The following quotes show just how far the churches of
today have strayed
from the wisdom of their founding fathers regarding the
awareness of the Antichrist.
We here are of the conviction that the papacy is
the seat of the true and real Antichrist...personally, I declare that I
owe the Pope no other obedience than that to Antichrist.
(Aug
18, 1520, from The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Vol. 2, pg. 121
by Froom).
Some persons think us too severe and censorious
when we call the Roman pointiff Antichrist. But those who are of
this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption
against Paul himself, after whom we speak and whose language we adopt...I
shall briefly show that Paul's words in II
Thess 2 are not capable of any other interpretation than that which
applies them to the Papacy. (Taken from Institutes
by John Calvin).
The oracles of God foretold the rising of an Antichrist
in the Christian Church; and in the Pope of Rome, all the characteristics
of that Antichrist are so mavelously answered that if any who read the
Scriptures do not see it, there is a marvelous blindness upon them.
(Taken
from The Fall of Babylon by Cotton Mather in Froom's book The
Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers Vol. 3. pg. 113.)
Knox wrote to abolish that tyranny which the pope
himself has for so many ages exercised over the church and that the
pope should be recognized as the very antichrist, and son of perdition,
of whom Paul speaks. (Taken
from The Zurich Letters pg. 199 by John Knox.)
Whereof it followeth Rome to be the seat of antichrist,
and the pope to be very antichrist himself. I could prove the same
by many other scriptures, old writers, and strong reasons. (Taken
from Works by Cranmer, Vol. 1, pp. 6-7)
Speaking of the papacy, he said, He is in an emphatical
sense, the Man of Sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure.
And he is, too, properly styled the Son of Perdition, as he has caused
the death of numberless multitudes, both of his opposers and followers...He
it is...that exalteth himself above all that is called God, or what is
worshipped...claiming the highest power, and highest honour...claiming
the prerogatives which belong to God alone. (Taken
from Antichrist and His Ten Kingdoms by John Wesley, pg. 110.)
He spoke of the Pope as the pretended Vicar of Christ on earth, who sits as God over the Temple of God, exalting himself not only above all that is called God, but over the souls and consciences of all his vassals yea over the Spirit of Christ, over the Holy Spirit, yea, and God Himself... speaking against the God of heaven, thinking to change times and laws: but he is the son of perdition (II Thes 2). (Taken from The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers by Froom, Vol. 3 pg. 52.)