Do Lutherans Believe in Life After Death?

While there is much we do not and cannot know about life beyond the grave,
Lutherans do believe that life with God persists even after death. Judgment is both a
present and future reality, and history moves steadily towards God's ultimate
fulfillment.

This of course is a great mystery, and no description of what life may be like in any
dimension beyond history is possible. Anxiety for the future is not a mark of faith.
Christians should go about their daily tasks, trusting in God's grace and living a life of
service in his name.

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 John 2:18, have been fulfilled in the Pope of Rome and his
dominion. All the features of the Antichrist as drawn in these prophecies, including 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. 3:20-28; 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
Reformation -- these very features are the outstanding characteristics of the Papacy. (Cf. Smalcald
Articles, Triglot, p. 515, Paragraphs 39-41; p. 401, Paragraph 45; M. pp. 336, 258.) Hence we
subscribe to the statement of our Confessions that the Pope is "the very Antichrist." (Smalcald
Articles, Triglot, p. 475, Paragraph 10; M., p. 308.)

A Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod