Elizabeth has left a new comment on your post "Brett Meyer Answers the Unclear Boys of UOJ":
"Calvin rejected the Means of Grace."
Oh, Icahabod (sic), I love reading your blog and love your pointed wit. However, with the above statement, you bear false witness against Calvin. He certainly DID NOT reject the means of grace.
Calvin does not = Zwingli!!!!!
Nor do orthodox Reformed folk today.
The wide swath of messy evangelicalism? Yup, they DO reject the means of grace. But Calvin is not in that pot, my dear.
All you have to do is read the Institutes on the sacraments.
He and Lutherans are closer than you imagine on such things. Remember: in the BOC, the SD declares:
"In this sense we also say [wish the word spiritually to be understood when we say] that in the Holy Supper the body and blood of Christ are spiritually received, eaten, and drunk, although this participation occurs with the mouth, while the mode is spiritual."
***
GJ - I do not mean to tussle with the Calvinists. Half of my readers (LCMS, WELS, ELS, CLC sic) are Calvinists. But I prefer an honest Calvinist to a Lutheran who calls justification by faith Calvinism and later calls it synergism.
But I have read Calvin and the Institutes. I read especially the section on the Sacraments in the Institutes. Calvin made fun of the Real Presence.
My friend from Moline, a famous professor at Hillsdale, is a Lewis expert and a Calvinist. He recently rejected the Real Presence in his comment on Facebook.
Calvin is far more elegant than Zwingli, but they have the same message. I have read Zwingli, too. In fact, in studying comparative dogmatics in graduate school, accuracy and precision are far more important than making everyone sound alike. Milner's doctoral thesis on Calvin (Harvard) should be read by everyone, because he dredged all of Calvin to show how the Swiss reformer separated the Holy Spirit from the Means of Grace.
Calvin was adroit in appearing Lutheran, but one writer, a polemicist, smoked him out of the tall grass where he was hiding. Calvin's most damning statements come from his answers to that Lutheran - Westphal.
From Thy Strong Word:
Part Two: John Calvin
John Calvin was a second generation reformer, born in northern France in 1509 when Luther was already teaching at Wittenberg University. Calvin 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 and 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. Luther’s associate Melanchthon (1497-1563) was younger than the Reformer and met Calvin at the Worms and Regensburg colloquies, 1540-41. When Calvin and Melanchthon became friends, Calvin’s doctrinal firmness affected 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:
J-716
"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 the Lutheran Church. 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 long considered a Lutheran and willingly assumed that role for years, until Westphal flushed him out. Calvin was no different from the Lutheran Church Growth leaders today, accepting the benefits of being considered a Lutheran while advancing the views of Zwingli.
J-717
"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 polemic, Against Westphal, named for the Lutheran Joachim Westphal (1510-1574) who taunted Calvin for some time to bring out his actual views.[16] The crypto-Calvinists of today loudly moan about “Christian-bashing”—a term they adapted from homosexual activists—when someone asks for doctrinal clarity. It is easy to see from Against Westphal that polemical literature is beneficial in distinguishing between sound and false doctrine.[17] Schaff said this about Westphal’s doctrinal publications: “The controversy of Westphal against Calvin and the subsequent overthrow of Melanchthonianism completed and consolidated the separation of the two Confessions.” Calvin called Westphal “a mad dog.”[18]
J-718
John Calvin, Against Joachim Westphal: "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."[19]
Benjamin Charles Milner, Jr., Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 121.
There Must Be Divisions
KJV 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 the Lutheran Church 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 loses not only 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.
To understand the secret Calvinists, let us look first at Calvin’s openly taught 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 today. 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.[20] 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 four foundational errors.
a) Enthusiasm – Separating the Holy Spirit from the Word.
b) Extra-calvinisticum – Denying that the finite can contain the infinite.
c) 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.
d) Law/Gospel confusion.
Enthusiasm
Calvin’s Enthusiasm and its effect upon Lutheran doctrine are reason enough for writing this book and listing so many citations on the subject. Calvin, like Zwingli, scornfully rejected the Biblical doctrine that the Holy Spirit is always at work in the Word and never works apart from the Word (Isaiah 55:8-10). Calvin replaced the Biblical teaching of the efficacious Word and Sacraments with his peculiar notion of the Sovereign Holy Spirit working independently of the Means of Grace, 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 (1886-1968).
J-719
"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.
J-720
"The Sacraments are not mere symbolic expressions by which faith is strengthened (Calvin), nor are they mere acts of confession of faith (notae professionis, Zwingli), but are effective means by which God sows faith in the hearts of men."
Walter G. Tillmanns, "Means of Grace: Use of," The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 3 vols., Julius Bodensieck, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1965, II, p. 1506.
Barth, the official theologian of Fuller Seminary, was an apostate who rejected the doctrines of the Christian faith while making a tidy profit from his publication efforts, aided by his mistress, Charlotte Kirschbaum.[21] He moved her into his house over the strenuous objections of his wife and also lived with Charlotte in a mountain cabin every summer. 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 loyal followers in Eastern Europe and told them to submit to the authority of the Communists. He and his lovely assistant, Charlotte, had been reds all along, as the historical documents show.[22]
J-721
"When intent upon establishing their peculiar tenets, Calvin and Zwingli likewise preferred rational argumentation to the plain proofs of Holy Writ. Their interpretation of the words of the Sacrament is but one glaring instance; but there are many more. The schools and the denominations which they founded became infected with this same disease of theology."
