Reichskamphen
07-02-2004, 21:20
In this dark age of deception, when all manner of men run about attempting to decieve God's elect people, we can be assured of one thing, that those who are elect shall not be decieved. So it is written, and so it shall be!
It is time, as Protestant Christians to stand up for our beliefs, to unite against the Pope and his Roman Apostacy! Many of you might say that Rome has changed since the days of the Reformation, and is no longer an enemy to Christianity. I say, according to the documents of the Vatican itself, from the Council of Trent to Vatican II, that it has NOT changed. This is what the Roman Church itself claims.
It's false sacrifice in the mass is the greatest blasphemy upon the face of the earth, and countless other doctrines which it teaches to be Holy truth are naught but the doctrines of men. It can be demonstrated Biblically and Historically that the Papacy, not necessarily any individual Pope, but the Papacy itself is nothing less than the Anti-Christ! The Harlot of Babylon! We must do everything in our power to break the Scarlet threads of Rome and her Popery, for verily, when her day comes, she shall be cast into a sea of fire from whence there is no escape...thrown into the darkness where there shall be much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
I am not the first, nor will I be the last to think this. It was one of the guiding doctrines and theories of the great Reformation itself. This was believed by Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox, and the other great Reformers who established our faith. It is only due to a great shift in the packaging of Romanism over the last 50 years that has made what is the lie...the truth...and what is the truth...the lie.
I must say that I do not hate Catholics. Yea, I hate no natural man. I hate only Satan and his works and influences. In the words of C.H. Spurgeon;
"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. It wounds Christ, robs Christ of His glory, puts sacramental efficacy in the place of His atonement, and lifts a piece of bread in the place of the Saviour....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 loathe and detest their dogmas...."
I hate the sin...not the man. But it is my call that any Pope, whether it be John Paul II or any of the various Popes around this NS world claiming to be "heir" to the "throne of St. Peter" be exposed for who they really are.
It is written that God shall destroy Anti-Christ with the sword of his mouth, that is, being interpreted, his Holy Word. It is only through the word of God and of Jesus Christ, not by the swords of men, that he can be vanquished. If the Papists come to my door, I will defend my land against them, but I shall send no armies against Rome herself in an aggressive action unless it be direcly provoked by an attack against my Protestant brothers or myself!
I call on all true Christians to, in the words of the Reformation creed, Renounce the Pope and His Cults and Creeds! Through Christ salvation is found, not through the Pope or any of his vassals in the Church of Rome!
Stand up! Stand for Christ!
His Royal Highness,
King Viktor Leipzig I
Reichskamphen
07-02-2004, 21:24
Hereafter follows a scholarly proof (OOC: Not of my own fashion, sadly. Time would not permitt that. I did add one note into it though and shall soon discourse from my own mouth and hands about this subject) of my claims based on Holy Scripture with ideas and points taken from the work of John Calvin, Martin Luther, J.A. Wylie, John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Ulrich Zwingli, and many of the other founders of the reformation. Yes, that is correct, the view I express here is not a new or radical one, but one believed by the founders of Protestantism, yea even a basic belief of Protestantism which has been eroded away by the deceit of Popery.
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The student of prophecy will find that the Man of Sin is distinctly noted throughout the sacred writings, not only by giving a clear description of his character, but also by showing the times and places of his beginning, prosperity and decline.
This character is very forcibly delineated even in the names applied to it by the inspired writers. Paul calls it "That Wicked One," "The Man of Sin," "The Mystery of Iniquity," "The Antichrist," and "The Son of Perdition"; the Prophet Daniel calls it "The Abomination that maketh desolate" (`Dan. 11:31; 12:11`); and our Lord refers to the same character as "The Abomination of Desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet" (`Matt. 24:15`), and again as a "Beast" (`Rev. 13:1-8`). This same character was also prefigured by a little horn, or power, out of a terrible beast that Daniel saw in his prophetic vision, which had eyes, and a <272> mouth that spoke great things, and which prospered and made war with the saints, and prevailed against them. (`Dan. 7:8,21`) John also saw and warned the Church against this character, saying, "Ye have heard that Antichrist shall come." He then advises how to escape Antichrist's influence. (`1 John 2:18-27`) The book of Revelation, too, is in large part a detailed symbolic prophecy concerning this same Antichrist--though this we shall merely glance at here, leaving its more particular examination for a succeeding volume.
