Foundation and Plain Instruction: The Corruption of the Holy Supper

The Scriptures teach that we have no other offering for sin than the body of the Lord, as was said before. But since the enemies of Christ have held the cathedral for so many years, they have, as the Scriptures teach, altered the laws of the Most High, and in their place instituted their abomination of desolation, and corrupted the Holy Supper with their councils, violence and false doctrine, until, alas, nothing is left of it but the shadow and the bare name. And they did this to destroy and corrupt the true, eternal offering of Christ, which alone avails with God, and changed it into a daily offering for sin, as we may plainly read in the canons of the mass. This is without doubt an abomination of abominations; for by it Jesus Christ, the all-sufficient and eternal offering, is entirely renounced and made of no effect as the Propitiator and Mediator of the New Testament. He is thrust from the throne of his Majesty; his merits, cross, blood and death are rejected; indeed, all the types and shadows of Moses, all the predictions of the prophets, the promise of angels, and the whole New Testament are denied by it, though they all point in harmony to the one and eternal offering of Christ. And in its place they have ordained an unholy, blind, seductive and carnal idolatry with a piece of bread! Beloved reader, do not put any other construction on these words; for what I write is the truth.

They have carried this ungodly seduction so far that they have claimed for themselves all power in heaven, on earth and in hell; and so they break the bread into three pieces. With the first they reconcile God; with the second they intercede for the world; and with the third, as they claim, they pray for the souls in purgatory.

Through this accursed infamy they rose so high in honor that they are above all the rulers of the earth, whom they made their own servants. By their hypocritical service and bewitching idolatry they have heaped up money, goods, gold, silver, land, rents, cloisters, cities, principalities and the dominions of this world; because everyone loved this splendid service as a holy and divine work, and honored and feared their exalted and pompous names as the messengers of God.

By this ingenious and subtle magic the Roman antichrist has gained such respect and authority that even the imperial majesty, the highest sovereignty on earth, which God commands us to respect and fear, had to humble himself and kiss his feet. Indeed, what is still worse, Frederick Barbarossa, a great and renowned emperor, could not be reconciled with Pope Alexander the Third until he humbled himself before the church at Venice and let the Pope tread on him with his feet!

See, this is how antichrist has bewitched the whole world with his offering. The gracious Father be praised forever that through his fatherly grace he has delivered us, his poor children, from this bewitching offering, and has given us to know the only and eternal offering of his Son Jesus Christ, who according to the order of Melchizedek is ordained an eternal High Priest over the house of God; who in the days of his flesh offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save from death, and was heard because he honored God. This one, I say, offered an acceptable offering, a sweet-smelling sacrifice of eternal worth, by which he appeases the Father’s wrath, reconciles the human race, opened heaven, closed hell, and made peace between heaven and earth; and he sits now and from now on at the right hand of his Father, until his enemies are made his footstool. Indeed, with this one offering he has perfected forever all who are sanctified. This cannot be contradicted, whether by emperor or king, doctor or teacher, angel or devil. His word stands firm and immovable. With one offering, I say with one offering, he has perfected forever those who are sanctified.

O my beloved reader (I mean all who are still without the Spirit of Christ and his word), pay attention to what the word of the Lord teaches you, and observe the true doctrine of Christ, the true teachers, the true sacraments, the true church, and the true Christian life, which is of God; so that at last you may learn what kind of pastors feed you, what kind of baptism and supper you practice, by what kind of offering you are reconciled, what kind of lives you lead, and of whose body you are members.

O how long, says Solomon, will you simple ones love simplicity, and you scorners delight in scorning? How long will you remain under the heavy bondage of sin? How long will you remain in the communion of the devil, and let yourselves be dragged down to the abyss of hell by the cords of unbelief? Wake up, and ransom your poor souls! Come out from among them. Flee from all false doctrine; avoid every appearance of evil; believe in Christ Jesus; repent and lead a blameless life; follow Christ with a sincere heart; enter into the house and covenant of his everlasting peace, into the communion of his flesh and blood. Take on yourselves his easy yoke and light burden, and you will find rest for your souls. Then you may say in truth that you are Christians, that you have obtained the remission of your sins by the grace of God through the merits of Christ, and that you are joint heirs of the eternal kingdom. May God grant you all his grace and mercy. Amen.

