THE GREAT MEN OF THE REFORMATION

     The foundation of Protestantism rests on the prophecies of Daniel, chapters 2 & 7, whose prophetic focus centers on the fourth and final kingdom to rule the affairs of men until Christ returns for His bride: the kingdom of Rome. And the prophecies of Roman apostasy that the great Apostle Paul addressed in II Thessalonians, chapter 2 were drawn from his prayerful studies in the book of Daniel. Therefore, one must conclude that the last the book of the Bible "The Revelation of Jesus Christ" centers its prophecies on the age of Roman rule over the affairs of men. Our knowledge of historical chronology uniting Scripture with world events is imperative to know where we are today and where we are heading as a civilization.

     The Protestant scholars were unanimous in their conclusions concerning Rome in Bible prophecy, and the Bible's evidence supporting their conclusions is overwhelming: how the pope "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 [1,260 years (Nu.14:34; Eze.4:6)]. Dan.7:25. And how "they [the saints] shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days." Dan.11:33. This is the leading reason we see statements coming from the church of Rome declaring her supremacy over and above the Word of GOD while masquerading to stand under its precepts: "The church is above the Bible."—The Catholic Record, Sept.1, 1923. “We confess that the Pope has power of changing Scripture and of adding to it, and taking from it according to his will.”—Roman Catholic Confessions for Protestants Oath. This stands in utter denial of the words of Christ: "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." Jn.12:48.

     Over 3,400 years ago the LORD warned His children to never set a course that leads to one's self-destruction: "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you." "But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he hath despised the word of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him." Deut.4:2; Nu.15:30,31.

     Within today's religious quagmire of church apostasy there are those who stand ignorant of their sins against GOD, but who truly love Him and live up to the light of their understanding. This is where the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His covering righteousness stands in the gap to intercede for these individuals before the Father: "And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before the LORD, to make an atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him." Nu.15:28.

     And when Paul was in Athens "his spirit was stirred," and he gave his most profound public address, concluding with the admonition: "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent." Acts 17:30. This is also why faithful David earnestly prayed: "Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer." Ps.19:12-14.

How This Firm Foundation Has Been Circumvented

     When seminary students in Protestant colleges review this history they are steered away from publicly acknowledging the light the LORD shone on the Great Reformers: how the unfolding knowledge of Bible prophecy would gain strength through the Reformation, as it is written: "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry." Dan.12:4; Hab.2:3. Their voice in the pulpit is now strangely silent on the origins of liberty and how those who fought against it then have not changed today. Only their lack of opportunity through the LORD'S restraining hand stays the tide of the last display of religious tyranny that is prophesied to come, under the auspices of "Christianity."

     Most Christians are familiar with the phrase "By beholding we become changed." Ministerial students are taught to keep looking at those things that stunt their character growth in true godliness: wasting time on things wherein there is no profit [as the LORD said (Jer.16:19)]. Example: In every seminary there is a required course called "Spiritual Formation." The core of its impetus is to denounce both the KJV (whose manuscripts alone can historically be traced back to the Apostles original Greek manuscripts) and the LORD'S leading His people to divorce from the many sins of Rome, including Sunday sacredness. And those seminary students who, led of the Holy Ghost strive and "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" they are openly ridiculed under a façade of piety and scholarship. It is an educational mold that serves the enemies of Christ: specifically the Jesuit's goal to counter the reformation of the church with fictional fabrications against Bible prophecy and to circumvent the Bible's essential guidelines of repentance and salvation through Christ.

     As an aside, where I live in rural Tennessee we've had two Jesuits get caught red handed trying to wreak dissimulation in two different churches. And our churches here are small, with small budgets. And if they're willing to send their evil agents to tear us down, you can imagine what is going on in the grand scheme of things in world affairs.

     So be it! To enter the Christian faith according to Scripture's heritage, it is obvious that one must enter a warfare, not only with oneself but with everyone around us, for now we become the targets of Satan's fiery darts through his temptations and his pawns among men, who unbeknown to them do his bidding. And for today's Christianity to omit something as important as the apostasy of evangelizing sin as part of the Gospel that continues to reign in the church threatens the soul's salvation: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." Hos.4:6.

