The standard Catholic defense is that the "Antichrist" is an invention of modern, anti-Catholic prejudice or a tool created by Martin Luther in 1517 to justify his rebellion. But the raw truth is that, the identification of the Papal system as the Antichrist was not a theological tool invented by Martin Luther in 1517 to justify a political break from Rome; it was the identical conclusion reached by the very men who bled to translate the Scriptures into the English language centuries earlier. 1) John Wycliffe (The "Morning Star" of the Reformation, c. 1320–1384) Wycliffe, the Oxford theologian who initiated the very first translation of the Bible into Middle English, wrote extensively in his treatise De Papa (On the Pope): "The Pope is the antichrist here on earth, that exalted himself above all that is called God... He is the very man of sin who leadeth the church into apostasy by replacing the law of Christ with his own decrees." ---> Wycliffe's biblical expositions were so devastating to the Roman hierarchy that 44 years after his death, the Council of Constance ordered his bones to be exhumed, burned to ashes, and cast into the River Swift to try to erase his memory. 2) The Lollard Conclusions (1395) The Lollards, the direct followers of Wycliffe's biblical movement, pinned a list of twelve conclusions onto the doors of Parliament in London. The second conclusion explicitly declared: "That our usual priesthood which took its origin in Rome... is not the priesthood which Christ ordained to his apostles... but a counterfeit system that advanceth the pride of the Pope, whom we hold to be the very Antichrist." 3) William Tyndale (The Father of the English Bible, c. 1494–1536) Tyndale, who successfully translated the New Testament from the original Greek into English before being betrayed, strangled, and burned at the stake, wrote in The Exposition of the First Epistle of John: "The Pope's authority is the very kingdom of Antichrist, standing in the place of Christ, yet acting directly against Him... He sits in the temple of God, which is the souls of men, binding their consciences with laws of his own making, and throwing out the free grace of the Gospel." 4) John Bradford (Preacher, Translator, and Marian Martyr, 1510–1555) Right before he was chained to a stake in Smithfield to be burned alive during the reign of Queen Mary I, Bradford wrote a final farewell letter to his flock to lock in their prophetic foundations: "I confess to you, and to all the world, that the Pope is the Antichrist, the man of sin, and the son of perdition, who has corrupted the true faith of our Savior. Therefore, I reject him and all his laws, and I seal this truth with my blood." 5) Thomas Cranmer (Archbishop of Canterbury & Anglican Martyr, 1489–1556) Standing at the stake to be burned alive by order of the crown in 1556, Cranmer made his final, public, solemn declaration: "And as for the Pope, I refuse him as Christ’s enemy, and Antichrist, with all his false doctrine." 6) Martin Luther (Founder of the Lutheran Reformation) In his 1520 treatise, Adversus Execrabilem Antichristi Bullam (Against the Execrable Bull of Antichrist), responding to Pope Leo X’s decree of excommunication, Luther wrote: "I know that the Pope is Antichrist, and that his see is that of Satan himself… Already I feel greater liberty in my heart; for at last I know that the Pope is Antichrist, and that his throne is that of Satan." 7) John Calvin (Architect of the Reformed Tradition) In his monumental work, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin addressed the claim that the Antichrist must be a single person outside the church: "Daniel and Paul foretold that Antichrist would sit in the temple of God… We say that he is the Roman Pontiff. Since he seats himself in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God, we conclude that his kingdom is the very seat of the Antichrist." (Institutes, Book 4, Chapter 7, Section 25) 8) John Knox (Founder of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland) Knox’s very first public sermon in St. Andrews (1547) was a point-by-point historicist exegesis comparing the Papacy to the Little Horn of Daniel 7: "As for your Roman Church, as it is now corrupted… I no more doubt but that it is the synagogue of Satan, and the head thereof, called the Pope, to be that man of sin, of whom the apostle speaks, than I doubt that Jesus Christ suffered." 9) The Authoritative Denominational Confessions • The Lutheran Consensus ~ The Smalcald Articles (1537): "This teaching shows forcefully that the Pope is the very Antichrist, who has exalted himself above, and opposed himself against Christ because he will not permit Christians to be saved without his power…" (Article IV, 10–14) • The Anglican Consensus ~ The Irish Articles (1615): "The Bishop of Rome is so far from being the supreme head of the Universal Church of Christ, that his doctrine and position do advanced him to be that Man of Sin, foretold in the holy Scriptures…” (Article 80) • The Presbyterian Consensus ~ The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646): "There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself, in the Church, against Christ..."(Chapter XXV, Section VI) • The Baptist Consensus ~ The London Baptist Confession (1689): "The Pope of Rome is that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God; whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.” (Chapter 26, Paragraph 4) The early Protestants were deeply, sharply, and often violently divided over almost every major doctrine. The Lutherans and the Reformed broke fellowship over the physical nature of the Lord's Supper. The Anglicans and the Presbyterians fought bitter political battles over church government and bishops. The Baptists separated from them all over the proper mode and subjects of baptism. They split into entirely different denominations, authored separate confessions, and frequently refused to recognize each other's ministries. Yet, when it came to reading the prophecies of Daniel 7, 2 Thessalonians 2, and Revelation 13, they spoke with an absolute, unblended, singular voice. For four hundred years, across multiple centuries, different languages, and competing denominations, the men who translated the Bible and the men who died at the stake reached the exact same execution of history: The Papacy perfectly fulfilled every biblical marker of the Antichrist. The unanimity of their conclusion stands as an undeniable historical monument that modern, fast-paced futurism has simply forgotten.