Antichrist in
Scripture
by Francis Nigel Lee
Short Summary of the findings, extracted from a
message delivered at the 1997 Blue Banner Conference. See catalog for ordering
information.
Let us now shortly summarize the above teachings of
Holy Scripture, Martin Luther and Calvinistic Protestantism.
- About 540 B.C., Daniel predicted the cessation
of all new prophesying around the time of Christ’s death. This, Daniel
associated with the Roman destruction of the Jerusalem temple within
that very same generation! Daniel 2:34-45; 7:7-19; 8:9-12, 20-25;
9:24-27; 11:30-45; 12:1-4.
- Daniel also predicted that, beginning in AD 70,
first the Pagan Roman Empire and then papal Rome as its successor would
pollute God’s true temple (the Christian Church). That would last for
1260 day-years, or till AD 1330. However, then the great plague called
the ‘Black Death’ would sweep across the civilized world, killing most
of its ungodly inhabitants. Daniel 7:24ff & 12:7 cf. Revelation
9:20ff; 11:2-9ff; 12:6-14; 13:1-7.
- Daniel further predicted that the pollution of
the Christian Church, starting in AD 70, would begin to cease after 1290
day-years. The latter would occur thirty years after the 1260 years and
hence in AD 1360ff. Daniel 12:11 cf. 7:25 & 12:7. That was when God
raised up John Wycliffe in the middle of the ‘Black Death’ with which He
punished a deformed Church. See Revelation 9:20ff & 11:2-9ff. Cf.
‘AIDS’ today! Revelation 15:1-18:4.
- Daniel last predicted that a further time of
great blessing would start to occur at the end of 1335 day-years after
AD 70. Daniel 12:4-12. This would occur when John Huss started preaching
Wycliffe’s Proto-Protestant views in Bohemia, in AD 1405. CF. Revelation
14:6ff. Only yet thereafter, God told Daniel, would he himself be
resurrected "at the end of the days." Daniel 12:13.
- The appearance of Christ at His incarnation,
elicited opposition from several minor antichrists. Matthew 23:2-36
& John 17:12. The apostle John predicted that these ‘antichrists’
had already emerged, even before the Holy Scriptures were finally
completed. I John 2:18ff & 4:1-3, and II John 7. Yet that same John
also insisted that the pagan Roman empire would later be replaced by
another ‘religious’ Roman beast. That latter would look like a lamb, but
speak like a dragon. Revelation 13:1-11ff cf. Daniel 7:7-25. Indeed,
Paul too predicted a great apostasy and the emergence of ‘the man of
sin’ who would rule in the temple, the very Church of God! II
Thessalonians 2:3-8.
- Probably from even before, and certainly from
not long after AD 70, Britain in particular and much of Europe in
general started becoming Christian. Especially around the fifth century,
the roman Empire broke up into ten "horns" or kingdoms followed by
another diverse and blasphemous "horn." Daniel 2:41ff; 7:7, 20, 25;
Revelation 13:1-18; 17:3-16. From around AD 600 onward, only the bishop
at Rome was called ‘pope’ (‘holy father’). The first papal missionary to
Britain, (in AD 600ff) Austin of Rome, was then stoutly resisted by the
Culdee or British Celtic Christians. Only after the 664 Synod of Whitby,
from about AD 666 onward, did most of Europe and some of England but not
Ireland, Scotland and Wales become increasingly Romanized. Thus, the
Romish papal power or "horn" became strong or "stout" and long sat and
ruled in the Temple of God, while claiming to be His spokesman. However,
that spokesman was in fact ‘the man of sin’ antichrist! Daniel
7:25; 8:20-25; 11:36ff; 12:8-11; II Thessalonians 3:3-8, 12; II Peter
2:1-5ff; Revelation 13:11-18; 17:1-17.
- In fulfillment of the prophecies, the Lord in AD
1330 sent the great plague called the ‘Black Death.’ Daniel 12:11 cf.
Revelation 9:20ff; 11:2-9ff; 12:6-14. One major purpose of this, was to
punish the deformed church which had departed from God’s Word; exalted
the pope; and worshipped the communion bread. Daniel 7:24ff & 12:11
cf. Revelation 13:1-13ff; 15:1-8; 16:1-11.
- Thirty years later, in AD 1360, God raised up
John Wycliffe. He asserted the sole sufficiency of the long-completed
Holy Scriptures. Accordingly, he ridiculed transubstantiation and
assailed the pope as antichrist. Daniel 12:11ff cf. Revelation
14:6ff.
- Forty-five years later, at the end of 1335 years
after AD 70, God further raised up John Huss in Bohemia. He promoted
Wycliffe’s Proto-Protestant views, and inaugurated a time of great
blessing in the very heart of Europe. Daniel 12:12 cf. Revelation
14:8ff.
- In AD 1415, Rome burned Huss (the "goose") for
his Biblical views. This was just after he had announced that though the
"unclean birds" of the papacy were then roasting a ‘goose’ after a
hundred years a ‘swan’ would arise to vindicate him. Cf. Revelation
14:8ff & 18:1-2.
- A century after Huss, God raised up the "swan"
Martin Luther! He powerfully propagated the views of Wycliffe and Huss,
that the pope was antichrist. He also predicted the destruction of that
papal antichrist through the powerful preaching of the Gospel. These
Reformation doctrines were well reflected in the Thirty-nine
Articles of the Church of England, which declare: that
"transubstantiation . . . is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture .
