WARNINGS FROM THE PAST:
“POPE – ANTICHRIST”
FROM EVERY EARLY
“PROTESTANT” LEADER
The following quotations show what all of the early Christian “Protestant” Reformers and Church Leaders believed about the coming Antichrist (“The little horn” of Daniel 7:8, “The Beast” of Revelation 13:1, and “The Man of Sin” found in 2 Thessalonians 2:3) …
Martin Luther (1483-1546) (Lutheran):
“Luther … proved, by the revelations of Daniel and St. John, by the epistles of St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Jude, that the reign of Antichrist, predicted and described in the Bible, was the Papacy … And all the people did say, Amen! A holy terror siezed their souls. It was Antichrist whom they beheld seated on the pontifical throne. This new idea, which derived greater strength from the prophetic descriptions launched forth by Luther into the midst of his contemporaries, inflicted the most terrible blow on Rome.” Taken from J. H. Merle D’aubigne’s History of the Reformation of the Sixteen Century , book vi, chapter xii, p. 215.
Martin Luther declared, “We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist.” (Aug. 18, 1520). Taken from The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, by LeRoy Froom. Vol. 2., pg. 121.
John Calvin (1509-1564) (Presbyterian):
“Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman pontiff Antichrist. But those who are of this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption against Paul himself, after whom we speak and whose language we adopt… 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.” Taken from Institutes of the Christian Religion, by John Calvin.
John Knox (1505-1572) (Scotch Presbyterian):
John Knox sought to counteract “that tyranny which the pope himself has for so many ages exercised over the church.” As with Luther, he finally concluded that the Papacy was “the very antichrist, and son of perdition, of whom Paul speaks.” The Zurich Letters , by John Knox, pg. 199.
Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) (Anglican):
“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.
Roger Williams (1603-1683) (First Baptist Pastor in America):
Pastor Williams spoke of the Pope as “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).” The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, by Froom, Vol. 3, pg. 52.
The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647):
“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 exalteth himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God.” Taken from Philip Schaff’s, The Creeds of Christendom, With a History and Critical Notes , III, p. 658, 659, ch. 25, sec. 6.
Cotton Mather (1663-1728) (Congregational Church whose father was President of Harvard):
“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.” Taken from 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.
Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) (Scientist/Mathematician):
From Isaac Newton’s “Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel” … Chapter VII.”Observations Upon The 11th Horn of Daniel”
“Of the eleventh horn of Daniel’s fourth Beast …”
“NOW I Daniel, considered the horns, and behold there came up among them another horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots; and behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things, ——and his look was more stout than his fellows,
” —— and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them: and one who stood by, and made Daniel know the interpretation of these things, told him, that the ten horns were ten kings that should arise, and another should arise after them, and be diverse from the first, and he should subdue three kings, and speak great words against the most High, and wear out the saints, and think to change times and laws: and that they should be given into his hands until a time and times and half a time.
“Kings are put for kingdoms, as above; and therefore the little horn is a little kingdom.
“It was a horn of the fourth Beast, and rooted up three of his first horns; and therefore we are to look for it among the nations of the Latin (Roman) Empire, after the rise of the ten horns.
“But it was a kingdom of a different kind from the other ten kingdoms, having a life or soul peculiar to itself, with eyes and a mouth. By its eyes it was a Seer; and by its mouth speaking great things and changing times and laws, it was a Prophet as well as a King.
“And such a Seer, a Prophet and a King, IS the Church of Rome.”
“A Seer, Ἐπίσκοπος, is a Bishop in the literal sense of the word; and this Roman Church claims the universal Bishoprick.
“With his mouth he gives laws to kings and nations as an Oracle; and pretends to Infallibility, and that his dictates are binding to the whole world; which is to be a Prophet in the highest degree.”
TWO NOTES from TheProphecies.com:
The Bible warns the “Little Horn” of Daniel would be a LITTLE Kingdom:
- Fact: Vatican City is the smallest nation on Earth with only 109 acres in total size and with a population of only around 800 people. Vatican City sits in Rome. Yet, it now rules over 1.3 BILLION people and receives Presidents, Prime Ministers, Kings, and Ambassadors from every nation (many of whom bow or kiss the hand of the Roman King/Pope).
The Bible also warns the 11th Horn would arise AFTER the Others:
- Fact: Although the other nations of the Roman Empire have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, Vatican City did not become a nation until 1929 when the Roman Pope struck a special deal with his friend, the fascist Dictator of Italy (Mussolini).
So, We Have Found A Great Cloud of Witnesses ALL Believing Antichrist Will Rise From the Seat of the Roman Pope (the “Holy See”):
- Sir Isaac Newton
- Wycliffe
- Tyndale,
- Luther,
- Calvin,
- Cranmer; in the seventeenth century,
- Bunyan, the translators of the King James Bible
- The men who published the Westminster and Baptist confessions of Faith;
- Wesley,
- Whitfield,
- Jonathan Edwards;
- And more recently Spurgeon …
HOWEVER, TODAY (500 Years Later), The Roman Church Is Now Drawing Her Once Reformed “Daughters” (see Revelation 17) Back Home:
“It was most gratifying that the chairman of the Protestant Churches in Germany, Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, accompanied by the president of the German Catholic bishops’ conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, officially visited Pope Francis in Rome together on the occasion of the Reformation Jubilee”.
“The Pope spoke of “an already reconciled diversity.” He said he greatly appreciated the spiritual and theological gifts that the Reformation had given us and that he wanted to do everything he could “to overcome the obstacles that still remained.”
“After five centuries of condemning and inflicting wounds upon each other, both the two leading Churches in Germany declared that they intended to celebrate the Reformation anniversary together with the Roman Church as a “Feast for Jesus Christ.”
“A further pivotal point in the commemoration process will be the main Service of Repentance and Reconciliation that the Council of the Protestant Churches and the Catholic bishops’ conference will celebrate together at Hildesheim on March 11, 2017.” (https://www.ncronline.org/news/500-years-after-reformation-end-schism)
These early Church Leaders quoted in this study above (among countless others), ALL saw the office of the Papacy as the “Antichrist” …
(Some Quotes also taken from ‘All Roads Lead to Rome,’ by Michael de Semlyen. Dorchestor House Publications, p. 205. 1991.)
Yet, how quickly many of our current “Protestant” church leaders have forgotten (exactly as Bible Prophecies warned we would see) …
“Little children, it is the last hour,
and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming,
so now many antichrists have come.
Therefore we know that it is the last hour.
They went out from us (the early Christian Church),
But they were not of us.”
(1 John 2:18-19)
Grace and Shalom
ADDITIONAL STUDIES:
Prophetic Rise of Rome & The Roman Church
An Unholy History of Roman Popes
Unholy Quotes From the Vatican
Roman Church and NAZI (Socialist) Germany: An Unholy Alliance
Prophecy: The Woman Who Rides The Beast
Study: Number of Bible-Believing Protestants Killed By Roman Popes