In the second place, they made the bread in the Holy Supper into the real flesh, and the wine into the real blood, of Christ, and took the words of Christ literally: Take, eat, this is my body, and so on. They did not notice that Christ in John, chapter 6 fully instructs us how we are to eat his flesh and drink his blood, and says that it would profit nothing to eat his flesh and drink his blood in a literal sense, for this could not be done, because he was about to ascend to heaven where he was before. So we are not to understand this eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood literally, but spiritually, as he himself says, “The words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life.” All who understand this from the Scriptures in this way are reviled by many as accursed heretics and profaners of the sacrament, and must suffer for it by water, fire and the sword.

O dear Lord! Is it not an ungodly error and great blindness to teach and believe that a piece of bread and a drink of wine should be changed into the real and essential flesh and blood of the Son of God, by which we may be delivered from hell, the devil, sin and death, and are made children of grace? O horrible heresy!

O miserable, blind people, believe the words of Christ when he says that it profits nothing to eat his visible and real flesh, and that his words are spirit and life, John 6, verse 63. Believe that he ascended up to heaven and sits at the right hand of his Father; therefore he cannot be eaten or confined in the body by anyone, nor can he be consumed by age, fire or worms, as can plainly be seen to happen to the visible bread and wine.

But where the Lord’s church, the beloved disciples of Christ, have met in Christ’s name to partake of the Holy Supper in true faith, love and obedience, there the outward, perishable man eats and drinks perishable bread and wine, and the inner, imperishable, spiritual man eats (in a spiritual sense) the imperishable body and blood of Christ, which cannot be eaten or consumed, as was said above. Like is nourished by like; this cannot be disputed. The visible man is nourished by visible food, and the invisible man is fed with invisible bread, as we may plainly learn from the word of the Lord.

Therefore all who are in Christ, and with believing, penitent hearts rely on the pure offering of the body and blood of Christ, and know that it is the only washing and reconciliation for their sins, the only and eternal means of grace, eat the true flesh and drink the true blood of Christ, not with their mouths, but spiritually, by faith, as was said before.

The reader may readily see from these words that the bread is not flesh and the wine is not blood. For if they were flesh and blood, as the idolaters claim and teach the poor people, one of two consequences must follow: either the perishable bread and wine are changed into the imperishable and heavenly Son of God, or the Son of God must be changed into bread and wine. This cannot be disputed.

O dear Lord! They are more ignorant than the heathen ever were. True, the heathen worshiped and honored the sun, moon and stars, which have their influence on things below. They worshiped the ox, the dragon, serpents, fire and other creatures, some of which had living breath in them. They also worshiped images of wood, stone, gold and silver, made by skilled workmen, who cast, carved and decorated them in the likeness of man. But those who are called by the name of Christ pray to, worship and adore a piece of bread and a mouthful of wine as the real flesh and blood of Christ, who came from heaven for our salvation, became man, and was made an offering on the cross for our sins. O intolerable abomination and infamy, that the praise of God, the glory of Jesus Christ, is turned and changed into such a feeble idol, which can neither avenge, speak, hear, see, stand nor walk; which worms eat and time consumes; and which must be locked up, preserved, propped up and carried about by the hands of men, like the idols at Babylon of which Baruch writes.

