Why It Took Chris Pinto to Make The Threat of Romanism Clear to Me

Listening for the second time to a talk on Dispensationalism I noted again the by-now-familiar fact that the Futurist interpretation of prophecy was originally introduced by a Jesuit in the effort to get the papacy out from under the traditional Protestant label of Antichrist, by moving all the scripture references to the Antichrist to the unfulfilled future.  Hearing this again it hit me how much I HAD known about Catholicism's influence in so many ways before I ever heard of Chris Pinto, had heard many of the pertinent facts from Reformed teachers over the years, so I had to ask myself why what Chris Pinto had to say hit me as so new and revelatory.   

Well, nobody else in my experience ever drew the right conclusion from all these separate facts about Romanist perfidies -- that their work never stopped but is being pursued with as much determination now as it ever was in the past. 

A Jesuit invented Futurism and somehow a huge swath of the Protestant churches have become futurists!  And Dispensationalists, which is the theology behind futurism, the biggest theological movement in the churches today.  How clever can they be?  They also either invented or at least promoted Arminianism, which Augustus Toplady back in the 18th Century called "The Road to Rome," also saying that what has come to be called Calvinism is really simply the gospel itself.  But Arminianism is now very aggressively promoted against Calvinism even by some who are otherwise strong opponents of Catholicism -- such as Dave Hunt and T A  McMahon.

Pinto drew the necessary CONCLUSIONS from the many facts that had been floating around in my head, that for some reason nobody else who noted the same facts had drawn, that Catholicism is every bit as much the Antichrist at work in the world today as it ever was, still working to undermine theology, to instigate violence against Protestants where possible (using complex lies to cover their tracks), and still aims to rise to world prominence again where it can destroy its enemies through its Inquisition. 

It was noted in passing in the talk on Dispensationalism that it was a Jesuit who invented Futurism to defend the Pope and the speaker even paused to emphasize it, saying "ponder that," but said no more about it.   Always the impression is given that whatever Romanism has done is somehow past and over with or not really effective or whatever, so we don't have to give it too much thought.  But Pinto has made it clear that it's aggressively ongoing, has already undermined Protestantism both in the churches and the culture in ways we don't normally recognize as the doings of Rome, and is continuing to work with the same objectives as ever.  In other words it's still an important threat to the true Church as of RIGHT NOW and most of us are blind to it.

Up to about a century ago there were strong voices in the Protestant Churches continuing to keep the issues alive and keep Catholicism on the hot seat, but all that has died out, or at least died down to a few barely warm embers over the last century.  I was reading in the online book The History of Protestantism by J A Wylie and noticed that he held an office called Lecturer on Popery!  In a Protestant Institute.  That's what we need NOW.