The Pope as Antichrist

Chapter 27, “Of the Church,” in the Philadelphia Baptist Confession of Faith of 1742 (Chapter 26 in the 1689 2nd London Confession) says the following in the 4th section:

4. 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, and all that is called God; whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.

[The proof texts given are: Col. 1:18; Matt. 28:18-20; Eph. 4:11-12; 2 Thess. 2:2-9.]

The Philadelphia Baptist Confession was once the dominant confession used by Baptists in the United States. It is a revision of the 2nd London Baptist Confession, with two articles/chapters added.

Knowing these Baptist confessions are a revision of the Westminster Confession, it is interesting to notice what is the same and what is different.

Westminster 25.6 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 exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God.

The portion about the “Pope of Rome” remains intact, with the exception of not using a capital letter to begin the word “Antichrist.” (Though the capitalization might not be all that significant, since capitalization was more fluid and not as standardized in the 17th century.)

The Baptists also added, “whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming,” from 2 Thessalonians 2:8.

Various commentators on the confessions have noted that this text is dealing with ecclesiology rather than eschatology. Matthew Winzer represents one Reformed (Westminster) interpretation of the statement:

Propositionally therefore the statement about the antichrist only requires us to affirm (1.) that Christ alone is the head of the church, (2.) that the antichrist falsely assumes that headship, and (3.) the Pope, in falsely assuming that headship, acts as the antichrist. 

The 17th-century English Baptist minister Benjamin Keach identified the Pope of Rome with the horn in Daniel 7:21 that made war with the saints. He further said the prophecies of 1 Thessalonians 2 and 1 Timothy 4 “relate only to the Pope of Rome, and no other.” “If the Pope of Rome be not a man of sin, then Beelzebub is not a devil…he, and only he, is κατ εξοχην, the antichrist, and the very man of sin.” Tropologia, pp. 891-893

Until recently (perhaps to the last 100 years) it was common for Baptist and many Protestant church leaders to teach that whomever the Pope of Rome was at any particular time filled the roll of the antichrist. It seems to be rather uncommon today (probably on the one hand due to the spirit of ecumenism, and on the other hand to rise of dispensational eschatology identifying a singular person as Antichrist; additionally the New Hampshire Confession which superseded the Philadelphia Confession in the United States, does not mention the words pope or antichrist).

Bible verses on Antichrist:

• 1 John 2:18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
• 1 John 2:22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
• 1 John 4:3 and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
• 2 John 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

While the term antichrist seems to be used in a very limited and distinct sense by the apostle John, I think most teachers of salvation by grace through faith alone should be able to agree that the Roman Catholic system, its theology, and its head function in the spirit of antichrist. Hear Charles Spurgeon:

We must speak very hardly and sternly against error, and against sin; but against men we have not a word to say, though it were the Pope himself: I have no enmity in my heart against him as a man, but as anti-Christ...Every time you pass the house of Popery let a curse light upon her head: Thus saith the Lord:—“Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities” (Sermon “War, War, War”).

An Orthodox Baptist is

“…to be brief, an Orthodox Baptist is one who holds to the established faith without any reservations whatsoever…Beware of men who would obstruct the way to prevent Baptists from coming back to the Bible and taking their stand strictly on Bible grounds…Orthodox Baptists believe that the Bible is verbally inspired of God; that it was handed down from God to man, not in the rough to be worked over and polished by man’s wisdom, but as the finished product to be accepted as a complete rule of faith and practice for all ages, nothing added to it and nothing taken from it.” 

Louis Samuel Ballard in “L. S. Ballard Defines Orthodox Baptist,” The Orthodox Baptist, Thursday, August 8, 1935, p. 3

Psalm 12, metered

The following is a metrical rendition/translation of Psalm 12, common meter in six stanzas.

1. Help, Lord, because the godly man
Doth daily fade away;
And from among the sons of men
The faithful do decay.

2. Unto his neighbour ev’ry one
Doth utter vanity:
They with a double heart do speak,
And lips of flattery.

3. God shall cut off all flatt’ring lips,
Tongues that speak proudly thus,
We’ll with our tongue prevail, our lips
Are ours: who’s lord o’er us?

4. For poor oppress’d, and for the sighs
Of needy, rise will I,
Saith God, and him in safety set
From such as him defy.

5. The words of God are words most pure;
They be like silver tried
In earthen furnace, seven times
That hath been purified.

6. Lord, thou shalt them preserve and keep
For ever from this race.
On each side walk the wicked, when
Vile men are high in place.

This metrical versification appears in The Psalms of David: with a Selection of Standard Music Appropriately Arranged According to the Sentiment of Each Psalm or Portion of Psalm (William W. Keys, editor. Philadelphia, PA: William S. Rentoul, 1864. Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod). It is also informally called the “Keys Psalter,” because of the editorial work of William Wallace Keys. In this book the versification is set with the tune Heber by George Kingsley. I have taken the liberty to change the verse numbering to stanza numbering, in order match the way it would be used in a song to match a tune. The psalter numbering matches the Bible verse numbers.

Taking offense

A true story illustrating a point, a reasonable, responsible, honest, and mature approach to things with which we disagree.

A gentleman from one of the churches of Christ (Disciples of Christ) attended a service with some of his friends at their Baptist Church. When the sermon was concluded, these friends – knowing that their Baptist pastor had preached things strongly and much at variance with what their friend believed – began to make apologies for the sermon. Rather than soak in the apologies, this gentleman rebuked his friends, asserting that he was not offended. He said that when he attended a Baptist Church, he expected Baptist doctrine to be preached! Why would he be offended by that? He explained that if they visit his church of Christ, his church’s doctrine will be preached. They do not have to believe it, but should not be offended by it. Why expect something different?