These various appellations and brief descriptions indicate a base, subtle, hypocritical, deceptive, tyrannical and cruel character, developed in the midst of the Christian Church; at first creeping in and up very gradually, then rapidly ascending in power and influence until it reaches the very pinnacle of earthly power, wealth and glory-- meanwhile exerting its influence against the truth, and against the saints, and for its own aggrandizement, claiming, to the last, peculiar sanctity and authority and power from God.
In this chapter we purpose to show that this Man of Sin is a system, and not a single individual, as many seem to infer; that as the Christ consists of the true Lord and the true Church, so Antichrist is a counterfeit system consisting of a false lord and an apostate church, which for a time is permitted to misrepresent the truth, to practice deceit and to counterfeit the authority and future reign of the true Lord and his Church, and to intoxicate the nations with false claims and assumptions.
We hope to prove, to the satisfaction of every conscientious reader, that this great apostasy or falling away mentioned by Paul has come, and that this Man of Sin has been developed, has sat "in the temple of God" (the real, not the typical), has fulfilled all the predictions of the apostles and <273> prophets concerning his character, work, etc., has been revealed, and now, since A.D. 1799, is being consumed by the spirit of the Lord's mouth (the truth), and will be utterly destroyed during this day of the Lord's wrath and revelation with flaming fire of retribution, already beginning.
Without any desire to treat lightly the opinions of others, we nevertheless feel it necessary to point out to the reader a few of the absurdities connected with the common view concerning Antichrist, that thereby the dignity and reasonableness of the truth on this subject may be properly estimated, in contrast with the narrow claim that all which the Scriptures predict concerning this character will be accomplished by some one literal man. This man, it is claimed, will so charm the whole world that in a few short years he will secure to himself the homage and worship of all men, who will be so easily imposed upon as to suppose this man to be God, and, in a rebuilt Jewish temple, to worship him as the Almighty Jehovah. All this is to be done at lightning speed --three and a half years, say they, misinterpreting the symbolic time, even as they misinterpret the symbolic "man."
Tales of fiction and the most absurd imaginations of childhood furnish no parallel to the extreme views of some of God's dear children who are stumbling over a literal interpretation of Paul's language, and thereby blinding themselves and others to many precious truths, which, because of error on this subject, they are unprepared to see in an unprejudiced light. No matter how much we may sympathize with them, their "blind faith" forces a smile as they seriously tell over the various symbols of Revelation which they do not understand, misapplying them literally to their wonderful man. In this, the most skeptical age the world has ever known, he will, they claim, in the short space of three and a half years, have the whole world at his feet, worshiping him as God, while the Caesars, Alexander, Napoleon, <274> Mahomet and others sailed through bloody seas and spent many times three and a half years, without accomplishing the one thousandth part of what is claimed for this man.
And yet those conquerors had all the advantages of dense ignorance and superstition to aid them, while today we live under conditions most unfavorable to such a development of deceit and fraud: in a day when every hidden thing is being manifested as never before; in a day when fraud of the sort claimed is too preposterous and ridiculous for consideration. Indeed, the tendency of our day is toward a lack of respect for men, no matter how good, talented and able, or what offices of trust and authority they may occupy. To such an extent is this true, as never before, that it is a thousand times more likely that the whole world will deny that there is any God, than that they will ever worship a fellow human being as the Almighty God.
One great obstacle to many, in considering this subject, is the contracted idea generally entertained of the meaning of the word god. They fail to note that the Greek theos (god) does not invariably refer to Jehovah. It signifies a mighty one, a ruler, and especially a religious or sacerdotal ruler. In the New Testament, theos is seldom used except in referring to Jehovah, because, in their discourses, the apostles spoke rarely and little of the false systems of religion, and hence seldom noticed their sacred rulers or gods; yet in the following texts the word god (theos) is used to refer to others than the one supreme being, Jehovah--viz.: `John 10:34,35`; `Acts 7:40,43; 17:23`; `1 Cor. 8:5`.
