Augsburg Confession and Apology

Worms

Leipzig

NuernbergSpeyer

Wittenberg

Ingolstadt

Thomaskirche in Leipzig

Worms

Schwabach

Marburg

Augsburg

TorgauWittenberg

Coburg

Dr. Eck’s 404 Articles, March, 1530

• To our glorious Lord and Imperial Majesty, Charles V, Emperor of Rome:

• All Catholics believe that…the Lord would work the salvation of the Christian world through your hand. But Martin Luther, the Church’s enemy within the Church, has refused to heed the high admonitions addressed to him by your Majesty and hurled himself into a veritable whirlpool of godlessness… He blasphemes God; he has no reverence for saints or sacraments and no respect for ecclesiastical or secular magistrates… He kindles the fires of sedition throughout the empire… Thus he has produced

Dr. Eck’s 404 Articles, March, 1530 a vast offspring, much worse than himself, bringing

forth broods of vipers. We must acknowledge as Luther’s sons the iconoclasts, the Sacramentarians, the Capernaites, the Neo-Hussites and their descendants, the Anabaptists, the Neo-Epicureans who declare the soul to be mortal, the enthusiasts, also the Neo-Cerinthians who deny the deity of Christ…

• In behalf of the faith and for the Church I have hastily gathered these few [excerpts] out of their infinite errors… I offer…to discuss in public the points below noted against any assailant of the Catholic truth, so as to establish our dogmas and overthrow the false dogmas of the adversaries.

I. Concerning God

• Eck had charged Luther with being an Arian and a Manichaean

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II. Concerning Original Sin

• There is an eternal being with whom we must deal.

– There are absolutes in the world.• Original Sin

1. Origin2. Extent (Romans 5; Psalm 51)3. Nature = the great Lutheran definition4. Result5. Escape

THE HUMAN CONDITION• Before the Fall: divinely created in God’s

image (fully human)– Able to know and advance in knowledge

• Of God: fearing, loving, trusting above all things• Of God’s creation: with wonder, gratitude,

dominion– Able to choose (with a genuinely free will)

• What God commands (posse non peccare)• Yet, being free and not a robot, also to choose

what God forbids (posse peccare)

This is our original righteousness.

THE HUMAN CONDITION

• What Scholastic teachers taught– On account of our first parents’ disobedience, we

inherit in our bodies the penalty of their sin: subjection to mortality

– This penalty does not render us totally helpless; we retain a frustrated potential to be good and do good.

– The penalty of our parents’ sin is totally removed in baptism.

– Carnal desire (concupiscence) may lead to sin, but being naturally human (like hunger and sleep), is not sin of itself.

THE HUMAN CONDITION• What the Augsburg Confession and its Apology teach

– Because of our first parents’ disobedience we inherit a condition of total sinfulness and helplessness that renders us guilty before God.

– This inherited sin has so corrupted our God-given human nature that we are

• Unable to fear God with a perfect heart• Unable to trust in God with a perfect heart• Enmeshed in a love that turns away from God to self as

exhibited in self-glory, self-service, self-satisfaction, self-gratification

– In this condition we are enemies of God, our knowledge of God blinded, our will to choose the good powerless (non posse non peccare)

This is our fallen state of unrighteousness.

THE HUMAN CONDITION

• Our condition of sinfulness remains with us until death, but the guilt of this inherited sin is removed in baptism and we are clothed in the perfect righteousness of our Savior Jesus.

• After this life (in heaven) our old sinful nature will be laid aside and we will be perfected in the knowledge of God and the will to be good and do good.

non posse peccare

D: 15-19

IV. Concerning Justification

• The chief article of the Augsburg Confession• Three hammer blows (like the 95 Theses)

1. Powers2. Merits3. Works

V. Concerning Ministry in the Church

• What church work is all about1. Teaching the gospel2. Administering the sacraments

• Anabaptists and others (the Scholastics) are condemned

VI. Concerning the New Obedience

• Good works result from inner compulsion, not outward force

• Works commanded by God in the Ten Commandments

SCHOLASTIC TEACHING

• GRACE IS A QUALITY (rather than God’s favor) INFUSED through the SACRAMENTS

• FAITH is mere KNOWLEDGE and of itself cannot save

• SIN carries a double PENALTY– Eternal: Christ removes through confession to a

priest– Temporal: I remove through meritorious works of

penance

SCHOLASTIC TEACHING

• I DO HAVE STRENGTH but it remains paralyzed until activated by infused grace.