So, apply this to The Sacred Harp. The book, like it or not, is firmly rooted in Christian (mostly, if not nearly altogether, Protestant) theology. Folks need to deal with that up front, understand it for what it is, and not be offended! Why deliberately come to, join in, participate in a Christian tradition, and then decide to be offended by it?

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Note: In the United States of America (but not here only) we have grown a culture of offense, watering and nurturing it, in which people think it is both their right to be offended and their right to fix the offense & the offender. This post is incited particularly by the recent revision of the 1991 edition of The Sacred Harp (one of 3 editions used) in such a way as to remove certain perceived offenses to people who are not part of “the people of the book.” In a strange case of cultural appropriation, non-Christians who like the style of music in The Sacred Harp have decided it is their right to remake it in their own image, to take our culture and mold it to fit theirs. Strangely, these same people usually oppose cultural appropriation when they think someone else is doing it!

Four aspects of church music

Ephesians 5:19 speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

1. “speaking to yourselves” The “congregational” aspect of Christian singing.
2. “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” The “biblical” aspect of Christian singing.
3. “singing and making melody in your heart” The “internal” aspect of Christian singing.
4. “singing and making melody … to the Lord” The “vertical” aspect of Christian singing.

Good Old Felix, Acts 24:22-24

Verse 22: Felix likely has “more perfect knowledge of that way” than the Jewish leaders presumed. There had been believers in Cæsarea at least from the time of Peter preaching to the household of Cornelius, a centurion held in respect of the people. Felix deferred or delayed a decision concerning Paul, with the excuse, “When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter.” Over a two-year period (v. 27) there is no evidence that he conferred with Lysias, or, if he did, that it made any difference. These two years follow a pattern (cf. verses 24-27).

Verse 23: The results of the hearing.

 

• Paul is kept in custody of the Romans. Felix “commanded a centurion to keep Paul.”
• Paul is afforded a great amount of freedom within the custody. Felix commanded the centurion “to let him have liberty” and also to allow Paul’s friends and companions “to minister or come unto him.”

Paul was not secured in a common jail, but placed in the custody of a centurion. Paul’s custody could be described as both having liberty (v. 23) and bound (v. 27). He was not free to leave, but he had some freedom of movement and concourse.

 

Verse 24: At a point “after certain days,” Felix sat with his wife and called Paul to speak about “the faith in Christ.” Felix’s wife Drusilla was a Jewess, that is, a woman of the Jewish faith and nationality (cf. Acts 16:1). She was the daughter of Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:20-23),[i] a sister of Herold Agrippa II (Agrippa of Acts 25:13-26:32), and a sister of Bernice (Acts 25:13, 23; 26:30). Drusilla had a prior arranged marriage to Azizus, but (according to Josephus: Antiquities, Book XX. 7.2) had been persuaded by Felix to leave her first husband to become his (third) wife.

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[i] Marcus Julius Agrippa, Herod Agrippa I, was a son of Herod Antipas (Matthew 14) and grandson of Herod the Great (Matthew 2).

Made in the image of God

I recently heard a Baptist preacher exclaim, “I’m not made in the image of God.” I almost believed him!😁Perhaps he identifies with the rest of God’s creatures rather than with man. Yes, man is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27; 9:6). Imago Dei is both Latin and theological terminology for “Image of God,” often used to express this biblical truth.[i]

Imago Dei is an expression of the connection between God and humanity. Man was made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). This does not mean that God who is a Spirit (John 4:24) was then in human form, but rather that mankind is made in God’s image in moral, spiritual, and intellectual essence, a creation of body, soul, and spirit that can commune with God in a way no other creature can. “Made in the image of God,” Imago Dei, makes man different than all other creatures in God’s creation.

The preacher’s argument was not that he was an animal rather than a man, but that after the fall man is no longer made in God’s image, but rather Adam’s image. “We lost that image,” he says. However, man did not “lose” the image of God, but that image was “marred” by sin in the fall of Adam. Consider the following Scriptures.

Man was made/created in the image of God.

• Genesis 1:26-27 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Man was made in the likeness (image) of God.

• Genesis 5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

Seth was begat in Adam’s likeness (v. 3) who was made in God’s likeness (v. 1)

• Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

Over 1600 years after creation, God describes man as made in his image (and this as a feature governing his actions toward his fellow man).

• Genesis 9:6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

Over 4000 years after creation, the Bible describes man as being in God’s image (and this as a feature related to his actions and accountability toward God).

• 1 Corinthians 11:7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.

Over 4000 years after creation, the Bible again describes man as made in God’s similitude (image, likeness), and this as a feature related to his actions toward his fellow man.

• James 3:9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.

There is a consistent thread that runs from creation into the New Testament, that man is made in the image of God. It is the basis of what sets man apart from the animals (Genesis 1:26-27) and even angels (Psalm 8:4-8), and a basis for instructing man how he ought to act and treat his fellow man (Genesis 9:6; 1 Corinthians 11:7; James 3:9). Yes, man has been marred by the fall, and only God through Christ can recover that ... but he still intrinsically has the image of God in which he was made. Failing to recognize this will lead to failure in correctly interacting before God with our fellow man.

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[i] We rural folk will usually just simply say “image of God,” but you need to know Imago Dei if you read much about this in theological writings or even just on the internet.

We are to preach the Word

“We are to preach the Word, and if we do it properly, there will be a call to a decision that comes in the message, and then we leave it to the Spirit to act upon people. And of course He does ... I feel it is wrong to put pressure directly on the will. The order in Scripture seems to be this – the truth is presented to the mind, which moves the heart, and that in turn moves the will.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones