"The little horn of Daniel 7, the man of lawlessness, the beast of Revelation 13: they all point to the papacy." Many Reformers taught this, and Seventh-day Adventists still do. Let Scripture answer.
Short answer: No. Scripture defines the antichrist as whoever "denies the Father and the Son" and does not "acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh." The popes have confessed that faith for nearly two thousand years. Daniel 7, 2 Thessalonians 2, and Revelation 13 describe persecuting powers and a final deceiver who claims to be God, not a line of bishops who kneel before Christ.
Key verses on the antichrist
- "so now many antichrists have appeared" (1 John 2:18)
- "Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist." (1 John 2:22)
- "every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist" (1 John 4:3)
- "those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh; such is the deceitful one and the antichrist." (2 John 7)
- "who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship" (2 Thessalonians 2:4)
Scripture quotations are from the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
What Catholics Actually Teach
The Adventist view first. A 1997 statement of the General Conference says: "The Roman Catholic system of church governance, based on extra-biblical teachings such as papal primacy, resulted in severe abuses of religious freedom as the church was allied with the state." It expects "the major Christian bodies as key players" to align with "the forces in opposition to God and to the Sabbath" at the end. Yet the same statement affirms that "many Roman Catholics are brothers and sisters in Christ" (gc.adventist.org). We return that charity.
The Catholic Church teaches: "Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers." The Antichrist is "a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh" (CCC 675). This deception "already begins to take shape in the world" whenever people claim to realize the messianic hope within history (CCC 676). The Church "will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover" (CCC 677).
What Catholics do not teach:
- That Catholics are safe from the deception. The final trial will shake "many believers" (CCC 675).
- That every pope was holy or every papal act right. Popes are sinners who need Christ's mercy.
- That the Church has defined who the final Antichrist is or when he comes. She teaches the final trial (CCC 675–677); names and dates are speculation.
The Biblical Case
1. Scripture defines antichrist by what he denies about Christ
"Who is the liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist" (1 John 2:22). The test is "every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God" (1 John 4:2). The popes confess the Father and the Son, and the Word made flesh, every time they pray the Creed. By St. John's own test, the papacy fails to qualify.
2. Antichrist was already active in St. John's day
"Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared" (1 John 2:18). The spirit of the antichrist "is already in the world" (1 John 4:3). St. John meant people who denied Christ, not a church office centuries later. Notice who those antichrists were: "They went out from us, but they were not really of our number" (1 John 2:19). Antichrist, in St. John, is the one who leaves the apostolic communion and denies the Incarnation, not the communion that stayed and confessed it.
3. St. Paul's lawless one is a person destroyed at Christ's return
He is "the one doomed to perdition" (2 Thessalonians 2:3), "whom the Lord [Jesus] will kill with the breath of his mouth and render powerless by the manifestation of his coming" (2:8). That describes one final figure, not a long succession of bishops across many centuries.
4. Christ promised His Church would not be overcome
Jesus said: "upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). He also told St. Peter: "I have prayed that your own faith may not fail" (Luke 22:32). If St. Peter's office became the Antichrist, the gates of the netherworld would have prevailed. (See Is the Papacy Biblical?)
Objections Answered
(a) "Daniel's little horn is the papacy: 1,260 years, from 538 to 1798."
At its strongest: The horn uproots three kings, speaks arrogantly, wears down the holy ones, and intends "to change the feast days and the law" for "a time, two times, and half a time" (Daniel 7:8, 24–25). The Adult Bible Study Guide reads that as "three and a half prophetic years, which, according to the year-day principle, indicates a period of 1,260 years." It says the bishop of Rome "established himself as the sole power in Rome as of A.D. 538," until 1798.
Answer: Daniel's horn is a king who rises after ten kings and is destroyed at the judgment, after which the kingdom "shall be given to the people of the holy ones of the Most High" (Daniel 7:26–27). The NABRE note identifies him as "Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175–164 B.C.), who usurped the throne and persecuted the Jews," and reads the time period as "an indefinite, evil period of time." Nothing in the text turns this period into 1,260 years. Nor does the history fit. In 538 Rome belonged to the Eastern emperor Justinian, and in 545 an imperial official put Pope Vigilius on a ship to Constantinople, where he spent years under the emperor's pressure (Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Vigilius"). That is not "sole power in Rome."
