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"Papacy As Anti-Christ"


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Every now and again, someone raises the question of historical thought on who is the anti-christ. Whereupon someone points out that Bro. McConkie (sp?) in first ed of Mormon Doctrine claimed it was the Catholic church, a view that the church does NOT espouse, This week when reading about someone's faith at CNN, I learned something about the origin of that thought. Thought you all might be interested. No question Martin Luther was challenging the papacy's authority. But seems to me that is a quite a stretch from declaring it the Anti-Christ.

... The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod has come under criticism from some Catholics for its views on the papacy, an institution that the denomination calls the Antichrist. "We identify the Antichrist as the Papacy," the denomination's website says. "This is an historical judgment based on Scripture."

...The debate over the legitimacy of the papacy goes back to the Protestant Reformation. The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod's namesake is Martin Luther, who led the 16th century Reformation and who opposed the papacy.

“The issue of the papacy as the Antichrist does go back to Luther - he did use that terminology,” said Professor George C. Heider, theology chair at Valparaiso University, a Lutheran school in Indiana.

“Luther’s point was, that in his view, the pope was so obstructing the gospel of God’s free love in Jesus, even though he wore all the trappings of a leader in the church," Heider said. "He was functioning as the New Testament describes it as the Antichrist.”

Still, Heider notes that Roman Catholics and Lutherans have close ties today. They recognize each other's baptisms, a point of contention in relations between the Catholic Church and other Protestant denominations.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/15/michele-bachmann-officially-leaves-her-church/?hpt=hp_t2
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I was actually taught this when I was at John MacArthur's college. In fact, they had a seminar once called "Standing Room Only," meaning it was up to us to take a stand against accepting Catholocism as Christian. The funny thing was that hardly any people showed up. When I asked my roommates why they didn't go to it, they told me they couldn't stand for two hours and when they heard it was standing room only they decided not to sign up. :rofl:

Anyway, many that oppose the ECT movement use the writings of Luther and Calvin, as well as the prophecies of Revelation 17, to oppose the Catholic church.

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Opposing claimants for the Papacy were denoucning each other asevil as early as 800AD. The roots of claiming someone is the antio-Christ are probably as old as any division in the early Church.

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Every now and again, someone raises the question of historical thought on who is the anti-christ. Whereupon someone points out that Bro. McConkie (sp?) in first ed of Mormon Doctrine claimed it was the Catholic church, a view that the church does NOT espouse, This week when reading about someone's faith at CNN, I learned something about the origin of that thought. Thought you all might be interested. No question Martin Luther was challenging the papacy's authority. But seems to me that is a quite a stretch from declaring it the Anti-Christ.

It might be well to keep in mind that Luther's critique came from within the Roman Catholic Church. He was both a priest as well as a doctor of the Church. When he went on pilgrimage to Rome that fateful time, he was no country bumpkin. Yet he was deeply shocked and angered by the bacchanalia going on within the Vatican itself, in which the Pope was a full participant.

His sharp, systematic, and public critique of his own Church which resulted not only led to the Protestant Reformation, but it also led to a Counter Reformation within a Catholicism which was embarrassed and humbled at its clearcut divergence from true Christianity. Sincere efforts to return to some semblance of true Christianity have continued within Catholicism, including major steps taken by Vatican II.

Perhaps this entire episode is indicative of the very real effects of the Great Apostasy, Luther being one of the most effective witnesses to its substance.

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