“The LCMS does not teach, nor has it ever taught,…” (Old Missouri on Pope Leo XIII, Antichrist)

      In a previous blog post of a year ago, I published the official statement of today's LC-MS on the Antichrist.  From their 2012 FAQ, they write:

“The LCMS does not teach, 

nor has it ever taught, 

that any individual Pope as a person, 

is to be identified with the Antichrist.”

That the LCMS indeed does not teach "any individual Pope" is easily proven, even by Prof. Robert Preus, who in a recent article republished in the August 29, 2022 issue of Christian News, p. 11.  is quoted regarding the Antichrist that "it doesn’t mean any pope personally, but it means the institution". — But the claim of "nor has it ever taught" seemed particularly at risk of being proven false.  And indeed, while reviewing the articles published in the German language Lehre und Wehre [LuW], I came across a glaring example that explicitly proves that this claim of theirs about the Old Missouri Synod is false.  

       Prof. Friedrich Bente wrote a feature article in LuW, vol. 49 (September 1903), pp. 257-275, entitled "Leo XIII" who had died in July of that same year 1903.  Leo was born "Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci" [Wikipedia] and named Pope Leo XIII in 1878.  Bente, in contradiction to practically the whole world, labels Leo as (1) an idolater, (2) a pagan (p. 264), (3) a church tyrant (p. 265), (4) an enemy of the State and especially of American liberty (p. 267), (5) without good works (p. 269), (6) an enemy of the Bible (p. 271), and (7) a heretic (p. 272). He documents all of the above. But Bente saved the best for last. On page 274 he flatly stated what Old Missouri taught:

 

“Leo XIII was the Antichrist.”

[Leo XIII war der Antichrist.]

There, he said it, an individual, as Pope, was the Antichrist.  So much for the LC-MS's claim to the contrary about the Old Missouri Synod.  Bente was not excluding other individual Popes from being the Antichrist, he was showing that not just the office of the Papacy was the Antichrist, but that also ALL office holders of the Papacy were, are, and will be, the Antichrist. To summarize Bente's essay, we present the English translation of his final paragraph:

    Leo XIII was the Antichrist. In the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, a precise picture is drawn of the most dangerous enemy of the Church, from whom Christians should be doubly aware. This enemy of Christ and His Church would not destroy the Church from the outside, but from the inside; in the temple of God, in the midst of Christianity, he would sit and have his being; he would seduce the Church to a great apostasy from Christ; in the Church he would appear as a tyrant; he would exalt himself above everything that is called God and worship; yes, as God he would let himself be worshipped in the Church; he will unfold a mysterious power of wickedness and an incomprehensible, supernatural spell of seduction; as a means of seduction he will use all kinds of lying powers and signs and wonders; he will surround himself with the appearance of special holiness and piety; he will spread powerful falsities and lies in the church; he will command what God has forbidden and forbid what God has released or commanded, etc. This enemy of the Church is described in Scripture as the "wicked" and "repulsive" one, as the "man of sin and the child of perdition", as "the Antichrist", whom God will kill with the spirit of His mouth and whom He will put an end to by the appearance of His future. — If we now go through the Church and its history with this image, which God Himself gave us of the Antichrist, we must confess: The great Antichrist, whom the Bible draws, is not a Roman emperor, who bloodily persecutes the Christians, not Muhammed and his successors, who have shed much Christian blood, nor Napoleon or a still future great socialist or nihilist, but solely the Pope of Rome. In Leo XIII, his predecessors and successors, we find again, and indeed strongly pronounced, every single trait which the holy writers have given to the image of Antichrist. And if, on the other hand, one points to the facts that millions of Catholics revered Leo XIII as the head and king of the Church; that Leo was almost universally reputed to be especially holy, pious and wise; that the secular and ecclesiastical press celebrated the Pope as the powerful prince of the Church, as the pillar of the state and benefactor of the people; that Edward VII, Wilhelm II and other Protestant princes, politicians, theologians and laymen bowed before Leo XIII. that the Presbyterians have erased from their confession the words in which the Pope is called the great Antichrist; that the number of Protestants who see in the Pope a beneficial power and especially a bulwark against unbelief and anarchy is growing; that finally even among the present Lutherans the number of those who consider the Pope the great Antichrist is small: all this and much more that is put forward in favor of the papacy does not mislead us in our judgment of Leo XIII. All this does not contradict the picture that Scripture paints of the great Antichrist; on the contrary, it is a clear feature of this very picture and agrees most exactly with what Scripture has prophesied about the mystery of wickedness and its seductive power. Whoever judges the Pope not by the number of his followers, not by the lies he spreads about himself, not by the outward appearance and not by the natural reason, which does not know Christ and therefore is not able to distinguish the Antichrist, but by the Holy Scripture, must call out to the much celebrated Leo XIII: You are an idolater, a pagan, a church tyrant, an enemy of the state, an oppressor of the people, an enemy of the Bible, a heretic, yes, the great Antichrist himself.

May God defend against the seduction of the Antichrist, control the great troubles, grant repentance to those who have been betrayed and deceived, and put an early end to the Pope by the appearance of his future. F. B. [Friedrich Bente]

= = = = = = = = = = = 

Prof. Bente is only continuing the doctrine that Pastor Friedrich Lochner taught in a previous 1894 essay. The LC-MS statement proves that it has long ago left the teaching of the Missouri Synod, and that is why one must distinguish "Old Missouri" from the modernist LC-MS. Bente's full essay is instructive and breathtaking, and reminds one of how much Leo XIII can be thought of as similar to the 3 most recent Popes. Perhaps I will publish the full essay, but if not, look for it in my upcoming full English translation of the entire 75 volumes of the German journal Lehre und Wehre.