died on the battlefield.
Zwingli and Calvin – Swiss Enthusiasm
Zwingli – Godfather of Swiss Enthusiasm
Huldreich Zwingli was born on New Year’s Day, 1484, so he was a few months older than Martin Luther. In all other respects he was quite different from Luther. Zwingli read many books, but he was never formally trained in theology, while Luther earned a doctorate in the Scriptures. Although many people know Luther’s simple and basic works, they do not realize that he could argue Medieval theology and examine the philosophical terms in great detail. His massive Galatians commentary is an example, where he dealt with the Roman terms “congruent” and “condign grace” for 100 pages.
Luther was not political, teaching with great energy the concept of the two regiments (often called the two kingdoms). Luther saw the foolishness of the papacy assuming secular rule and also using force to advance the doctrines and fortunes of the Church of Rome. Therefore, he asserted that the material regiment should use the sword to enforce peace, punish offenders, and defend the nation. The spiritual regiment should use only the Word to teach the truth and defeat false teachers. In contrast, Zwingli was extremely nationalistic, serving as a chaplain, and ultimately dying on the field of battle with many other armed ministers and patriots, at the battle of Cappel, 1531, shortly after the Marburg Colloquy with Luther.
While Luther was often falsely accused of immorality, the charges invented by an unstable man named Cochlaeus (in The Seven-Headed Luther), Zwingli admitted to affairs while a priest, included one in which he impregnated the daughter of a barber. The slander against Luther continues to be repeated, even though the material has been previously refuted by Roman Catholic scholars, but Zwingli is simply remembered as the Zurich reformer. It is doubtful whether most Lutherans understand the nature of Zwingli’s quirky reformation in Zurich and how it influenced the more refined doctrinal errors of John Calvin, who worked later in Geneva. For instance, a senior at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (WELS), when asked in a class on the Book of Concord who was wrong at the Marburg Colloquy, answered with great sincerity that Luther was wrong and stubborn about the Real Presence in holy communion, a doctrinal position rejected by Zwingli.
Zwingli’s theological illiteracy has been reproduced on a massive scale today, even though seminary graduates want to be known as “masters of divinity.” Many conservative Lutheran pastors leave seminary with a shallow knowledge of the Lutheran Confessions, accompanied by an attitude that these documents are outdated, uninteresting, and irrelevant. Unfortunately, most conservative seminary professors are called through their political connections, not because of their scholarly abilities. One seminary professor was called without having a bachelor’s degree! Zwingli is a good example of enthusiasm, since he was vain, untrained, jealous of Luther, and yet eager to publish his religious opinions. Zwingli’s Lutheran disciples are similarly untrained, vain, and jealous of anyone who might counter their glib opinions with the Scriptures and the Confessions.
Zwingli Quotes
"Zwingli said, 'I believe, yea I know, that all the Sacraments are so far from conferring grace that they do not even convey or distribute it. In this, most powerful Emperor, I may perhaps appear too bold to thee. But I am firmly convinced that I am right. For as grace is produced or given by the divine Spirit (I am using the term 'grace' in its Latin meaning of pardon, indulgence, gracious favor), so this gift reaches only the spirit. The Spirit, however, needs no guide or vehicle, for He Himself is the Power and Energy by which all things are borne and has no need of being borne. Nor have we ever read in the Holy Scriptures that perceptible things like the Sacraments certainly bring with them the Spirit.' (Fidei Ratio, ed. Niemeyer p. 24; Jacobs, Book of Concord, II, 68)"
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 132f.
"In what vulgar terms does Zwingli here speak of these sacred matters! When the Holy Spirit wants to approach man, He does not need the Word of God, the Gospel, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, for a conveyance; He can come without them! It must be a queer Bible which Zwingli read."
C. F. W. Walther, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, trans., W. H. T. Dau, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1928, p. 156.
"Furthermore, consider this: All doctrines of the Bible are connected with one another; they form a unit. One error draws others in after it. Zwingli's first error was the denial of the presence of Christ's body and blood in the Lord's Supper. In order to support this error, he had to invent a false doctrine of Christ's Person, of heaven, of the right hand of God, etc."
Francis Pieper, The Difference between Orthodox and Heterodox Churches, and Supplement, Coos Bay, Oregon: St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 1981, p. 41.
"Calvin was dissatisfied with Zwingli's interpretation of the Lord's Supper, but his own interpretation was also wrong. He said that a person desiring to receive the body and blood of Christ could not get it under the bread and wine, but must by his faith mount up to heaven, where the Holy Spirit would negotiate a way for feeding him with the body and blood of Christ. These are mere vagaries, which originated in Calvin's fancy. But an incident like this shows that men will not believe that God bears us poor sinners such great love that He is willing to come to us."
C. F. W. Walther, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, trans., W. H. T. Dau, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1928, p. 185.
"Hence it is manifest how unjustly and maliciously the Sacramentarian fanatics (Theodore Beza) deride the Lord Christ, St. Paul, and the entire Church in calling this oral partaking, and that of the unworthy, duos pilos caudae equinae et commentum, cuius vel ipsum Satanam pudeat, as also the doctrine concerning the majesty of Christ, excrementum Satanae, quo diabolus sibi ipsi et hominibus illudat, that is, they speak so horribly of it that a godly Christian man should be ashamed to translate it. [two hairs of a horse's tail and an invention of which even Satan himself would be ashamed; Satan's excrement, by which the devil amuses himself and deceives men]
Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article VII, Lord's Supper, 67, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 997. Tappert, p. 581f.