Recognizing the breadth of the Greek word theos, it will be seen at once that the Apostle's statement concerning Antichrist --that he will seat himself in the temple of God, showing himself to be a god--does not of necessity mean that Antichrist will attempt to exalt himself above Jehovah, nor <275> even that he will attempt to take Jehovah's place. It simply implies that this one will exhibit himself as a religious ruler, claiming and exercising authority over and above all other religious rulers, even to the extent of exalting himself in the Church, which is the true Temple of God, and there claiming and exercising lordly authority as its chief or authorized ruler. Wherever in the Greek the word theos is used in any sentence where its meaning would be ambiguous, it then is preceded by the Greek article, if it refers to Jehovah; as if in English we were to say the God. In the texts above, which refer to other gods, and in this text (`2 Thess. 2:4`), which refers to Antichrist, there is no such emphasis.
With this seen clearly, a great stumbling-block is removed, and the mind is prepared to look for the right things as fulfilments of this prediction: not for an Antichrist claiming to be Jehovah and demanding worship as such, but for one claiming to be the chief, supreme religious teacher in the Church; who thus attempts the usurpation of the authority of Christ, the divinely appointed Head, Lord and Teacher.
Strangely enough, too, they who take this literal view of the Man of Sin are generally those who are believers in the Lord's premillennial coming, who are looking for and expecting the Lord to come "at any moment now." Why cannot all see the Apostle's meaning, when he positively declares that the Day of the Lord (the Day of his presence) cannot come and should not be expected until after the Man of Sin has been revealed? It required over forty years to build the former Jewish temple, and it would surely require at least ten to twenty years to build, with more than former magnificence, the new temple at Jerusalem, where they expect a literal Man of Sin to be installed and worshiped as God. Why then should those who believe thus expect the Lord to <276> come at any moment now? Such a view is out of harmony with reason as well as with the Apostle's prophecy. Consistency demands that they should either give up looking for the Lord at any moment, or else give up their expectation of a future Man of Sin; for the Day of the Lord's presence cannot come until the falling away (the apostasy) has taken place, and until the Man of Sin has been developed and revealed out of that apostasy.
But when we get a correct view of the Apostle's words, together with correct ideas of the manner of the Lord's coming, we find no such discrepancies and contradictions, but a convincing harmony and fitness. And such a view we now present. Its Scripturalness the reader must prove.
The various titles applied to this system are evidently symbolic. They do not refer as names to a single individual, but as character delineations to a corrupt religious and civil combination, developed within the nominal Christian church, which, by its subtle opposition to Christ, the Head, and his true Church, his body, well earns the name Antichrist. Such a system could fulfil all the predictions made concerning the Antichrist, or Man of Sin, though an individual could not. It is evident, moreover, that this Antichrist system is not one of the heathen systems of religion, such as Mohammedanism or Brahminism; for the Christian Church has never been under the control of any such system, nor did any of these systems originate in the Christian Church. They now are, and always have been, independent of the Christian Church.
The system which fully answers the description given by inspiration must be professedly Christian, and must contain a large majority of those who claim to be Christians. And it must be one having its start as an apostasy, or falling away from the true Christian faith--an apostasy, too, which was secret and stealthy, until circumstances favored its assumption <277> of power. Its stealthy beginning was in the days of the apostles--in the desire of some teachers to be greatest.
