[american_ranger]

I`m a Lutheran and I never heard of the Pope being referred to as the antichrist. Are you Lutheran or Catholic?

[El Cid]

I`m a Lutheran and I never heard of the Pope being referred to as the antichrist. Are you Lutheran or Catholic?

The Reformers, and probably Luther, referred to the Pope (or Papacy) as AntiChrist.
Remember that 'anti' can mean 'instead of' (or a replacement) - it doesn't necessarily mean the fanged caricature that we get in today's movies.

[hinckley buzzard]

After being excommunicated by the Medici Pope, Leo X, Luther condemned the papacy as an institution by calling it the AntiChrist. This is well know among Lutherans.

[Carl Vehse]

american ranger @25: "I`m a Lutheran and I never heard of the Pope being referred to as the antichrist."

That's odd. It was certainly discussed by my pastor during Lutheran catechism class back in the less politically correct days. And when confirmed, I answered affirmatively when asked by the pastor: "Do you hold all the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God and confess the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, drawn from them, as you have learned to know it from the Small Catechism, to be faithful and true?"

Here I or any confirmand subscribes without reservation to the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church exposited in the various Symbols of the Lutheran Book of Concord of 1580, not just the Small Catechism. In the Book of Concord, the following sections specifically refer and discuss the pope as the Antichrist: Smalcald Articles.IV.10, SA.IV12, Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope.39, Tr.41, Tr.42, Tr.57

As a Lutheran you do have a copy of the Book of Concord that you study, don't you?