"I believe, yea, I know, that all the Sacraments are so far from conferring grace that they do not even convey or distribute it. In this, most powerful Emperor, I may perhaps appear too bold to thee. But I am firmly convinced that I am right." [Zwingli]
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950, III, p. 132f. Fidei Ratio, ed. Niemeyer, p. 24;
"Zwingli, who was a moralist and a Humanist rather than a truly evangelical reformer, taught: 'In itself the Law is nothing else than a Gospel; that is, a good, certain message from God by means of which He instructs us concerning His will.' (Frank 2, 312.)"
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 161.
"They [the Zwinglians] divorced the Word and the Spirit, separated the person who preaches and teaches the Word from God, who works through the Word, and separated the servant who baptizes from God, who has commanded the Sacrament. They fancied that the Holy Spirit is given and works without the Word, that the Word merely gives assent to the Spirit, whom it already finds in the heart. If, then, this Word does not find the Spirit but a godless person, then it is not the Word of God. In this way they falsely judge and define the Word, not according to God, who speaks it, but according to the man who receives it. They want only that to be the Word of God which is fruitful and brings peace and life..."
Martin Luther, What Luther Says, An Anthology, 3 vols., ed., Ewald Plass, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, II, p. 664f.
"The term 'Reformed' has therefore become a distinctive name and denotes all those church bodies which follow the theology and particularly the church practices of Zwingli and John Calvin. It is correct when Lutherans insist that there are three large groups of Christians: the Catholics, the Lutherans, and the Reformed."
F. E. Mayer, American Churches, Beliefs and Practices, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1946, p. 24.
"Luther protested against Rome's soul-destroying teachings and reformed the Church by restoring the pure doctrine of God's Word. Zwingli hoped to reform the Church by abolishing Rome's superstitious practices. Calvin believed that a complete reformation implied two things: First, it was necessary to abolish all ceremonies, even those which were in use in the ancient Church, such as the liturgy, the church year, pulpits, altars; secondly, a truly reformed Church must follow the pattern of the Apostolic Church in all its church practices and adopt the form of church government given to Israel in the Old Testament."
F. E. Mayer, American Churches, Beliefs and Practices, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1946, p. 24.
As Otto Heick has observed in A History of Christian Thought, Zwingli was more of a Savanarola, a political reformer in the guise of a religious leader. Zwingli was influenced by Erasmus and Luther, but he remained a humanist and a rationalist. His literary production is considered impressive in size and quality, but not “monumental.” One does not find standard works of Zwingli as we do of Luther, Calvin, and other religious leaders. However, in Calvin and in all non-Lutheran Protestants, we find the same basic error taught with such relish by Zwingli: denial of the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace. This is not a casual or minor error, but so fundamental that the Reformed return to it repeatedly, like people who must constantly shore up a bad argument. Pentecostals and Baptists refuse to baptize infants, but they are not significantly different from the Presbyterians and Methodists who baptize babies while denying baptismal regeneration.
Zwingli’s thought, as summarized by Heick:
“As the Word of God, Scripture is clear. It needs neither interpreters nor commentators. Tradition is useless, if not downright harmful. Man must be taught by God. Strictly speaking, the spoken or material Word is no means of grace at all, let alone the sacraments.”
Otto W. Heick, A History of Christian Thought, 2 volumes, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1965, I, p. 357.
In addition, the confusion between Law and Gospel in Zwingli is magnified among all those who have followed him in error, knowingly or unknowingly. This is another facet of the denial of the efficacy of the Word. In errorists, the Law dominates, so that one is both condemned as a sinner by the Law and also saved through works of the Law. When the power of the Holy Spirit is divorced from the visible and invisible Word, the human mind seeks restlessly for a substitute. Sadly, visible replacements for the divinely ordained sacraments are such demonic tricks as speaking in tongues, giving up an obvious or imagined vice (such as dancing), or observing certain human rites (taking a pledge in front of the congregation). Methods of the Law cannot provide comfort, so additional replacements for the sacraments are sought. Holiness Christians (no dancing, card playing, movies, make-up, or jewelry) become tongue speakers. Tongue speakers turn to the occult, with spirit guides from the Fourth Dimension, as Paul Y. Cho teaches.
Avoid Doctrine of Works
"There is but one way by which the Reformed theology can escape the doctrine of works--by accepting Lutheranism. And the Reformed actually take this step when they, including Calvin, at the last direct those who are troubled by grave doubts of their election to the universal grace as it is attested in the means of grace."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 169.
Lurking in the minds of all Enthusiasts is the Monster of Uncertainty. Roman Catholics ask, “Are we really doing enough?” The doctrine of Purgatory feeds the monster, in spite of good works, daily masses, confessions of sin, monetary offerings, acts of contrition, pilgrimages, and estate planning. The Reformed monster is no less demanding, asking if the Law has really been obeyed to perfection, if enough souls have been won for Christ, if health and wealth are conspicuous enough to impress unbelievers.
From Zwingli we get the plague of rationalism but also its false antidote, irrationalism. Rationalism seeks to explain the Scriptures in such a way that most people can accept what is beyond their limited understanding, as if God did not say, “My thoughts are not your thoughts; and My ways are not your ways.” Trying to make the Creation fit into a scheme of evolution is one form of rationalism, but proving the Six Day Creation with scientific research is another form of the same illness. Making the Word germane or appealing, selling the Gospel, is still another form of rationalism. The Lutheran Zwinglian says to himself, “If I can find out what the felt needs of the average person are, then I can show people that my version of the Gospel answers their felt needs – whether they are lonely, stressed, or short on time. Then they will flock to my congregation. However, I must avoid such downers as doctrinal purity, the historic liturgy, classic hymns, and creeds. In fact, it would be better if I avoid the name Lutheran altogether.” Needless to say, many of these Zwinglian Lutheran pastors have become Zwinglians and atheists.
