Marrow Man
Drunk with Powder
I read this article by Gary DeMar this morning. I am wondering what others think about his comments concerning the WCF and the identification of "The Antichrist."
Like so many of today’s prophetic claims of “certainty” of who the antichrist is, the Bible in the sixteenth century was being read and interpreted through the lens of current events. When a political leader exerts his authority, there are prophecy writers today who are quick to identify him as the antichrist or the prelude to the antichrist. The Reformation grew out of doctrinal controversies and unbiblical practices of the Roman Catholic Church. It’s not surprising that those who had been persecuted for questioning the church in these areas to find justification for their judgments against Rome in the pages of Scripture. The belief that the Roman Catholic Church was the antichrist was so strong and certain that it was written into their confessional statements. For example, the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) included the following in Chapter 25 section 6:
There is no other head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can the pope of Rome, in any sense, be head thereof: but is that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself, in the Church, against Christ and all that is called God.
The antichrist designation was removed in 1789 in the American edition. The revised article reads, “There is no other head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can the pope of Rome, in any sense, be head thereof.” There remain groups today that still identify the papacy of the Roman Catholic Church as the antichrist, but most evangelicals no longer attribute the antichrist moniker to the papacy even though they still disagree with many of the church’s doctrinal claims and practices.