We need not look long to find a character fitting all the requirements perfectly; one whose record, written by secular historians as well as by its own deluded servants, we shall see agrees exactly with the prophetic delineations of Antichrist. But when we state that the one and only system whose history fits these prophecies is Papacy, let no one misunderstand us to mean that every Roman Catholic is a man of sin; nor that the priests, nor even the popes of the Church of Rome, are, or have been, the Antichrist. No man is "the Antichrist," "the Man of Sin," described in prophecy. Popes, bishops and others are at most only parts or members of the Antichrist system, even as all of the Royal Priests are only members of the true Christ, under Jesus their head, and in the same manner that these in their present condition are together the antitypical Elijah, though no one of them is the Elijah or the Christ foretold. Notice, further, that the Church of Rome as an ecclesiastical system only is not the "Man of Sin," and is never presented under any figure of a man. On the contrary, a woman is always the symbol used for a church separate from its head and lord. The true Church is symbolized by a "chaste virgin," while the apostate church, which has fallen away from primitive purity and fidelity to the Lord, is symbolically called "a harlot." As the true "virgin" Church continues to be such to the end of the age, when she is to be united to her Lord and take his name--Christ--so the apostate church was not the Antichrist, or Man of Sin, until she united with her lord and head, the pope, the claimed vicegerent of Christ, and became a religious empire, falsely styled Christendom--which signifies Christ's Kingdom.
Papacy is the name of this false kingdom; and it was built upon a misapplied truth--the truth that the Church is <278> called to be kings and priests unto God and to reign on the earth. But the time for reigning had not yet come: the Gospel age was not appointed for that purpose, but for the selection, development, discipline, humiliation and sacrifice of the Church, following in the footprints of her Lord and patiently waiting and enduring until the time appointed for the promised exaltation and glorious reign--the Millennial age.
The Lord foresaw that nominal Christianity would spread over the world, and that, becoming popular, it would be embraced by many who would appreciate the form without entering into the spirit of its institution. He foresaw that as numbers of this sort would identify themselves with the Church, the worldly spirit, which is the opposite of the spirit of self-denial and self-sacrifice, would come in with them; that selfishness and a desire to be great and to rule, thus coming in, would not have long to wait until they could seize an opportunity; and that thus the Church would seek to dominate the world before the time-- or, rather, that the worldly element which would enter the Church would make its influence felt, and in the name of the true Church would grasp the civil power of earth which God had given over to the Gentiles, and which cannot pass fully into the hands of the true Church until the close of the Times of the Gentiles, A.D. 1914.
And thus it actually transpired: the nominal church began to fall away as it increased in numbers under the teaching and example of ambitious men whose ideas grew more and more favorable to the power and worldly influence which numbers and wealth brought with them. Gradually the spirit of the Church became worldly, and the things of the world were coveted. The suggestion of ambition was-- "If the great Roman Empire, with all its power and influence, <279> its armies and wealth, were only to support the Church, how honorable and noble it would then be to be a Christian! How speedily then would heathen persecutions cease! Then it would be in our power not only to overawe them, but to compel their adherence to the Church and cross and name of Christ. It evidently is not God's design that the Church should forever be subject to the world and persecuted by it: the Apostle's words, 'Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?' as well as our Lord's promises that we shall reign with him, and the many prophecies which refer to the reign of the Church, indicate clearly that such is God's plan. True, the Apostle wrote that our Lord would first return and exalt the Church, and exhorted that we should 'wait' for the Lord; but several centuries are now past, and we see no sign of the Lord's coming. We must understand that the apostles were to some extent in error. To us it seems clear that we can and should use every means to obtain a hold upon civil government and conquer the world for the Lord. It must be, too, that the Church should have a head--one to represent the absent Lord and to represent the Church before the world--one who would receive the homage of the world, exercise the authority of Christ, and rule the world with a rod of iron, as the Prophet David predicted." Thus gradually by a slow process of reasoning covering centuries, the real hope of the Church for exaltation to rule and bless the world--namely, the second coming of the Lord--was lost sight of, and a new hope took its place: the hope of success without the Lord, under the headship and lead of a line of popes. And thus, by collusion, intriguing and exchange of favors with the world, the hope of the Church became a false hope, a delusive snare by which Satan led from one evil and error to another, both of doctrine and of practice. <280>