     "Every man did that which was right in his own eyes" seems to be theme these days (Jud.21:25), without taking into account the counsel of how "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy;" or "the works of the flesh" that Paul adamantly warned of; but most importantly the gift of heaven's love, Christ's Spirit of "agape," that seeks the other's temporal and eternal wellbeing. For the church to withhold the knowledge sin's great threat against life shows the complacency and apathy ruling in the church. But when we read of the heroism in the patriarchs and prophets, Christ and His disciples, His faithful church in the wilderness through the long dark centuries of papal rule, we must conclude that if they could succeed to the glory of GOD, so can we.

The following quotes of the Great Reformers reveal "the beast" of Revelation 13 and the Little Horn of Daniel 7:

Martin Luther (1483-1546) [founder of the Lutheran Church] Rome is “nothing else than the kingdom of Babylon and of very Antichrist….For who is the man of sin and the son of perdition, but he who by his teaching and his ordinances increases the sin and perdition of souls in the church; while he yet sits in the church as if he were God? All these conditions have now for many ages been fulfilled by the papal tyranny.” Martin Luther, First Principles, pp. 196-197.

John Calvin (1509-1564) [founder of the Presbyterian Church] “I deny him to be the vicar of Christ, who, in furiously persecuting the gospel, demonstrates by his conduct that he is Antichrist--I deny him to be the successor of Peter..I deny him to be the head of the church.” “Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman pontiff 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 (Pauls words in 2 Thessalonians 2) are not capable of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the Papacy” John Calvin, Tracts, Vol. 1, pp. 219,220.

John Wesley (1703-1791) [founder of the Methodist Church] “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 that is worshipped… claiming the highest power, and highest honor… claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone.” Albert Close, Antichrist and His Ten Kingdoms, London: Thynne and Co., 1917, p. 110.

King James (1566-1625) [Authorized the King James Version of the Bible] “The faithfull praiseth God for the Popes destruction, and their deliverance," and for "the plagues which are to light on him and his followers." "The Pope by his Pardons makes merchandise of the soules of men: Heaven and the Saints rejoyce at his destruction, albiet the earth and the worldlings lament for the same" James I, Paraphrase, in Workes, pp. 47, 57.

John Wycliffe (1324-1384) [Completed the 1st English translation of the Bible] “Why is it necessary in unbelief to look for another Antichrist? Hence in the seventh chapter of Daniel Antichrist is forcefully described by a horn arising in the time of the 4th kingdom. For it grew from [among] more powerful ones, more horrible, more cruel, and more greedy, because by reckoning the pagans and our Christians by name, a lesser [greater?] struggle for the temporals is not recorded in any preceding time. Therefore the ten horns are the whole of our temporal rulers, and the horn has arisen from the ten horns, having eyes and a mouth speaking great things against the Lofty One, and wearing out the saints of the Most High, and thinking that he is able to change times and laws.” (Daniel 7:8, 25 quoted) …"For so our clergy foresee the lord pope, as it is said of the eighth blaspheming little head." Translated from Wyclif's, De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae, vol. 3 pp. 262, 263.

William Tyndale (1484-1536) [1st translator of the Bible from the Greek] “The pope's forbidding matrimony, and to eat of meats created of God for man's use, which is devilish doctrine by Paul's prophecy,… are tokens good enough that he is the right antichrist, and his doctrine sprung of the devil.” 1 Timothy 4:1-3 Tyndale, An Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue, in Works, vol. 3, p. 171.

John Knox (1505-1572) [Scottish Reformer] He preached that Romish traditions and ceremonies should be abolished along with “that tyranny which the Pope himself has for so many ages exercised over the church" and that he should be acknowledged as "the son of perdition, of whom Paul speaks." In a public challenge he declared: "As for your Roman Church, as it is now corrupted… I no more doubt but that it is the synagogue of Satan, and the head therof, called the Pope, to be the man of sin of whom the apostle speaketh." Knox, The Zurich Letters, p.199.

Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) [Associate of Martin Luther]“Since it is certain that the pontiffs and the monks have forbidden marriage, it is most manifest, and true without any doubt, that the Roman Pontiff, with his whole order and kingdom, is very Antichrist. Likewise in 2 Thess. II, Paul clearly says that the man of sin will rule in the church exalting himself above the worship of God, etc." Translated from Melanchthon, Disputationes, No. 56, "De Matrimonio", in Opera (Corpus Reformatorum), vol. 12 col. 535.

Huldreich Zwingli (1484-1531) [great Swiss reformer quoted on Dec. 28, 1524]“I know that in it works the might and power of the Devil, that is, of the Antichrist… the Papacy has to be abolished… But by no other means can it be more thoroughly routed than by the word of God (2 Thessalonians 2), because as soon as the world receives this in the right way, it will turn away from the Pope without compulsion.” Principle Works of Zwingli, Vol. 7, p. 135.

Nicolaus Von Amsdorf (1483 - 1565)
"He (the antichrist) will be revealed and come to naught before the last day, so that every man shall comprehend and recognize that the pope is the real, true antichrist and not the vicar of Christ ... Therefore those who consider the pope and his bishops as Christian shepherds and bishops are deeply in error, but even more are those who believe the the Turk (ISLAM) is the antichrist. Because the Turk (ISLAM) rules outside of the church and does not sit in the holy place, nor does he seek to bear the name of Christ, but is an open antagonist of Christ and His church. This does not need to be revealed, but it is clear and evident because he persecutes Christians openly and not as the pope does, secretly under the form of Godliness." (Nicolaus Von Amsdorf, Furnemliche und gewisse Zeichen, sig.A2r.,v.).

Flacius (1570)
"The sixth and last reason for our separation from the pope and his followers be this; By many writings of our church, by the Divinely inspired Word, by prophecies concerning the future and by the special characteristics of the Papacy, it has been profusely and thoroughly proved that the pope with his prelates and clergy is the real true great antichrist, that his kingdom is the real Babylon, a never ceasing fountain and a mother of all abominable idolatry." (Flacius, Etliche Hochwichtige Ursachen und Grunde, warum das siche alle Christen von dem Antichrist ... absondern sollen).

Georg Nigrinus (1530 - 1602)
"The Jesuits claim to be sorely offended and have taken my declarations as an insult and blasphemy in branding the Papacy as the antichrist of which Daniel, Paul, Peter, John and even Christ prophesied. But this is as true as it is that Jesus is the Messiah, and I am prepared to show it even by their own definition of the word 'antichrist'." (Translated from "Nigrinus, Antichrists Grundliche Offenbarung" fol. 6v.).

"This Jesuit further contends that the Papacy cannot be antichrist because the Papacy has lasted for centuries, but that the antichrist is supposed to reign only for 3 1/2 years ... But no one doubts today that Daniel spoke of YEAR-DAYS, not literal days ... The prophetic time-periods of forty-two months, 1260 days, 1, 2, 1/2 times are prophetic, and according to Ezekiel 4, a day must be taken for a year." (Translated from "Nigrinus, Antichrists Grundliche Offenbarung" fols.28v. 29r.).

John Calvin (1509 - 1564)
"Though it be admitted that Rome was once the mother of all Churches, yet from the time when it began to be the seat of Antichrist it has ceased to be what it was before. Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman Pontiff 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." (Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol.3, p.149).

John Knox (1505 - 1572)
"Yea, to speak it in plain words; lest that we submit ourselves to Satan, thinking that we submit ourselves to Jesus Christ, for, as for your Roman kirk, as it is now corrupted, and the authority thereof, whereon 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 speaks." (John Knox, The History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland, p.65).

Thomas Cranmer (1489 - 1556)
"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." (Works by Cranmer, vol.1, pp.6-7)

Roger Williams (1603 - 1683)
Pastor Williams 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." (The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers by Froom, Vol. 3, pg. 52).

The Baptist Confession of Faith (1689)
"The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the church, in whom, by the appointment of the Father, all power for the calling, institution, order or government of the church, is invested in a supreme and sovereign manner; neither 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." (1689 Baptist Confession of Faith)

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646)
"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 exalts himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God." (1646 Westminster Confession of Faith).