O my faithful reader, learn to know Christ Jesus rightly. He is not like the fabled Proteus,* now like the everlasting, almighty Son of the eternal, omnipotent God, and then a perishable creature, bread and wine. Oh no! He is unchangeable through all eternity. Nor can he be confined in any house, church or chamber, or in silver or golden vessels; for according to his eternal, divine Being, heaven is his throne and the earth his footstool; and according to his holy humanity, he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of his Father. He is the eternal and almighty Power, Brightness, Word, Truth, Wisdom and image of God. He has all power in heaven above and on earth below; all things are under him; at his name every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess to him that he is the Lord, to the honor and glory of his Father. And he will not appear again in the flesh, but will come in the clouds of heaven to judge the goats and the sheep. [*]

Therefore I say again: he cannot be eaten, nor can he be digested in the body of man. Augustine plainly acknowledges this when he says, “Why do you make ready to eat? Only believe, and you have eaten him.”

Beloved reader, we know well that Augustine did not write this about the natural eating of the Holy Supper, but about the spiritual eating, which is by faith. We brought it forward with that in view, so that the God-fearing reader might see the difference between outward and inward eating and not mistake the one for the other. For the outward use of the sign is nothing but a false appearance and hypocrisy if the thing it invisibly represents is not joined to it. That this is the case with infant baptism and the world’s supper may readily be proved from the Scriptures. But where the mystery for which the sign is ordained is joined to the sign, there is the baptism of Christ and his Supper, as the Scriptures teach. But this is hidden from the world. They acknowledge that the Scriptures teach a Supper, but what it actually is, what it prefigures, and who are to partake of it, they do not know, so completely has the Babylonian whore deceived and bewitched them in this matter.

The Holy Supper, as taught by Christ and his apostles, rebukes all idolatry, all foreign means of reconciliation, hatred, discord and unrighteousness; for it points solely to the one offering of Christ, which was made by his flesh and blood once for all, as has been related; and it represents Christian peace, harmony, brotherly love and a pious, blameless life, as was already said. Therefore they do not want this Supper. They have forsaken the Lord’s word and ordinances, and have turned away from the Creator to the creature, and from the true Reality to the perishable signs. Indeed, they call the disgraceful and sinful mass the sacrifice of the Lord, and the bread and wine his real flesh and blood. For this is the custom and manner of the ungodly: they do not know the true God, the God of heaven and earth, and do not believe his holy and priceless word, but hate the true service and oppose it. In God’s place they have a visible and tangible creature, and keep up a service of their own choosing. So did Israel with the golden calf, with Baal and Moloch; and Antioch with his Maosim (god of forces); the Babylonians with their Bel; the Egyptians with their Isis, and so on. From this source comes all the disgraceful idolatry that is practiced with this abomination, such as carrying the bread about, lifting it up, praying to it, offering incense, and on every occasion trying to pay it divine honor and divine service; and to support all this there is not a jot or a letter, nor an inference, in all the Scriptures. Indeed, alas, many esteem it so highly that they say this is the one who reconciled us on the cross; just as Israel said of the calf, “These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt,” Exodus 32, verse 4.

Besides this, the use of the cup is withheld from the people in the Roman church. If it were the Lord’s Supper, as they claim, they would use it in every respect according to the ordinance of the Lord. But this custom shows that it is not the Supper of Christ but a deluding seduction of antichrist.

Therefore be wise and sober, you who call yourselves by the name of Christ. Spit out the wine of Babylonian whoredom which you have drunk. You have danced and burned incense to the golden calf long enough. Give the Almighty the praise and honor due to him, so that it does not happen to you as it did to faithless, disobedient and idolatrous Israel. Although the Lord God graciously redeemed them from the power and tyranny of Pharaoh, they still had to suffer punishment for their unfaithfulness and obstinacy, and were destroyed in the wilderness. And so it is also in vain that we are redeemed by the blood of the Lord from the dominion and power of the devil, if we do not repent but remain idolaters, and do not believe in Jesus, and in our weakness are not obedient and do not live according to his word.

In the third place, they teach that this bread is given for the remission of sins. My faithful reader, take note of what I write. Where Jesus Christ, his word and Spirit are not known and acknowledged, there is nothing but unbelief, idolatry, error and an uncertain, wavering conscience, as can be seen.

