Chapter XXV. Of the Church

VI. There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ; nor 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.

There are three main reasons why this closing paragraph identifying the Pope with the Antichrist was removed:
1) Especially the strong impact of the idea, widely popular from the first half of the 19th century onward, that the Antichrist was only a future figure, still to come before the Second Coming of Christ, who would be a world ruler — an idea contrary to what the universal Church held on this matter throughout its history.
2) The decline of the power of the papacy and of the Roman Catholic system.
3) The prevailing ecumenism.
It remains surprising and striking to discover that most modern evangelicals have abandoned this belief, while, by contrast, the Orthodox still hold it, and an ever-growing number of conservative Catholics as well, seeing the current drift of the Papacy.