Pope...Antichrist?

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Matthew1344

Puritan Board Sophomore
Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

(2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 ESV)

Do any of you believe the Pope to be the Antichrist?

When i read the men of old, some of them did. What do you guys think? What is Paul saying?

I have never studied end times. I pretty much know that there will be a Jesus is coming, there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a judgment.

Other than that i am not real sure how it all pieces together or the types of views. So if you could, let me know what you guys think concerning the previous question, and send me to your scriptures and sermons concerning the matter.

THANKS!
 
Calvin and Luther spoke of the Antichrist as both the papacy and Islam:

The papacy was the Western Antichrist and Islam the Eastern Antichrist. Calvin refered to them as the two "horns" and Luther called them the two "legs" of the Antichrist. (Luther's Works, Weimer ed., 53, 394f)

"Lyke as Mahomet saith ty his Alcoran is ye soveraine wisdome, so saith the Pope of his owne decrees: For they be the two hornes of Antichrist."
—John Calvin
The Sermons of M. John Calvin upon the Fifth Booke of Moses called Deuteronomie, translated by Arthur Golding, first published in London, 1583, from a facsimile reprint by Banner of Truth Trust, 1987.

"the Pope is the spirit of antichrist, and the Turk is the flesh of antichrist. They help each other in their murderous work. The latter slaughters bodily by the sword; and the former spiritually by doctrine."
—Martin Luther, Tischreden, Weimer ed., 1, No. 330

"what is the Pope doing? He is sitting not in the natural temple or God's house, but in the spiritual, in the new and living temple of which Paul says: 'If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are,' I Cor. 3, 16-17. ... Thus you see whether the Pope is not the greatest arch-abomination of all abominations, to whom Christ and Daniel refer; and the true Antichrist, of whom it is written that he sitteth in the temple of God, among the people, where Christ is named and where his kingdom, spirit, baptism, Word and faith should be...."
—Martin Luther, "Sermon for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity; Matthew 24:15-28" from his Church Postil, first published in 1525
available online at Sermon for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity; Matthew 24:15-28

The Islamic Dome of the Rock sits, as if it were God, in God's place on Temple Mount.
The pope sits, as if he were God, in the spiritual Temple — the Church.

David
 
(2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 ESV)

This translation will not be helpful to the discovery. "Rebellion," "every so-called God," "proclaiming himself," obscure important reference points for understanding the passage.
 
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