Revisiting the Lutheran Confessions Session VIII: Refutation Against Heresies

Follow-up to the Lord’s Supper Who is it that the Christian Communes with? Who should eat this meal? When? (How Often?) What are the benefits of receiving this Sacrament in a worthy manner? What are the risks of unworthy reception? Re-read 1 Corinthians 10:27-32 Read 1 Corinthians 10:3-5 Read Matthew 11:28 Read 1 Corinthians 5:11 Read Romans 16:17 How do these verses answer our previous questions?

What We Believe…and What We Don’t Much of the Lutheran Confessions were written to refute false doctrines which plagued the church. Though we may not be familiar with many of the names, the modern church continues to wrestle with these heretical teachings… Arians - Hold Christ to be a lesser deity than the Father Reformed (Calvinists, Sacramentarians, Zwinglians) - Hold Sacraments to be purely symbolic, “double predestination,” “irresistible grace,” “limited atonement” Anabaptists - Hold Baptism to be a matter of personal choice Schwenkfeldians - Hold Christ to have cast off humanity

Against Arianism “This majesty He [Christ] always had according to the personal union, and yet He abstained from it in the state of His humiliation, and on this account truly increased in all wisdom and favor with God and men; therefore He exercised this majesty, not always, but when [as often as] it pleased Him.” (Epitome, VIII, 16) Biblical Refutation: John 1:1-5,14-18, Matt. 28:18, John 13:3, John 8:58, Eph. 4:10 Arius

Against the Reformed John Calvin However, that many are called and few chosen( Matt. 22:14) does not mean that God is not willing to save everybody; but the reason is that they either do not at all hear God's Word, but willfully despise it, stop their ears and harden their hearts, and in this manner foreclose the ordinary way to the Holy Ghost, so that He cannot perform His work in them, or, when they have heard it, make light of it again and do not heed it, for which [that they perish] not God or His election, but their wickedness, is responsible. (Epitome XI, 12) Biblical Refutation: 2 Pet. 2:1ff, Luke 11:49, 52, Heb. 12:25f, Rom. 11:32, Ezek. 18:23; 33:11, 2 Pet. 3:9, 1 John 2:2 John Calvin

Against Anabaptists Conrad Grebel [We reject] That children who are not baptized are not sinners before God, but righteous and innocent, who in their innocence, because they have not yet attained their reason [the use of reason], are saved without Baptism (which, according to their assertion, they do not need). Therefore they reject the entire doctrine concerning original sin and what belongs to it… That children are not to be baptized until they have attained their reason [the use of reason], and can themselves confess their faith…. That the children of Christians, because they have been born of Christian and believing parents, are holy and children of God even without and before Baptism; and for this reason they neither attach much importance to the baptism of children nor encourage it, contrary to the express words of God's promise which pertains only to those who keep His covenant and do not despise it. (Epitome XII, 6-8) Biblical Refutation: Mark 10:13-16, Acts 2:38-39, Gen.17:7, Col. 2:11-12 Conrad Grebel

Against Schwenkfeldians [We reject] That all those have no true knowledge of Christ as reigning King of heaven who regard Christ according to the flesh as a creature… That the flesh of Christ by His exaltation has assumed all divine properties in such a manner that Christ as man is in might, power, majesty, and glory altogether, as regards degree and position of essence equal to the Father and to the Word, so that now there is only one essence, property, will, and glory of both natures in Christ, and that the flesh of Christ belongs to the essence of the Holy Trinity. Biblical Refutation: Philippians 2:6ff;3:20-21 Luke 24:39, John 20:20,27, Acts1:9-11, Caspar Schwenkfeld

The Augsburg Confession Part 1 Closing Prayer Next Week: The Augsburg Confession Part 1