Methodist): Speaking of the Papacy, John Wesley wrote, “He is in an emphatical sense, the Man of Sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure. And he is, too, properly styled the Son of Perdition, as he has caused the death of numberless multitudes, both of his opposers and followers... He it is...that exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped...claiming the highest power, and highest honour...claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone.” Antichrist and His Ten Kingdoms, by John Wesley, pg. 110.

    A Great Cloud of Witnesses: “Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, Calvin, Cranmer; in the seventeenth century, Bunyan, the translators of the King James Bible and the men who published the Westminster and Baptist confessions of Faith; Sir Isaac Newton, Wesley, Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards; and more recently Spurgeon, Bishop J.C. Ryle and Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones; these men among countless others, all saw the office of the Papacy as the antichrist.” According to All Roads Lead to Rome, by Michael de Semlyen. Dorchestor House Publications, p. 205. 1991.

    The Papacy ruling in Evangelicalism today.

    “The Antichrist and the Counter-Reformation”


    To stifle the stigma of the Papacy being the Antichrist, the Roman Catholic Church produced a Counter-Reformation during the Council of Trent (1545–1563), which in turn produced two prophetic doctrines, popular today, in a try to relieve the Papacy of the charge of Antichrist. Even though the two contradicted each other, the Papacy affirmed both to be true in an attempt to deceive Protestants.

    One treatise titled In Sacrum Beati Ioannis Apostoli, & Evangelistiae Apocalypsin Commentarij, published about the year 1590, authored by Jesuit Francisco Ribera (1537–1591) placed the Antichrist in the future, in a rebuilt temple in Israel. This teaching became popular in the last two centuries through the Plymouth Brethren movement and the Scofield Reference Bible notes. Today, movies, scores of Pop-Prophecy Books, and TV Preachers trumpet this teaching unaware of, or possibly approving its origin

    Clarence Larkin (1850 – 1924), author of “Dispensational Truth” and a fixture in many Evangelical and modern Baptist circles, admits;
    Pertaining to the ‘Pre-Trib Rapture position of the last 175 years” he says the “Futurist School ….. In its present form it may be said to have originated at the end of the Sixteenth Century, with the Jesuit Ribera, who actuated by the same motive as the Jesuit Alcazar, sought to rid the Papacy of the stigma of being called the “Antichrist,” and so referred the prophecies of the Apocalypse to the distant future. This view was accepted by the Roman Catholic Church and was for a long time confined to it, but, strange to say, it has wonderfully revived since the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, and among Protestants . . . .”; found on page 5 of his book Dispensational Truth, Forty-Sixth Printing. Some of the other printings have it on page 4).

    The other less popular teaching by the Spanish Jesuit Luis De Alcazar (1554-1613) who wrote Investigation of the Hidden Sense of the Apocalypse, today represented by the Preterist School, he originally stated that all prophecy became fulfilled during the first 600 years of Church history. In its most recent form however, Full Preterists believe all prophecy, including the end of the world (yes, the end of the world) received fulfillment before 70 AD.

    Again, in Clarence Larkin’s view;

    The “Preterist School” originated with the Jesuit Alcazar. His view was first put forth as a complete scheme in his work on the Apocalypse, published in A.D.1614. It limits the scope of the apocalypse to the events of the Apostle John’s life, and affirms that the whole prophecy was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus and the subsequent fall of the persecuting Roman Empire, thus making the Emperor Nero the “Antichrist.” The purpose of the scheme was transparent; it was to relieve the Papal Church from the stigma of being called the “Harlot Church” and the Pope from being called the Antichrist…”

    In either case, the Antichrist could not be the Pope if he were past or future. To the Preterist, the Antichrist would now be Nero who also had a 666 numerical attached to his name. To the Futurist, He would now be some political figure, or a world leader, or even a giant computer with microchipped followers. But the great deception worked. Neither the Preterist nor the Futurist Schools of Eschatology leave room for the present Papacy being the kingdom of Antichrist.

    So what exactly did the persecuted church believe? Again, Larkin gives an objective view of the matter. He writes;

    The “Historical School. . . interprets the Apocalypse as a series of prophecies predicting the events that were to happen in the world and in the Church from John’s day to the end of time. The advocates of the School interpret the symbols of the Book of Revelation as referring to certain historical events that have and are happening in the world. They claim that “Antichrist” is a “System” rather than a “Person,” and is represented by the Harlot Church of Rome. They interpret the “Time Element” in the Book on the “Year Day Scale.” This school has had some very able and ingenious advocates. This view, like the preceding, was unknown to the early church. It appeared about the middle of the Twelfth Century and was systematized at the beginning of the Third Century by the Abbot Joachim.