. . and hath given occasion to many superstitions"; that "the sacrifices
of Masses . . . were fables and dangerous deceits"; and that "the bishop
of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Realm of England" (Articles 28, 31
& 37).
- Said Luther against the papal antichrist: "We
must slay him with words; the mouth of Christ must do it . . . See what
effect this . . . preaching and writing this truth has had; how the
papists’ cover has shrunk . . . Let us be wise, thank God for His Holy
Word, and be bold with our mouths . . . Let us keep boldly on: earnestly
inculcate the Word; and drive out the laws of men . . . This is the way
Christ is, through us, slaying the papacy." "Christ is with His saints,
and wins the victory!"
- John Calvin took over and systematized Luther’s
Biblical views. Calvin called Luther "my much respected father" who had
denounced "the darkness of the papacy." Calvin himself then further
repeatedly exposed the Roman pontiff as antichrist.
- Calvin indicated that though the AD 600 Gregory
the Great was the first bishop at Rome to be called sole pope, Gregory
himself had regarded that new title as a mark of antichrist! Yet Calvin
saw especially the AD 1415 papal burning of Huss as a clear evidence of
the antichristian nature of the papacy. On Daniel 12:4ff, Calvin
commented in 1561: "At the present time, in the papacy . . . impiety
prevails."
- Calvin especially insisted that both II
Thessalonians 2:3ff and I John 2:18 & 4:4ff clearly brand the pope
as antichrist. Romanists, said Calvin, were wrong to regard antichrist
as a yet-future tyrant who would harass the church for but three and a
half years. Even a ten-year-old, stated Calvin, can see that the
centuries-long papacy is itself indeed antichrist! Yet the papal
"antichrist will be annihilated by the Word of the Lord . . . Paul does
not think the Christ will accomplish this in a moment . . . Christ will
scatter the darkness . . . before His coming" by "the preaching of this
doctrine." For "we fight by Christ’s power, and are armed with God’s
weapons . . . We are victorious . . . We can no more be conquered, than
can God Himself . . . Victory is certain!"
- Calvin’s views were expounded in Britain
especially by his student John Knox together with the rest of the "six
John’s" in the 1560 First Scots Confession. There, the
Protestants’ "True Kirk is distinguished from the filthy synagogues" of
Romanism. Especially against the latter, the Confession sounds the
trumpet blast: "Arise, O Lord, and let Thy enemies be confounded . . .
Give Thy servants strength to speak Thy Word in boldness, and let all
nations cleave to Thy true knowledge!"
- The Calvinistic Second Scots Confession
of AD 1580 also known as the Scottish National Covenant denounces
"all kinds of papistry in general. We detest and refuse the usurped
authority of that Roman antichrist. Many are stirred up by Satan and
that Roman antichrist to subvert secretly God’s true religion . . . We
therefore . . . protest!" Indeed, this Protestant ‘protest’ was
effective. For the Preamble to the 1618ff international Calvinistic
Decrees of Dordt declared that also in Holland "the Church was
delivered by the mighty hand of God from the tyranny of the Romish
antichrist and the terrible idolatry of the papacy." Christians were
leaving Romanism, Revelation 18:2-4!
- The 1646 Calvinistic Westminster Confession
of Faith denounces "popish monastical vows." It denies "the pope any
power or jurisdiction" over magistrates, citing here not only II
Thessalonians 2:4 but also the ‘666’ passage of Revelation 13:15-17. It
calls "papists . . . idolaters." It describes "the popish sacrifice of
the ‘mass’ . . . [as] most abominably injurious to Christ’s one
sacrifice." Indeed, it terms "transubstantiation . . . repugnant not to
Scripture alone, but even to common sense and reason" and indeed "the
cause of manifold superstitions, yea, of gross idolatries."
- More specifically, the Westminster
Confession further insists about deformed churches, that "some have
so degenerated as to become synagogues of Satan. Revelation 18:2; Romans
11:18-22 . . . The pope of Rome . . . is that antichrist . . . that
exalteth himself in the church against Christ and all that is called
God. Matthew 23:8-10; II Thessalonians 2:3-4, 8-9; Revelation
13:6."
- Finally, the Calvinistic Westminster Larger
Catechism insists that, in the Lord’s Prayer, the petition ‘Thy
Kingdom come!’ is a plea for the destruction also of the ecclesiastical
antichrist and indeed precisely through the good works of the
Spirit-empowered Church as Christ’s own spiritual weapon! "We pray that
the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed, the gospel propagated
throughout the world, the Jews called, the fullness of the Gentiles
brought in, [and] the Church furnished with all gospel-officers and . .
. purged from corruption." Further, "we pray that God would so over-rule
the world and all in it that our sanctification and salvation may be
perfected [and] Satan trodden under our feet. Romans 16:20!"
******
So Scripture, Luther, Calvin and Calvinism all
teach that antichrist’s days are numbered! The papacy will be brought down
by the powerful Protestant preaching of the Word of God! II Thessalonians
2:8f cf. Revelation 14:6-8. When that is done:
- ‘Who shall not fear Thee,
- O Lord, and glorify
- Thy Name? For
- Thou only art
- holy.
For all nations shall come, and
worship before Thee!’ Revelation
15:4 |