Richard Bennett is such a rich source of historical information and biblical understanding of the Antichrist and the Roman Church it can be a bit overwhelming.
I've been hoping to find a discussion of how some elements of prophecy about the Antichrist have been fulfilled, including confirmation or disconfirmation of my speculation in the previous post about the meaning of the Antichrist's displacing of three "kings" of the Roman Empire in his rise to power. So far I haven't found such a discussion either by Bennett or by Chris Pinto, the two of my sources most likely to cover such a topic.
I mentioned but didn't name a well-known prophecy teacher in that post who sees this as yet future, as the whole understanding of the Antichrist is seen in the Pre-Trib eschatology. But as I've been pursuing the identity of the Antichrist as Pope through the eyes of the Reformers, I'm finding that most of it is considered to have been fulfilled in the past, his civil power for instance having grown by stages in specific events down the centuries.
Another question I have now as a result of rereading Daniel 11, has to do with the military movements of the Antichrist figure that are described starting in Daniel 11:36. The prophecy teacher I mentioned sees this as yet-future too of course, leading up to the war of Armageddon. But what I'm wondering in light of the Reformers' take on so many historical fulfillments of prophecy about the Antichrist, is whether those movements can be located somewhere in history rather than in the future. There were certainly military operations that engaged the Pope at various times. But so far I don't know enough about these movements to speculate much myself. Maybe something to do with Pepin the Short and Charlemagne, maybe something to do with the Crusades, but those are more or less wild speculations on my part.
I would nevertheless guess that a historical fulfillment is far more likely than a future fulfillment which would put it in the last three and a half years of the Tribulation peeriod. So I am now taking much of the Book of Revelation to be about the identity of the Antichrist as already established in history, rather than about future events. Not ALL of course if there is to be a final Antichrist-Pope who consolidates power in the world even greater than he had in the Middle Ages and makes even more martyrs of Bible believers than the Inquisition accomplished. And this is still my working hypothesis. Although Bennett and I think also Chris Pinto apparently see the historical fulfillment of so much prophecy about the Antichrist as a major argument against the whole Pre-Tribulation eschatology, I keep seeing it as simply telling us who this Antichrist is from historical facts, while there is still a final Pope-Antichrist to come. Building on millennia of variations on this evil theme, he will be a satanically inspired terror to people who come to belief during the Tribulation period, but then finally killed when Christ returns at the end of the seven years.
At least I don't see anything yet that has required me to change my mind about the timing of the Rapture and the following seven-year Tribulation /Time of Jacob's Trouble when God finisihes His work with Israel, and the Day of the LORD when He judges the entire Earth. Instead it seems to me that the Reformers have given us a very full understanding of the Mystery of Iniquity as embodied in the Roman Church and specifically the papacy. The Last Act of the drama of Planet Earth will be Satan's Day as he possesses the final Pope and murders his enemies the followers of Jesus Christ with a bitter vengeance, before God pours out His wrath and destroys the whole evil system.
I'm still listening to talks on this subject, by Bennett at the moment, and still not finding a full eschatology described that from what has been said should completely supplant the Pre-Trib scenario. They do refer to the very end when Jesus returns, however, so maybe the idea is that history just continues until the end, perhaps with some signs as that end approaches, but that part is a guess.
If that is the case there is no Seventieth Week of Daniel, no Great Tribulation, no Day of the LORD , and the Rapture must come at the moment Jesus returns. That's a lot of prophecy that will go unfulfilled if so. Also, the idea that the Rapture occurs when Jesus returns would make the idea of the Millennium impossible, understood as a thousand years when normal life plays out under the literal reign of Christ. Maybe that makes them Amillennialists?
All that requires stretching or throwing out a lot of scripture it seems to me. The Book of Revelation pretty clearly describes a Millennium ruled by Christ, in which people live to be very old but are considered to be children still. That's a picture of a restored Eden or Paradise on Earth, people living out normal lives, having children, etc., only under increasingly improving conditions, reversing the trend of life in this fallen world. They will still be fallen people but under the reign of Christ, after the forces of evil were defeated at His coming, they are better able to pursue righteous living and it's a blessed and happy life in which death is put off and diseases and other sufferings minimized.
There is no more papacy in that Millennium and Satan has been bound in chains and can't influence the people, until the very end when he is released and the fallen nature again asserts its ugly potentials.
It's a fitting scenario. It completes many themes of the Biblical story that would otherwise be left open-ended.
Likewise the Pre-Trib Rapture is fitting: the Church escapes the Wrath of God as promised while the rebellious world is judged\. There has to be a Day of the LORD. It's been promised for millennia. There has to be a Seventieth Week of Daniel when the story of Israel is brought to completion. There has to be a specific Great Tribulation because Jesus prophesied it and nothing else qualifies that I know of. Also, how do they explain the 144,000 of the twelve tribes of Israel? Way too much has to be left o0ut if the entire futurist interpretation is scuttled.
And there is no reason to scuttle it. I agree that it is hugely important to recognize the true nature of the Antichrist because the Church is in great danger since it's been abandoned, and the first order of business should be reintating this truth. It is also needed to make sense of the end times picture; we need the historical understanding of the papacy and the Mystery of Iniquity as the foundation for the Antichrist who brings evil to its perfect expression in the last days. The Mystery of Iniquity is the same basic system that has existed throughout history, through all those empires we see in the Book of Daniel for instance, but also going back to Nimrod and the religion of Semiramis. It doesn't just spring up during the Tribulation, it is a system of evil that reaches a pinnacle of perfection at the end but has always been in the world, going back to Babylon. Even going back to the Fall in Eden, except the evil that grew from that point was rather rudely interrupted by the Flood so Satan started over in Babylon by inventing counterfeit Messiahs. Now he's working to bring it all together as a global totalitarian system.
There is a fitting grandeur in this way of looking at it too..
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A couple of references to historical discussions by Richard Bennett:
A Biblical Uncovering of the Pope and the Papacy
.The Antichrist, Man of Sin, In our Midst. Classic Reformed Eschatology
