ANTICHRIST: ONE MAN? OR MANY?
FOREWARD
Today, many are told over and over again that there will be just one man at the end of time who will be "The Antichrist" and no others. We are assured that there could not be "many antichrists" in the present. We must wait for just this this one man to arrive sometime in the future?[1]
Because of this widely-preached "doctrine", no one seems to be aware of the possiblity that there may be "many antichrists" now, and have been, just as the New Testament says there were in the 1st Century.
READ WHAT JOHN SAID:
Little children, it is the last time: and as you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. I John 2:18[2]
DID THE REFORMERS THINK THERE WOULD BE ONLY "ONE MAN" AT THE END OF TIME?
Did the leaders of the Reformation believe there was just one man they were waiting for at the end of time? That antichrists had not been in operation at their own present time?
Let us take a look at what the leaders of the Reformation said during their time. Were they waiting for some future one man? not believing they could be manifested throughout history to their own present time?
FROM THE WRITINGS OF THE REFORMERS
Martin Luther
"This is the work which we are doing at the present time. And as formerly stated, prophecies can only be understood after they have been fulfilled."
"O Christ my Lord, look down upon us and bring upon us Thy day of judgment, and destroy the brood of Satan in Rome. There sits the man, of whom the Apostle Paul wrote that he will oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God, that Man of Sins, that Son of Perdition. What else is papal power but sin and corruption? it leads the soul to destruction under Thine Own Name O Lord...I hope the day of judgment is soon to dawn!" (from a family letter)
Nicolaus von Amsdorf
"The beast we know is the Roman Empire, which carries and supports the red Babylonian whore, which is the Papacy. The mark of the beast is the canons, the decrees and ceremonies of the Pope, and all the ecclesiastical traditions concerning food, drink, and dress, singing, reading, and other childish things, which have nothing to do with, nor belong to, the Kingdom of God, which is True Christianity."
John Dale, Irish Bishop
"The great antichrist of Europe is the king of faces, the prince of hypocrisy, the man of sin, the father of errors, and the master of lies, the Romish pope.
"No abomination nor mystery of iniquity, as Paul calleth it, was ever found in these kingdoms, but now reigneth manifold in the detestable papacy or the monstrous kingdom of the antichrist, as all the world may see."
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer
"And foreasmuch as my hand offended, writing contrary to my heart, my hand shall first be punished therefore: for, may I come to the fire, it shall be first burned...And as for the pope, I refuse him as Christ's enemy, and antichrist with all his false doctrine." (Archbishop Cranmer had previously defended Rome. He placed his own hand that had written favorable things of Rome in the flames first before he himself was burned alive at the stake.)
William Tyndale
"And they have set up that great idol, the whore of Babylon, antichrist of Rome, whom they call pope; and have conspired against all commonwealths, and have made them a several kingdom, wherein it is lawful, unpunished, to work all abomination."
John Foxe
"The description of this second beast being well-viewed, it cannot be avoided, but needs must be applied to the Bishop of Rome, and to none other; as by History, and order of times, is evident to be proved. for who else representeth the horns of the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world, but only he? Who speaketh with the voice of the dragon so proudly as he?"
Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York
"This is our apostasy. We have forsaken him who has forsaken God,
and whom God hath forsaken: we have left that man of sin, that rose-coloured harlot with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, that triple-crowned beast, that double sworded tyrant, that thief and murderer, who hath robbed so many souls of salvation, and sucked so much innocent blood of christian martyrs, that adversary unto Christ, that pretensed vicar, who hath displaced the person, not only taking upon him Christ's room and office, but also boasting himself as if he were a god, and being content of his parasites so to be called. Daniel in his prophecies, Paul in his epistles, and John in his revelations, have most lively described and pointed him forth even as it were with the finger."
John Knox
"As for your Roman Church, it is now corrupted, and the authority thereof, wherein stands the hope of your Victory, I no more doubt but that it is the synagogue of Satan; and the head thereof, called the Pope, to be that man of sin of whom the Apostle speaketh, then that I doubt that Jesus Christ suffered by the procurement of the visible Church in Jerusalem. Yea, I offer myself by work or writing, to prove the Roman Church this day farther to degenerate from the purity which was in the days of the Apostles."
WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS ABOUT ANTICHRISTS
1 John 2:18 The early Church had already heard that antichrist was coming.
1 John 2:18 Even now there are many antichrists.
1 John 2:18 This shows that the last time has come.
1 John 2:22 Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is of antichrist.
1 John 2:26 These antichrists are trying to seduce us away from Jesus Christ.
1 John 4:3 The spirit of antichrist denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.
1 John 4:3 The spirit of antichrist is already in the world.
1 John 4:6 The spirit of antichrist is also the spirit of error.
2 John 7 There are many antichrists as well as the spirit of error in the world.
2 John 9 To overcome these antichrists and the spirit of antichrist, we must abide in the Doctrine of Christ.
