The Testimony of the Spirit Concerning Antichrist

“And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.”  (Matt 10:18-20)

April 28, 2003 -- There is a principle laid out in this scripture that we would do well to heed.  It is notable that most bible expositors neglect this series of verses, other than to use them to exhort their readers to not fear persecution.  But I think that closer examination will show us a principle that will benefit us in our desire to understand Bible prophecy.

Let us start from the principle and work backwards to better understand it:

“…it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.”

The Bible confesses that the words of God’s true martyrs, as they stand at the judgment seat of men, are to be understood as the Word of God speaking through them to us.  In the scriptures, we are given the words of Jesus as He stood before judges and of the Martyr Steven as he testified against a perverse generation and of the words of Paul on trial - but these are not all the words of God’s faithful martyrs.  Surely the Holy Scripture is our only rule, and the tool by which we measure all things - but these scriptures in Matthew exhort us to heed the words of all of God’s martyrs as He speaks through them to us.  This is not to say that every man who is killed for his belief is a true Godly martyr.  That arch-heretic Servetus and his entire like are to be ignored in their martyrdom as they should have been in their lives.  But when God’s faithful servants, like the faithful William Tyndale, who preserved for us the Word of God in our own tongue, are martyred for Christ’s sake - we should pay special heed to the words they speak on God’s behalf at their deaths, for, as the scripture says:

“…when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.”

So we are to understand of God’s faithful martyrs that God Himself will give voice to wisdom and prophecy through the mouths of those who will suffer and die on His behalf.

The second principle we need to understand, is that these Martyrs, even today, testify to God against that Antichrist.  As the scriptures says,

“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held” (Rev 6:9)

So from this we can see this testimony against Antichrist from under the altar of God is CONTINUOUS throughout the age, until the coming of Christ in glory.  Those who would throw these prophecies into the past alone, prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70 a.d., or those who would tell us not to concern ourselves with the testimony of the Martyrs, since they believe that these prophecies will only have their fulfillment in the very end of time, need to listen to what the Bible says, continuing after verse 9:

“And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?  And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” (Rev 6:10-11)

This brings in an interesting concept.  Although we know that there is no time in heaven, time being a construct of the creation, we also know that unto God there is a specific number of God’s servants who are to be martyred on His behalf, and that this number will continue to be added unto those previously martryed until the Lord returns to judge and avenge their blood on them that dwell on the earth.  We know that this judgment, spoken of in Revelation chapter 6, could not have been the judgment that fell upon Jerusalem in 70 a.d., because the scriptures particularly mention that the number of the elect ones would include those “that should be killed as they were”.  We know from history that almost all of the Christians escaped Jerusalem (because of their understanding of Christ’s warning in Matthew chapter 24) a year before the Temple was destroyed.  They were not martyred because they fled to Pella on the Decapolis.

In fact we know that the largest number of Martyrs (tens of millions of saints in fact) that were to be added to the full number joined the ranks of martyrs during the Reformation time period.

One other crucial point that you would do well to note:  Many Bible teachers and expositors today rightfully encourage their hearers and readers to read and study from the Authorized King James Bible.  I have even heard some of these teachers go into great detail about how the King James Bible is the very Word of God, given unto us in our language by the Holy Spirit Himself.  Wouldn’t these same Bible teachers do well to heed the King James (Holy Spirit Inspired) translators, who identified the Papacy as the seat of Antichrist?

“…the zeal of Your Majesty towards the house of God doth not slack or go backwards, but is more and more kindled, manifesting itself abroad in the farthest parts of Christendom, by writing in defence of the Truth, (which hath given such a blow unto that man of sin, as will not be healed)” (Introduction to the KJB, 1611)

So the principle holds true, and should be heeded.  The word of the Holy Spirit agrees with itself in all parts, that the words of God’s martyrs should be held up to the rule of Holy Scripture - and if their lives, fruit, martyrdom and words are in accord with scripture - we ought to listen to God’s words spoken through their mouths and account it as wisdom bestowed towards us by God.

Let us hear them:

Mr. William Tyndale, who was strangled and burnt on the Lord’s behalf in 1536:

“Now, thought the Bishop of Rome and his sects give Christ these names, [Jesus, a savior, Christus, King appointed over all men, Emmanuel, God with us, Sanctus, that is, holy, that halloweth, sanctifieth, and blesseth all nations,] yet that they rob him of the effect, and take the significations of his names unto themselves, and make of him but a hypocrite, as they themselves be, they be the right ANTICHRISTS, and deny both the Father and the Son; for they deny the witness the Father bare unto the Son, and deprive the Son of all the power and glory that his Father gave him.” [Tyndale’s Works, vol. ii. p. 183 (Parker Ed)

One Mrs. Prest.  This testimony is found in an excellent article by Mr. Rand Winburn of iconbusters.com (in which he quotes from Acts and Monuments by John Foxe) which effectively and powerfully refutes the futurist antichrist article put forth recently by Mr. Alan Morrison:

“Mrs. Prest was found guilty of heresy by the Roman Catholic Bishop Turberville, then burned at Exeter, in 1558:

“I will rather die than do any worship to that foul idol, which in your Mass you make a god…… If denying to worship that bready god be my martyrdom, I will suffer it with all my heart…. Upon Sundays and holy days I made excuses not to go to the popish church…but God gave me grace to go to the true church. Not your popish church, full of idols and abominations, but where three or four are gathered together in the name of God, to that church will I go, as long as I live…. Let [the Sacred Host] be your god, it shall not be mine; for my Saviour sitteth on the right hand of God, and doth pray for me. And to make that sacramental bread, instituted for a remembrance, the very body of Christ, and to worship it, is very foolishness and devilish deceit.”

