December 18, 2010 journal, the writing of the futurist theory distorting Biblical prophecy. "The view of Futurism, a product of the Counter-Reformation, was advanced beginning in the 16th century in response to the identification of the Papacy as Antichrist. Francisco Ribera, a Jesuit priest, developed this theory in In Sacrum Beati Ioannis Apostoli, and the Evangelistiae Apocalypsin Commentarij, his 1585 treatise on the Apocalypse of John. St. Bellarmine codified this view, giving in full the Catholic theory set forth by the Greek & Latin Fathers, of a personal Antichrist to come just before the end of the world and to be accepted by the Jews and enthroned in the temple at Jerusalem- thus endeavoring to dis-pose of the exposition which saw Antichrist in the pope. Most premillennial dispensation-alists now accept Bellarmine's interpretation in modified form.[citation needed] Wide spread Protestant identification of the Papacy as the Antichrist persisted until the early 1900s when the Scofield Reference Bible was published by Cyrus Scofield. This was his commentary promoted Futurism, causing a decline in the Protestant identification of the Papacy as Antichrist. Some Futurists hold that sometime prior to the expected return of Jesus (Yesu), there will be a period of "great tribulation"[37] during which the Antichrist, indwelt and controlled by Satan, will attempt to win supporters with a false peace agree-ment, and supernatural signs. He will silence all that defy him by refusing to "receive his mark" on their right hands or forehead. This "mark" will be required to legally partake in the end-time economic system.[38] Some Futurists believe that the Antichrist will be assassinated half way through the Tribulation, being revived and indwelt by Satan. The Antichrist will continue on for three and a half years following this "deadly wound".[39] [edit] Enlightenment. Bernard McGinn noted that complete denial of the Antichrist was rare until the Enlightenment. Following frequent use of "Antichrist" laden rhetoric during religious controversies in the 17th century, the use of the concept declined in the 18th century. Subsequent eighteenth-century efforts to cleanse Christianity of "legendary" or "folk" accretions effectively removed the Antichrist from discussion in mainstream Western churches. [40] In Mormonism, the term anti-Christ refers to those who deny the divinity of Jesus Christ, deny the Gospel, and oppose his faith. "It is a word used by John to describe one who would assume the guise of Christ, but in reality would be opposed to Christ (1 John 2: 18, 22; 1 John 4: 3-6; 2 John 1: 7)." In a broader sense Mormons believe that the anti-Christ, "is anyone or anything that counterfeits the true gospel or plan of salvation and that openly or secretly is courtyard up in opposition to Christ. The great antichrist is Lucifer, but he has many assistants both as spirit beings and as mortals." (Book of Mormon: Jacob 7: 1-23, Alma 1: 2-16, Alma 30: 6-60) [41] [edit] Western Church-Pre-Reformation-Archbishop Arnulf of Rheims disagreed with the policies and morals of Pope John XV. He expressed his views while presiding over the Council of Reims in A.D. 991. Arnulf accused John XV of being the Antichrist while also using the 2 Thessalonians passage about the Man of Sin, saying, "Surely, if he is empty of charity and filled with vain knowledge and lifted up, he is Antichrist sitting in God's temple and showing himself as God." This incident is history's earliest record of anyone identifying a pope with the Antichrist (See Antichrist (historicism)).[42] ( the dynasty of Popes have been called the Antichrist right on up until the modern age and I say a part of Antichrist) Pope Gregory VII (c. 1015 or 29-1085), struggled against, in his own words, "a robber of temples, a perjurer against the Holy Roman Church, notorious throughout the whole Roman world for the basest of crimes, namely, Wilbert, plunderer of the holy church of Ravenna, Antichrist, and archeritic."[43] ( Martin Luther named the Pope as Antichrist) We cannot stop the prophecy of Obadiah from being fulfilled. "Cardinal Benno, on the opposite side of the Investiture Controversy, wrote long descriptions of abuses committed by Gregory VII, including necromancy, torture of a former friend upon a bed of nails, commissioning an attempted assassination, executions without trials, unjust excommunication, doubting the Real Presence in the Eucharist, and even burning it.[44] Benno held that Gregory VII was "either a member of Antichrist, or Antichrist himself."[45] Eberhard II von Truchsees, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. in 1241 at the Council of Regensburg denounced Pope Gregory IX as "that man of perdition, whom they call Antichrist, who in his extravagant boasting says, I am God, I cannot err."[46] He argued that the ten kingdoms that the Antichrist is involved with[47] were the "Turks, Greeks, Egyptians, Africans, Spaniards, French, English, Germans, Sicilians, and Italians who now occupy the provinces of Rome."[48] He held that the papacy was the "little horn" of Daniel 7:8:[49] A little horn has grown up with eyes and mouth speaking great things, which is reducing three of these kingdoms--i.e. Sicily, Italy, and Germany--to subserviency, is persecuting the people of Christ and the saints of God with intolerable opposition, is confounding things human and divine, and is attempting things unutterable, execrable.[48]" This is the story of the rapture doctrine and Antichrist that took the focus off of the Pope as being the Antichrist for major doctrinal confusion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antichrist "Many Protestant reformers, including Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer, John Knox, and Cotton Mather, identified the Roman Papacy as the Antichrist.[32] The Centuriators of Magdeburg, a group of Lutheran scholars in Magdeburg headed by Matthias Flacius, wrote the 12-volume "Magdeburg Centuries" to discredit the papacy and identify the pope as the Antichrist. The fifth round of talks in the Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue notes, In calling the pope the "antichrist," the early Lutherans stood in a tradition that reached back into the eleventh century. Not only dissidents and heretics but even saints had called the bishop of Rome the "antichrist" when they wished to castigate his abuse of power. [33] William Tyndale, English reformer, held that while the Roman Catholic Empire of that age was the empire of Antichrist, any religious organization that distorted the doctrine of the Old and New Testaments showed the work of Antichrist. In his treatise The Parable of the Wicked Mammon, he expressly rejected the established Church teaching that looked to the future for an Antichrist to rise up, and he taught that Antichrist is a present spiritual force that will be with us until the end of the age under different religious disguises from time to time.[34] Tyndale's translation of 2 Thessalon-ians, chapter 2, concerning the "man of sin" reflected his understanding, but was signif-icantly amended by later revisers, including the King James Bible committee.[35] After the reforms of Patriarch Nikon to the Russian Orthodox Church of 1652, a large number of Old Believers held that czar Peter the Great was the Antichrist [36] because of his treatment of the Orthodox Church, namely subordinating the church to the state, requiring clergymen to conform to the standards of all Russian civilians (shaved beards, being fluent in French), requiring them to pay state taxes." (Bloody evil church history.) Martin Luther and his Reformation against the Catholic Church had the Antichrist named of both the Catholic Church and the Jewish impostures even though the Protestant church movement today have reversed his teaching and the enlightenment against the Antichrist.