The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Who is the Antichrist?

Denny,

The problem I have with the WCF and its identification of THE Antichrist as the Pope is a hermeneutical one. Since I hold to the "Grammatico-Historico" hermeneutic (method of interpretation), I have to ask how the readers living during the Apostle John's day and/or immediately after "Revelation" was written understood these passages and how they were to be legitimately applied. Unless it can be established that these passages are futuristic, i.e., 1) prophetical and 2) have no relevance to the first century, then a view that identifies the pope as THE Antichrist is untenable, since the Roman State Church didn't even exist until nearly 200+ years after "Revelation" was written. So, how can such a view be justified historically? <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/scratchchin.gif" alt="" />

In His Grace,