Re: Protestants & The Papacy

Now that you say that, I do somewhat remember you saying the papacy was the antichrist.

You betta believe it chuck.

I guess I was thinking about some other Finalists who believe the prophecies about the antichrist have already been fulfilled.

They have - already been fulfilled, I mean. Both Paul & John say as much (see 2 Thess 2:6-7, 1Jn 2:18, 4:3, for example), but it is also true to say that there is a future, fuller, grander fulfilment yet to be realized. This is a common eschatological device, deliberately used (I believe) to make it impossible to predict a precise end-time schedule.

Of course, that doesn't deter our futurist brethren from having a go, and getting it consistently wrong to date. Some ppl just can't take a hint, nevermind our Lord's express warnings against indulging in such futile & fruitless speculation. I feel a humdinger coming on, but it will hafta take a backseat to all the other humdinger's waiting patiently in the background.

The rest of all you said about the meaning of the prefix "anti" in antichrist agrees with the article I posted above ...

Hmm.....now there's a surprise. Must have a butchers sometime to see what he(?) hasta say on the subject. But yeah, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck......... then it's just gotta be the antichrist. No wonder poor old Ian Paisley couldn't contain himself. He just hadta call it as he sees it, even while being unceremoniously ejected from the chamber (and punched, if I heard correctly) by antichrist's blind henchmen. 

Personally, I love the man. I heard him preach once, and he was simply amazing. There was no way his spiritual insight and integrity would allow him to just sit there and passively listen to antichrist spouting his universalist claptrap.

.....even though he believes the antichrist is Satan himself.

Again, there is a sense in which that is also true, insofar as Satan is his puppetmaster. But that he is also a distinct individual who will appear in the end times, there can be little doubt.