Thread: The antichrist defeated

From Erroll Hulse's "The Puritans and the Promises."

This antichrist pretends to be the real Christ but is counterfeit. Antichrist in the text implies opposition but its primary meaning is not against. First and foremost anti means IN PLACE OF. Antikeimai is the present participle of the verb antikeimai, to set oneself in the place of by taking the place of another. Anti in Greek usage means instead or in the place of. For instance, ‘If your son asks for a fish will he (anti) in the place of it give him a serpent’ and Matthew 2:22, ‘Archelaus was reigning (anti) in the place of his father Herod.’ This antichrist takes the room or place of Christ. He becomes the vicar (substitute) of Christ on earth.

and

The Reformers and Puritans were unanimous in seeing 2 Thessalonians 2 as descriptive of the papacy. The Puritans not only agreed about this but they decided that it was important enough to inscribe into the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 26 on the Church, paragraph 6.

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.

The 1689 London Baptist Confession, chapter 26, on the Church paragraph 4, has the same wording as the above but adds the promise, Whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. As in the Westminster Confession 2 Thessalonians 2:3-9 is cited in support of this.

Samuel E. Waldron in his exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith states that the confession is false at this point and without adequate basis. Mr Waldron’s opinion is defective. He makes no attempt to work at the principles of apocalyptic interpretation. He provides no exegesis and no examination of the testimony of history.

The Puritans and the Promises

JM,

What is your opinion on antichrist? Do you agree with Waldron in the Puritans and the Promises? Mike Horton doesn't believe that the Pope is antichrist.

Last spring on PB we had a poll and I recall that the board was running neck an neck on the subject of "Is the Pope antichrist?"

I wrote about he subject on May 20 in the blog on my signature. I think there could be many antichrists, but that the Pope is not necessarily the Antichrist.

Cordially,

I am of the opinion that the Anti-Christ is not just the so called office of the Pope but the entire Roman Church system.

Hi Cordially Carol. I agree with the article written by Erroll Hulse.

Quote from Carol
I think there could be many antichrists, but that the Pope is not necessarily the Antichrist.

We know that there are many antichrists, Christian Gnosticism was one in the Apostle John's day, Liberal Theology, the Watchtower Society, the Mormons, Christian Science, Eastern Orthodoxy, etc, etc. The Papacy is just the most prominent and audacious of a series of antichrists.

Islam, secular humanism, atheism/agnosticism, Fascism/Nazism, Nero and the Roman Empire, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, the United Nations, the EU, aren't antichrists, because they don't even pretend to be Christian or set themselves up in the Church.

See my posts at this thread:-

Pope as Antichrist, Westminster, and 1689 2LBCF

See also Patrick Fairbairn's excellent discussion on what antichrists are, and the Papacy.

I know it gets beastly-confusing in Revelation which is a difficult book anyway (understatement), with all these beasts.

Personally, I believe the First Beast (from the Sea) is statist and pagan persecution, represented by Nero and the Roman Empire in the first century, but continuing in various forms up to the present day.

The Second Beast (from the Earth) also called the False Prophet, is Christian ecclesiastical compromise and persecution, represented by things like Christian Gnosticism and Christian compromise with the idolatrous pretensions of the Empire, and later by the Papacy, and various other antichrists, which continues to the present day.

The work of the False Prophet (which includes the Papacy) is more subtle than the First Beast, and leads the Woman of Chapter 12 (the Church) to turn into the Whore of Chapter 17 (the Compromised and Apostate Church - including the Church of Rome)

Thankfully she is cleansed and purified (Rev. 19:7) before the end of time. Antichrists (and the Antichrist) and statist and pagan persecution will also be done away with by Christ in His Providence, through His Church, by His Word and by His Spirit. I'm a bit postmil - quite a bit!

Take or leave these thoughts on difficult areas of Scripture with a pinch of salt.