John Calvin – The Smooth Version of Zwingli
John Calvin was a second-generation reformer, born in northern France in 1509, when Luther was already a few years from earning his doctorate. He studied at the University of Paris and earned a master’s degree when he was 19 years old. Trained in ancient languages, Calvin published a commentary on the Latin author Seneca, but it did not bring him notice or acclaim. In 1536, Calvin’s Institutes (revised and enlarged in many editions) became a sensation and drew people to him. He was delayed in Geneva, Switzerland, during a trip, encouraged by the Protestant minister G. Farel to stay and help with the work there in 1537. Calvin and Farel were expelled from Geneva, but invited back in 1541. Calvin married but did not have any surviving children. He became a preacher and theologian without being ordained as a pastor, so he had much in common with Luther’s younger associate, Melanchthon, who was also trained in the classics.
Luther died in 1546 and never met Calvin. Melanchthon (1497-1563) was younger than Luther and met Calvin at the Worms and Regensburg colloquies, 1540-41. Calvin and Melanchthon became friends, resulting in Calvin’s firmness affecting Melanchthon’s judgment and doctrine. Melanchthon suffered from a need to bring warring groups together based upon compromise rather than doctrinal agreement. After Luther’s death, Melanchthon was so timid in the face of Roman opposition that Calvin felt compelled to rebuke him.
Calvin, June 18, 1550 to Melanchthon: "My grief renders me almost speechless. How the enemies of Christ enjoy your conflicts with the Magdeburgers appears from their mockeries. Permit me to admonish you freely as a true friend. I should like to approve of all your actions. But now I accuse you before your very face. This is the sum of your defense: If the purity of doctrine be retained, externals should not be pertinaciously contended for. But you extend the adiaphora too far. Some of them plainly conflict with the Word of God. Now, since the Lord has drawn us into the fight, it behooves us to struggle all the more manfully. You know that your position differs from that of the multitude. The hesitation of the general or leader is more disgraceful than the flight of an entire regiment of common soldiers."
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 101.
Melanchthon, as heir, to Luther, became the instrument by which Calvinism was secretly introduced to Lutheranism. Most Lutherans do not realize today that Calvin seemed to be Lutheran for many years. We now look back at that period as a time of stress and mutual rejection, but Calvin was considered a Lutheran and willingly assumed that role for years. He was no different from Paul Kelm, David Valleskey, Kent Hunter, or Waldo Werning today, accepting the benefits of being considered a Lutheran while advancing the views of Zwingli.
"For the adoption of the Consensus Tigurinus in 1549, referred to above, cannot but be viewed as an overt act by which the Wittenberg Concord, signed 1536 by representative Lutheran and Reformed theologians, was publicly repudiated and abandoned by Calvin and his adherents, and whereby an anti-Lutheran propaganda on an essentially Zwinglian basis was inaugurated. Calvin confirmed the schism between the Lutherans and the Reformed which Carlstadt, Zwingli, and Oecolampadius had originated."
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 174.
Calvin’s Doctrine
To understand the crypto-Calvinist (secret Calvinist) Lutherans, we need to examine the teachings of John Calvin about the Means of Grace. Not surprisingly, some of the most revealing statements come from his booklet, Against Westphal, for the Lutheran Joachim Westphal taunted Calvin for some time, to bring out his actual views. The crypto-Calvinists of today loudly moan about “Christian-bashing,” a term borrowed from homosexual activist, when someone asks for doctrinal clarity. It is easy to see from Against Westphal that such polemical literature is used by God to distinguish between sound and false doctrine.
1 Corinthians 11:18 For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. 19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
It was good for Westphal to annoy Calvin and even better for Calvin to answer Westphal honestly. Similarly, when it was rumored that Luther had given up his Biblical views about the Lord’s Supper, he responded with his Brief Confession on the Lord’s Supper, another superb document. Today, the massive doctrinal indifference in American Lutheranism is a direct result of people studiously avoiding all doctrinal conflict. We lose our spiritual muscle tone through lack of effort just as we lose normal muscle tone from inactivity. The inactive person not only loses the ability to exert himself, but also the will to try. Lutherans have become so lazy and inert that they would rather suffer from false teachers, soul murderers and wife murderers, than object to the most obnoxious heresies in their midst. Pastors fear for their tiny pensions but not for their sheep being attacked by wolves. Synodical professors quake at the thought of returning to the parish, so they promote Reformed doctrine and methods in the name of making their institutions strong, though they are dying.
Lutheran Reformed Union
"Wherever Lutherans unite with the Reformed, the former gradually sink to the level of the latter. Already by declaring the differences between the two Churches irrelevant, the Lutheran truths are actually sacrificed and denied. Unionism always breaks the backbone, and outrages the conscience, of true Lutheranism. And naturally enough, the refusal to confess the Lutheran truth is but too frequently followed by eager endorsement and fanatical defense of the opposite errors."
F. Bente, American Lutheranism, 2 vols., The United Lutheran Church, General Synod, General Council, United Synod in the South, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1919, II, p. 68.
To understand the secret Calvinists, let us look first at Calvin’s doctrine, openly taught.
CALVIN’S DOCTRINE
Calvin wrote well and published his errors over a long span of time. He continued to revise and expand his Institutes of the Christian Religion and completed a commentary of every book of the Bible. Sadly, his Biblical commentaries are bought and used by many Lutheran pastors. This tragedy was encouraged by the Biblical inerrancy wars of the early 1900s. Once Lutherans began to be assaulted by highly educated proponents of Biblical error and contradiction, they turned to highly disciplined Calvinist scholars who had already been through the same trials. Lutherans did not stop to think that Calvinistic rationalism brought Unitarian doctrine to the Presbyterians earlier, while Lutheran doctrine repelled it. Therefore, Lutherans turned to Calvinists as allies against the common enemy of doubt. But using human reason to cure the problem of doubt is akin to drinking brine to slake one’s thirst.