They all seek some remedy for their sins, but the true remedy, Christ, they do not acknowledge. So they have invented so many remedies that we can neither describe nor list them all: absolution, holy water, fasts, confessions, masses, pilgrimages, infant baptism, bread and wine, and so on.

I do not know what to compare this generation to, except a sick and wounded man who has put himself in the care of an unskilled physician, who can give him no suitable medicines and apply no healing plasters. He spends his money in vain; he suffers pain and affliction, and is getting worse instead of better. A skilled, experienced physician is recommended to him, who, moved by pure love and mercy, would visit him without money and without price, bind up his wounds and gladly cure him; but the sick man will not receive such a good and kindly physician. Who then could feel sorry for such a man, since he would rather perish than get well?

So it is with this perverse generation. At times they feel and are aware that they are failing and sick, but they seek medicine and counsel from those who make them sicker still with their poison; and they are not healed of their wounds or cured of their diseases. They refuse the skilled, heavenly Surgeon and Physician, Jesus Christ, recommended by all the patriarchs, prophets and apostles and by angels, indeed appointed by the Father himself. Him they will not have, though he would willingly visit all who are so deadly wounded. He offers his services without money and without price; he has a sweet-smelling healing salve, good for healing our wounds: his powerful word to instruct, and his crimson blood to reconcile, as was said. But they do not want him; they drive him away with violence, false doctrine, reproach, lying, treason, rebellion, persecution and murder, as has been fully shown. O dear Lord! What counsel shall be given to this disobedient, perverse and blind people?

My worthy reader, we testify the truth in Christ: be careful, believe, obey, hope and seek where and what you will; we are certain that you will find in the word of God no other remedy for your sins than the one we have pointed out to you, which is Jesus Christ; otherwise the Scriptures must be false.

This is what Isaiah says: “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins,” Isaiah 43, verse 25.

“The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all,” Isaiah 53, verse 6.

The angel said to Joseph, “You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins,” Matthew 1, verse 21.

“This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins,” Matthew 26, verse 27. [Note 1]

“Behold the lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world,” John 1, verse 29.

“For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,” Second Corinthians 5, verse 21.

“Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree,” First Peter 2, verse 24.

“The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin,” First John 1, verse 7.

“He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,” Revelation 1, verse 5.

My good readers, look well to yourselves and do not be deceived. If there were any other remedy for sin than the one pointed out, as has been related, we might then rightly say that these and other passages have not directed us correctly, and that holy Paul also erred not a little when he says, “There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,” First Timothy 2, verses 5 and 6.

All, then, who seek other remedies for their sins than the only remedy God has provided, however glorious and holy those remedies may appear, deny the Lord’s death, which he died for us, and his innocent blood, which he shed for us. They are the ones of whom the Lord complains through his prophet Jeremiah, saying, My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the Fountain of living waters, and have hewn out for themselves cisterns that can hold no water, Jeremiah 2, verse 13.

All false doctrine tends to deny the true throne of grace, Jesus Christ, who alone is our righteousness acceptable to God; and all false doctrine tends to set up strange Baals to be worshiped instead of Christ, as was said before.

See, beloved sirs, friends and brothers, here you have the saving truth and the only ground of the Lord’s Supper set plainly and briefly before you: what it is, for whom it is ordained, and what it teaches and represents to us with its mysteries and meanings.

You also have a view of the antichristian supper with its dreadful abominations, by which the Lord’s Supper is destroyed and the kingdom of antichrist is fortified and put in the place of God’s throne; by which, alas, so many hundreds of thousands of poor souls were deceived and are still deceived daily; and on account of which so many pious hearts are so slanderously spoken of and reviled by the learned, and so dreadfully murdered and killed in some cities, because they renounced this abominable idolatry.

