W D Killen
The term Antichrist may mean either “instead of Christ” or “against Christ”. The early Church was troubled by false teachers and open enemies, all of whom might have been called antichrists. Such were the Gnostics, the Montanists, the Manicheans, the heathen and the Jews. “Many deceivers”, says the Apostle John, “are come into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist” (2 Jn 7). The Gnostics, who made their appearance about this time, fell under this description. But it does not follow that they alone were entitled to the designation. In sundry passages of Scripture there is a reference to a particular power – to develop subsequently – which, above all others, is entitled to be regarded as The Antichrist.
We are told that “the mystery of iniquity” was already at work, though meanwhile kept in check by certain obstructions (2 Th 2:7). His coming, says the Apostle, “is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders”. The marks by which the wicked one is described, when brought together and examined, shut us up to the conclusion that it can only be the papacy. The long continuance of this power is one of the mysteries of providence. It surely illustrates the blindness and the degeneracy of man. God has given him the Scriptures for his guidance; but he turns his back upon the light and follows his own devices. Such deviations from the right path existed under the Jewish dispensation; and the Bible discloses to us with marvellous accuracy the rise and progress of the great apostasy in the Christian Church, which commenced shortly after the days of the apostles. The predictions relating to it supply internal evidence of the inspiration of the writings in which they are found. Who but God, who sees the end from the beginning, could have been their Author? We may here refer to these prophecies.
In 2 Thessalonians (2:3,4) Paul announces “a falling away” which was to take place in the Church, and declares that there would then be revealed “that man of sin, 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, showing himself that he is God”. It is to this power that John particularly refers when he says, “Little children, it is the last time; and ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists” (1 Jn 2:18). His claims are prodigious.
Less than 150 years after the death of Paul, Victor was the chief pastor of
1Killen (1806-1902) was a professor of church history in Belfast. This is the first of two articles taken, with editing, from a chapter in Killen’s Reminiscences of a Long Life.
Rome. Only a little before, he had risen into special prominence and began to astonish the world by the extravagance of his pretensions. At that time, he threatened to excommunicate other churches because they dared to disagree with him on the keeping of Easter. About the same period – by giving currency to a spurious legend about Peter, and by sanctioning a misinterpretation of the language of Christ – the Roman Church ventured to assert a position which placed her immensely above all other ecclesiastical communities. In opposition to the plainest testimony, it was alleged that Peter had been bishop of Rome. It was further maintained that Christ had appointed him to be the foundation of the Church, against which the gates of hell should never prevail. Christ Jesus, the Lord of glory, is Himself the only foundation of the Church, and “other foundation can no man lay” (1 Cor 3:11); but this stupid misunderstanding of the Saviour’s words would place the Apostle of the circumcision above all that is called God or that is worshipped.
The Roman bishop was guilty of unutterable presumption when he permitted himself to be described as the Rock which sustains the Church of the living God. And he is equally worthy of condemnation when he calls himself “the vicar of God”. Christ requires no vicar to supply His place. He is the ever-living Saviour – the same yesterday, today and for ever. His eyes are always watching the earth, beholding the evil and the good; and He is ever able to save to the uttermost all who come unto the Father by Him. When we read of a man of sin who exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, and who sits in the temple of God, or in the Church, showing himself that he is God, is it not plain that the Pope answers this description?
Without any warrant from Scripture he sets aside the ordinances of heaven. He undertakes to act as the lawgiver of the Church, and to teach doctrines and observances condemned in the Bible. He promotes penances and pilgrimages, the worship of images, prayer to saints, and the doctrine of purgatory. He exacts from all his officials an oath of submission to his will, though Peter himself tells us that there should be no “lords over God’s heritage” (1 Pet 5:3). He imposes celibacy on all his clergy, and is the patron of an immense multitude of monks and nuns, though the Word of God expressly declares that “marriage is honourable in all”. By “forbidding to marry” (1 Tim 4:3), the Pope has stamped upon himself one of the marks of the great apostasy. And by commanding to “abstain from meats” he is further identified as the antichrist; for he requires his followers to conform to an arbitrary system of fasting.
In the prophecies of Daniel we have a striking description of some of the most remarkable characteristics of the Antichrist. It is said that the last of the four great beasts, which the prophet saw in his vision, had ten horns. “I
considered the horns,” said the seer, “and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots; and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things” (Dan 7:8). It is generally considered by our best commentators that the fourth great beast of Daniel represents the Roman Empire, and that its ten horns betokened the ten kingdoms into which it was divided. It is well known that the temporal power of the Pope rose up out of the ruin of three preceding dynasties – that is, the power of the Goths, the Imperial Greek power in Italy, and the kingdom of the Lombards.
This little horn, taking the place of these three preceding governments, was “diverse” from all the rest and distinguished by wonderful peculiarities. Such is the papacy. It is a spiritual as well as a temporal power. And truly it has “the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things”. The Pope claims to be the universal bishop, or inspector, of the whole Church, and he expects all to submit to his dictates. Beyond all question he has “a mouth speaking great things”. He professes to be infallible and to be able to forgive all the sins of all who apply to him. He utters great swelling words of vanity in his bulls and anathemas. The little horn had a “look . . . more stout than his fellows” (Dan 7:20). And who has not heard of the assumptions of the Roman Pontiff? He has undertaken to create kings and to dethrone them, to place whole nations under his interdicts, and to deprive them of religious services, as longs as he pleases. He has again and again proved himself to be the greatest despot in existence.
How extraordinary that, upwards of 2000 years ago, Daniel could foretell the rise and progress of this unique potentate, and describe his character and proceedings: “I behold and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them. . . . And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws, and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgement shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end” (Dan 7:21,25,26). History can tell how most of these prophecies have been already accomplished. The Pope has, indeed been but a “little horn” – the ruler of a small territory – for the States of the Church extended over only a limited section of Italy.2
Notwithstanding, his influence has been felt at the ends of the earth. He “wore out the saints of the Most High” in many lands. He stimulated thousands of soldiers to slaughter the Albigenses, the Waldenses and others. He “changed times and laws” – he arranged fasts and festivals as he pleased,
2A reference to the Papal States, over which the Pope was temporal ruler from 756 to 1870.
and required even monarchs to act as his menial servants. And “he spake great words against the Most High” – when he represented the Bible as a dangerous book and forbade the laity to read it without his permission. We may be sure that the doom of Romanism is fixed in the arrangements of the Eternal One and that, when the fullness of the time has come, it shall pass away for ever.