Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

603
the Protestant churches. He called the Roman Church “the most beastly of
beasts and the most impudent of harlots.” f1144
He finds no less than sixty signs or marks of the reign of Antichrist in the
eschatological discourses of Christ, in Daniel 7 and 12), in Paul (2 Thess.
2:3, 4; 1 Tim. 4:1), and especially in the Apocalypse (Rev. 13–18).
But this reign is now drawing to a close. The battle of Michael with
Antichrist has already begun in heaven and on earth, and the author of the
“Restitution” has sounded the trumpet of war, which will end in the victory
of Christ and the true Church. Servetus might have lived to see the
millennium (in 1585), but he expected to fall in the battle, and to share in
the first resurrection.
He concludes his eschatological chapter on the reign of Antichrist with
these words: “Whosoever truly believes that the pope is Antichrist, will
also truly believe that the papistical trinity, paedobaptism, and the other
sacraments of popery are doctrines of the daemons. O Christ Jesus, thou
Son of God, most merciful deliverer, who so often didst deliver thy people
from distresses, deliver us poor sinners from this Babylonian captivity of
Antichrist, from his hypocrisy, his tyranny, and his idolatry. Amen.” f1145
7. Eschatology.
Servetus was charged by Calvin and the Council of Geneva with denying
the immortality of the soul. This was a heresy punishable by death. Etienne
Dolet was executed on the place Maubert at Paris, Aug. 2, 1546, for this
denial. f1146 But Servetus denied the charge. He taught that the soul was
mortal, that it deserved to die on account of sin, but that Christ
communicates to it new life by grace. f1147 Christ has brought immortality to
light (2 Tim. 1:10; 1 Pet. 1:21–25). This seems to be the doctrine of
conditional immortality of believers. But he held that all the souls of the
departed go to the gloomy abode of Sheol to undergo a certain purification
before judgment. This is the baptism of blood and fire, as distinct from the
baptism of water and spirit (1 Cor. 3:11–15). The good and the bad are
separated in death. Those who die without being regenerated by Christ
have no hope. The righteous progress in sanctification. They pray for us
(for which he gives six reasons, and quotes Zach. 1:12, 13; Luke 15:10;
16:27, 28; 1 Cor. 13:18); but we ought not to pray for them, for they do
not need our prayers, and there is no Scripture precept on the subject. f1148