Jonathan Edwards on the kingdom of antichrist

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Reformed Covenanter

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With respect to the kingdom of Antichrist. This seem, to be the master piece of all the contrivances of the devil against the kingdom of Christ, and is evidently so spoken of in scripture, and therefore Antichrist is the man of sin, or that man of sin, 2 Thes. ii. 3. He is so called emphatically, as though he was so eminently. So he is called Antichrist, which signifies the opponent or adversary of Christ. Not that he is the only opponent of Christ; there were many others besides him.

The Apostle John observes, that in his days there were many Antichrists. But yet this is called the Antichrist, as though there were none but he, because he was so eminently, and above all others. So this contrivance of the devil, is called the mystery of iniquity, 2 Thes. ii. 7. We find no enemy of Christ one half so much spoken of in the prophecies of Revelation as this; and the destruction of no enemy is spoken of as so glorious and happy for the church. The craft and subtilty of the devil, above all appears in this work of his; as might be shown, were it not that is would consume too much time.

This is a contrivance of the devil to turn the ministry of the Christian church into a ministry of the devil, and to turn these angels of the churches into fallen angels, and so into devils. In the tyranny, and superstition, and idolatry, and persecution, which he sets up, he contrives to make an image of ancient Paganism, and more than to restore what was lost in the empire by the overthrow of Paganism in the time of Constantine: ...

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Re: Mr. Edwards speaking of antichrist as the opponent or adversary of Christ, I learned from a reading or maybe a sermon from Reverend Ruddell that we should take “anti” to mean “in the place of.” I searched around and found a paragraph that speaks to this:

“The name Antichrist also indicates substitution. Antichrist opposes Jesus in order to supplant Him, to take His place as Christ. Although the English language does not often use the prefix "anti" to mean substitution, it is a common use of the preposition in the Greek language. When Scripture says that Jesus died "for His people," one of the prepositions used is anti indicating that He died as a substitute for His people. This is the secondary meaning of the preposition anti. Antichrist purposes to be "in the place of," or "a substitute for" Jesus the Christ.”

I find this helpful in considerations of holding the Pope of Rome as being that man of sin.
 
we should take “anti” to mean “in the place of.”... I find this helpful in considerations of holding the Pope of Rome as being that man of sin.

A bit ironically, that is indeed the historical meaning of "antipope" when several times various competing factions installed their own Bishop of Rome.
 
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