Calvin’s rationalism can be summarized by three foundational errors.
Enthusiasm – Separating the Holy Spirit from the Word.
Extra-calvinisticum – Denying that the finite can contain the infinite.
Double predestination. Teaching that all people are either predestined to damnation or predestined to salvation, God’s “horrible decree,” before or after the fall of Adam. Calvinists are divided on the timing of the decree, which is unrecorded in the Scriptures.
Law Gospel confusion.
I. Enthusiasm
Calvin’s enthusiasm and its effect upon Lutherans is the motivation for writing this book and listing so many citations on the subject. Calvin, like Zwingli, scornfully rejected the Biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit always being at work in the Word and never working apart from the Word (Isaiah 55:8-10). Calvin replaced the Biblical teaching with his peculiar notion of the Holy Spirit working independently of the Word and Sacraments, either before or after, or not at all! The Calvinists are never completely consistent about this, because they believe in preaching, teaching, and publishing. But they take care to deny the efficacy of the Word at every chance, as did their most famous modern church father Karl Barth.
"The means of grace are thus limited for Barth. The preacher descending from the pulpit can never quote Luther and say with joyful assurance that he has preached the Word of God. Of course, he can hope and pray; but he can never know whether the Holy Spirit has accompanied the preached Word, and hence whether his words were the Word of God. To know this, or even to wish to know it, would be a presumptuous encroachment of man upon the sovereign freedom of God."
Hermann Sasse, Here We Stand, trans. Theodore G. Tappert, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1946, p. 161.
Barth, the official theologian of Fuller Seminary, was an apostate who rejected the doctrines of the Christian faith while living from his publication efforts, aided by his live-in mistress Charlotte Kirschbaum. Barth is the epitome of the Church Growth expert: unfaithful to God, unfaithful in marriage, treacherous, vain, boastful, and eager to impose silence on his critics. After opposing the Nazis from the safety of Switzerland during WWII, Barth betrayed his followers in Eastern Europe and kissed up to the Communists. He and his lovely assistant, Charlotte, had been reds all along, as the historical documents show.
II. Extra-Calvinisticum
The haughty spirit that denies the efficacy of the Word will also invent new doctrines. One is called the extra-calvinisticum, Calvin’s assertion that the finite cannot contain the infinite. In other words, the finite forms of bread and wine cannot hold the infinite, the body of Christ. The same declaration makes the two natures, human and divine, united in the one person, Christ, impossible. In fact, both Zwingli and Calvin had serious problems with Christology. Their rationalistic denials of what Christ has clearly promised in the Word and Sacraments led to Unitarianism (Socinianism) of their later disciples.
"...it is exceedingly difficult to prevent this low view from running out into Socinianism, as, indeed, it actually has run in Calvinistic lands, so that it became a proverb, often met with in the older theological writers--'A young Calvinist, an old Socinian.' This peril is confessed and mourned over by great Calvinistic divines. New England is an illustration of it on an immense scale, in our own land."
Charles P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology, Philadelphia: The United Lutheran Publication House, 1871, p. 489.
III. Double Predestination and Limited Atonement
Theological discussions often begin with Calvin’s doctrine of double predestination, which was published in his first edition of the Institutes and every edition thereafter, but double predestination is really secondary in harmfulness to enthusiasm. One can hardly untangle the chaos created by one conflict after another, in opposition to the Scriptures. Double predestination teaches that God decreed a minority saved and a majority damned before the creation of the world, or perhaps after the fall of Adam. Associated with double predestination is the concept that Christ died only for the elect and not for the sins of the world. Anyone who dwells on the core of Calvin’s teaching and applies it consistently must wonder why he would listen to the Word, which is dead, or receive the sacraments, which are dead, when the Holy Spirit will work before or after the Means of Grace but not necessarily through them. A Calvinist must either be proud and secure, since he is taught “once saved, always saved” or he is anxious and fearful that he has been predestined for damnation. The comic-tragic novels of Peter DeVries, such as Slouching Toward Kalamazoo and The Blood of the Lamb, catch this spirit of Grand Rapids Calvinism.
Predestination
"As a matter of fact, however, also in the doctrine of predestination Zwingli and Calvin were just as far and as fundamentally apart from Luther as their entire rationalistic theology differed from the simple and implicit Scripturalism of Luther. Frank truly says that the agreement between Luther's doctrine and that of Zwingli and Calvin is 'only specious, nur scheinbar.' (1, 118.) Tschackert remarks: 'Whoever [among the theologians before the Formula of Concord] was acquainted with the facts could not but see that in this doctrine [of predestination] there was a far-reaching difference between the Lutheran and the Calvinistic theology.' (559.) F. Pieper declares that Luther and Calvin agree only in certain expressions, but differ entirely as to substance. (Dogmatics, III, 554.)"
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 209.
"Calvin and his adherents boldly rejected the universality of God's grace, of Christ's redemption, and of the Spirit's efficacious operation through the means of grace, and taught that, in the last analysis, also the eternal doom of the damned was solely due to an absolute decree of divine reprobation (in their estimation the logical complement of election), and this at the very time when they pretended adherence to the Augsburg Confession and were making heavy inroads into Lutheran territory with their doctrine concerning the Lord's Supper and the person of Christ,--which in itself was sufficient reason for a public discussion and determined resentment of their absolute predestinarianism."
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 195f.