    Subsequently, it was adopted and applied to the Pope by the forerunners and leaders of the Reformation, and may be said to have reached its zenith in Mr. Elliott’s “Horae Apocalypticae.” It is frequently called the Protestant interpretation because it regards Popery as exhausting all that has been predicted of the Antichristian power. It was a powerful and formidable weapon in the hands of the leaders of the Reformation, and the conviction of its truthfulness nerved them to “love not their lives unto the death.” It was the secret of the martyr heroism of the Sixteenth Century. (Emphasis added).

    Points to note: 1) The Reformation era churches identified the Papacy as Antichrist. 2) The Jesuits created the Futuristic School which today is Dispensationalism. 3) It modifies Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy to relate to the future instead of being fulfilled and written for the first century. 4) The purpose is to remove the Papacy from the time when Antichrist would succeed the Roman Empire, which it did, to a distant point never having to be proved.

    Antichrist today? The Papacy remains set in most Protestant churches today. His main doctrine, Free Will salvation, occupies the minds and pulpits of most churches today. The Papacy changed the baptism formula spoken by Jesus to the apostles into a Catholic version all mainline churches use today. Most churches believe in a pretrib rapture that came from Dispensationalism, influenced by the Jesuits in their Counter-Reformation. Preterism is another issue embraced by fringe Protestant sects today.

  • #2
    That's what
    - She

    Without a clear-cut definition of sin, morality becomes a mere argument over the best way to train animals
    - Manya the Holy Szin (The Quintara Marathon)

    I may not be as old as dirt, but me and dirt are starting to have an awful lot in common
    - Stephen R. Donaldson

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Bill the Cat View Post
      Apparently, he has peddled this stuff elsewhere, and got booted...

      banned.jpg
      The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post

        Apparently, he has peddled this stuff elsewhere, and got booted...

        banned.jpg
        And here...

        and here.jpg
        The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

        Comment


        • #5
          AND here....

          and here too.jpg
          The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

          Comment


          • #6
            And here...

            here too.jpg
            The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

            Comment


            • #7
              Dave, is this your original work?

              I mean, I see you've posted it copy/pasta style on multiple sites, but that's not a violation of rules if it's your original work.
              The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

              Comment


              • #8
                The pope is a toilet!

                I've always wanted to say that here.

                ~ Russell ("MelMak")

                "[Sing] and [make] melody in your heart to the Lord." -- Ephesians 5:19b

                Fight spam!

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                  Dave, is this your original work?

                  I mean, I see you've posted it copy/pasta style on multiple sites, but that's not a violation of rules if it's your original work.
                  Strictly original with credit given to quotes. I spent years off and on putting this together. I've posted versions of this around the web over the years.
                  Last edited by Dave L; 01-08-2022, 06:53 PM.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Dave L View Post

                    Strictly original with credit given to quotes. I spent years off and on putting this together.
                    Thanks.
                    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      One of the most profound statements by the Papacy itself is that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ. Vicar

                      Job title

                      A vicar is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior. Linguistically, vicar is cognate with the English prefix "vice", similarly meaning "deputy". Wikipedia

                      The word vicar comes from the Latin word vicarius meaning substitution.

                      The on-line version of the Pocket Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. defines the Vicar of Christ as, “The Pope, visible head of the Church on earth, acting for and in the place of Christ. He possesses supreme ecclesiastical authority in the Catholic Church...”

                      Antichrist = against or in place of. —ORIGIN Middle English: via Anglo-Norman French from Old French vicaire, from Latin vicarius ‘substitute’, from vic- ‘change, place’ (compare with VICE3).

                      Soanes, C., & Stevenson, A., eds. (2004). In Concise Oxford English dictionary (11th ed.). Oxford University Press.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Dave L View Post
                        One of the most profound statements by the Papacy itself is that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ. Vicar
                        In spite of your nonsensical accusation that I, somehow, support the Pope, I have consistently said that the Pope is not a position I recognize, nor do I believe Peter was, in any way shape or form, the first Pope.

                        The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post

                          In spite of your nonsensical accusation that I, somehow, support the Pope, I have consistently said that the Pope is not a position I recognize, nor do I believe Peter was, in any way shape or form, the first Pope.
                          Where did I say any such thing? Quit stalking me. Be a pro.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Dave L View Post
                            Where did I say any such thing?
                            Here....
                            Originally posted by Dave L
                            If you believe in free will, you believe more like the Antichrist Catholics than you do Luther and all the Reformed. What can I say?
                            Quit stalking me.
                            A) Getting paranoid?
                            2) I'll post anywhere I wish within the confines of the board.



                            The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post

                              Here....




                              A) Getting paranoid?
                              2) I'll post anywhere I wish within the confines of the board.


                              But you are stalking me to pick fights. I don't look you up. I try to avoid you.

                              Comment

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