AC V has left
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Who
Is Polycarp Leyser? The Founder of a Dynasty o...":
"Lutherans have
far more in common with Romanists than with Calvinists." - Polykarp
Leyser
Gayling R. Schmeling in a paper entitled "Polykarp Leyser
(1552-1610): A Theological Bridge Between Chemnitz and Gerhard" cites that quote
by Leyser in the context of these comments:
"... there was a movement
toward a new iconoclasm among the Reformed. They rejected the Lutheran use of
the high altars, the Flügelaltar, crucifix, and so forth. The Calvinists said
that the Bible spoke of none of these things and that they were idolatry. The
Lutherans responded that such things were not forbidden in Scripture and that
they were good teaching tools for the people. These things were the laymen’s
Bible in a time when literacy was by no means universal. The altar pictures, the
stained glass windows, and the crucifix portrayed the way of
salvation.
Whenever the Calvinists gained control in a territory, they
removed the beautiful altars and
replaced them with communion tables. They
threw out the altar pictures and crucifixes and whitewashed the sanctuary. They
whitewashed the sanctuary as the Turks had whitewashed Hagia Sophia, so their
sanctuaries looked more like a mosque than a church. Polykarp Leyser complained
that 'wherever these Calvinists gain the upper hand, they remove all
pictures, paintings, crucifixes from churches and altars … as has already
happened in France, the Low Countries, and other places where churches now look
like horse stables.' The Reformed said that the altar paintings and
crucifixes were nothing but papal idolatries, but how could they say that about
the altars of Lucas Cranach and other evangelical painters?"
Leyser
has this zinger: “If our Calvinist friends really are such pure Christians
with such tender consciences that they cannot tolerate any pictures in church,
why do they not object to the images that are imprinted on the red gulden or
silver thalers which they carry in their pockets? I have never seen them throw
any of these away.”
Schmeling concludes: "This famous dictum of Leyser
(i.e. "Lutherans have far more in common with Romanists than with
Calvinists.") was the common opinion of orthodox Lutherans during the
lengthy conflict with the Reformed in the early seventeenth century."
Is
that the common opinion in WELS Lutheranism today? Well, you know the
answer.
Schmeling's
paper:
http://www.blts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/GRS-Leyser.pdf
***
GJ - The last I knew of the Little Schoolhouse on the Prairie (Bethany Seminary), the Book of Concord was prominent in the classroom. How does one reconcile knowing about P. Leyser and overlooking the doctrinal crimes of ELS-WELS?
Once again it is the Penn State syndrome - knowing but doing nothing, which is the same as enabling the criminal.
The ELS once stood up to the Missouri Synod, publicly accusing its sister synod in the Olde Synodical Conference of apostasy. That was when they had leaders like Ylvisaker instead of yes-men like Schmeling and Moldstad.
They know they will pass from memory in 20 years, thanks to their own self-study. Why not go out with a bang instead of a whimpering "amen" to WELS' heresies?
Gaylin said at the ELS convention, "If Wayne Mueller become president of WELS, we should break fellowship with them." George Orvick made a face. That was long ago, and Schmeling is calmer now. Comatose.
