And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet (Matthew 24:6).
And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? (Rev. 13:4)
The Greek noun translated into English as ‘war’ is polemos (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance # 4171).
Without question this may refer to literal warfare, battle and mortal combat.
But that is not always the case. For example, according to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, James 4:1, though having the same Greek noun, polemos may be translated as ‘a dispute, strife, quarrel.’
Furthermore, our English noun ‘polemics’ -- the art or practice of engaging in controversial debate or dispute – has its origin rooted in the Greek noun polemos.
Thus, the wars of which the Lord and the Revelation speak are not to be limited to those which use carnal weapons, but must include the war of words, using the spiritual sword of God’s Word.
This is the very warfare detailed in the Inquisition records, Roman Catholic Bishops’ registers, Protestant martyrologies, etc., which recount the debates and disputes between the Roman clerical hierarchy and the so-called ‘heretics’ through the ages.
‘Polemics’ is recognized as a branch of Christian theology devoted to the refutation of errors (Webster’s Third New International Dictionary Unabridged). Typically, emphasis is placed upon what are considered controversial subjects.
The Protestant Reformers brought forth this branch of Christian theology in full flower. The Jesuits were their leading opponents, having such committed and highly skilled adversaries as Cardinal Bellarmine, Thomas Stapleton, and Jacques Bossuet, to name but a few.
As has been proved in several previous posts, the so-called ‘heretics’ through the centuries were unanimous in identifying the Pope of Rome as the Antichrist, the one of whom we are forewarned in Scripture.
The Protestant Reformers carried this doctrine to a profoundly prolific level by writing and publishing substantial commentaries on the Revelation, as well as commenting extensively on other pertinent Scriptures, such as 2 Thess. 2.
It was through the fertile imaginations of the Jesuits that Futurism and Preterism were formally introduced as eschatological systems placing the revelation of the unknowable Antichrist into the unknown future, or identifying him in the known pagan Roman past. Both systems virulently deny the Pope of Rome as that Man of Sin, the son of perdition.
Today those two systems dominate professing Christendom, with Futurism being the most popular.
How is it, one may ask, that such an unlikely occurrence took place?
There have been wars & rumors of wars from shortly after Jesus' time when the "Pax Romana" ended thru now. Nothing new.
And no man nor any army will be able to defeat the "beast" & his empire. Only the return of Jesus will bring him down.