John Wesley (1703 - 1791)
"... In many respects, the Pope has an indisputable claim to those titles. 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, destroyed innumerable souls, and will himself perish everlastingly. He it is that opposeth himself to the emperor, once his rightful sovereign; and that exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped - Commanding angels, and putting kings under his feet, both of whom are called gods in scripture; claiming the highest power, the highest honour; suffering himself, not once only, to be styled God or vice-God. Indeed no less is implied in his ordinary title, "Most Holy Lord," or, "Most Holy Father." So that he sitteth - Enthroned. In the temple of God - Mentioned Rev. xi, 1. Declaring himself that he is God - Claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone." (John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon The New Testament, p.216).

Charles Spurgeon (1834 - 1892)
"It is the bounden duty of every Christian to pray against Antichrist, and as to what Antichrist is no sane man ought to raise a question. If it be not the popery in the Church of Rome there is nothing in the world that can be called by that name. If there were to be issued a hue and cry for Antichrist, we should certainly take up this church on suspicion, and it would certainly not be let loose again, for it so exactly answers the description."

"Popery is contrary to Christ’s Gospel, and is the Antichrist, and we ought to pray against it. It should be the daily prayer of every believer that Antichrist might be hurled like a millstone into the flood and for Christ, because it wounds Christ, because it robs Christ of His glory, because it puts sacramental efficacy in the place of His atonement, and lifts a piece of bread into the place of the Saviour, and a few drops of water into the place of the Holy Ghost, and puts a mere fallible man like ourselves up as the vicar of Christ on earth; if we pray against it, because it is against Him, we shall love the persons though we hate their errors: we shall love their souls though we loath and detest their dogmas, and so the breath of our prayers will be sweetened, because we turn our faces towards Christ when we pray." (Michael de Semlyen, All Roads Lead to Rome).

Rev. J.A.Wylie (1808 - 1890)
"The same line of proof which establishes that Christ is the promised Messiah, conversely applied, establishes that the Roman system is the predicted Apostacy. In the life of Christ we behold the converse of what the Antichrist must be; and in the prophecy of the Antichrist we are shown the converse of what Christ must be, and was. And when we place the Papacy between the two, and compare it with each, we find, on the one hand, that it is the perfect converse of Christ as seen in his life; and on the other, that it is the perfect image of the Antichrist, as shown in the prophecy of him. We conclude, therefore, that if Jesus of Nazareth be the Christ, the Roman Papacy is the Antichrist." (J.A.Wylie, Preface to "The Papacy is the Antichrist, A Demonstration").

Ellen G. White (1827 - 1915)
"This compromise between paganism and Christianity resulted in the development of "the man of sin" foretold in prophecy as opposing and exalting himself above God. That gigantic system of false religion is a masterpiece of Satan's power - a monument of his efforts to seat himself upon the throne to rule the earth according to his will."

"To secure worldly gains and honors, the church was led to seek the favor and support of the great men of earth; and having thus rejected Christ, she was induced to yield allegiance to the representative of Satan - the bishop of Rome ... Prophecy had declared that the papacy was to "think to change times and laws. (Daniel 7:25)" (E.G.White, The Great Controversy, pp.49-51).

     You can see from the above quotes what the reformers believed. And there were many more reformers who knew the truth that the pope was the Great Antichrist of Bible prophecy whose number 666 matches his Latin title: Vicarius felii Dei whose letters add up to 666 in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin. It is he and he alone who helms the Catholic Church to its ruin. Men like William Tyndale, John Wycliffe, Philipp Melanchthon, Huldreich Zwingli, The Translators of the King James Bible—all stood unanimous in what the Bible plainly prophesied of the history of the apostate church masquerading in virtue.

     So, as this world's closing events unfold, and Rome, united with Apostate Protestants continue imposing their religion founded on "the tradition of men," leading their congregations into a false sense of security via the prophesied message of "Peace and safety," just know that GOD is calling for a faithful church, one that will "hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches:" "Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations." Deut.7:9.