"The doctrine of the means of grace is understood properly only when it is considered in the light of Christ's redemptive work (satisfactio vicaria) and the objective justification, or reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5:19-20, which He secured by His substitutionary obedience (satisfactio vicaria). If
"Waere die Erleuchtung eine unwiderstehliche, wie die Kalvinisten lehren, so waere auch ein Verlieren derselben nicht moeglich. (If enlightenment were irresistible, as the Calvinists teach, then being lost would not be possible.)"
Adolf Hoenecke, Evangelische-Lutherische Dogmatik, 4 vols., ed., Walter and Otto Hoenecke, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1912, III, p. 250.
The Arminians, following Arminius, rejected the double predestination of Calvin. The Synod of Dort established the five classic doctrines of Calvinism, but few of the Reformed believe or teach them. The Arminians emphasize free will instead of double predestination, so they are represented by most Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists today. Although Calvin began the concept of making the Word “reasonable” and “germane,” the Arminians have nurtured that error to the point of insisting on “marketing the Gospel” and using “entertainment evangelism.” Their concept of salvation is no less murky than the Calvinists. The burden of the Law is great on both sides, both the teacher and the potential convert. The teacher must teach in such a way as to win the lost soul, but the lost soul must make a decision, have the right disposition toward God, suffer and yield, and complete the transaction. He may be required to speak in tongues or to give up certain outward vices. Although Calvin was no revivalist, all the errors of the Reformed stem from his errors, since the foundation of Enthusiasm cannot sustain anything except the monster of uncertainty.
"Reformed ministers make the impression that they are trying to talk
people into something instead of telling their people that they have a message
from God, a 'Thus saith the Lord,' which is to be accepted without argumentation
upon the authority of God's Word. This weakens their preaching."
Martin S. Sommer, Concordia Pulpit for 1932, Martin S. Sommer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1931, p. v.
"The crudest extravagances of revivalism (Methodism, Pentecostalism, Holy Rollerism) have their root in this specifically Reformed doctrine of the immediate working of the Holy Spirit.”
"Grace, Means of," The Concordia Cyclopedia, L. Fuerbringer, Th. Engelder, P. E. Kretzmann, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1927, p. 299.
"Zwingli, Calvin, and their adherents denied that the Word of God always possesses the same efficacy, and that God always operates through the Word."
E. Hove, Christian Doctrine, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1930, p. 27.
IV. Law Gospel Confusion
Another symptom of Enthusiasm is confusion between the Law and the Gospel. In effect, there is often very little Gospel at all, because the Law is used to reveal sin, but the Gospel is mixed with the Law to offer salvation. When the Gospel includes Law demands, the Gospel is no longer Gospel but Law. This stems from Calvin’s bizarre statements about the Gospel. He claimed that the Gospel slays the sinner, a concept captured in the popular hymn, “Amazing Grace.”
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.
"Because saving grace is particular, according to the teaching of the Calvinists, there are no means of grace for that part of mankind to which the grace of God and the merit of Christ do not extend. On the contrary, for these people the means of grace are intended as means of condemnation. Calvin teaches expressly: 'For there is a universal call, through which, by the external preaching of the Word, God invites all, indiscriminately, to come to Him, even those for whom He intends it as a savor of death and an occasion of heavier condemnation' (Institutes, III, 24, 8)."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 118f.
"But according to the teaching of Calvinism this 'inner illumination' is not brought about through the means of grace; it is worked immediately by the Holy Ghost. Modern Reformed, too, teach this very emphatically. Hodge, for example, says: 'In the work of regeneration all second causes are excluded....Nothing intervenes between the volition of the Spirit and the regeneration of the soul....The infusion of a new life into the soul is the immediate work of the Spirit....The truth (in the case of adults)[that is, the setting forth of the truth of the Gospel through the external Word] attends the work of regeneration, but is not the means by which it is effected." [Hodge, Systematic Theology, II, 634f.]
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 120.
The Gospel, when properly proclaimed, offers only comfort and forgiveness. The Gospel only makes one demand, that we believe, and the Gospel itself creates the faith it requires.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
BGT John 3:16 Ou[twj ga.r hvga,phsen o` qeo.j to.n ko,smon( w[ste to.n ui`o.n to.n monogenh/ e;dwken( i[na pa/j o` pisteu,wn eivj auvto.n mh. avpo,lhtai avllV e;ch| zwh.n aivw,nionÅ
Where is the demand of the Law in the Little Gospel? Where are the qualifications, the “ifs”? The Holy Spirit does not say, “whosoever believeth in Him and taketh a pledge” or “whosoever believeth in Him and speaketh in tongues” or “whosoever believeth in Him and doeth good works.” Moreover, the Lord spoke of the foundational sin when He was facing His death. The Holy Spirit would convict people of their sin, and the sin is defined. “Of sin, because they believe not on Me.”
KJV John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;
Those who understand the Biblical doctrine of the efficacy of the Word can understand this, but Enthusiasts cannot. For all their talk about the Gospel and conversion, Enthusiasts do not give God the glory but return to what the Old Adam and Satan desire as satisfaction, works of the Law. For that reason, most people see Christianity in America as condemning, legalistic, defined by one set of rules after another. This legalism, which is man-made law, does not make people better but serves to make them worse. They are either thrown into despair because they can never be good enough, or they are proud and spiteful because they imagine they have reached a higher level of spirituality in their obedience to God. Sin is set ablaze by this excess of the Law, whether in despair or in pride.
