Charles Spurgeon (1834 – 1892)
“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
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
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
