TWO POINTS REGARDING ‘ANTICHRIST’ MADE CLEAR (The Great Divide between Protestantism and Catholicism)

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

TWO POINTS REGARDING ‘ANTICHRIST’ MADE CLEAR (The Great Divide between Protestantism and Catholicism)

Edwardson says: “There were two arguments used against the position taken by the Reformers [regarding the Antichrist] which have puzzled many:
(1) It was claimed the Apostle John used two distinctions; ‘AN Antichrist’ to distinguish the false teachers of his day, and ‘THE Antichrist,’ referring to some superhuman monster of Jewish extraction that would appear just before Christ’s second coming.

“But on this point C. H. H. Wright truthfully remarks: ‘St. John, the only New Testament writer who employs the term [Antichrist], makes no distinction whatever between ‘AN Antichrist’ and ‘THE Antichrist.’ That distinction was in the main an INVENTION of the learned JESUIT interpreters.’ – ‘Daniel and His Prophecies,’ p. 166, London: 1906.
(2) The second objection was that while ‘THE Antichrist’ would deny the incarnation, for he would deny that ‘Christ is come in the flesh’ (2 John 7), the Pope does not deny this, therefore he cannot be the Antichrist. This argument has seemed so logical and conclusive that Protestants, to a large extent, have GIVEN UP the Protestant Doctrine that the Papacy is Antichrist, and have ceased to PROTEST.

“This argument however is based on a MISUNDERSTANDING caused by overlooking ONE WORD in this text. Antichrist was not to deny that Christ had come in the flesh, but was to deny that He had ‘come in THE flesh,’ in ‘THE SAME’ kind of flesh, as the human race He came to save. (See 1 John 4:3; 2 John 7, and Heb. 2:14,17).

“On this VITAL DIFFERENCE hinges the real ‘truth of the gospel.’
[Q]: Did Christ COME ALL THE WAY DOWN to make contact with the fallen race, or only part way, so that we must SAINTS, POPES and PRIESTS intercede for us with a Christ who is removed too far from fallen humanity, and it needs to make DIRECT CONTACT with the individual sinner? Right here lies the GREAT DIVIDE that parts Protestantism from Roman Catholicism. In order to understand this point clearly” we must consider the gospel of Christ vs the gospel of Rome! (From Facts of Faith, pp. 203-4).

To be continued. Bless all, NMF