Place these two side by side; weigh them well by the spirit, word and ordinances of the Lord; and if you believe at all that the word of God is true, you will find to what abomination and frightful idolatry the world has come, and that we, according to our feeble abilities, have plainly explained to you the immovable foundation of truth out of the word of God.

Praise the Most High, all you who fear the Lord, that he has shown his boundless love and grace toward us poor sinners in this dreadful time of unbelief; that he has let shine out of darkness the clear light of the holy gospel and the true knowledge of his Son Jesus Christ, which was hidden for several centuries in this dark Egypt under the thick clouds of the antichristian abominations, Second Corinthians 4, verse 6. Therefore let us be watchful over it and walk in it diligently, so that thick darkness may not cover us again, as the prophet says, Jeremiah 13, verse 16.

O my dear reader, learn to know rightly Jesus Christ, who has ordained this Holy Supper and the breaking of bread for his disciples and all Christians. Believe the glorious and unspeakable gifts of his grace. Fear, love, honor and serve him; walk in godly union, love and peace with your neighbor, just as this Supper with its representation testifies and admonishes; die to your wicked flesh and crucify its unclean lusts; in all things lead a life according to the spirit, word and example of the Lord. Then your Supper will be to his praise, and your souls shall have everlasting life.

We further teach and admonish from the word of God that all true children of God, who are born again of the incorruptible, living seed of the divine word, who have separated themselves from the idolatrous generation according to the Scriptures and submitted to the yoke and cross of Christ, and who are able to judge between true and false doctrines, between Christ and antichrist, must shun, according to Scripture, all seductive and idolatrous preachers, with their doctrines, sacraments and worship. They must avoid all, of every doctrine, faith, sect, creed and name, who are not found in the pure doctrine of Christ and in the scriptural use of his sacraments, because they have neither calling, doctrine nor life according to the word of God, but are sent by antichrist and ordained to his employment and service. And

Because they not only fail to observe and acknowledge the pure doctrine of Christ and the established practices of the apostolic church concerning the holy sacraments, but have also changed them into empty confusion and abominable, open idolatry, as has been stated.

Because they have deceitfully mixed the light froth of man’s doctrine with the fair, precious gold of the divine word, and the pure wine with the unclean waters of their foolish wisdom.

Because they so shamefully censure, abuse and assail the city of God, the city of righteousness and eternal peace, the lovely Jerusalem with its sacred temple, the house of prayer, and would gladly root it out and burn it; and they rule in it with their spiritual money-changers, Pharisaic commands and bewitching trade.

Because, like Belshazzar, in their Babylonian idolatries and drunkenness they so miserably misuse and degrade the precious vessels and utensils of the Lord: the precious souls whom he has consecrated with his crimson blood, and by whom the true service of the Lord should be performed, Revelation 1, verse 5; Daniel 5, verse 3.

Because, like Herod, they mock Christ, the eternal Wisdom of God, as a fool dressed in a fool’s garment; and his holy apostles, the witnesses of his eternal truth, they regard as useless talkers and liars, and thrust them out with scorn.

In short, they preach and lay before the poor people lies for truth, darkness for light, death for life, and antichrist for Christ.

Therefore it is not fitting that the bride of Christ, who stands ready to hear only the bridegroom’s voice, the dear children of God who have their feet washed and their garments cleansed in the blood of the Lamb, John 3, verse 29, who are built on the immovable foundation of the apostles and prophets, on the precious cornerstone Christ Jesus, should again hear the strange voice and doctrines of antichrist, defile their garments again, and agree with antichrist in faith, doctrine, worship and life. Those who do so, if they do not repent, are condemned by the Scriptures and sentenced to death.

This we teach with all earnestness, according to our limited talents and as much as is in us; not out of contempt, as the Lord knows, nor out of obstinacy, caprice or party stubbornness, as the world charges us. Oh no! God preserve all his own from party spirit. But we preach this way out of the true fear of the Lord and the great distress and burden of our consciences. God’s pressing word and love for your poor souls drive us, as through the grace of God may be seen more clearly hereafter.