# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1875_S18
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 18 —

more terrible still is it when a Lutheran preacher gives the Holy Supper to those who deny the presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Holy Supper and thereby desecrate the body and blood of Christ. Words do not suffice to describe the conduct of such a wretch, who confesses that he believes he is distributing the holy body of Christ, that he is holding in his hand the blood of Christ, the Son of God, which was shed on the cross for the reconciliation of the world, and hands it to those who regard it as mere baker's bread and ordinary intoxicating wine. To throw the body of Christ into the dirt would not be so terrible, for dirt is not so filthy as the mouth of an unbeliever.

Conscientiousness therefore requires that a pastor inquire carefully of those who come from elsewhere and now register for the Holy Supper whether they also confess with us the right doctrine of the Holy Supper. If Reformed people are unwilling to reject the unscriptural doctrine of the Reformed church and yet through partaking of the Supper among Lutherans wish to pass over into the Lutheran church, they are to be turned away. But it is not enough to turn away the crude Zwinglians; this must also be done with the refined Calvinists, who with their false doctrine like to hide behind Lutheran confessional words; for Calvin also signed that the body of Christ is received in the Holy Supper, and nevertheless asserted alongside that Christ's essential body is as far removed from the bread as heaven from earth. One must ask such false spirits whether they confess with us that even a Judas receives the body of Christ orally (*oraliter*). If it is objected that the oral partaking of the body and blood of Christ is too crude and sensual an idea: we can point out that we hear the eternal Word of God with the ear, yet through the ear it is conveyed to the soul; so likewise this food of the soul, the body and blood of Christ, is conveyed through the mouth to the soul. Such Supper discipline [Abendmahlszucht] must also find application among those who do share our faith about the Holy Supper but cannot be kept from joining, at other times and in other places, also with congregations of other belief and with united [unirten] congregations; for such persons give the appearance of agreeing with the false doctrine, and strengthen those of false belief in their error. If a pastor does not take it to heart with holy earnestness to keep those of other belief away from his altar, and lets the barriers of Supper discipline fall out of convenience or people-pleasing, then such congregation members on that Day will accuse their preacher that he did not set their conscience right, but left them in the wrong way and deceived them. By dealing earnestly with God's Word, no harm comes to souls, and where there seems to be any, we can confidently leave the responsibility to God, who has bound us to his Word. But through the guilt of such preachers who are lukewarm in applying the Word of God and