# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S491
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS 491

end of the world a universal conversion of the Jewish nation
Israel according to the flesh) will take place.

-Over against this, Scripture clearly teaches, and we teach
ordingly, that the kingdom of Christ on earth will remain under
the cross until the end of the world, Acts 14, 22; John 16, 33; 18, 36;
Luke 9, 23; 14, 27; 17, 20—37; 2 Tim. 4, 18; Heb. 12, 28; Luke 18, 8;
that the second visible coming of the Lord will be His final advent,
. His coming to judge the quick and the dead, Matt. 24, 29. 30; 25, 31;
_2Tim. 4,1; 2 Thess. 2,8; Heb. 9, 26—28; that there will be but one
. resurrection of the dead, John 5, 28; 6, 39. 40; that the time of
_the Last Day is, and will remain, unknown, Matt. 24,42; 25, 13;
Mark 13, 32. 37; Acts 1, 7, which would not be the case if the Last
Day were to come a thousand years after the beginning of a mil-
- Jennium;. and that there will be no general conversion, a con-
version en masse, of the Jewish nation, Rom. 11, 7; 2 Cor. 3, 14;
‘Rom. 11, 25; 1 Thess. 2, 16. .

"According to these clear passages of Scripture we reject the
whole of Millennialism, since it not only contradicts Scripture, but
also engenders a false conception of the kingdom of Christ, turns
the hope of Christians upon earthly goals, 1 Cor. 15, 19; Col. 3, 2,
and leads them to look upon the Bible as an obscure book.

Of the Antichrist.

43. As to the Antichrist we teach that the prophecies of the
Holy Scriptures concerning the Antichrist, 2 Thess. 2, 3—12; 1 J ohn
2, 18, have been fulfilled in the Pope of Rome and his dominion. All
the features of the Antichrist as drawn in these prophecies, includ-'
ing the most abominable and horrible ones, for example, that the
Antichrist “as God sitteth in the temple of God,” 2 Thess. 2, 4; that
he anathematizes the very heart of the Gospel of Christ, that is,
the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins by grace alone, for Christ’s
sake alone, through faith alone, without any merit or worthiness
in man (Rom. 8, 20—28; Gal. 2, 16); that he recognizes only those
as members of the Christian Church who bow to his authority; and
that, like a deluge, he had inundated the whole Church with his
antichristian doctrines till God revealed him through the Refor-
mation, — these very features are the outstanding characteristics
of the Papacy. (Cf. Smalcald Articles. Triglot, p. 515, §§39—41;
p. 401, § 45; M., pp. 336. 258.) Hence we subscribe to the state-
ment of our Confessions that the Pope is “the very Antichrist.”
(Smalcald Articles. Triglot, p. 475, § 10; M., p. 308.)

Of Open Questions.

44, Those questions in the domain of Christian doctrine may
be termed open questions which Scripture answers either not at
all or not clearly. Since neither an individual nor the Church