Answering Protestant Assertions That the Papacy is the Antichrist
The following Protestant leaders were among those who believe the Catholic Church and the papacy are the Antichrist referenced in Sacred Scripture. (See end of post for a Catholic response.) Martin Luther (1483-1546) Lutheran "Luther … proved, by the revelations of Daniel and St. John, by the epistles of St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Jude, that the reign of Antichrist, predicted and described in the Bible, was the Papacy." From History of the Reformation of the Sixteen Century , J. H. Merle D’aubigne, Book VI, Chapter XII, p. 215. "[N]othing else than the kingdom of Babylon and of very Antichrist. For who is the man of sin and the son of perdition, but he who by his teaching and his ordinances increases the sin and perdition of souls in the church; while he yet sits in the church as if he were God? All these conditions have now for many ages been fulfilled by the papal tyranny." From First Principles , pp. 196-197. John Calvin (1509-1564) Presbyterian