The Antichrist: His Portrait and History

I was very pleased and honored to receive a gift from Old Working Books & Bindery, the book you see in the above photo! It must be out of print. The author, Baron Porcelli, passed away in 1937. You can guess from his name that he’s Italian. He was born in Palermo, Italy and later became a British citizen.

This is a message on the first page of text in the book.

An Appeal to Bible Students by Rev. E. P. Cachemaille

At the present time the most important matter in the interpretation of the prophetic visions is the identification of the Antichrist. Is he amongst us now; and if so, who is he?

The Martyrs, the Reformers, and the Historicists generally, down to the present day, guided by the visions from Dan. vii. to Rev. xix., have no doubts on the matter: The Papacy, that is the succession of the Popes, is the Antichrist foretold and described in Scripture. Many precious and holy lives have been given up in attestation of this belief; and if the historical explanation of these visions be honestly and continuously followed all along, and compared with the facts of history, it seems impossible to believe otherwise.

A truth so damaging to the great power that claimed to represent Christ on earth had to be nullified somehow, and towards the end of the sixteenth century the Jesuit Ribera put forth his counter-scheme, the main point of which was that in the visions of Revelation all from the Sixth Seal onwards belong to the time of the end, when an Antichrist shall appear and have a brief career. This scheme, if true, would have rehabilitated the Papacy, by relegating the appearance of an Antichrist to a far distant future, not yet reached even now. How Ribera explained Dan. vii. 8-11, 20-26, does not appear, but in this connection those passages cannot be ignored.

Now these two schemes—beyond all question decisively antagonistic to each other and impossible of reconciliation—are before us at the present time, and have a multitude of supporters, learned and unlearned; and the momentous question has to be faced and answered by the individual Bible student: Which of these two ought I to follow? Shall I ignore the witness of all those learned expositors, and especially of that noble army of martyrs, who were willing to suffer even to death for what they had learnt through the Spirit from God’s Word? And shall I instead adopt the teaching of the defender of their murderer, of the slayer of the witnesses of Christ? Surely we must reply, God forbid !

The Historicists, no less than the Futurists, look for a personal Antichrist at the last; it could not be otherwise. If the critical period at the end be short, he who fills it cannot be other than a person; there is no room for a succession. But here is the grand difference. The Historicist Antichrist of the end is the last member or members of a succession that has lasted for more than twelve centuries; whereas the Futurist Antichrist is an imaginary person, hitherto unknown, who appears at short notice quite at the end, and runs a career of only three and a half years’ duration.

The identification of the Antichrist, then, is the matter of supreme moment, as Ribera well knew. It must not be treated as a side-issue; it will powerfully affect us nationally and not only religiously. Explanations of the Apocalyptic visions by those who follow Ribera’s lead are of comparatively little importance. As these explanations are supposed to relate to the still future, they are not tied down by any of the facts of history, and imagination can have full play. However devout and spiritually profitable some of them may be, the test question is—Where do they place the Antichrist? If at the far end, they are consciously or unconsciously following the lead of the Jesuit, and are ignoring the teaching of centuries of European history and of a great cloud of witnesses.

I earnestly appeal, not only to lay Bible readers, but especially to my clerical brethren, to look dispassionately into this great business, not as mere partisans of a system, but as sober-minded, scholarly students searching for the truth. They ought to have definite views on a subject of such paramount importance, a subject too that is so wonderfully clearing up in our day.

The following text-books perhaps embody all that is best on this subject, but unfortunately all are now out of print and can only be obtained occasionally on the second-hand market: The Approaching End of the Age and Light for the Last Days, both by Dr. Grattan Guinness; The Visions of Daniel and of the Revelation explained on the Continuous Historic System; The Prophetic Outlook To-day; Antichrist and his Ten Kingdoms, by Albert Close.

Continued in Chapter I. Meaning of the Term