• MY WORKS HAVE MERIT with strength activated by infused grace my works satisfy the temporal punishment of sins.

• MY WORKS JOINED TO FAITH PERFECT IT.

SCRIPTURE’S TEACHINGas presented in the Augsburg Confession

NOT by our STRENGTHNOT by our MERITSNOT by our WORKS

BUT1. FREELY (by grace)2. JUSTIFIED (forgiven)3. THROUGH FAITH

– As TRUST that God’s FAVOR has smiled on me– As TRUST that Christ has fully paid sin’s debt– As TRUST that Christ’s SATISFACTION IS MINE

Faith does not save because it is a meritorious good work.

Faith saves because it is the instrument which enfolds Christ and his perfect merits.

The God-pleasing good that we do1. Does not proceed from our strength2. Has no spiritual merit of itself3. Does not make faith perfect

BUTis the spontaneous expression of grateful hearts

redeemed by Christ.

D: 20-21

THE BENCHMARKS OF LUTHERANISM

1st Benchmark: All Scripture is Law and Gospel. (AAC IV:5 p. 83)

2nd Benchmark: Only the Word of God shall establish articles of faith. (SA II:15 p. 266)

3rd Benchmark: God does not deal with us except through Word and Sacrament. (SA VIII:10 p. 281)

VII. Concerning the Church

• Lutheran apostolicity• The assembly of saints in which

– The gospel is taught purely– The sacraments are administered rightly

• True unity is not outward unity

VIII. What is the Church?

• Those who truly believe, the assembly of saints

• Christ’s institution makes the sacraments and the Word effective

• Donatists– Donatus the Great of Carthage d. ca. 355– Controversy until 7th century when the Saracens

destroyed the church in Africa

D: 22-23

IX. Concerning Baptism

• A long defense of Baptism was not necessary• Eck’s 404 Theses had mixed Lutherans with

Swiss Protestants and Enthusiasts• Luther: We are required to obey God’s

ordered power regarding baptism.

X. Concerning the Lord’s Supper

• A Torgau Article• Swiss Protestants rejected the Augsburg

Confession because of this article• To please Calvin, Melanchthon later dropped

– “distributed” and substituted “exhibited”– “They disapprove of those who teach otherwise.”

D: 24

XI. Concerning Confession

• Private confession has not been discarded• Stresses absolution• Nothing more comforting than the oral word• Why did the Pontifical Confutation reject the

second half?• 1215: 4th Lateran Council – private confession

at least once a year

XII. Concerning Repentance

• Repentance:1. Contrition2. Faith

• Supererogation = beyond the normal call of duty to love God and serve fellowman (fasting, pilgrimage, etc.)

• Perfectionism: Methodists

D: 25-26

XIII. Concerning the Use of Sacraments

• vs. Enthusiasts and Swiss Protestants• The Holy Spirit kindles and preserves faith• Ex opere operato = by the mere performance of the

act• Absolution a sacrament?• Lombard’s (d. 1160) Sentences: 7 Sacraments;

adopted in 1510• Catholic sacrament: A sacred ceremony which has

the command of God and through which grace is conferred to the heart

XIV. Concerning Church Order

• To assure papists they follow good order; not like the Enthusiasts

• Papacy: bishop places priests• The Christian community calls the individual;

the individual must not foist himself on the community.

XV. Concerning Church Regulations

XVI. Concerning Public Order and Secular Government

• Inserted because of war with Turks

S C C

CS

S

SC

Amish

Catholic State Church

Lutheran

abortion ?divorce ?gay rights ?war ?taxes ?

XVII. Concerning the Return of Christ to Judgment

• Anabaptists taught a universal restitution theory

• Jehovah’s Witnesses teach annihilation and millennialism– like Jewish hope for an

earthly Messiah– See Mt 19:28 and 1 Cor

15:27

• Mt 19:28 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

• 1 Cor 15:27 For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.