(b) "The man of lawlessness sits in the temple of God."
At its strongest: St. Paul's figure will "seat himself in the temple of God, claiming that he is a god" (2 Thessalonians 2:4). Historicists read "the temple" as the Church and see the pope's titles and claims to authority as self-exaltation. A paper from the General Conference's Biblical Research Institute summarizes this school as seeing "the Antichrist, the beast and the little horn as the Roman Catholic Church or as the papal system."
Answer: St. Paul's figure "exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship." No pope has claimed to be God. Popes confess Christ as true God and themselves as His servants who must answer to Him; their authority is what Christ gave the apostles, not a rival to His. And St. Paul says his readers "know what is restraining" (2:6). St. Augustine admitted he did not (see below). Humility fits this text better than certainty about one institution.
(c) "Revelation 13's beast rules forty-two months and bears the number 666."
At its strongest: The beast utters "blasphemies against God" and acts "for forty-two months" (Revelation 13:5–6), which historicists count as 1,260 years. Its number "stands for a person" (13:18).
Answer: St. John wrote to churches suffering under Rome. The NABRE note says the beast "symbolizes the Roman empire; the seven heads represent the emperors," and "The blasphemous names are the divine titles assumed by the emperors." On 666 it says: "The most likely is the emperor Caesar Nero." St. Irenaeus already warned that it is "more certain, and less hazardous, to await the fulfilment of the prophecy, than to be making surmises." For the related claim about Revelation 17, see Is the Catholic Church the Whore of Babylon?
(d) "The pope's title, Vicarius Filii Dei, adds up to 666."
At its strongest: The Latin title "Vicarius Filii Dei" ("Vicar of the Son of God") totals 666 in Roman numerals. The idea is older than Adventism, but a paper published by the General Conference's Biblical Research Institute traces its spread among Adventists to Uriah Smith: "The real turning point came in 1866 when Uriah Smith, editor of the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, wrote an article that supported the Vicarius Filii Dei interpretation and began its popularization among Seventh-day Adventists." It adds: "He continued his support of it in his highly influential 1881 commentary on Daniel and Revelation" (Ross E. Winkle, "A Calculated Exegesis of the Cryptographic Number of the Beast"). The argument is that Revelation 13:18 invites exactly this: "one who understands can calculate the number of the beast, for it is a number that stands for a person." St. Irenaeus himself proposed a Latin name, "Lateinos," calling it "a very probable [solution], this being the name of the last kingdom."
Answer: Start with the text. The NABRE note warns: "Many possible combinations of letters will add up to 666, and many candidates have been nominated for this infamous number." It explains that "the Greek form of whose name in Hebrew letters" gives the sum for "the emperor Caesar Nero," adding that the Latin form of the name gives 616, "the reading of a few manuscripts." A number St. John's first readers could calculate pointed to someone they knew, not to a Latin phrase centuries away.
Then the history. "Vicarius Filii Dei" is not the pope's official title. The phrase appears, applied to St. Peter, in the Donation of Constantine ("vicarius filii dei esse videtur constitutus"), which the Catholic Encyclopedia calls "without doubt a forgery, fabricated somewhere between the years 750 and 850." The Church's own title is "Vicar of Christ": "In virtue of his office, that is as Vicar of Christ and pastor of the whole Church, the Roman Pontiff has full, supreme and universal power over the Church" (Lumen Gentium 22). A vicar acts for another; he does not take his place. And St. Irenaeus? He meant the pagan empire of his day, "the last kingdom," and then refused to decide: "We will not, however, incur the risk of pronouncing positively." The same St. Irenaeus held up the church at Rome, "founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul," as the standard of apostolic faith (Against Heresies 3.3.2). He is the last witness an anti-papal reading can claim.
The Early Church Agrees
- St. Polycarp (Letter to the Philippians 7, early second century), who had known the apostles, repeats St. John's test: "For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist" (ch. 7).