The point at which the apostasy developed into the "Man of Sin" was when the Papal hierarchy exalted itself under the headship of an arranged line of popes, and claimed and attempted the rulership of earth in the name of, and pretending to be, Christ's Millennial Kingdom. It was a false, fraudulent claim, no matter how thoroughly some of its supporters believed it. It was a fraudulent, counterfeit kingdom, no matter how sincere some if its organizers and supporters may have been. It was Antichrist's, no matter how much they claimed and believed it to be the true Christ's glory and kingdom and power upon earth. It is a mistake to suppose that to be conscientious is always to be right. Every system of error doubtless has as many conscientiously deluded votaries as it has hypocrites, or more. Conscientiousness is moral honesty, and it is not dependent upon knowledge. The heathen, misinformed, conscientiously worship and sacrifice to idols; Saul, misinformed, conscientiously persecuted the saints; and so, too, many papists, misinformed, conscientiously did violence to the prophecies, persecuted the true saints and organized the great system of Antichrist. For hundreds of years Papacy has not only deceived the kings of the earth as to its power and claimed divine authority, and ruled over them, but even in the Church, God's Temple, where Christ alone should be recognized as Head and Teacher, it has seated itself and claimed to be the only teacher and lawgiver; and here it has deceived all, except the few, by its phenomenal success and boastful claims. "All the world wondered"--were astonished, deceived, bewildered-- "whose names were not written in the Lamb's book of life," and many whose names are written as saints of God were seriously perplexed. And this deception is the stronger because of the very gradual formation of these ambitious designs and their yet more gradual realization. It extended <281> over centuries, and, as an ambition, was already secretly at work in Paul's day. It was a process of little by little adding error to error--the supplementing of one man's ambitious declarations by those of another and another farther down the stream of time. Thus, insidiously, did Satan plant and water the seeds of error, and develop the greatest and most influential system the world has ever known--Antichrist.
The name "Antichrist" has a twofold significance. The first is against (i.e., in opposition to) Christ: the second significance is instead (i.e., a counterfeit) of Christ. {Note: Anti-Christ it was in the original greek meant Vice Christ, or Substitute Christ and when translated into English..Vicar of Christ..the same title the Pope calls himself by. Therefore when he calls himself the Vicar of Christ, he pleads before the bar of the world that he is the Anti-Christ} In the first sense the expression is a general one, which would apply to any enemy opposing Christ. In this sense Saul (afterward called Paul), and every Jew, and every Mohammedan, and all the Pagan emperors and people of Rome, were antichrists-- opposers of Christ. (`Acts 9:4`) But it is not in this sense of the word that the Scriptures use the name Antichrist. They pass over all such enemies, and apply the term Antichrist in the sense given above, as now its secondary meaning, viz.--as against, in the sense of misrepresenting, counterfeiting, taking the place of the true Christ. Thus John remarks, "Ye have heard that the Antichrist shall come. Even now there are many antichrists." (`1 John 2:18,19`) [The Greek distinguishes between the special Antichrist and the numerous lesser ones.] And John's subsequent remarks show that he does not refer to all opposers of Christ and the Church, but to a certain class who, still professing to be of the Christ body, the Church, had left the foundation principles of the truth, and were therefore not only misrepresenting the truth, but were, in the eyes of the world, taking the place and name of the true Church--hence really counterfeiting the true saints. John says of these, "They went out from us, but they were not of us:" they do not represent us, even though they may deceive themselves and the world on this subject. In the same epistle John declares <282> that those he mentions as many antichrists have the spirit of the Antichrist.
Here, then, is what we should expect, and what we do find in Papacy: not an opposition to the name of Christ, but an enemy or opponent of Christ in that it falsely bears his name, counterfeits his kingdom and authority, and misrepresents his character and plans and doctrines before the world--a most baneful enemy and opponent indeed--worse far than an outspoken foe. And this is true, be it remembered, even though some of those connected with that system are conscientiously astray--"deceiving and being deceived."
