Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
As will be noted below, the papal hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church exhibits a striking number of the qualities that are to mark the great historical apostasy of Christianity; and yet in fairness it must be admitted that no pope has ever fulfilled in its entirety Paul's description of the man of sin; but the historical Roman church is so certainly prophesied in the New Testament literature on this subject, that it is not amiss to look precisely there for the ultimate fulfillment of the total prophecy at some time yet future.  There is also, it must be admitted, a certain sense in which the entire papal succession may be understood as meeting Paul's specifications perfectly.  We pray that unbiased readers will not consider this a harsh judgment.  Much of the dissent from the view that the papal hierarchy is the composite man of sin stems from the incorrect identification of the man of sin as "antichrist" (John 4:3), whose distinguishing mark of identity is his denial "that Christ is of God," a denial that, so far as is known, never pertained to any pope. Nevertheless, that man of sin who at last will be manifested as antichrist, although not having appeared upon the historical scene as yet, may yet do so in the future.  The basic understanding of Paul's warning in this passage as a prophecy of the apostate medieval church is neither an uncharitable judgment nor an indulgence in fantasy.