- St. Irenaeus (Against Heresies 5.25 and 5.30, c. AD 180) describes the Antichrist as one man who "is anxious to be adored as God," and writes: "he will reign for three years and six months, and sit in the temple at Jerusalem; and then the Lord will come from heaven in the clouds." He reads Daniel's fourth beast as "the last kingdom" and its horns as "the ten last kings."
- St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lecture 15.11–12, c. AD 350) expects "a certain man who is a magician," who "is to come when the times of the Roman empire shall have been fulfilled, and the end of the world is now drawing near." For St. Cyril, "the fourth kingdom now is that of the Romans" (15.13): the empire, not the Church.
- St. Augustine (City of God 20.19) on 2 Thessalonians 2: "I frankly confess I do not know what he means."
Here is the concession, and it is real: like historicists, St. Cyril linked the Antichrist with the end of Rome's order, and St. Augustine reports others who did. But the Rome they meant was the empire. Unlike historicists, St. Irenaeus and St. Cyril expected one man at the very end of history, and none of these Fathers identified the Antichrist with the bishops of Rome, whose communion they shared.
Conclusion
Adventists take prophecy seriously and refuse to shrug at evil done in religion's name. Catholics should too. But Scripture's test is plain: does he deny the Father and the Son, and Jesus Christ come in the flesh? The Church that has proclaimed that faith since the apostles cannot be what St. John warned against.
If you were taught that the pope is the Antichrist, read 1 John 2 and 4 with fresh eyes. Then stay watchful, as the Church urges her own children, for the real deception still to come.
Come home. The successor of St. Peter has confessed Jesus Christ come in the flesh for nearly two thousand years, and that confession is the faith of the Catholic Church. Christ promised, "upon this rock I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18), and His Church never fell away or disappeared. It is the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of St. Peter and the bishops in communion with him. "It is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained" (CCC 816). We invite you to come and see the Church Christ founded, and to enter her.
Your next step: Come to Mass this Sunday at your local Catholic church. You can find one near you at MassTimes.org. Everyone is welcome; if you're not yet Catholic, pray with us but don't receive Communion yet. When you're ready to become Catholic, call the parish office and ask about OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. They will walk you through every step. Read our guide: How Do I Become Catholic? Not ready yet? Get our free pocket guide below and keep learning.
FAQ
Has the Church said who the Antichrist is? No. She teaches a final deception "by which man glorifies himself in place of God" (CCC 675), but has defined no name or date.
Did the Reformers call the pope the Antichrist? Many did. The Biblical Research Institute paper notes that "Luther identifies the papacy with the man of sin." It is an old Protestant tradition, but tradition must still answer to 1 John's test.
Do Adventists blame Catholics alone for past persecution? Their official statement says no: "To blame past violations of Christian principles on one specific denomination is not an accurate representation of either history or the concerns of Bible prophecy."
Sources
Scripture (NABRE, bible.usccb.org): Daniel 7:8, 24–27 (with NABRE notes on 7:7–8, 7:25); Matthew 16:18; Luke 22:32; 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4, 6, 8; 1 John 2:18–19, 22; 1 John 4:2–3; 2 John 7; Revelation 13:5–6, 18 (with NABRE notes on 13:1–10, 13:18).
Catechism of the Catholic Church (vatican.va): 675, 676, 677; 816.
Second Vatican Council (vatican.va): Lumen Gentium 22.
Church Fathers (newadvent.org): St. Polycarp, Letter to the Philippians 7 (ANF vol. 1); St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3, 5.25 and 5.30 (ANF vol. 1); St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 15 (NPNF2 vol. 7); St. Augustine, City of God 20.19 (NPNF1 vol. 2, ccel.org).
History: Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Vigilius" and "Donation of Constantine" (newadvent.org); Latin text of the Donation of Constantine, sec. 11 (The Latin Library).
Seventh-day Adventist sources: General Conference, "How Seventh-day Adventists View Roman Catholicism" (1997); Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, Daniel (1st quarter 2020), Lesson 8 (web version published by permission of the General Conference); Biblical Research Institute, Joel Ricardo Turpo Chaparro, "The Antichrist, the 1,260 Days, and the Rapture"; Biblical Research Institute, Ross E. Winkle, "A Calculated Exegesis of the Cryptographic Number of the Beast" (adventistbiblicalresearch.org).