For nearly 400 years, Protestant pulpits shared a near unanimous view about the identity of the Antichrist. The Protestant Reformers did not agree on everything; however, there was one thing they ALL agreed about, i.e., that the office of the Papacy – the long line of popes – was the Antichrist.
In todays world few preachers discuss this issue. What happened? Did the Antichrist disappear? Find out why so many godly men of the past saw Rome as a greater enemy than the secular, atheist world.
The historic mainline denominations, Presbyterians, Lutherans and the Baptist firmly held in their Confessions of Faith that the Papacy was and still is the very Antichrist of Scripture.
Presbyterian Church
The Westminster Confession of Faith
chapter 25, paragraph 5
“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, the man of sin, the son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the church against Christ, and all that is called God.”
The Baptist Church
The Baptist Confession of Faith
Chapter 26 Paragraph 4
…”neither 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; whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.”
The Lutheran Church
The Lutheran Confessions
Smalcald Articles (part II, Art. IV, par. 10)
“This teaching shows forcefully that the Pope is the very Antichrist, who has exalted himself above, and opposed himself against Christ because he will not permit Christians to be saved without his power, which, nevertheless, is nothing, and is neither ordained nor commanded by God.”
It is evident that the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience has deceived the modern descendants of these once great institutions into believing a lie. They are blind to their own doctrines, doctrines that were refined in the blood of their forefathers.
The prince of preachers, C. H. Spurgeon declared…
“It is the bounden duty of every Christian to pray against Antichrist, and as to what Antichrist is no sane man ought to raise a question. If it be not the popery in the Church of Rome there is nothing in the world that can be called by that name. If there were to be issued a hue and cry for Antichrist, we should certainly take up this church on suspicion, and it would certainly not be let loose again, for it so exactly answers the description.” (C.H. Spurgeon)
Take counsel on how to keep your own soul from being enticed by Rome’s guile.
