This is chapter 8 of The Effect of the Jesuit Eschatologies on America Today – by Dr. Ronald Cooke

Ribera wrote his commentary on the book of Revelation in 1590. In it he repudiated the idea that Antichrist was the Papacy. He set forth Antichrist as a man who would not appear until the very end of the age.

In the decade of the 1820’s two professors, S. R Maitland of Oxford University and James Todd of Dublin University, resurrected Ribera’s thesis and both men put out a series of books supporting The Jesuit and repudiating the Protestant Reformers.

Ribera’s thesis had laid dormant for almost 250 years. It lay in Oxford University, “a time bomb waiting to explode” as Colin Standish said.

Well, Maitland and Todd saw to it that the bomb went off just as the Tractarians were beginning to launch their attack upon the Anglican Church. The works of Maitland and Todd certainly aided the cause of the Oxford Romanizers. And when they detonated their bomb, it caused a fall out of such magnitude as to completely neutralize the teaching of the Protestant Reformers on Antichrist in Bible-believing circles to this day.

Maitland was the librarian of the Archbishop of Canterbury, so he had some power and prestige to help spread his writings throughout Anglicanism and the English speaking world. His chief works on Antichrist consisted of, An Inquiry into the Grounds of the Prophetic Period in Daniel and St, John (1826), and A Second Inquiry (1829), He also wrote, An Attempt to Elucidate the Prophecies Concerning Anti Christ (1830).

James Todd, was born in Dublin Ireland in 1805. He became a librarian at the University of Dublin. He also wrote several works on the Antichrist. His main works were, Discourses on the Prophecies Relating to Antichrist in the Writings of Daniel and St. Paul, and, Six Discourses on the Prophecies Relating to Antichrist in the Apocalypse of St. John. These works all repudiated the Protestant position and promoted the Jesuit position on the identity of the Antichrist. They directed their readers AWAY from the Papacy to an unknown secular man. They surely could not have hoped for a more favorable reception than they received. It was almost total. And surely their view helped John Henty Newman, as he himself testified that he had held the Reformed Protestant view of Antichrist since he was fifteen years old. And this was the first Protestant teaching which he came to reject in his long journey to Rome.

It is remarkable to note how the various tentacles of Rome were at work to strangle Protest England at the beginning of the 19^th century. It is even more remarkable to note that the same forces were at work to, strangle Protestantism in the United States in the 20^th century. The Jesuits, are nothing, if not hard workers. Lacunza sought to get his book into England under the guise of a converted Jewish Rabbi, Ben Ezra. And many people were at first deceived on this point. But his book was received just as_ favorably, even after it became known he was a Jesuit and not a Jewish convert.

At the same time as the Tractarian Movement was taking off in the Anglican Church, Emanuel Lacunza, another Jesuit, was publishing his work, The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty. Edward Irving, translated the Spanish Edition of Rabbi Ben Ezra’s work into English and published it in 1827. Irving was not deceived into thinking Lacunza was really a converted Jewish Rabbi called Ben Ezra. For in the preface of his translation, Irving brought out the details about the real author, Emanuel Lacunza, the Spanish Jesuit. This information was revealed to Irving by the sponsors of the Spanish edition printed in London in 1810.

The work of Emanuel Lacunza, the Spanish Jesuit, helped to corroborate and revitalize Ribera’s teaching of a future-only Antichrist. Lacunza’s work was another powerful force in that “wonderful” revival of Jesuit teachings among Protestants, that Clarence Larkin alluded to in his work on Dispensationalism.

Truly, the era between 1820 and 1880 was a time of Jesuit triumphs in England. in fact, it was the beginning of the end of Protestantism in the Anglican Church. Bishop J. C. Ryle, Dean Farrar, William Goode, and some others sought to stem the tide. But these men passed from the scene as Anglicanism entered the twentieth century, and it has been all downhill ever since.

