Wednesday, March 03, 2004

WWLS?

I know that I fall into the trap of putting words in Brother Martin's mouth all of the time and he seemed to foresee that this would happen. What is interesting about this excerpt from his Confession Concerning Christ's Supper is his reference to his defense of the sacrament of the altar. I am wondering if it is appropriate to include this treatise in our discussion on ecclesiology and ecumenism particularly since it is in that document that Luther seems to explicitly outline his reasons for holding so tightly to the satis est? What say you all?


What Would Martin Luther Say?
An Excerpt From Martin Luther's Spiritual Last Will & Testament
CONFESSION CONCERNING CHRIST'S SUPPER (1528), Part 3
by Martin Luther, 1483-1546
Translation by Rev. Robert E. Smith
From the German text in:
DR. MARTIN LUTHERS WERKE: KRITISCHE GESAMTAUSGABE.
(Weimar: Herman Boehlaus Nachfolger, 1909), pp.499-500.

Because I see that the mobs are always growing, the number of
errors are always increasing and Satan's rage and ruin have no
end, I wish to confess with this work my faith before God and the
whole world, point by point. I am doing this, lest certain people
cite me or my writings, while I am alive or after I am dead, to
support their errors, as those fanatics, the Sacramentarians and
the Anabaptists, have begun to do. I will remain in this
confession until my death (God help me!), will depart from this
world in it, and appear before the Judgment Seat of our Lord Jesus
Christ.

So that no one will say after my death, ``If Luther was alive, he
would teach and believe this article differently, because he did
not think it through sufficiently,'' I state the following, once
and for all: I, by God's grace, I have diligently examined these
articles in the light of passages throughout the Scriptures. I
have worked on them repeatedly and you can be sure that I want to
defend them, in the same way that I have just defended the
Sacrament of the Altar.

No, I'm not drunk or impulsive. I know what I am saying and
understand fully what this will mean for me as I stand before the
Lord Jesus Christ on the Last Day. No one should think that I am
joking or rambling. I'm serious! By God's grace, I know Satan
very well. If Satan can turn God's Word upside down and pervert
the Scriptures, what will he do with my words -- or the words of
others?

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