Editing Great Apostasy (section)

== Protestant views ==
{{Main|Constantine the Great and Christianity}}
Reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin and others disagreed with the papacy's claim of temporal power over all secular governments and the autocratic character of the papal office, and challenged papal authority as a corruption from the early church and questioned the Catholic Church's ability to define Christian practice.<ref>See Luther, [http://www.bookofconcord.com/smalcald.html#article4 Smalcald Articles, Article four] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010210703/http://www.bookofconcord.com/smalcald.html#article4 |date=2008-10-10 }}</ref>

===Reformed perspective===
{{Main|Protestant Reformation}}
The defenses of the right belief and worship of the church resided in the [[bishop]]s, and Protestants theorize that the process of unifying the doctrine of the church also concentrated power into their own hands (see also [[Ignatius of Antioch]], who advocated a powerful bishop), and made their office an instrument of power coveted by ambitious men.<ref>John Wesley speaking of the office of the Papacy he said, "He is in an emphatical sense, the Man of Sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure. And he is, too, properly styled the Son of Perdition, as he has caused the death of numberless multitudes, both of his opposers and followers... He it is...that exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped...claiming the highest power, and highest honour...claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone."  Taken from Antichrist and His Ten Kingdoms by John Wesley, p. 110.</ref> They charge that, through ambition and jealousy, the church has been at times, and not very subtly, subverted from carrying out its sacred aim. For the Reformers, the culmination of this gradual corruption was typified, in a concentrated way, in the office of the pope who took on ancient titles such as ''Pontifex Maximus'' and supreme power in the church.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Chapter 24. Babylon the Great – Dispensational Truth – Study Resources|url=https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/larkin/dt/24.cfm|access-date=2020-08-25|website=Blue Letter Bible|language=en}}</ref>

Calvin, Luther, and many later churches and preachers have held that Scripture points out the [[Catholic Church]] as the fallen church of biblical prophecy.<ref>1689 London Baptist Confession{{snd}}Chapter 26: Of the Church. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the church, in whom, by the appointment of the Father, all power for the calling, institution, order or government of the church, is invested in a supreme and sovereign manner; neither can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof, but is that antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the church against Christ, and all that is called God; whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.</ref><ref>Clarke, Adam. ''Commentary on the Old Testament'' Vol IV p. 596.</ref>

[[Theology of Martin Luther|Martin Luther]] believed and taught that the church had strayed and fallen away from the true teachings of the scripture. He challenged the authority of the [[pope]] of the [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic Church]] by teaching that the [[Bible]] is the [[Sola scriptura|only source]] of [[Divinity|divinely]] revealed knowledge,<ref>Ewald M. Plass, ''What Luther Says'', 3 vols., (St. Louis: CPH, 1959), 88, no. 269; M. Reu, ''Luther and the Scriptures'', Columbus, Ohio: Wartburg Press, 1944, p. 23.</ref> and opposed [[sacerdotalism]] by considering [[Priesthood of all believers|all baptized Christians to be a holy priesthood]].<ref>Luther, Martin. ''Concerning the Ministry'' (1523), tr. Conrad Bergendoff, in Bergendoff, Conrad (ed.) Luther's Works. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1958, 40:18 ff.</ref>

Although [[Lutherans]] and [[Calvinists]] hold that the [[Ecumenical Council]]s of the early and [[medieval]] church are true expressions of the Christian faith, many assert{{Weasel inline|date=February 2011}} the councils are at times inconsistent with one another, and err on particular points. The true church, they argue, will be mixed with alien influences and false beliefs, which is necessary in order for these impurities ultimately to be overcome and the truth to be vindicated.

The [[Westminster Confession of Faith]] (Calvinist), states:

<blockquote>The purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error; and some have so degenerated as to become no churches of Christ, but [[synagogues]] of [[Satan]]. Nevertheless, there shall be always a church on earth, to worship God according to his will.</blockquote>

===Dispensationalist perspective===
{{anchor|Dispensationalism}}

The [[Historicism (Christianity)|Historicist]] biblical interpretation was the viewpoint of most major Protestant Reformers, beginning with the accusations of Martin Luther. Refuting these claims was accordingly a major objective of the [[Counter-Reformation]], both in the Catholic Church's initial response to Luther and especially in the aftermath of the [[Council of Trent]]. This required a renewed effort to interpret the relevant scriptural passages in light of the arguments put forth by the early Protestants. Two particularly noteworthy theories were proposed during the Counter-Reformation to address the historicist claim that the Antichrist was actually the Roman Catholic church.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adventistbiblicalresearch.org/materials/prophecy/ellen-g-white-and-interpretation-daniel-and-revelation|title=Ellen G. White and the Interpretation of Daniel and Revelation &#124; Biblical Research Institute|website=adventistbiblicalresearch.org|access-date=2015-07-04|archive-date=2020-02-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200204071005/http://www.adventistbiblicalresearch.org/materials/prophecy/ellen-g-white-and-interpretation-daniel-and-revelation|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Francisco Ribera]] and [[Luis de Alcazar]], both 16th-century Spanish [[Jesuits]], rose to meet the challenge by introducing counter-interpretations of the prophecies in Daniel and Revelation.<ref>The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 4 [4BC], 42.</ref> Their approaches became known as the [[Preterist]] and [[futurism (Christianity)|Futurist]] schools, and both theologies quickly gained traction throughout Catholic Europe.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Futurism and Preterism|url=https://amazingdiscoveries.org/RT_encyclopedia_Futurism_Preterism_Catholic|access-date=2020-08-25|website=amazingdiscoveries.org|language=en}}</ref>

Gradually, Preterism and Futurism gained currency even in Protestant thought. Few mainstream Protestant leaders today still employ the vocabulary of "apostasy" and "anti-Christ" when discussing the papacy, although some conservative Evangelical and [[Christian fundamentalism|fundamentalist]] churches still accept these teachings to varying degrees.

The spread of [[dispensationalist]] doctrine has led many conservative Protestants to drop the traditional interpretation of the Book of Revelation as prediction of events that have taken place throughout history (historicism) and shifted it to future events (futurism), eliminating any relation between the prophecies and the Catholic Church. This has resulted in a re-interpretation of the [[Eschatology|end times]]. Although Protestant fundamentalists still largely object to Catholic doctrine concerning the papacy, most have dropped the harsher Reformation view and no longer identify the pope as the Antichrist.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Dispensationalism's Basic Fallacies – No.&nbsp;1 |url=https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1939/11/dispensationalisms-basic-fallacies|access-date=2020-08-25|website=www.ministrymagazine.org|language=en}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=January 2021}}