Who is the real Antichrist? (Prologue–C.J.H. Fick)

I ran across a statement made by Martin Luther in one of his lectures that drives home the Lutheran doctrine on a certain point rather forcefully.  It was so striking to me, that I tracked down its original form in Latin, which was later translated into German, then finally into English:

Latin:

“Omnes haeretici reliqui sunt particulares Antichristi, ille vero est unicus ille et venis Antichristus, qui est contra totum Christum.” (WA 20, p. 730, lines 24-25; Google Translate; Yandex Translate; full paragraph)

German:

“Alle übrigen Ketzer sind nur in gewissen Stücken Ketzer; dieser aber (der Pabst) ist der einzige und wahre Widerchrist, der wider den ganzen Christum ist.” (StL vol. 9, 1475 §13)

English:

“All the rest of the heretics are antichrists in part, but he who is against the whole Christ is the [one and] only true Antichrist.” (Am. Ed., LW 30, p. 287)

Inserted (by Walther) into the German is an explanation of who Luther is speaking about, “der Pabst”, or

“the Pope”, 

LW vol. 30 p. 287

not just the “papacy as an institution… (excluding) its individual occupants”, (per Robert Kolb, The Christian Faith (1993), p. 292-3). This quote is taken from Luther's “Lectures on the First Epistle of St. John”, particularly 1 John 4:3.  I would invite the reader to discover Luther's basis for his statement in the text preceding it by clicking on the caption at right: ===========>>>>>>>>>

      This quote from Martin Luther was reported by C.F.W. Walther to be the motto for a book written by Pastor C.J. Hermann Fick. And so this blog post is a Prologue to my next series, beginning with the next Part 1.