Martin S. Sommer, Concordia Pulpit for 1932, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1931, p. iii.
J-722
John Calvin, Commentaries, Amos 8:11-12: "...we are touched with some desire for strong doctrine, it evidently appears that there is some piety in us; we are not destitute of the Spirit of God, although destitute of the outward means."
Benjamin Milner, Calvin's Doctrine of the Church, Heicko A.Oberman, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970, p. 109. CO, XLIII, 153.
J-723
“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.
J-724
“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.
J-725
“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.
J-726
John Calvin, Institutes IV.xvii.19: "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.
J-727
John Calvin, True Method of Reforming the Church: "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.
J-728
"To remain properly humble while firmly rejecting all erroneous teachings regarding the means of grace, we should remind ourselves how even Christians who teach and, as a rule, also believe, the correct doctrine of the means of grace, in their personal practice very often lose sight of the means of grace. This is done whenever they base the certainty of grace, or of the forgiveness of sin, on their feeling of grace or the gratia infusa, instead of on God's promise in the objective means of grace. All of us are by nature 'enthusiasts.'"
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 3 vols., trans., Walter W. F. Albrecht, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1953, III, p. 131.
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: finitum non capas infiniti. 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 the Unitarianism (Socinianism) of their later disciples.
J-729
"...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.
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 as well as the 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).
J-737
“They [the Lutherans] object that Christ went forth from the closed sepulcher [Matthew 28:6] and went to His disciples through closed doors [John 20:19]. This gives no more support to their error. For just as the water, like a solid pavement, provided Christ with a path as He walked upon the lake [Matthew 14:25], so it is no wonder if the hardness of the stone yielded at His approach. Yet it is more probable that the stone was removed at His command, and immediately after He passed through, returned to its place. And to enter through closed doors means not just penetrating through solid matter but opening an entrance for Himself by divine power, so that He suddenly stood among His disciples clearly, in a wonderful way, although the doors were locked.”
John Calvin, ed. John T. McNeill, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols., Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960, II, p. 1400. Book IV, XVII, #29.
Similarly, Calvin could not accept the Real Presence of Christ with the elements of the Lord's Supper.[25] 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.
J-738
"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 one of the first to warn Lutherans of the influence of Calvinism. John Calvin caused confusion by his early agreement with the Lutheran position. Melanchthon secretly converted to Calvin’s position on the Lord’s Supper. Westphal's polemics brought out Calvin's polemics, which clarified the differences between the two confessions. During this period of time, a group of Philipp Melanchthon's followers in Wittenberg conspired to surrender Luther's Reformation to the Calvinists. They convinced the Elector August that they were faithful Lutherans. These secret Calvinists (Crypto-Calvinists) also encouraged the Elector to drive out the genuine Lutherans, accusing the faithful men of being heretics! Luther predicted this would happen.
The Crypto-Calvinists gathered Melanchthon’s 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 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.
J-739
"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.[26]
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.
J-740
"What really gave Andreae a break and promoted his unity endeavors was the exposure of the Crypto-Calvinists in Wittenberg in 1574. Thus all three groups of true Lutherans were for the first time in many years to sit down at the table and devote their efforts to their internal problems. Just about this time Andreae providentially published his Six Christian Sermons. At this point and on these sermons Chemnitz was willing to talk."
J. A. O. Preus, The Second Martin, The Life and Theology of Martin Chemnitz, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1994, p. 183.
J-741
"The Exegesis perspicua [1573] marked the end of the hidden and underhanded efforts of those within Saxony who had espoused Calvinism. Everything was out in the open. These men repudiated the sacramental union, the oral eating of the body of Christ, and the eating of the body by the wicked. They held that Christ's body is enclosed in heaven and Christ is present in the Supper only in His power. There is no union of the body of Christ with the bread. The ubiquity doctrine of Brenz is repudiated as Eutychianism, and ancient heresy that asserted that after the union of the divine and human natures in Christ only one nature remained. Believers who participated in the Supper, the Wittenbergers asserted, become members of Christ who is present and efficacious through the symbols of bread and wine. They lavished praise on the Reformed and urged immediate union with them in opposition to the papacy."
J. A. O. Preus, The Second Martin, The Life and Theology of Martin Chemnitz, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1994, p. 175f.
The Formula of Concord required the cooperation of Andreae, Chemnitz, Selnecker, David Chytraeus, Musculus, and Cornerus.[27] Most people could not abide Andreae, because of his tactless, overbearing, and self-willed nature, 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.
J-742
"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
J-743
"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.
J-744
"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.
J-745
"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.
J-746
"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.
J-747
"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.
J-748
"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.
J-749
"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.
J-750
"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."[28]
David J. Valleskey, "The Church Growth Movement: An Evaluation," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1991 88, p. 105. Holidaysburg, 10-15-90.[29] [emphasis added]
J-751
"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.
J-752
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.
J-753
"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." [30]
Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article II, Free Will, 80, Concordia Triglotta, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921, p. 911. Tappert, p. 536. Heiser, p. 249. Heiser, p. 249.
J-754
"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. Heiser, p. 95.
J-755
"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. Heiser, p. 267.
