The reformation had placed the gospel of Jesus Christ at the disposal of the common man. The word of God has been made available to everyone seeking a knowledge of the plan of salvation. The free availability of the Scriptures severely challenged the doctrines and supremacy of Rome, and restored truths that had been lost through centuries of suppression of religious liberty.

The reformers had clearly identified the papal system as the antichrist system. In the twelfth century, the Waldenses gave clear witness of the Antichrist, who they claimed was reigning in the church. Joachim, however, was one of the first to interpret prophecy pertaining to the Antichrist. Wycliffe, Jerome, Luther, Knox, Calvin, Baxter and the other leaders of the reformation were united on the identity of the Antichrist. H. Grattan Guinness says:

"And the views of the reformers were shared by thousands, by hundreds of thousands. They were adopted by princes and peoples. Under their influence nations abjured their allegiance to the false priest of Rome. In the reaction that followed, all the powers of hell seemed to be let loose ...Yet the reformation stood undefeated and unconquerable. God's word upheld it..."  (Romanism and the Reformation)

Even the foreword of the old King James Bible refers to the Papacy as the man of sin, and warns against malignment from what it calls Popish persons.

Concerning the Antichrist (the Greek meaning of 'anti' being "in the place of"), the Bible says:

"Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." II Thessalonians 2:3,4

Such claims have been made by the Papacy when Pope Boniface VIII, in his Bull Unam Sanctam, stated:

"The Roman Pontiff judges all men, but is judged by no one. We declare, assert, define and pronounce: To be subject to the Roman Pontiff is to every creature altogether necessary for salvation . . . that which was spoken of Christ 'thou has subdued all things under his feet', may well seem verified of me . . . I have the authority of the King of kings. I am all and above all, so that God Himself and I, the Vicar of God, have but one consistency, and I am able to do all that God can do. What therefore, can you make of me but God?"

Pope Leo XIII also claimed he was God in his encyclical letters and it is interesting that Time, on the incidence of the Pope John Paul II's assassination attempt, wrote: "It's like shooting God."   (Time, May 25, 1981, p. 12)

Rome was not willing to compromise on issues of doctrine with the reformers, and Pope Paul III called the Council of Trent, which met in three sessions between 1545 and 1563. Protestants were present during the second meeting. The Council reaffirmed most of the doctrines disputed by the reformists, including:

1. Transubstantiation
   

2. Justification by faith and works
3. The medieval mass to be upheld
4. The seven sacraments were confirmed
5. Celibacy was maintained
6. The doctrine of Purgatory was maintained
7. Indulgences were reaffirmed
8. Papal power was increased by giving the Popethe authority to enforce the decrees of the Council, and requiring church officials to promise him obedience.   (The History of Christianity, p.410)

    

"The Council of Trent (1545), which had been called by Pope Paul III to counter the reformation and to clarify the Roman Catholic doctrinal position had, instead of reforming the church, entrenched the Catholic doctrinal position and teaching, so abhorrent to the reformers. The Council reaffirmed the Church's position on the doctrines of transubstantiation, faith and works, the mass, the seven sacraments, celibacy, purgatory and indulgences, and increased the Papal power." (The History of Christianity, p. 410)

The Counter Reformation

In spite of the separation of the reformed churches from Roman Catholicism, Scripture predicts that at the end of time the whole world would follow the beast. This includes the churches of the day. The Reformation would grind to a halt, and the principles which lead to separation from Rome would not be obstacles at the end of time. Not as a consequence of a change in the attitude of Rome, but as a consequence of loss of principles by the reformers. The Bible predicts:

"I sit as queen; I am no widow and shall see no sorrow." Revelation 18:7

"I am, and none else beside me. I shall not sit as a widow neither shall I know the loss of children." Isaiah 47:8

All these verses imply that the children (separated churches) would return to the mother. On the portals of St. John's Lateran, the Catholic church makes the claim that she is the mother of all churches.

Preterism and Futurism

To meet the challenge and exposure of the Papacy as the Antichrist and the Pope as the "son of perdition", the Jesuits were summoned to counter the reformers' teachings, and here two Jesuit scholars stand out in particular. They are Alcasar and Ribera, and they developed the Preterist and Futurist systems of prophetic interpretation. The Preterist interpretation puts all prophecy pertaining to the Antichrist into the past (persecutors outside the Jewish or Christian religion), and the Futurist interpretation puts them into the future - after the Christian dispensation and the Secret Rapture. Ribera published his futurist views in 1585.

According to the Futurist view, the Antichrist was to come from the tribe of Dan, and would make his appearance after the secret rapture. He was to rebuild the temple, abolish the Christian faith, pretend to be God and then conquer the world in the space of three-and-a-half years. Furthermore, Futurism teaches that, instead of coming with the clouds with great power and great glory, our Saviour will come secretly and silently to take away his Church - a teaching foreign to that of the apostles.

"For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord." I Thessalonians 4:16,17.

The apostles referred to the spirit of antichrist already working in their time, to be fully revealed at the end of time. There is no question of referring to the antichrist power in the past. Jesus in Matthew 24 speaks of this great apostasy as a future event, not a past occurrence.

In the nineteenth century, the Protestant world, starting with the Anglican priest Samuel R. Maitland, accepted the futurist teachings and saw in it an opportunity to cease hostilities with Rome.

The prophetic interpretation of Futurism was further refined, when, according to S.P. Tregelles, dispensationalism originated in an "utterance" by means of tongues in Edward Irving's church in England. The Futurist dispensationalistic mode of prophetic interpretation has been accepted by most Protestant churches today, and is the form of interpretation employed in the Scofield Reference Bible.  (D.F. Neufield, Ministry, July 1978)  Dispensationalism is a product of Futurism and it teaches that history is divided into seven dispensations:

During the dispensation of the Millennial Kingdom, the Jews will preach the gospel after the rapture of the Christians. The Jews will be suppressed by Antichrist and the visible appearing of Christ will save them at the end of seven years. According to Futurists, the Church is concerned with grace, and the Jews are concerned with the Kingdom. The Lord's prayer, "Thy kingdom come" can therefore have no meaning to the Christian. Furthermore, Scofield allows for no continuity between the Old Testament Believer and the New Testament church. Not even Christ spoke to us; (because he taught under the old dispensation); only the epistles speak to us.

Most men who subscribe to dispensationalism are of Calvinistic creed, with a deep-rooted belief in predestination. According to this doctrine, man has so far fallen in sin that he is unable to choose for himself. Salvation is therefore not conditional but unconditional, and one is either predestined to eternal salvation or to eternal damnation. All promises of scripture are also unconditional, and the Jews were God's chosen people whether they wanted to be or not.

This is not a Biblical teaching: it destroys man's freedom of choice, relegates him to the position of a pawn, and renders the teaching of the Gospel obsolete. This teaching is in clear violation of the Biblical teaching of conditionalism (Exod. 19:5,6; Deut. 28:1,15; Jeremiah 18:7-10 and many other texts in both the Old and the New Testament). It is the doctrine of predestination which opened the way to the acceptance of dispensationalism by the Calvinistic churches. Without the uttering in tongues in Irving’s church, this system of interpretation would never have arisen, because no one taking the Bible alone (sola scriptura) would have accepted it. Scripture warns against deceptive teachings of spirits. Paul writes:

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." 1 Timothy 4:1

and he admonishes us to make the word of God our standard.

"And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Ephesians 6:17

Referring to Christ,

"And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. For the perfecting of the saints for thee work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive."
Ephesians 4:11-14

by Professor Walter J. Veith Phd.