"The false prophets…who are refuted by Paul," comments Calvin,11 "were bidding men feel assured of His speedy advent" even during apostolic times. However, Paul then retorts: "The 'day of Christ' will not come, until [after] the world has fallen into apostasy and the rule of Antichrist has held sway in the Church…. The word 'apostasy'…cannot be confined to a few individuals…. Paul, then, is predicting a general defection on the part of the Visible Church….
"We may at once conclude how useful this prediction of Paul's is. For it might have seemed that a building [the Christian Church] which…lay for so long in ruins, could not have been the work of God — had Paul not warned them long before, that this would take place…. Paul, however, is not speaking of one individual — but of a kingdom that was to be seized by Satan for the purpose of setting up a seat of abomination in the midst of God’s temple. This we see accomplished in Popery…. The sect of Mohammed [570f A.D.] was like a raging overflow which in its violence tore away about half of the Church. It remained for Antichrist to infect the part which was left."
