The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

VIII. Uncompromising Declaration of Westminster Standard

It is noteworthy that, though the Church of England in her strongly antipapal Thirtynine Articles refrained from identifying the Pope as the “man of sin,” the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), ratified and established by Act of Parliament in 1646, did so identity him. Thirty five times is 2 Thessalonians appealed to, and the Apocalypse fifty seven times. Many of the most prominent Westminster divines were united upon two main points—premillennialism and the first resurrection. They publicly confessed and preached them. Apart from ten or eleven Independents, seven Scottish commissioners, and two or three French divines, most of the ministers were graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, in Episcopal orders, voting in favor of Presbyterian government, Puritan discipline, and high Calvinism.” ⁶⁴ PFF2 553.1

The Confession of Faith formulated by this Assembly of Divines stayed in with the doctrinal standards of the Continental, English, and Irish Reformers. It was in agreement with Article 80 of the Irish Articles of Religion of 1615, which had earlier declared: PFF2 553.2

“The Bishop of Rome is so far from being the supreme head of the universal Church of Christ, that his works and doctrines do plainly discover him to be that man of sin, foretold in the holy Scriptures, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and abolish with the brightness of His coming.” °* ⁶⁵ PFF2 553.3

Woven into the Westminster Confession of Faith., which may be regarded as the strongest premillennialist symbol of Protestantism, are the Historical interpretation of the Antichrist, in which is implicit the year day principle, and the premillennial expectation of the advent: PFF2 553.4

“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, and all that is called God.” PFF2 553.5

“As Christ would have us to be certainly persuaded that there shall be a day of judgment, both to deter all men from sin, and for the greater consolation of the godly in their adversity: so will he have that day unknown to men, that they may shake off all carnal security, and be always watchful, because they know not at what hour the Lord will come; and may be ever prepared to say, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen.” ⁶⁶ PFF2 554.1

The turbulence of the Fifth Monarchy men was unable to divert the Assembly from the Protestant interpretation of the prophetic symbols or commit it, in reaction, to a rationalistic Preterism. Light is not opposed to darkness more than is the Westminster symbol to the rationalistic Preterism, which had tortured the Apocalypse into a mere epic upon the destruction of Judaism and paganism, or the Temple and the Pantheon. PFF2 554.2

With these solemn affirmations of the Protestant churches of the seventeenth century, the voices of the leading expositors of all Protestant persuasions of the age agree, as their writings testify. PFF2 554.3

And now for a few other Protestant expositors to fill out the picture and to indicate continuing emphasis on Antichrist. PFF2 554.4