# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1938_S225
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Intersynodical and Doctrinal Matters 225

B. In particular we confess the following:

1, In regard to the Antichrist we accept the historical judgment
of Luther in the Smalcald Articles (Part I, Art. IV:10) that the
Pope is the very Antichrist (German: “der rechte Endechrist oder
Widerchrist”), because among all the antichristian manifestations
in the history of the world and the Church that lie behind us in
the past there is none that fits the description given in 2 Thess. 2
better than the Papacy, particularly since the denial of the funda-
mental article of the Scripture on the part of the Papacy, viz., the
justification of the sinner by grace alone, for Christ’s sake alone,
by faith alone, constitutes the worst perversion imaginable of the
very essence of Christianity and inevitably carries with it the dis-
solution of every God-pleasing moral world-order.

The answer to the question whether in the future that is still

before us, prior to the return of Christ, a special unfolding and
personal concentration of the antichristian power already present
now and thus a still more comprehensive fulfilment of 2 Thess. 2
may occur, we leave to the Lord and Ruler of the Church and world
history.

2. With reference to the question concerning the conversion of
Israel, which some find indicated especially in Rom. 11: 25, 26, we
declare with Dr. Walther that to assume such a conversion “must
not be regarded as a cause for division” (Milwaukee-Kolloquium,
p. 156).

3. With reference to the assumption of a physical resurrection
of the martyrs, which some find indicated in Rev. 20:4, we declare
that we are not ready to deny church-fellowship to any one who
holds this view, merely on that account, since we cannot consider
the argument that this assumption violates the analogy of Scripture
as cogent (cf. Matt. 27:52, 53) and since the representatives -of this
opinion do not assume a rule of the martyrs here on earth but hold
that they go directly to heaven and rule there with Christ.

4. With reference to. the thousand years of Rev. 20 we declare
with Dr. Walther (Milwaukee-Kolloquium, p. 157) that Ҥt is not
possible to say with absolute certainty either that the thousand
years have already been fulfilled or that they still lie in the future.”
If they should still lie in the future, nothing must be taught con-
cerning the then existing Church on earth that would contradict
the limitations stated under VI, A.

With the other points of doctrine presented in the Brief State-
ment of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod we are con-
scious of being in agreement. We also believe that in regard to
the points touched upon in Sections I-IV the doctrines stated in the
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