Antichrist Pope


Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and [by] our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
(2 Thessalonians 2:1-4)


Recently, this statement has caused some scholars to believe the temple in Jerusalem must be rebuilt before the Antichrist can revealed there. However, in every other part of the Bible where Paul uses the phrase "the temple of God" he uses it figuratively to refer to the individual bodies of Jesus' followers, in whom God's Spirit dwells, or to refer to the entire congregation of Jesus' followers that constitutes the church. Unless this passage is an exception, in no place does Paul use "the temple of God" to refer to the building in Jerusalem. Rebuilding such a temple today would certainly result in world war, as it would require tearing down the third most holy mosque in Islam, which now sits on the temple site. Insisting that the temple must be rebuilt for the Antichrist to arise there is probably reading Paul's words too literally.

By saying that Jesus will not return until "the son of perdition" is revealed in the temple of God ," Paul may be implying that the end times will not occur until Satan posses a human being who is in a position of ultimate authority within the Church of God. This man of sin, or possessed person, will set himself up to be worshipped as God. And that view takes some fundamentalists back to keeping an eye on the papal seat.

The demonic posession of a Church authority who would set himself up to be worshipped as God is, of course, exactly how the Reformers understood this passage. The papal claim that all popes are infallible and are vicars of Jesus Christ on earth, became untenable to many when two popes both made the same claim of inerrancy while both contradicted each other to the extreme.

The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Protestant reformers believed that the same antichrist spirit possessed any pope who oppressed and killed lowly followers of Christ when they challenged his authority. So, it didnt matter that several popes at different timesfit this description of the Antichrist, even though the Apocalypse seemed to refer to only one. All popes who did such things were of one spirit. After all , the Apostle John had also written,

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard the the antichrist cometh, even now are there are many antichrists; by which we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us;  for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be shown that they were not all of us. 
(1 John 2:18,19)

From the book

End-Time
Prophecies
of the BIBLE
by
DAVID HAGGITH

pages; 344, 345