# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 09 08_S3
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

—even the elect, if it were possible? (Matt. 24:23–26.) Others may, in such a time, calmly look on and remain silent; we would gladly let ourselves be regarded as the stones — that is, the most unskilled — yet as ones who nevertheless speak. We are in fear of the closing words of Holy Scripture, which read thus: "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." Rev. 22:18–21.

Is It Right to Break the Peace with Men Solely for the Sake of the Doctrine of the Holy Lord's Supper?

(See: Luther's treatise, "That These Words: This Is My Body, Still Stand Firm, Against the Fanatics." From the year 1527. Works, Halle edition, XX, 962–68.)

First, let us begin where they (namely, Zwingli and his followers) write, make books, and admonish that for the sake of this matter one should not tear apart Christian unity, love, and peace, for it is (they say) a small thing and a minor quarrel, on account of which Christian love should not be hindered; and they scold us for holding so firmly and hard to it, and for causing disunity. Just see here, dear reader, what is one to say? It goes with us as with the sheep that came with the wolf to the water to drink. The wolf stood upstream, the sheep stood downstream in the water. Then the wolf scolded the sheep for muddying his water. The sheep said: How could I muddy it for you, since you stand above me, and it is you who muddy it for me? In short, the sheep had to take the blame; it had to have muddied the water for the wolf. So it is also with my fanatics: they have kindled the fire, as they themselves quite gloriously boast as a good deed, and now they want to shift the blame for the disunity onto us. Who told Dr. Karlstadt to begin? Who told Zwingli and Oecolampadius to write? Did they not do it of their own accord? We would gladly have had peace, and still would; but they were not willing to allow it; now the blame is ours — that is only right.

I would nonetheless wish, however, that if such fanatics will not fear God, they might at least be a little ashamed before men, and not write such shameless lies. They say that one should have peace, yet they themselves never cease to increase such strife, as everyone sees and hears; indeed, it is their joy, the further it goes. Likewise, they say it is a small matter, and yet there is now no point that they push, worry over, and insist upon so hard; all the other points lie completely still. Here they become martyrs and saints; whoever does not join in this fanaticism is no Christian, and understands nothing of Scripture or of the Spirit; it is such a splendid, great art to be able to say "bread and wine"; in this art the Holy Spirit now works alone. But in truth it is nothing other than that our tiresome devil is mocking us all the more through them, as if he would say: I will indeed cause all manner of misfortune and disunity, and afterward wipe my mouth and say in words: I seek and desire love and unity — just as the Psalter also says: They speak peace to their neighbor, but mischief is in their hearts.

Well then, since they are so utterly depraved and mock all the world, I will add a Lutheran warning, and say thus: Cursed be such love and unity, down into the abyss of hell, because such "unity" not only wretchedly tears apart Christendom, but, in devilish fashion, mocks and makes a fool of it in the midst of its very misery. Now, I do not wish to interpret it so harshly as to say that they do it out of malice, but rather that they are so blinded by Satan; and perhaps they make for themselves a kind of conscience that gnaws at them, namely: We have indeed caused a great offense and kindled a fire, so now we want to plaster it over and smooth it out with words, and pretend to find an excuse, that it is not a great matter. And even if we were to lose the case, we would at least have arranged things beforehand so that we had not lost anything great, and had only incurred a small disgrace — as they say of singers, when they miss a note, that they have only made a little slip.

No, not for me, dear sirs, this kind of peace and love. If I were to strangle someone's father and mother, wife and child, and wanted to strangle him too, and afterward say: "Peace, dear friend, let us love one another; the matter is not so great that we should become disunited over it" — what should he say to me? Oh, how dearly he would love me! So too the fanatics strangle for me Christ my Lord and God the Father in his words, and along with them my mother, Christendom, together with my brethren; they want to have me dead as well, and afterward say: I should have peace, they wish to cultivate love with me! But I will expose the fanatics here, so that everyone may see what spirit is lodged in them, so that those who cling to them may learn whom they believe and follow.

It is indeed publicly evident that we are contending over the words of Christ concerning the Supper, and it is acknowledged by both sides that they are the words of Christ, or of God. That much is agreed. So we say, then, on our part, that, according to the words, Christ's true body and blood are present when he says: Take, eat, this is my body, etc. If we believe and teach wrongly in this — tell me, what would we then be doing? We would be lying about God, and preaching what he did not say, but rather the opposite of what he said; then we would surely be blasphemers of God, and liars against the Holy Spirit, betrayers of Christ, and murderers and seducers of the world.

* In the example of the Methodists, who likewise champion the Zwinglian false doctrine of the Holy Supper, one sees that it is still the way of the fanatics to start the quarrel first, and then, when one defends oneself against them, to complain of bickering and contentiousness. [illegible]

Our opponents say that it is mere bread and wine there, not the body and blood of the Lord. If they believe and teach wrongly in this, then they blaspheme God and convict the Holy Spirit of lying, betray Christ, and lead the world astray. One side must be of the devil and an enemy of God. There is no middle ground here. Now let every pious Christian consider whether this matter is a trifling one, as they say, or whether it is something to be trifled with concerning God's Word. There you have the fanatics and their spirit, as I have often said, that no godless person can hold God's Word in high regard. These fanatics prove this honestly enough by how they regard the words and works of Christ merely as human chatter, like the conceit of quarreling schoolmen, which ought rightly to yield to love and unity. But a pious Christian holds and knows that God's Word concerns God's honor, the Spirit, Christ, grace, eternal life, death, sin, and all things. These are not trifling matters. See, then, how it is they who are seeking God's honor, as they boast on every side.

Nor does it help them to say that otherwise they hold much and greatly of God's Word and the whole Gospel, except only in this one point. Dear friend, God's Word is God's Word; that admits of no fine distinctions. Whoever accuses God of lying and blasphemes him in one word, or says it is a small matter that he be blasphemed or accused of lying, blasphemes the whole of God and counts all blasphemies against God as trifling. There is one God, who does not allow himself to be divided, praised in one place and reviled in another, honored in one place and despised in another. The Jews believe the Old Testament, and because they do not believe in Christ, it profits them nothing. See, the circumcision of Abraham is indeed now an old, dead thing, and now neither necessary nor useful; yet even if I wanted to say that God had not commanded it at that time, it would help me nothing, even though I otherwise believed the Gospel. This is what St. James means in chapter 2:10: "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." He will perhaps have heard from the apostles that one must believe either all the words of God or none of them; although he applies it to the works of the law.

What wonder is it, then, that frivolous fanatics juggle and take liberties with the words of the Supper according to their own conceit, since they are convicted by this very point of holding God's Word and cause in low esteem and subordinating it to human affection — just as though God must yield to men, and let his Word count for only as much as men happen to agree or disagree about it? How, then, should one believe such fanatics, that they teach well and rightly, who have been publicly found to entertain such devilish thoughts, and to counsel such a thing as tends to God's contempt, blasphemy, and shame, and to our eternal death and ruin, and yet suppose that they have done well in this—