# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 03 09_S75
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

No. 24. —
*

Published by C. F. W. Walther.

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall pass away neither now nor evermore."

Volume 3.

St. Louis, Mo., March 9, 1847.

Terms: The Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at a subscription price of one dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who must pay half of this in advance and bear the postage themselves. — In St. Louis, each single issue is sold for 5 cents.

(Submitted by H. Fick.)

The Marburg Colloquy, a Proof That the Lutheran Church Has Always Rejected Not the True, but the False Union.
(Continued.)

On October 1, 2, and 3, 1529, the religious colloquy at Marburg took place in the landgrave's castle. On the one side there appeared Luther, Melanchthon, and Justus Jonas from Wittenberg, accompanied by Friedrich Myconius of Gotha, Justus Menius of Eisenach, and Caspar Cruciger; further, Johann Brenz of Schwäbisch Hall, Andreas Osiander of Nuremberg, and Stephan Agricola of Augsburg. Of the Reformed there came Zwingli, Oecolampadius, Bucer, and Capito, the latter two from Strasbourg. In addition, there had joined the latter the councilman Jacob Sturm of Strasbourg, Ulrich Funk of Zurich, and Rudolph Frey of Basel; and joined the former the district governor Eberhard von Thann of Eisenach. The landgrave welcomed all his guests warmly and entertained them handsomely.

The manner in which the Lutherans conversed with the Reformed was earnest, truthful, and withal loving. "Everything," says Brenz, "was conducted with the greatest affability and friendliness. Only Oecolampadius, whom we had all pictured as gentler, seemed at times somewhat testy, yet without anything offensive; Zwingli excused his harsh manner of speech by his Swiss temperament. One heard no other form of address there than 'dear friend,' 'your love.' Of the division or of sects not a word was mentioned. One might have thought Luther and Zwingli were brothers and not adversaries."

This serves as proof of how unjust and unfounded is the reproach of lovelessness that is continually raised against the Lutherans to the point of tedium. Here we see the Reformer, who through God's grace wielded the sword of the Spirit, that is, the Word of God, so mightily that he thereby overthrew the power of the papacy, yet who with the greatest friendliness sought to bring those in error back onto the path of truth. Patiently he listened to their arguments, which they drew from a misunderstanding of the Word of God or from reason in order thereby to maintain their false doctrine, and he refuted them so clearly and plainly that every conscientious Christian must grant that he was right. For it is indeed the greatest service of love to set forth the truth in love to one who errs, in the hope that God may grant grace that he recognize it. Since, however, the Reformed nevertheless did not accept the love for the truth that was so forcefully and yet so gently testified to them — indeed, since they afterward faithlessly taught again the very errors which, convinced by Luther, they had solemnly retracted, and so wantonly destroyed the joyful beginning of a brotherly concord — it is thereby proven that they willfully took upon their own conscience the guilt of the Church's division, and at the same time the innocence of our fathers in that lamentable event is demonstrated.

On the first of October a preliminary conference took place, in which Luther conferred alone with Oecolampadius, and Zwingli alone with Melanchthon. Luther used this occasion to prove to the Reformed that they taught falsely not only concerning the holy Lord's Supper but also in other points. For they had, in fact, set up the following false doctrines: that Christ is not true, natural God; that original sin is no sin; that original sin is not forgiven in holy Baptism; that the Holy Spirit is not communicated through the Word and the Sacraments; that justification does not come through faith alone, but also through good works — as Melanchthon testifies in his report of the colloquy. "As far as could be done in haste," Melanchthon writes, "they received instruction from us on these points; the more they heard of it, the better they liked it, and they yielded on all these points, although they had previously written otherwise about them." As regards the deity of Christ, Zwingli affirmed that he had always taught it, and that he had dissuaded Ludwig Hetzer, who had recently been executed at Constance, from publishing a book against the deity of Christ. In general, Melanchthon says of Zwingli and his friends: "We find that they are not sufficiently informed of the doctrine that Dr. Martinus teaches, although they repeat the words."

The public conference took place on the second of October, if one may call it public at all; for only a few were admitted, so that in all only fifty to sixty persons were present, among them the landgrave, who was present throughout, and several of his councilors and nobles. On this day the actual sacramental controversy became the chief subject of the conference. Oecolampadius spoke first and set forth the main grounds by which his party wished to prove that the Lord Jesus is not present in the holy Lord's Supper with His true body and blood.

The first ground of the Reformed, their "brazen wall of defense," was: Christ says, John 6:63, "The flesh profiteth nothing"; therefore there is no flesh in the Sacrament, for the eating of flesh profits nothing. This "brazen wall," however, Luther toppled with the words: "Christ is not speaking here of His own flesh; for He says beforehand that His flesh brings eternal life, that His flesh is the true food. Rather He says thereby that our flesh profits nothing, as is clear from the contrast: it is the Spirit that makes alive. For it would indeed be a dreadful thing to say that Christ's flesh profits nothing."

The second ground of the Reformed was from reason: "a body cannot be in two places at once; now the body of Christ sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven, and consequently it cannot be present on earth in the Sacrament." To this Luther answered: "That human reason cannot judge God's power and glory. Christ has taken human nature to Himself, which therefore, according to holy Scripture, has a part in the divine attributes and glory. Therefore the human nature of Christ is also omnipresent, and hence His body and blood can also be present in the holy Lord's Supper." Zwingli replied: "God does not set before us things to believe that are absurd." "Such clumsy words escaped him," relates Melanchthon, "although the Christian doctrine has far more incomprehensible and higher articles, such as that God became man, that that same person of Christ, who is true God, died, etc." To that objection of unbelieving reason Luther answered in his characteristically faith-strong manner: "Whatever God has spoken is always for our salvation, even if He bid us

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