Premillenialism Postmillenialism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Millennial_views.svg

Range of Bible Chapters

Schemes Genesis 1-3 Genesis 3-8 Genesis 9-11 Genesis 12to Exodus 19

Exodus 20 toActs 1

Acts 2 toRevelation 20 Revelation 20:4-6 Revelation 20-22

7 or 8 DispensationalScheme Innocence

or EdenicConscience

or Antediluvian Civil Government Patriarchalor Promise

Mosaicor Law

Graceor Church Millennial Kingdom Eternal State

or Final

4 DispensationalScheme Patriarchal Mosaic Ecclesial Zionic

3 DispensationalScheme(minimalist) Law Grace Kingdom

XVIII. Concerning Free Will• Luther vs. Erasmus

– On the Free Will 1524– On the Bondage of the Will 1525

• We have a measure of freedom “among the things reason comprehends”

• Augustine did not write Hypognosticon• Melanchthon added the antithesis later

– Would the PC have accepted this?

The Bondage of the Will

• If we believe that original sin has so destroyed us, that even in the godly who are led by the Spirit, it causes the utmost molestation by striving against that which is good; it is manifest, that there can be nothing left in a man devoid of the Spirit, which can turn itself towards good, but which must turn towards evil! If we believe that Christ redeemed men by His blood, we are compelled to confess, that the whole man was lost: otherwise, we shall make Christ superfluous.

• Eph 2:4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

• Rom 8:7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.

XIX. Concerning the Cause of Sin• God is not the author of sin

– Satan is the source of his own sin

– I inherit sin from my parents• Nature is good but sin affects it• Was there a flaw in creation?• “Anything that is not eternal, by

the mere fact that it is not eternal, can change.” (Augustine)

XX. Concerning Faith and Good Works

• A repeat of Article IV on justification and Article VI on sanctification10: “by works and can merit grace despise Christ”

• Eph 2:8,9• Augustine• 23: not the faith of the devil and ungodly• 27: good works “for God’s sake and to God’s

praise”

XXI. Concerning the Cult of the Saints

• Sect = split from a church• Cult = new teachings• “Dienst” = service• Is it proper to celebrate saints’ days in

the Lutheran Church?

THE END OF PART ONE

XXII. Concerning Both Kinds of the Sacrament

• Not a divisive issue any longer but of historical interest

• Corpus Christi in late 1200s because of transubstantiation

XXIII. Concerning the Marriage of Priests

• Luther: God’s Spirit permits the body its way and its natural work. Thus God does not take away from people their male and female form. The goodness of the body removed that strong opposition between flesh and spirit that glorified asceticism as the perfect way of life. God is pleased with matrimony.

• Karlstadt thought a bishop must marry.• Celibacy for clergy began in Spain; enforced

in 1070s by Pope Gregory VII

?

XXIV. The Mass

• 1-2: We have not abolished the Mass• 9: Celebrated with great devotion• 10: The more masses the shorter the stay

in purgatory?• 14: No correction by bishops.• 21: The Mass was turned into man’s work

to God• 25-29: The evangelical perspective

XXV. Concerning Confession

• 3: Absolution is the voice of God

• 4: John 20 “Whosoever sins you…”

• 7: Consciences should not be burdened

XXVI. Concerning the Distinction of Foods

• Paragraphs 1-17 Human traditions kept as being meritorious

• Paragraphs 18-29 Human traditions have not been commanded

• Paragraphs 30-39 Bodily discipline is good• Paragraphs 40-45 Traditions are wholesome for

good order

AC XXVII MONASTIC VOWS• Part I: 1-17 The development of

monasticism• Part II: 18-35 Vows can not nullify the

command and institution of God• Part III: 36-62 Every service of God

instituted by man to merit justification without the command of God is wicked.

AC XXVIII ECCLESIASTICAL POWER

• Part I: 1-29 The secular and spiritual power of bishops must be differentiated.

• Part II: 30-78 The introduction of new usages in the church.– 31: “He will guide you into all the truth” is used

to defend the teaching that pronouncements by the pope have the same authority as the Bible.

– 70: The most hard-hitting statement in the AC