Transcript: AAC — 08 Nov 2023

WEBVTT

00:00:01.580 --> 00:00:12.000
It would seem that some controversy has arisen with regard to the mode of Christ's presence in the supper.

00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:25.160
Now those who are engaging in this controversy, and in this case, I mean, stoking it, starting the controversy where there is none, are doing so in bad faith.

00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:29.140
On top of doing it in bad faith, they are doing it foolishly twice over.

00:00:29.780 --> 00:00:49.980
Once, because it is foolish to engage in such a controversy in the way they are, and twice, because they do not understand the terms they are employing, because they do not have access to the original language of the Book of Concord to see what those terms actually are, or the original language of the philosophical and theological terms being employed.

00:00:49.980 --> 00:01:01.540
Now of course, you do not have to know the languages to employ the terms, but it would behoove you to actually know what the terms mean, which is very clearly not the case here.

00:01:01.540 --> 00:01:12.580
At any rate, the quote that comes up is not actually in Article 7, but in Article 8 of the epitome of the formula of Concord.

00:01:12.580 --> 00:01:15.200
It is paragraph 17.

00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:17.920
So here it is.

00:01:17.960 --> 00:01:20.760
The German, actually, I will just read the entire paragraph.

00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:43.520
Daher er auch vermag und ihm ganz leicht ist, seinen wahrhaftigen Leib und Blut im heiligen Abendmahl gegenwärtig mitzuteilen, nicht nach der Art oder Eigenschaft der menschlichen Natur, sondern nach Art und Eigenschaft göttlicher Rechte, sagt Dr.

00:01:43.520 --> 00:02:04.880
Luther, aus unserm christlichen Kinderglauben, Welche Gegenwartigkeit nichtirdisch noch kapernayatarnisch gleichwohl wahrhaftig und wesentlich ist, wie die Worte seines Testaments lauten, das ist, ist, ist mein Leib, und so weiter.

00:02:06.120 --> 00:02:16.700
Now, the part of that, that is relevant for this issue here, is the bit that says nichtirdisch.

00:02:17.820 --> 00:02:23.380
Iirdisch is the term that is being mistranslated as physical.

00:02:23.380 --> 00:02:27.500
Iirdisch auf Deutsch does not mean physical.

00:02:27.500 --> 00:02:31.000
It means earthly, mundane, terrestrial.

00:02:32.140 --> 00:02:37.500
Now, that is a polemic against the reformed.

00:02:37.500 --> 00:02:39.940
That is what's actually happening in this paragraph.

00:02:39.940 --> 00:02:50.380
It is a polemic against the polemic, the reformed often leverage against Lutherans, which is their accusation that we are cannibals, of course.

00:02:50.380 --> 00:02:58.080
Now, that term, Iirdisch, as I said, does not mean physical.

00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:08.080
If we wanted physical, that would be köpelisch, or leip-lish, since you've got the word leip there in the quote from Luther.

00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:12.720
The other term that comes up is the Latin term localiter.

00:03:12.720 --> 00:03:20.540
That is one of the terms over which we fought with the Reformed and still do to this day, although often the fights now are not in Latin.

00:03:20.540 --> 00:03:24.320
Localiter also does not mean physical.

00:03:24.320 --> 00:03:27.260
It means local or locally.

00:03:29.020 --> 00:03:43.160
When we say that we do not hold to a localiter understanding of Christ's presence in the supper, what we are saying is that we reject the accusation of the Reformed that we are cannibals.

00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:46.860
Because their accusation is blasphemous.

00:03:46.860 --> 00:03:48.540
They are calling Christ a liar.

00:03:48.540 --> 00:03:50.760
They are insulting the sacrament.

00:03:50.760 --> 00:03:56.180
And it should terrify them to speak those words, to even think those words.

00:03:56.180 --> 00:04:01.540
Now, what the actual Lutheran position is, is this.

00:04:01.540 --> 00:04:11.400
Christ is physically, substantially, sacramentally present in, with, and under the bread and the wine in the supper.

00:04:12.820 --> 00:04:17.160
And he is so, because he promises to be so.

00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:20.000
That is the Lutheran position.

00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:27.260
To say that Lutherans do not hold that Christ is physically present is a lie.

00:04:27.260 --> 00:04:39.580
At the absolute best, it is a reckless misunderstanding of the meaning of the terms being used in the Book of Concord, in our dogmaticians, in our theologians.

00:04:41.280 --> 00:04:54.400
It is to deliberately, quite frankly, because there is a point at which recklessness, negligence, rises to such a level that it is in fact intentional, it is in fact deliberate.

00:04:54.400 --> 00:05:01.720
And that is the case here, because it is trivial to look up what the word Yiddish means or what the word localtor means.

00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:12.520
Just drop them into any of the various places online where you can translate from one language to another, and it will spit out the accurate meaning of these terms for you.

00:05:12.520 --> 00:05:19.360
And that has clearly not been done by certain individuals who are engaging in this controversy.

00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:23.920
So again, this is the Lutheran position.

00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:36.480
Christ is physically, substantially, sacramentally present in, with, and under the bread and the wine in the supper as he promises.