The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

V. Guild-Antichrist Not an Individual but a Succession

WILLIAM GUILD (1586-1657), Scottish divine, was born at Aberdeen and became a minister there. A Doctor of Divinity, he was made principal of King’s College in 1640, though displaced in 1651 for his devotion to the royalist cause. He was author of several works on prophecy, one being entitled Anti-Christ Pointed and Painted Out in His True Colours., or The Pope of Rome, Proven to Bee That Man of Sinne, and Sonne of Perdition, Fore-prophesied in Scripture. In this he brought to bear the supporting witness of Roman Catholics who died in the communion of that faith. Contending that Antichrist is “not one individual person, but a continued succession of manie, ¹¹ he devoted eighteen chapters to the prophecies of Paul (2 Thessalonians 2) and John (Revelation 12, 13, 17, etc.) concerning the claims, chronology, and characteristics of Antichrist, closing with his final ruin and destruction. PFF2 562.1

Another volume by Guild, The Sealed Book Opened, was similarly designed to prove the identity of “that Roman Antichrist,” and the increasingly insistent note that “her final destruction is surely at hand.” He connected the symbols of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13, citing the archbishop of Salizburg (Eberhard II) in 1240 as evidence. ¹² He contended that the reign of the saints will not be on the earth but in heaven. ¹³ PFF2 562.2