America is the most legalistic Christian country in the world and also the nation with the most murderous abortion parameters. No other Western democracy works so hard at getting rid of unborn children, from conception to “partial-birth” abortions, which are really murders at delivery. Why is this? The legalism of American, Reformed Pietistic Christianity has made getting caught a greater sin than having a baby born out of wedlock. Pious parents will pay for the murder of their grandchild to keep others from finding out that their daughter is pregnant, or worse, to save money needed in raising a child. Enthusiasts actually reward this behavior by claiming that all aborted babies are in heaven, a claim the author has heard more than once. Thus, one woman phoned into a pro-life radio show to say, “We do not have to worry about the aborted babies, because they are all in heaven.” Murder of the unborn is excused with a rationalistic, extra-Biblical claim, unsupported by all of church history, since the early Christians risked their lives to save the “unplanned” infants who were left in the wild to die.
Law Gospel confusion begins with a reliance upon the Law, degenerates into legalism, and finally collapses into Antinomianism and hedonism. Most people would view the radical left-wing Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as being anti-Law and hedonistic, and that is a fair conclusion. But the ELCA is also extremely legalistic, with its man-made laws changing from moment to moment. Only the most skilled Pharisees can manage to obey the regulation du jour and appear qualified for office. In fact, the legalism of all the Lutheran synods is a testimony to the influence of Calvin and the neglect of Luther. Most Lutheran leaders, especially the conservative ones, do not even realize that they are mouthing Reformed doctrine and methods when they exhort their followers.
Enthusiasm: The Holy Spirit Works Independently of the Sacraments
“Wherefore, with regard to the increase and confirmation of faith, I would remind the reader (though I think I have already expressed it in unambiguous terms), that in assigning this office to the sacraments, it is not as if I thought that there is a kind of secret efficacy perpetually inherent in them, by which they can of themselves promote or strengthen faith, but because our Lord has instituted them for the express purpose of helping to establish and increase our faith. The sacraments duly perform their office only when accompanied by the Spirit, the internal Master, whose energy alone penetrates the heart, stirs up the affections, and procures access for the sacraments into our souls. If He is wanting, the sacraments can avail us no more than the sun shining on the eyeballs of the blind, or sounds uttered in the ears of the deaf. Wherefore, in distributing between the Spirit and the sacraments, I ascribe the whole energy to Him, and leave only a ministry to them; this ministry, without the agency of the Spirit, is empty and frivolous, but when He acts within, and exerts His power, it is replete with energy. ..then, it follows, both that the sacraments do not avail one iota without the energy of the Holy Spirit; and that yet in hearts previously taught by that preceptor, there is nothing to prevent the sacraments from strengthening and increasing faith.”
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 volumes, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970, I, p. 497. Also cited in Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 119. Institutes. IV.xiv.9.
"The nature of baptism or the Supper must not be tied down to an instant of time. God, whenever He sees fit, fulfills and exhibits in immediate effect that which he figures in the sacrament. But no necessity must be imagined so as to prevent His grace from sometimes preceding, sometimes following, the use of the sign."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 121. Against Joachim Westphal.
“We must not suppose that there is some latent virtue inherent in the sacraments by which they, in themselves, confer the gifts of the Holy Spirit upon us, in the same way in which wine is drunk out of a cup, since the only office divinely assigned them is to attest and ratify the benevolence of the Lord towards us; and they avail no farther than accompanied by the Holy Spirit to open our minds and hearts, and make us capable of receiving this testimony, in which various distinguished graces are clearly manifested…They [the sacraments] do not of themselves bestow any grace, but they announce and manifest it, and, like earnests and badges, give a ratification of the gifts which the divine liberality has bestowed upon us.”
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 volumes, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970, I, p. 503. Institutes, IV, XIV, 17.
“But assuming that the body and blood of Christ are attached to the bread and wine, then the one must necessarily be disservered from the other. For the bread is given separately from the cup, so the body, united to the bread, must be separated from the blood, included in the cup.”
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 volumes, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970, I, p. 570. Institutes, IV, XVII, 18.
"We must establish such a presence of Christ in the supper as may neither fasten Him to the element of bread, not enclose Him in bread, not circumscribe Him in any way (all of which clearly derogate from His heavenly glory)...."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 128. Institutes IV.xvii.19.
"Therefore, a part of revelation consists in baptism, that is, so far as it is intended to confirm our faith."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 116. Titus 3:5.
"Baptism seals to us the salvation obtained by Christ."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 116. Comm. Titus 3:5.
"The nature of baptism or the Supper must not be tied down to an instant of time. God, whenever He sees fit, fulfills and exhibits in immediate effect that which he figures in the sacrament. But no necessity must be imagined so as to prevent His grace from sometimes preceding, sometimes following, the use of the sign."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 121. Against Joachim Westphal.
"The offspring of believers are born holy, because their children, while yet in the womb, before they breathe the vital air, have been adopted into the covenant of eternal life."
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 123. True Method of Reforming the Church.
Crypto-Calvinists, Then and Now
Before Luther's death, most of the doctrinal battles were against the Medieval errors of Roman Catholicism. After his death in 1546, the errors of John Calvin began to undermine Lutheran doctrine. Calvin's errors, in this controversy, concerned the two natures of Christ and Lord's Supper. What someone believes about Christ will inevitably be reflected in what he believes about Holy Communion. Calvin could not believe that the resurrected Christ could pass through solid walls (John 20:19). Similarly, he could not accept the Real Presence of Christ with the elements of the Lord's Supper. In addition, he separated the work of the Holy Spirit from the Word, so the Sacraments of Holy Communion and Baptism were symbolic and not effective in Calvin's thought.
Once again, Melanchthon's unionism, timidity, and lack of honesty played a tragic part in launching the evil Crypto-Calvinist party. His desire for union with Calvin's Geneva and with Rome caused Melanchthon to change his views and try to strike a compromising position somewhere between the truth, Rome, and Geneva.
