Who first called the the papal power antichrist?

Hmmmm...was it...Dave Hunt or Jack Chick...ohhhh I don't know, the expense is killing me...

ICXC NIKA
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papal antichrist............

here are some quotes , from learned men from ages past .

Roger Williams (First Baptist Pastor in America)
He 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 (II Thess. 2)." Taken from The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers by Froom, Vol. 3, pg. 52

John Knox (Scotch Presbyterian)
Knox wrote to abolish "that tyranny which the pope himself has for so many ages exercised over the church" and that the pope should be recognized as "the very antichrist, and son of perdition, of whom Paul speaks." Taken from The Zurich Letters, pg. 199 by John Knox.

John Calvin (Presbyterian)
"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." Taken from Institutes by John Calvin

Arnulf Bishop of Orleans (Roman Catholic)
"deplored the roman popes as "monsters of guilt" and declared in a council called by the King of France in 991ad that the pontiff, clad in purple and gold, was, "Antichrist, sitting in the temple of God, and showing himself as God" -Phillip Schaff, History of the Christian church, 8 vols., reprint of the 3d (1910)ed. (Grand Rapids Mich.: Wm. B Eerdmans Publishing Co., n.d

Eberhard II, archbishop of Salzburg (Roman Catholic)
"stated at a synod of bishops held at Regensburg in 1240 (some scholars say 1241) that the people of his day were "accustomed" to calling the pope antichrist." -LeRoy Edwin Froom, The Prophetic Faith of our Fathers, 4 vols. (Wash DC: Review and Herald publishing assc, 1950-1954)

John Wycliffe
"When the western church was divided for about 40 years between two rival popes, one in Rome and the other in Avigon, France, each pope called the other pope antichrist - and John Wycliffe is reputed to have regarded them as both being right: "two halves of Antichrist, making up the perfect Man of Sin between them."

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You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time. john knox

 

The first to do this was the RCC. Popes called rival popes "Antichrist" eventually they got Wycliff and Luther to start doing it. Did you mean to ask "Who were the first non-Catholics to call the Pope Antichrist"?? (Of course it would be hard to argue that Wycliff and Luther were not in fact Catholics)

in Christ,

Bob

 

The rival popes only called each other anti-christ not the RCC of the Constantine era - as you note.

I don't know who was the first to make the connection between the 4 beast little horn and the Papacy starting at the time of Constantine.

But it is an interesting study.

in Christ,

Bob

 

16th century certainly had a lot of people noting this "papacy" connection

 

There are many antichrists...do you mean "the" antichrist?

 

Why would anyone think that SDAs are the source for this? Are you implying that things have come to the point that people associate this particular idea with a distinctive for SDAs??

SDAs are possibly the largest single Sabbath keeping Christian group today - so I understand why some think that they started that idea for Christians or they are the only ones who accept the Sabbath (as mistaken as those ideas are)... but why would they think SDAs are the source for the Papacy-Pagan-Rome connection?

 

GE,

RE I want to find out whom the residents think the first person was who first linked or identified papal Rome as antichrist with Constantine. - Specifically the Church at Rome and its pope after Constantine as antichrist, one could say with Constantine originator of Roman Catholicism.

This doesn't mention Constantine directly, but Sylvester I was pope from 314 to 335 and Constantine the Great became sole emperor in 325. Here is a quote from Bonacursus, ca. 1176-1190:

"... (The Cathars) assert that the Blessed Sylvester was the Antichrist of whom we read in the Epistle: 'The son of perdition," is he "who is lifted up above all that is called God.' From that day, they say, the Church was lost..."

from An Exposure of the Heresy of the Cathars, Made before the People of Milan by Bonacursus, Who Formerly Was One of Their Masters

Quoted in Heresies of the High Middle Ages (1991) page 170.

CA

 

GE,

I'd say it was Peter or John. I refer to their meeting with Simon Magus in Acts 8:20-23. He who tried to buy the Spirit for money then went on to Rome as "Simon Patrus" (vs. Simon Petras) and is likely the "first pope" of the RCC.

John and Paul seemed to know about this AC thing and that it already existed before Rome (one of the first epistles was 2Thes where Paul says "the mystery of iniquity doth already work"). He, no doubt, would have heard about Simon Magus at the Jerusalem council.

And, of course, he never mentions seeing Simon Peter in Rome -- when, by all accounts he should have been -- only Luke and some others.

skypair

 

Well... remember... Bonacursus isn't agreeing with the statement, he's just reporting what the Cathars said.

CA

 

This is all I know: Bonacursus

CA