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The Protestant churches today and even some brethren are backing away from identifying the Antichrist power, and yet the Reformers and even those before them saw clearly who the Antichrist was. What is happening to the churches today, are they becoming blind and forgetful of the truth they once saw clearly, as to who was the leader of the Antichrist entity, and gave scriptural proof.

Here is good description of Martin Luther's conviction on this...
"Luther came to think of the pope as the Antichrist because, first, of what the general tradition was about where to find the Antichrist. The Antichrist was someone subverting the Church from within. That was the expectation popularly. And when he saw the papal office and read the histories and saw it subverting the gospel as he understood it, he became convinced that that was the proof that the papal office was the office of the Antichrist, trying to destroy God's church from within.

The pope claimed to be Christ's representative on earth. Luther became convinced that the pope was the devil's representative on earth. And that took graphic form very early in the Reformation ... with one of the most effective pieces of propaganda in the early Reformation: a series of 26 woodcuts that juxtaposed some action in Christ's life with something in the papacy. Christ carrying his cross to be crucified; the pope being carried in his throne on the backs of people ... . Christ washing the feet of the disciples; the pope having his feet kissed. And over and over again, scenes from Christ's life juxtaposed with scenes from the papacy. ... Christ was always humble and serving; the papacy, the pope was always lordly and [lording] over others. Christ is Christ; the pope is Antichrist.

At the end of his life, Martin Luther decided he had to issue his final testament against all the enemies of the gospel. And he published treatises, he encouraged people, but words were not sufficient. He also had to use images. And so he asked his friend, the painter Lucas Cranach, to do a series of woodcuts, and Luther wrote the verses for them. And these woodcuts were designed to show as graphically as possible, to those who could read and those who couldn't, what Luther thought of the papacy. So for example, there's a woodcut which shows the pope on his throne and peasants with their tongues out, their trousers down, farting in the pope's face. Another one shows the pope riding an ass, holding a pile of dung in his hands, saying "The pope is offering a counsel." And another that shows the German emperor lying on the ground with the pope with his foot on the emperor's neck, which shows, once again graphically, Luther's belief that the papacy was trying to control secular authority throughout the world. These were all actions of the Antichrist, and Luther wanted to make it clear what he thought of the pope".... Apocalypticism Explained | Apocalypse! FRONTLINE | PBS

The title of the Pope, 'Pontifex Maximus', can be traced all the way back to ancient Babylon and its system of pagan worship. The Babylon kings served as both king and priest of the pagan Babylonian Mystery religion. As priests, they bore the title "Pontifex Maximus" or "Supreme Pontiff," meaning "supreme pathfinder" or "bridge maker," representing "the path or connection between this life and the next", or they held the keys to the next life. When Medo-Persia conquered Babylon, the Babylonian pagan religion was maintained, but there was a revolt of the priesthood so consequently the priests of Babylon were driven out of Medo-Persia, and established themselves at Pergamum, does the name sound familiar. Well they took with them their titles and vestures and set about to continued their reign there as priest-kings of Babylonian paganism and we find the scripture refers to it:

Revelation 2:12-14 King James Version (KJV)
12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;
13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.
14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.

The pontiff king of Pergamum Attalus III lived from 170 BC – 133 BC, and in his will he left the kingdom to the emperor of Rome in 133 BC and the kingdom of Pergamum merged with the Roman Empire along with what the Bible calls Satan throne and idol worship and its title "Pontifex Maximus".

The pagan title was taken over by the bishop of Rome, as we see it in In Emperor Theodosius's edict De fide catholica of 380 AD. By this time, the Roman bishops had amassed much political as well as religious power, and so the bishop of Rome was elected 'Pontifex Maximus', becoming the official pagan Babylonian priest seated on Satan's throne in Rome. As such, the bishop introduced the worship of pagan Babylon with its rites and rituals and pagan sacraments, "converted" the pagan temples of Rome into "Christian churches" but at the same time allowed pagan worship to come in.

The Roman bishop Damasus exercised his authority as head of 'Babylonian paganism in Rome', and replaced all the Christian elders with pagan priests and continued the practice of basically the Babylonian Mystery religion and we can see how it spread in Roman Empire from there, and was pointed out by the Reformation and its leaders and nothing has changed.

The papal title I have a problem with is Vicarius Christi.

Vicarious: taking the place of another person or thing; acting or serving as a substitute. (from dictionary.com)

Greek Anti (ἀντι): for, instead of, in place of (from Thayer's lexicon)

Quote from: Wycliffes_Shillelagh on Thu May 02, 2024 - 17:32:02The papal title I have a problem with is Vicarius Christi.

Vicarious: taking the place of another person or thing; acting or serving as a substitute. (from dictionary.com)

Greek Anti (ἀντι): for, instead of, in place of (from Thayer's lexicon)

Well, they make it clear themselves...

"Those whom the Pope of Rome doth separate, it is not a man that separates them
but God. For the Pope holdeth place on earth, not simply of a man but of the true God....dissolves, not by human but rather by divine authority....I am in all and above all, so that God Himself and I, the vicar of God, hath both one consistory, and I am able to do almost all that God can do...wherefore, if those things that I do be said not to be done of man, but of God, what do you make of me but God? Again, if prelates of the Church be called of Constantine for gods, I then being above all prelates, seem by this reason to be above all gods." Decretales Domini Gregori ix Translatione Episcoporum,
(on the Transference of Bishops), title 7, chapter 3; Corpus Juris Canonice (2nd Leipzig ed., 1881), col. 99; (Paris, 1612), tom. 2, Decretales, col. 205 (while Innocent III was
Pope).

 "The Pope takes the place of Jesus Christ on earth...by divine right the Pope has supreme and full power in faith, in morals over each and every pastor and his flock. He is the true vicar, the head of the entire church, the father and teacher of all Christians. He is the infallible ruler, the founder of dogmas, the author of and the judge of councils; the universal ruler of truth, the arbiter of the world, the supreme judge of heaven and earth, the judge of all, being judged by no one, God himself on earth." Quoted in the New York Catechism.

 "The pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is not a mere man, but as it were God, and the vicar of God...

 "The Pope alone is called most holy...

 "Hence the Pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and of earth and of hell.

 "Moreover the superiority and the power of the Roman Pontiff by no means pertains only to heavenly things, but also earthly things, and to things under the earth, and even over the angels, whom he his greater than.

 "So that if it were possible that the angels might err in the faith, or might think contrary to the faith, they could be judged and excommunicated by the Pope.... "

...the Pope is as it were God on earth, sole sovereign of the faithful of Christ, chief of kings, having plenitude of power." Lucius Ferraris, in "Prompta Bibliotheca Canonica, Juridica, Moralis, Theologica, Ascetica, Polemica, Rubristica, Historica", Volume V, article on "Papa, Article II", titled "Concerning the extent of Papal dignity, authority, or dominion and infallibility", #1, 5, 13-15, 18, published in Petit-Montrouge (Paris) by J. P.
Migne, 1858 edition. "[Pope] PIUS XI, Pontifex Maximus." Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos (The Promotion of True Religious Unity), Encyclical promulgated on January 6, 1928.

 "The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in Heaven and earth." Pope
Pius V, quoted in Barclay, Chapter XXVII, p. 218, "Cities Petrus Bertanous".

 "...We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty..." Pope Leo XIII, in Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae (The Reunion of Christendom), Encyclical promulgated on June 20, 1894............

We have the Pope coming to the G7 meetings and we see how the world leaders act with him.Its not as a equal or another head of state, you could say they defer to his religious or spiritual power and even bow and kiss his hand...why is the question...