As early as 1535, Melanchthon harbored anti-Lutheran views, but hid them from Luther. By 1540 Melanchthon had changed the Augsburg Confession to conform with Calvin's views! Many people are still astonished today that Luther's co-worker could alter a confession of the Lutheran Church on his own. That is why Lutheran denominations adhere to the "Unaltered Augsburg Confession" or UAC, as found on church cornerstones. Melanchthon urged his followers to dissimulate, to cleverly deceive, rather than reveal their positions to the pure Lutherans. Modern Crypto-Calvinists, in the Church Growth Movement, also refuse to state their doctrinal beliefs.
"To all practical purposes the University of Wittenberg was already Calvinized. Calvinistic books appeared and were popular. Even the work of a Jesuit against the book of Jacob Andreae on the Majesty of the Person of Christ was published at Wittenberg. The same was done with a treatise of Beza, although, in order to deceive the public, the title-page gave Geneva as the place of publication. Hans Lufft, the Wittenberg printer, later declared that during this time he did not know how to dispose of the books of Luther which he still had in stock, but that, if he had printed twenty or thirty times as many Calvinistic books, he would have sold all of them very rapidly."
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 189.
Joachim Westphal was the first to warn Lutherans of the influence of Calvinism. Confusion was caused by Calvin's early agreement with the Lutheran position and Melanchthon's secret conversion. Westphal's polemics brought out Calvin's polemics, which clarified the differences between the two confessions. In Wittenberg, a group of Melanchthon's followers conspired to deliver Luther's Reformation to the Calvinists, not only by deceiving the Elector August that they were faithful Lutherans, but also by driving out the genuine Lutherans.
The Crypto-Calvinists gathered Melanchthon writings into a Corpus Philippicum, with the approval of Melanchthon. The group of writings included Melanchthon's false doctrine and excluded Luther's writings. Those who did not subscribe to the document were deposed and driven out of their church positions. Early success made the Crypto-Calvinists bolder. They surrounded Elector August and convinced him to persecute sincere Lutherans as zealots and trouble-makers. Calvinist books were promoted to such a degree in Wittenberg that Luther's books remained unsold. The theologians craftily published a book, Exegesis Perspicua, which advocated union with the Calvinists, surrendering all doctrinal points to Calvin. Their triumph opened the eyes of the naive Elector, but one more stroke completely destroyed them in their cleverness.
THE CRYPTO-CALVINISTS SELF-DESTRUCT
After Luther's death in 1546, Melanchthon's followers, with his help, conspired to replace Luther's doctrine with Calvin's, at Wittenberg, Leipzig, and across Germany. Their stealth book, Exegesis Perspicua, revealed their dishonesty and allegiance to Calvin. Elector August, a faithful Lutheran who had been deceived by the Crypto-Calvinists, was angered and humiliated. The Crypto-Calvinists added to their fame as liars in 1574, when a Calvinist devotional book was delivered to the wrong person.
"By mistake the letter was delivered to the wife of the court-preacher Lysthenius....After opening the letter and finding it to be written in Latin, she gave it to her husband, who, in turn, delivered it to the Elector. In it Peucer requested Schuetze dexterously to slip into the hands of Anna, the wife of the Elector, a Calvinistic prayer-book which he had sent with the letter. Peucer added: 'If first we have Mother Anna on our side, there will be no difficulty in winning His Lordship [her husband] too.' Additional implicating material was discovered when Augustus now confiscated the correspondence of Peucer, Schuetze, Stoessel, and Cracow. The letters found revealed the consummate perfidy, dishonesty, cunning, and treachery of the men who had been the trusted advisers of the Elector, who had enjoyed his implicit confidence, and who by their falsehoods had caused him to persecuted hundreds of innocent and faithful Lutheran ministers. The fact was clearly established that these Philippists had been systematically plotting to Calvinize Saxony. The very arguments with which Luther's doctrine of the Lord's Supper and the Person of Christ might best be refuted were enumerated in these letters. However, when asked by the Elector whether they were Calvinists, these self-convicted deceivers are said to have answered that 'they would not see the face of God in eternity if in any point they were addicted to the doctrines of the Sacramentarians or deviated in the least from Dr. Luther's teaching.' (Walther, 56.)"
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 190
The sly letter enclosed with the book, from Melanchthon's son-in-law, suggested that Elector August be converted through his wife Anna. August ordered an investigation, which revealed even more intrigue. The Crypto-Calvinists were thrown into prison. August took on a leadership role in restoring genuine Lutheran doctrine. Martin Chemnitz, Jacob Andreae, and Nicholas Selnecker were made trusted advisors to August.
As horrible as the Crypto-Calvinist reign appeared at the time, their excesses and sudden collapse provided a God-given way to unite Lutherans in a common confession. At the Colloquy of Worms in 1557, the Lutherans were divided, thanks to Melanchthon, and the Romanists refused to negotiate with them. Many unity efforts failed, until Jacob Andreae published his Six Christian Sermons in 1573. Andreae's sermons, the collapse of the Crypto-Calvinists, and Martin Chemnitz' leadership all combined to generate movement toward the Formula of Concord.
The Formula of Concord required the cooperation of Andreae, Chemnitz, Selnecker, David Chytraeus, Musculus, and Cornerus. Most people could not abide Andreae, but he was crucial in getting the work started and completed. Chemnitz was the dominant theologian, but the others all contributed significant insights to the Formula, which was signed in 1577. The Book of Concord, which includes the Ecumenical Creeds, the Augsburg Confession, the Apology to the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles, the Small Catechism, the Large Catechism, and the Formula of Concord, was completed in 1580.
