In Christian circles today, there is much talk about the Antichrist. Antichrist is first identified in Daniel Chapter 7 of the Bible as “the Little Horn.” Here, the prophet Daniel describes his future activities. In verse 21 it says: “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them.”
Who is the Little Horn? Without question, all of the early Protestant Reformers identified the Little Horn power as the Roman Catholic Papacy, which ruled Europe with an iron fist for over 1,000 years. This, of course, is the period of history known as the Dark Ages, during which the Roman Catholic Papacy put to death somewhere between 30 and 50 million people including many Christians who disagreed with the church’s unbiblical doctrines, such as purgatory and the worship of Mary. For example Jan Hus, a Catholic theologian, was arrested by the church and burned alive at the stake on July 6th in the year 1415. His crime? He opposed the sale of indulgences, which was money paid for the forgiveness of sins! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Hus)
Why did all of the early Protestant Reformers—like Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli—confess that the Little Horn Antichrist power of Daniel 7 was in fact the Roman Catholic Papacy, a union of church and state? It is because, Daniel’s description of the deeds of this Antichrist power confirms their identification.
He continues by saying “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.” (v. 25)
In other words, this power would blaspheme God by claiming the prerogatives of God like priestly authority to forgive sins and by claiming to be God on Earth. In more than one Roman Catholic publication, the Pope is referred to as “Lord God the Pope,” a clear example of blasphemy.
But what about the change of God’s law referred to by Daniel? The Roman Catholic Papacy has claimed to do just that by attempting to change the Bible Sabbath to Sunday. Notice this bold assertion by the Papacy:
“Most Christians assume that Sunday is the biblically approved day of worship. The Catholic Church protests that it transferred Christian worship from the biblical Sabbath (Saturday) to Sunday, and that to try to argue that the change was made in the Bible is both dishonest and a denial of Catholic authority. If Protestantism wants to base its teachings only on the Bible, it should worship on Saturday.”
— Rome’s Challenge 1893, Cardinal Edward Gibbons.
For more information on Catholic authority click here
Clearly, the great controversy here is between the authority of Roman Catholicism and the authority of the Bible, which is God’s Word to us.
The Temple of God — What Does It Mean?
In 2 Thessalonians 2, the Apostle Paul presents a picture of the Antichrist sitting in the Temple of God. Most Christians interpret the word temple to mean a physical structure or building. But the Greek word used here is naos, and Paul consistently uses it to refer to the spiritual temple, the Christian Church — as in Ephesians 2:19–22, where he calls the apostles and prophets the foundation of the temple, with Jesus Christ as the Chief Cornerstone.
Paul warns the Thessalonians:
“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.”
Now, we know that only God our Creator has both the authority and the power to forgive sins. When Jesus said “Thy sins be forgiven thee” to the paralytic, He was exercising His prerogative as God, since the angel Gabriel declared before His birth, “His name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”
Antichrist has attempted to usurp that divine power — the power to forgive sins — which belongs only to God. When a Roman Catholic confesses his or her sins to a priest, that priest is taking the place of God.
Antichrist Comes From Within the Church
Antichrist does not arise from outside the Church but from within the Christian Church, and in fact, Antichrist claims to be Christian. How do we know that? Because the Apostle Paul refers to the Antichrist as “the son of perdition.” Only one other person in Scripture bears that title: Judas Iscariot, the follower of Christ who betrayed Him with a kiss.
The prefix anti- in antichrist means “in place of.” That means the Antichrist is one who pretends to be the representative of Christ, who is God. So when the Pope refers to himself as the Vicar of Christ, he is claiming to act in place of Christ. This is why Roman Catholic literature refers to him as “Lord God the Pope.”
It is important, however, to remember that the vast majority of Roman Catholic parishioners are completely uninformed about the biblical definition of Antichrist and the fact that the Roman pontiff fulfills the descriptions given by Daniel and Paul. Because of this, we should treat Roman Catholics — and uninformed Protestants — gently, just as we would hope to be treated if the situation were reversed.
Where the Futurist Antichrist Doctrine Came From
Here’s where it gets interesting: Most Evangelical Christians today have “drunk the wine of Babylon” and believe that Antichrist is a future evil individual who will arise outside the Christian Church and persecute the Jews. Where did this idea come from? Certainly not from the Bible. This doctrine originated with a Roman Catholic Jesuit named Francisco Ribera, who published his futurist theories in 1591.
The Protestant world did not accept these ideas until the 1830s, when the Plymouth Brethren, under the leadership of John Nelson Darby, brought this teaching to America. Darby himself got the futurist Antichrist doctrine directly from another Jesuit writer, Emmanuel Lacunza.
Before the 1830s, Protestants used the historicist method of interpreting Bible prophecy, as seen in Daniel 2, where one kingdom follows another in historical succession: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome as the fourth kingdom. Daniel points out that the little horn Antichrist power arises from among the horns of the fourth beast — which is Rome. Therefore, Antichrist must be Roman, which is why the Papacy calls itself the Roman Catholic Church. Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?
When the Roman Empire collapsed, it divided into ten kingdoms — seven of which form the nations of Western Europe today. The decline of the Western Roman Empire was complete in AD 476, when the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, abdicated.
The Western Empire then became lawless and fragmented. The Roman Pontiff — the Pope — stepped into the void and took charge of Western Europe. He ruled for 1260 years, from AD 538 (when Justinian granted the Roman Pontiff temporal authority) until 1798, when Napoleon’s General Berthier arrested the Pope and took him into exile, where he died.
This fulfills Daniel’s prophecy that the little horn would reign for “a time, times, and the dividing of time.”Which is 1260 years. We can therefore be confident that God not only knows the future, but — as Daniel says — He sets up kings and takes them down at His will.
May God richly bless you as you study His Word under the influence of the Spirit of Christ.
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