The issue of the identity of the Man of Sin is much more important than many people now realize. For obviously, no Christian wants to unite with the Man of Sin. So if Roman Catholicism is the home of the Papal Man of Sin, no Protestant on earth would want to unite with such evil. So the identifying of the Papacy as the Man of Sin was the first item that had to be dealt with if Ecumenism was to become a reality and the Roman Catholic Communion was to be recognized as Christian. The Man of Sin was put off into a future time zone so as to clear the Roman Catholic Church of the stigma that the Protestant Reformers had placed upon her. The Jesuits cleared the way for Ecumenism to proceed. And proceed it did. For ECT (Evangelicals and Catholics Together) I and ECT II were both triumphs for the Jesuits. For the first time in history since the Protestant Reformation, Bible-believers joined forces with Roman Catholics to further the cause of Ecumenism.

Obviously no one, in his right mind, could think of uniting with the Man of Sin. So if some kind of union was to take place between the two communions, both communions would have to be regarded as “Christian.” So for Protestants to unite with Roman Catholicism, they would of necessity have to regard the Roman Catholic System as another Christian Communion, so they would have to drop their teaching that the Papacy of Rome was the Man of Sin and the Antichrist of Scripture.

The view of Protestants was, and still is, set forth in the Westminister Confession of Faith.

This was basically the position of the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Lutherans, Methodists, and Baptists up until about the year 1820. In fact the Baptist Confession of Philadelphia practically quotes the statement from _the Westminister Confession. Adam Clarke, the Methodist commentator, went into great detail to teach that the wild Beast of the Apocalypse was the Papal Kingdom, and some modern Evangelical Lutherans also still regard the Papal kingdom as Antichrist.

So for about three hundred years after the Reformation, the denominations that were formed in Protestant circles all followed the Reformers teaching on Antichrist. Now there are scarcely any Protestant denominations that do so. Is that not remarkable?

In once Protestant academic institutions the impact of the Jesuits theologically and philosophically, is almost total. The magnitude of the Jesuit triumphs escapes millions of Bible-believers today. Prior to 1820 (using an arbitrary date) the_majority_of Protestant Denominations identified the Antichrist with the Papal Man of Sin. After the efforts of the Jesuits, and the Tractarians, this was no longer so.

The Man of Sin was removed from the present and put back into the first century or put off into the end times. He was no longer in any way, identified with the papacy. This was the start of the long road of Protestantism back to Rome. The Protestant Ecumenical Movement began officially in 1948 with the establishment of the World Council of Churches. It was not long until dialogue and co-operation with Roman Catholicism was being promoted.

Then the New Evangelicals, starting at the same time, also opened up dialogue with Roman Catholicism. Then the New Evangelicals began calling for a co-belligerency with Roman Catholicism to fight secular humanism. Then the Pope of Rome, after he died, was praised by Billy Graham in this way:

Accompanying all this fulsome praise of the Pope there was the cry, of UNIVERSAL PRIMATE OF THE CHURCH, also going up all over the world. So from being regarded as the Papal Man of Sin, by almost all Protestants, the Popes of Rome have now ascended to the throne of the Universal Primate of the “church.” Surely, even the Jesuits could not have foreseen such success for their efforts.

Nor could they have hoped for a better reception from the leaders of the Evangelical and Reformed Churches. The magnitude of the Jesuit accomplishments is overwhelming. While millions of Bible-believers put Antichrist back into the first century of the Church, and millions of other Bible-believers put Antichrist off into a future time capsule, the present Antichrist is for all intents and purposes looked upon as the Head of the Ecumenical Church.

Could the blindness of modern self-confessed Bible- believers be greater? Could the ignorance of modern self- confessed Bible-believers be more widespread? Could the acceptance of the Papal Man of Sin be more overwhelming? The Reformed Protestant testimony is all but gone. My how the mighty have fallen and the weapons of warfare perished! Only a tiny minority are still at war with the Papal Man of Sin; the rest_have fallen theologically, philosophically, ecclesiastically, politically, educationally, culturally, and eschatologically into his welcoming arms.

So by putting Antichrist out of the PRESENT whatever is happening now, has nothing to do with the Papacy or the Jesuits. It is some other evil secular conspiracy energized by secular men. It is not in any way RELIGIOUS, nor does it concern the “church.” The Bible, however, does not agree.

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (1 Corinthians 11:13-15).

REFERENCES

1. Westminister Confession, Graham and Heslip, Belfast, N. Ireland, 1933, p. 87.

2. Life Magazine, Special Commemorative Edition, p. 6.

Continue to the next chapter: The Cultural Struggle

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