Tag: ANTICHRIST

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

IS ‘ANTICHRIST’ YET TO COME OR IS HE ALREADY HERE? Part V

Jesus warned: “For FALSE CHRISTS and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand [you have been duly warned].

Therefore if they say to you, Look, He is in the desert!’ Do not go out; or, ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ Do not believe it.” Matt. 24:23,24, NKJV.

I just realized that when Jesus warned His first disciples regarding the coming of “many false Christs” after His ascension, He meant both false messiahs (“messhiachs”) that arose among the Jews and other eastern religions but also the “many antichrists” that would lord it over the Church in its “falling away” during the Pergamos and Thyatira (Dark Ages of over a thousand years).

Apostle Paul picked up from that and warned the early church of “falling away” and revealing of the “man of sin” and the “son of perdition” the “lawless one” that was already beginning to work in his time as “the mystery of iniquity!” 2 Thess. 2:1-11.

ALL AGREED ON ANTICHRIST. “Up to the close of the [Protestant] Reformation God’s people were generally agreed that the Papacy was the Antichrist foretold in prophecy. The WALDENSES taught it. (See our past messages).

About 1384 A.D. JOHN WYCLIFFE wrote a book against the papal system entitled: ‘Of Antechreest and His Meynee.’ In fact, the English Reformers.—TYNDALE, CRANMER, LATIMER, and RIDLEY, —-all agreed in pointing to the Papacy as Antichrist. JOHN HUSS of Bohemia, in his ‘De Anatomia Antichristi,’ did the same. Turning to Germany we turn to DR. MARTIN LUTHER strong in his convictions on this subject. He says:

‘The Pope is…the true Antichrist, of whom it is written, that he sitteth in the temple of God [the church], among the people where Christ is worshipped.’ —‘Luther’s Church Postil,’ ‘Gospels,’ 25th Sunday After Trinity.”

(To be continued tomorrow). Bless all, NMF

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

IS ‘ANTICHRIST’ YET TO APPEAR OR IS HE ALREADY HERE? Part IV

“When the force of this similarity between the antichrist of prophecy and the Pope of Rome dawned upon the mind of Cardinal Newman, he declared:

‘The gibe , ‘If the Pope is not Antichrist, he had bad luck to be so like him,’ is really another argument in favor of the claims of the Pope; since Antichrist simulates Christ, and the Pope is an image of Christ, Antichrist must have some similarity to the Pope, if the latter is the true Vicar of Christ.’ -‘Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. I, p. 561, art. ‘Antichrist.’ (Note: “Gibe” means “taunting, sarcastic, scoffing words].

“Thus it is claimed that the Pope is the vicar of Christ on earth. But Christ left an altogether different Vicar, or Representative in His place; namely, His Holy Spirit! (John 14:15-18; 16:7). Of this Representative Christ says: ‘He shall teach you all things.’ ‘He will guide you into all truth.’ John 14:26; 16:13 (compare 1 John 2:20, 27). The Holy Spirit being the [real] author of the Bible (2 Pet. 1:21), certainly should be the proper interpreter of it. To this the Roman Catholic Church answers:

‘Nor can it be said that being a divinely inspired book, its prime Author, the Holy Spirit, will guide the reader to the right meaning. The Church which MADE THE BIBLE [emphasis mine], likewise interprets the Bible.’ – ‘Things Catholics Are Asked About, Martin J. Scott, S.J., Litt.D., pp. 119,120. NY, Kenedy: 1927.

“Pope Leo XIII says: “But the supreme teacher in the Church is the Roman Pontiff. Union of minds, therefore, requires, with a perfect accord in the one faith, COMPLETE submission and obedience of the WILL to the Church and the Roman Pontiff, AS TO GOD HIMSELF.’ – ‘The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII, p. 193. NY: Benziger Bros., 1903. He further says: ‘We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.’ Id., p. 304.

“We have now seen from authentic Catholic sources, that the Pope arrogates to himself the ‘place of God Almighty,’ the office of Christ on earth, and the prerogative of the Holy Spirit, as sole teacher of the faithful and the interpreter of the Holy Scriptures. What more is needed to fulfill the prediction of 2 Thess. 2: 3,4, and the prophecies of the Antichrist?”—Facts of Faith, Christian Edwardson, p. 198, Southern Publishing Asso., Nashville, TN: 1943.
(To be continued). Bless all, NMF