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Is the Antichrist in your church?
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. This led to the martyrdom of many Albigenses, Anabaptists, and others who in part embraced his views. And the archbishop Eberhard II in 1240 also related the papacy to the Antichrist. Synopsis of the End Times; A look at the popular beliefs of today by Mike Morrill.
All Protestants and the Reformers believed the Papacy is the Anarchist and some Lutheran and many Reformed creeds state this boldly. (See Creeds below)
Did Augustine foresee the Papacy as the Antichrist? Claiming to be the one true Church?
Paul says; He would be 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 in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:4) (KJV 1900)
Augustine 354 – 430 first speculated about the Antichrist saying; “Antichrist means not the prince himself alone, but his whole body, that is, the mass of men who adhere to him, along with him their prince; and they also think that we should render the Greek more exactly were we to read, not “in the temple of God,” but “for” or “as the temple of God,” as the Catholic Church is the temple of God, the Church.1405” NPNF1-02. St. Augustine’s City of God and Christian Doctrine - Christian Classics Ethereal Library
So in his estimation, the man of sin would sit as the temple of God more than in it. This the Papacy does by claiming to be the one true church. But scripture teaches that Christendom is the Temple of God in the New Testament. So no matter how you translate it, the meaning remains the same.
After centuries of Papal inquisitions and bloodshed, Napoleon’s general Berthier locked the Pope away where he died in prison in 1799. But in 1929 the Lateran Treaty recognized Vatican City as an independent state under the sovereignty of the Holy See. So he’s back. But if the Papacy is the Antichrist, where is he today?
Simply stated, he’s probably in your church today through his principle doctrines even though some are more popular with many Evangelicals and independent groups.
How so? Three of the most dominating doctrines in churches today come from the Papacy and the Jesuits. In the second century the papacy discarded the Apostle’s authority. By disavowing their Book of Acts record of Baptism in Jesus’ name. He replaced the Apostles with himself using baptism “in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost”. Making out that the Apostles were wrong in how to baptize. Read the Catholic Encyclopedia page 263, especially the first paragraph. Antichrist also means “Vicar of Christ“ or “in place of Christ” which is what happened. All churches use the Antichrist model of baptism instead of Jesus and the Apostles’ method. This alone places Antichrist squarely in their midst.
Also the doctrine of free will, condemned ay Ephesus as heresy in 431, prevails in many churches in their salvation by works schemes. Which is also the bedrock of sacerdotal works salvation.
The Eucharist also shows how the Papacy is the Antichrist. John says anyone who denies Christ came in the flesh is an Antichrist. The papacy does this when they say Christ’s body and blood are in the Eucharist. This means if Christ came in that same body and blood supposedly present in the Eucharist it means He did not come in the same flesh and blood that ordinary people have.
Anglican martyr Thomas Cranmer says ‘That heaven must receive Christ, until the time that all things shall be restored’ [Acts 3:21]. And St. Paul, writing to the Colossians, agreeth … saying, ‘Seek for the things that be above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father’ [Col. 3:1]. And St. Paul, speaking of the very sacrament, saith: ‘As often as you shall eat this bread and drink this cup, show forth the Lord’s death until he come’ [I Cor. 11:26]. ‘Till he come,’ saith St. Paul, signifying that he is not there corporally present.”
Gavin McGrath, “The Roman Pope is the AntiChrist”, chapter 3 p9
Scripture teaches that He is in a glorified body since his ascension. In heaven where flesh and blood cannot enter. So he is not available in the way they think he is. He’s now spiritually adorned and cannot be flesh and blood in any version of the Eucharist.
And the Jesuits rule many Baptists and independent churches through Dispensationalism. They transformed Christ into a future Antichrist to draw attention away from the Papacy. Based on a gap scripture never mentions, between Daniel’s 69th and 70th weeks. See Baptist Clarence Larkin Dispensational Truth.
This act denied Jesus fulfilled the prophecy as Jesus affirmed in the gospels. And turned him into a future Antichrist thousands of years into the future, and counting. They must have wagered that if the Antichrist is yet to come, then he cannot be the Pope. This found its way into the Dispensationalism of the 1800s. Responsible for much of the bloodshed and misery in the Middle-East today. Also known as “Christian Zionism”. Moody Bible Institute, Dallas Theological Seminary, the Scofield Reference Bible and hyper-literal “Left Behind” or Rapture movements best known as futurism.
As a side note, the Jesuits also created Preterism to deceive Protestants, which claims all prophecy came to pass in the first century. Either system would rule out the papacy as the Antichrist by focusing people’s attention on the past or on the future.
Even so, doctrinally, the Papacy still controls the thinking of the vast swath of Christendom.
Creeds on the Matter;
From The Westminster Confession which also with some adjustments became the 1st and 2nd London Baptist Confessions.