[Then stepped forth an old friar and asked her what she said of the holy pope.]

“I say that he is Antichrist and the devil."

 [Then they all laughed.]

“Nay, you have more need to weep than to laugh, and to be sorry that you were born, to be the chaplains of that whore of Babylon; I defy him and all his falsehood.”

[Then the bishop said the devil did lead her.]

"No, my lord, it is the Spirit of God which leadeth me, and which called me in my bed, and at midnight opened his truth to me."

[Then there was a great shout and laughing among the priests and others.] (John Foxe, Acts and Monuments, vol. 8, pp. 497-503.)

John Clark, the early reformer and Martyr of Jesus Christ, testified against the Papal Antichrist in writing in 1524:

“In the year 1524, at a town in France, called Melden, one John Clark set up a bill on the church door, wherein he called the pope Antichrist. For this offence he was repeatedly whipped, and then branded on the forehead. Going afterward to Mentz, in Lorraine, he demolished some images, for which he had his right hand and nose cut off, and his arms and breast torn with pincers. He sustained these cruelties with amazing fortitude, and was even sufficiently cool to sing the One hundredth and fifteenth Psalm, which expressly forbids idolatry; after which he was thrown into the fire, and burnt to ashes.” (Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Chapter 4)

Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, Martyr of Jesus Christ, killed for Christ’s sake in 1555:

“And as for the Pope, I refuse him, as Christ’s enemy, and antichrist, with all his false doctrine.” (Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Whitaker House edition, 1981, page 385.)

Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of Rochester and of London, martyred for Christ’s sake in 1555:

“The see is the seat of Satan, and the bishop of the same, that maintaineth the abominations thereof, is Antichrist himself indeed.  And for the same causes this see (of Rome) at this day is the same which St. John calleth in his Revelation “Babylon” or “the whore of Babylon,” and “spiritual Sodom and Egypt,” “the mother of fornications and of the abominations upon the earth.” (Farewell Letter, in Works of Bishop Ridley, p.415. Parker Ed.)

John Bradford, Prebendary of St. Paul's, and Martyr, A.D. 1555:

“Moreover, we certify your honours, that since your said unplacing of Christ's true religion and true service, and placing in the room thereof antichrist's Romish superstition, heresy, and idolatry, all the true preachers have been removed and punished” (from the Writings of Rev. John Bradford).

From a letter from John Bradford after his condemnation:

“This word of God, written by the prophets and apostles, and contained in the canonical books of the holy Bible, I do believe to contain plentifully all things necessary to salvation, so that nothing, as necessary to salvation, ought to be added thereto. And therefore neither the Church of Christ, nor any of his congregations, ought to be burdened with any other doctrine, that that which here-out has its foundation and ground. In testimony of this faith, I render and give my life, being condemned, as well for not acknowledging the antichrist of Rome to be Christ's vice-general and supreme head of the catholic and universal church, here or elsewhere upon earth. As for denying the horrible and idolatrous doctrine of transubstantiation, and Christ's real, corporeal, and carnal presence in his supper, under the forms and accidents, (or appearance,) of bread and wine.” (John Bradford, Last farewell to the City of London)

I certainly could go on and on, filling books with such testimonies made by the true Church of God against the Papal Antichrist throughout his continuous reign.  I will go into detail, if the Lord wills, about the Doctrine of the Papal Antichrist when I soon take that topic in hand during our Doctrines series of sermons.  What we deal with here, specifically, is the Testimony of the Spirit as it pertains to Antichrist.  We can now consider ourselves warned against grieving or quenching that Spirit of testimony that agrees with God’s complete and perfect Word.  Having now examined the Testimony of the Holy Spirit against the papistical religion, we can now move forward to test this most sure word against the Word of God, using as a firm basis of study our desire to apply Prophecy NOT just to times long past, which ignore the words of God through his millions of faithful martyrs, nor do we apply ourselves only to study things still future (though much of Prophecy lies before us), which succeeds only to blind us to God’s sovereignty in our own day and also in days past, but to apply scripture to all of our history, as John and Paul, God’s great apostles did.  Prophecy exists to prove God’s word, to glorify His Hand, to manifest His absolute power and sovereignty over events, peoples, Kings and rulers.  We will not divorce God’s prophecy from all of history, but will apply ourselves to a deep and principled study, avoiding the Jesuitical errors of Preterism and Futurism, knowing for certain that the foul tree of Papist doctrine can never put forth good fruit.

May God guide our eyes, our thoughts and our words according to His perfect Wisdom.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker