E3: Will another, beside the Pope, be Antichrist?; full translated text of 1870 Eastern District

      This concludes from Part E2 (Table of Contents in Part E1) presenting the 1870 Eastern District convention essay on "The Antichrist". Walther was in attendance, so the essay's content would be his as well. — The LC–MS teaching even denies the Confessions' statement that "the Pope is the very Antichrist" by stating that this could change over time:

3) Duration of the Pope as the Antichrist:

the LC–MS's Theological Commission states:

1870 Eastern District essay (w/ Walther): (emphasis mine)

“We acknowledge the possibility that the historical form of the Antichrist could change. … [Footnote:] At the same time, of course, we must recognize the possibility, under God's guidance, that contemporary discussions and statements (e.g., 1983 U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue statement on "Justification by Faith") could lead to a revision of the Roman Catholic position regarding Tridentine [i.e. Council of Trent] dogma.

Gerhard: (p. 34) "When the papists speak of the Pope, they do not mean any particular person, but the series of people who have succeeded one another on the papal throne. Augustine Trinuphus [a papist] writes,  ‘with regard to the office of the papacy and authority, all the popes who have been from the beginning and will be until the end of the world are no more than one Pope’.  …  Indeed, Cardinal Hosius [another papist] writes:  ‘…but Peter, that is, the man who bears this name, according to the authority of his office and calling instituted by Christ for the salvation of Christ's sheep, who never dies, but always lives by succession; and he is in the Church, has been, and will be to the end of the world. ’ …  …For in the same way that the Pope is the Antichrist to us, as he is to them the head of the church, the bridegroom, etc." (Conf cath. l. c. p. 603. a.)

      John Gerhard’s narrative demonstrates that the Lutheran Confessions understood the duration of the reign of the Pope as Antichrist to be the same as what the Papists understand to be the period of the reign of the Pope, until the “the end of the world”. 

      Also Gerhard here understands the word “Pope” in the confessional phrase “the Pope is the very Antichrist” to have the same meaning as the papists understand that term. The Papists do not distinguish their word “Pope” from the individual. They teach that under the term “Pope” is meant both the “office of the papacy” and the individual in that office. So means the Smalcald Articles.

      Any LC–MS pastor who has signed the Lutheran Confessions, but believes the official LC–MS doctrine, has given up his “confessional” status. Or would they assert that what Gerhard taught here was not “confessional”? — The LC–MS’s Theological Commission is ignoring the fact that the papists are teaching what some would call  “retroactive continuity” or to “change something and then you simply assert you have always taught it”. The LC–MS is trying to avoid the scorn of the world, by toning down the actual message of the Confessions on this Lutheran and Biblical doctrine.

      One may wonder: why is the doctrine of the Antichrist so important? The Eastern District essayist, and Walther, put it succinctly:

“If we do not recognize 

the true Antichrist from the prophecies, 

what right do we have to reproach the Jews 

for not recognizing 

the true Christ according to the prophecies?”

If Christians do not believe that the Pope, including the individual, is the very Antichrist, then they are not yet destroying but are jeopardizing their Christian faith.

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Now I present a polished translation of this important essay. I have included several hyperlinks for reference and navigation:

The above file, without highlighting, may be downloaded directly >> HERE <<. PDF file HERE.