Chapter XXV
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 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. This led to the martyrdom of many Albigenses, Anabaptists, and others who in part embraced his views. And the archbishop Eberhard II in 1240 also related the papacy to the Antichrist. Synopsis of the End Times; A look at the popular beliefs of today by Mike Morrill.
All Protestants and the Reformers believed the Papacy is the Anarchist and some Lutheran and many Reformed creeds state this boldly. (See Creeds below)
Did Augustine foresee the Papacy as the Antichrist? Claiming to be the one true Church?
Paul says; He would be 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 in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:4) (KJV 1900)
Augustine 354 – 430 first speculated about the Antichrist saying; “Antichrist means not the prince himself alone, but his whole body, that is, the mass of men who adhere to him, along with him their prince; and they also think that we should render the Greek more exactly were we to read, not “in the temple of God,” but “for” or “as the temple of God,” as the Catholic Church is the temple of God, the Church.1405” NPNF1-02. St. Augustine’s City of God and Christian Doctrine - Christian Classics Ethereal Library
So in his estimation, the man of sin would sit as the temple of God more than in it. This the Papacy does by claiming to be the one true church. But scripture teaches that Christendom is the Temple of God in the New Testament. So no matter how you translate it, the meaning remains the same.
After centuries of Papal inquisitions and bloodshed, Napoleon’s general Berthier locked the Pope away where he died in prison in 1799. But in 1929 the Lateran Treaty recognized Vatican City as an independent state under the sovereignty of the Holy See. So he’s back. But if the Papacy is the Antichrist, where is he today?
Simply stated, he’s probably in your church today through his principle doctrines even though some are more popular with many Evangelicals and independent groups.
How so? Three of the most dominating doctrines in churches today come from the Papacy and the Jesuits. In the second century the papacy discarded the Apostle’s authority. By disavowing their Book of Acts record of Baptism in Jesus’ name. He replaced the Apostles with himself using baptism “in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost”. Making out that the Apostles were wrong in how to baptize. Read the Catholic Encyclopedia page 263, especially the first paragraph. Antichrist also means “Vicar of Christ“ or “in place of Christ” which is what happened. All churches use the Antichrist model of baptism instead of Jesus and the Apostles’ method. This alone places Antichrist squarely in their midst.
Also the doctrine of free will, condemned ay Ephesus as heresy in 431, prevails in many churches in their salvation by works schemes. Which is also the bedrock of sacerdotal works salvation.
The Eucharist also shows how the Papacy is the Antichrist. John says anyone who denies Christ came in the flesh is an Antichrist. The papacy does this when they say Christ’s body and blood are in the Eucharist. This means if Christ came in that same body and blood supposedly present in the Eucharist it means He did not come in the same flesh and blood that ordinary people have.
Anglican martyr Thomas Cranmer says ‘That heaven must receive Christ, until the time that all things shall be restored’ [Acts 3:21]. And St. Paul, writing to the Colossians, agreeth … saying, ‘Seek for the things that be above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father’ [Col. 3:1]. And St. Paul, speaking of the very sacrament, saith: ‘As often as you shall eat this bread and drink this cup, show forth the Lord’s death until he come’ [I Cor. 11:26]. ‘Till he come,’ saith St. Paul, signifying that he is not there corporally present.”
Gavin McGrath, “The Roman Pope is the AntiChrist”, chapter 3 p9
Scripture teaches that He is in a glorified body since his ascension. In heaven where flesh and blood cannot enter. So he is not available in the way they think he is. He’s now spiritually adorned and cannot be flesh and blood in any version of the Eucharist.
And the Jesuits rule many Baptists and independent churches through Dispensationalism. They transformed Christ into a future Antichrist to draw attention away from the Papacy. Based on a gap scripture never mentions, between Daniel’s 69th and 70th weeks. See Baptist Clarence Larkin Dispensational Truth.
This act denied Jesus fulfilled the prophecy as Jesus affirmed in the gospels. And turned him into a future Antichrist thousands of years into the future, and counting. They must have wagered that if the Antichrist is yet to come, then he cannot be the Pope. This found its way into the Dispensationalism of the 1800s. Responsible for much of the bloodshed and misery in the Middle-East today. Also known as “Christian Zionism”. Moody Bible Institute, Dallas Theological Seminary, the Scofield Reference Bible and hyper-literal “Left Behind” or Rapture movements best known as futurism.
As a side note, the Jesuits also created Preterism to deceive Protestants, which claims all prophecy came to pass in the first century. Either system would rule out the papacy as the Antichrist by focusing people’s attention on the past or on the future.
Even so, doctrinally, the Papacy still controls the thinking of the vast swath of Christendom.
Creeds on the Matter;
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.
