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• Charles Spurgeon, Baptist preacher in England (1834-1892). 118
In the early 20 th century, there were those in Lutheran circles who felt that the teaching of
the pope as Antichrist could be viewed as an “historical opinion” that once was valid but no
longer applies. The American Lutheran Church (ALC) of 1930 produced a document titled the
“Sandusky Declaration.” It stated:
. . . we accept the historical judgment of Luther in the Smalcald Articles . . . that the Pope
is the Antichrist . . . 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 . . .
The answer to the question whether in the future that is still before us, prior to the return
of Christ, a special unfolding and a personal concentration of the antichristian power
already present now, and thus a still more comprehensive fulfillment of 2 Thess. 2 may
occur, we leave to the Lord and Ruler of Church and world history. 119
Lutheran churches in general tend to follow this “open question” concept of the Antichrist. In
his essay, “A Scriptural and Historical Survey of the Doctrine of the Antichrist,” John Brug says,
“I believe we would be amazed and rejoice to get a statement half as strong from the ELCA,
which is the successor body to the ALC.” 120
Those in the largest Lutheran church body in America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church
of America (ELCA) confirm this with their own words. In an article on the Antichrist in the
ELCA’s quarterly, The Lutheran Quarterly, George Drach writes: “Later Lutheran
theologians…softened Luther's positive stand by designating the papacy not as the Antichrist but
as one of the antichrists in the world.” 121 He then comments, “It cannot be denied that the
papacy with its fundamental errors of doctrine and practice is stamped with evident antichristian
marks.” 122 And finally he says, “Russian Communism, also, as it operates in our times, by its
118 Ibid., 91-92.
119 “Statement on the Antichrist,” in WELS Doctrinal Statements. Online. Available:
http://www.wels.net/about-wels/doctrinal-statements/antichristpage=0,1. (Date accessed: 28 February 2012.)
120 John F Brug, “A Scriptural and Historical Survey of the Doctrine of the Antichrist”. 1988. Online.
Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Essay File. Available: http://www.wlsessays.net/node/376. (Date accessed: 9
September, 2011.)
121 George Drach, “Antichrist” in The Lutheran Quarterly 1, no. 4 (1949), 461.
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