"In the theological conflicts after Luther's death three parties may be distinguished. The first party embraced chiefly the Interimists, the Synergists, and the Crypto-Calvinists. They were adherents of Philip Melanchthon, hence called Melanchthonians or, more commonly, Philippists, and were led by the theologians of Electoral Saxony. Their object was to supplant the authority and theology of Luther by the unionistic and liberal views of Melanchthon. Their headquarters were the universities of Wittenberg and Leipzig." Chief representatives: Joachim Camerarius, Paul Eber, Caspar Cruciger, Jr., Christopher Pezel, George Major, Caspar Peucer (son in law of Philip), Paul Crell, John Pfeffinger, Victorin Strigel, John Stoessel, George Cracow.
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 102.
"Such was the manner in which the Elector allowed himself to be duped by the Philippists who surrounded him,--men who gradually developed the art of dissimulation to premeditated deceit, falsehood, and perjury. Even the Reformed theologian Simon Stenius, a student at Wittenberg during the Crypto-Calvinistic period, charges the Wittenbergers with dishonesty and systematic dissimulation."
F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 188.
Crypto-Calvinism Now
"In other words, Zwingli and his numerous adherents declare that the means God has ordained are unnecessary and hinder true piety."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 104.
"Calvinism rejects the means of grace as unnecessary; it holds that the Holy Spirit requires no escort or vehicle by which to enter human hearts."
John T. Mueller, "Grace, Means of," Lutheran Cyclopedia, Erwin L. Lueker, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1975, p. 344.
"The Christian doctrine of the means of grace is abolished by all 'enthusiasts,' all who assume a revealing and effective operation of the Holy Spirit without and alongside the divinely ordained means of grace."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 127.
"Our opponents hold that saving faith must be founded on Christ Himself, not on the means of grace. This reasoning, common to the Reformed, the 'enthusiasts' of all shades, and modern 'experience' theologians, assumes that faith can and should be based on Christ to the exclusion of the means of grace."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 152.
"The specific Reformed cultus, due to the Reformed denial of the efficacy and objective nature of the Means of Grace, represents a quest after the grace of God revolving around human agency and subjective experience. The Lutheran cultus places the grace of God nigh unto the sinner in the Means of Grace."
Th. Engelder, W. Arndt, Th. Graebner, F. E. Mayer, Popular Symbolics, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934, p. 21.
"The Reformed are simply deluding themselves in claiming Scripture support for their teaching regarding the means of grace. Their teaching is not derived from the Bible."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 150.
"The doctrine of salvation through the Means of Grace is distinctive of Lutheranism. The Catholic churches have no use for means of grace, for a Gospel and for Sacraments which offer salvation as a free gift. And the Reformed churches, while they hold, in general, that salvation is by grace, repudiate the Gospel and the Sacraments as the means of grace. It is clear that matters of fundamental importance are involved. The chief article of the Christian religion, justification by faith, stands and falls with the article of the Means of Grace. Justification by faith means absolutely nothing without the Means of Grace, whereby the righteousness gained by Christ is bestowed and faith, which appropriates the gift, is created."
The. Engelder, W. Arndt, Th. Graebner, F. E. Mayer, Popular Symbolics, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934, p. 4f.
"This downplaying of the importance of the means of grace on the part of many in the Church Growth Movement would seem to stem from several factors."
David J. Valleskey, "The Church Growth Movement: An Evaluation," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1991 88, p. 105. Holidaysburg, 10-15-90.
"Observe, then, the depreciative, contemptuous, and scorning ring in the words of the Reformed when they speak of the sacred Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments, and the grand majestic ring in the words of the Lord and the apostles when they speak of these matters...The true reason for the Reformed view is this: They do not know how a person is to come into possession of the divine grace, the forgiveness of sin, righteousness in the sight of God, and eternal salvation. Spurning the way which God has appointed, they are pointing another way, in accordance with new devices which they have invented."
C. F. W. Walther, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, trans., W. H. T. Dau, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1928, p. 152f.
Luther: "True, the enthusiasts confess that Christ died on the cross and saved us; but they repudiate that by which we obtain Him; that is, the means, the way, the bridge, the approach to Him they destroy...They lock up the treasure which they should place before us and lead me a fool's chase; they refuse to admit me to it; they refuse to transmit it; they deny me its possession and use." (III, 1692)
The. Engelder, W. Arndt, Th. Graebner, F. E. Mayer, Popular Symbolics, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934, p. 5.
“The Fuller professors are Christians. We can learn from them, too.”
David Valleskey
"On the other hand, the enthusiasts should be rebuked with great earnestness and zeal, and should in no way be tolerated in the Church of God, who imagine [dream] that God, without any means, without the hearing of the divine Word, and without the use of the holy Sacraments, draws men to Himself, and enlightens, justifies, and saves them."
Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article II, Free Will, 80, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 911. Tappert, p. 536.
"And it is of advantage, so far as can be done, to adorn the ministry of the Word with every kind of praise against fanatical men, who dream that the Holy Ghost is given not through the Word, but because of certain preparations of their own, if they sit unoccupied and silent in obscure places, waiting for illumination, as the Enthusiasts formerly taught, and the Anabaptists now teach."
Article XIII, The Sacraments, 13, Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 311. Tappert, p. 213.
"Dr. Luther, who, above others, certainly understood the true and proper meaning of the Augsburg Confession, and who constantly remained steadfast thereto till his end, and defended it, shortly before his death repeated his faith concerning this article with great zeal in his last Confession, where he writes thus: 'I rate as one concoction, namely, as Sacramentarians and fanatics, which they also are, all who will not believe that the Lord's bread in the Supper is His true natural body, which the godless or Judas received with the mouth, as well as did St. Peter and all [other] saints; he who will not believe this (I say) should let me alone, and hope for no fellowship with me; this is not going to be altered [thus my opinion stands, which I am not going to change]."
Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article VII, Lord's Supper, 33, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 983. Tappert, p. 575.