With these intimations as to the identity and characteristics of the Man of Sin, and when, and where, and under what circumstances, to look for him, we shall proceed to an examination of some of the historic evidences, proving, we think beyond reasonable question, that every prediction concerning the Antichrist has been fulfilled in the Papal system, in a manner and to an extent which, with the enlightenment of this day taken into account, all must admit could never be repeated. Space obliges us here to confine ourselves to a mere outline of the great mass of historic testimony. We have also confined ourselves to historians of recognized accuracy, in many instances going to Roman Catholic writers for their testimony or admissions.
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Hereafter follows a scholarly proof (OOC: Not of my own fashion, sadly. Time would not permitt that. I did add one note into it though and shall soon discourse from my own mouth and hands about this subject) of my claims based on Holy Scripture with ideas and points taken from the work of John Calvin, Martin Luther, J.A. Wylie, John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Ulrich Zwingli, and many of the other founders of the reformation. Yes, that is correct, the view I express here is not a new or radical one, but one believed by the founders of Protestantism, yea even a basic belief of Protestantism which has been eroded away by the deceit of Popery.
I, a Protestant, will disprove this "evidence" to prove my point that Catholics and Protestants are both true Christians.
The student of prophecy will find that the Man of Sin is distinctly noted throughout the sacred writings, not only by giving a clear description of his character, but also by showing the times and places of his beginning, prosperity and decline.
You claim to know the time of the end? The following quote is from the Bible.
Mark 13:32 (NIV)
"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the father."
This character is very forcibly delineated even in the names applied to it by the inspired writers. Paul calls it "That Wicked One," "The Man of Sin," "The Mystery of Iniquity," "The Antichrist," and "The Son of Perdition"; the Prophet Daniel calls it "The Abomination that maketh desolate" (`Dan. 11:31; 12:11`); and our Lord refers to the same character as "The Abomination of Desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet" (`Matt. 24:15`), and again as a "Beast" (`Rev. 13:1-8`). This same character was also prefigured by a little horn, or power, out of a terrible beast that Daniel saw in his prophetic vision, which had eyes, and a <272> mouth that spoke great things, and which prospered and made war with the saints, and prevailed against them. (`Dan. 7:8,21`) John also saw and warned the Church against this character, saying, "Ye have heard that Antichrist shall come." He then advises how to escape Antichrist's influence. (`1 John 2:18-27`) The book of Revelation, too, is in large part a detailed symbolic prophecy concerning this same Antichrist--though this we shall merely glance at here, leaving its more particular examination for a succeeding volume.
You never even linked the Pope with the Antichrist here. You are just mentioning the Antichrist. There are dozens of possiblities about someone with that much power and influence. The leader of the UN, the President of the US, etc...
These various appellations and brief descriptions indicate a base, subtle, hypocritical, deceptive, tyrannical and cruel character, developed in the midst of the Christian Church; at first creeping in and up very gradually, then rapidly ascending in power and influence until it reaches the very pinnacle of earthly power, wealth and glory-- meanwhile exerting its influence against the truth, and against the saints, and for its own aggrandizement, claiming, to the last, peculiar sanctity and authority and power from God.
Come on. You're just using big words. Like I said, there are dozens of corrupt people with tons of power. This paragraph proves nothing.
In this chapter we purpose to show that this Man of Sin is a system, and not a single individual, as many seem to infer; that as the Christ consists of the true Lord and the true Church, so Antichrist is a counterfeit system consisting of a false lord and an apostate church, which for a time is permitted to misrepresent the truth, to practice deceit and to counterfeit the authority and future reign of the true Lord and his Church, and to intoxicate the nations with false claims and assumptions.
First of all, it is your interpretation. Second of all, this is just repeating obvious and puts no link to the Vatican.
We hope to prove, to the satisfaction of every conscientious reader, that this great apostasy or falling away mentioned by Paul has come, and that this Man of Sin has been developed, has sat "in the temple of God" (the real, not the typical), has fulfilled all the predictions of the apostles and <273> prophets concerning his character, work, etc., has been revealed, and now, since A.D. 1799, is being consumed by the spirit of the Lord's mouth (the truth), and will be utterly destroyed during this day of the Lord's wrath and revelation with flaming fire of retribution, already beginning.
So far, you're not proving a thing. I'll continue cutting up this document later.