Part 3: The Reformed Counter-Reformation; inner testimony of the Holy Spirit (TSSI)

      This continues from Part 2 (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a short series publishing Franz Pieper's last convention essay in 1930 on the 3 Counter-Reformations. — In this segment, Pieper uses the most amount of ink to detail the clear departure of the Reformed Church from the Reformation, Luther's Reformation — From the 1930 Eastern District, pp. 28-38:

I. The Reformed Counter-Reformation.

Notable Quotations:

p. 28: "the so-called Reformed Church reformation very soon developed as a Counter-Reformation"

28: "the Reformed Church, in the doctrines in which it differs from the Lutheran Church, places blind human reason on the throne of rulers"

29: "But what the Reformed Church denies is the clear teaching of Holy Scripture. Luke 24:46-47… Scripture also teaches that Baptism is for the forgiveness of sins. Acts 2:38… that Holy Communion is administered for the forgiveness of sins. Matt. 26:27-2"

30: "Zwingli submitted his own confession of faith (Fidei Ratio), in which he said that the Holy Spirit does not need a vehicle (vehiculum). Calvin repeated this wonderful teaching"

30: "…the terrible consequence if we humans set aside the means of grace ordained by God? We thereby also abandon the Christian doctrine of justification"

30-31: "The “inner” testimony of the Holy Spirit (testimonium internum Spiritus Sancti) is nothing apart from and alongside faith in the Gospel wrought by the Holy Spirit, 1 John 5:9-10"

31: "Now since the Reformed Church,… denies the means of grace and maintains that God communicates the forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit without means, it thereby characterizes itself as a Counter-Reformation."

31: "… how Christian faith is possible in the Reformed sects that reject the external means of grace.…there is also a “happy inconsistency” at this point."

32: "Then, as a more recent Reformed theologian (Schneckenburger) points out, temptation and mortal distress also drove the Reformed to the Lutheran point of view, namely to base their faith on the external Word of the Gospel." [i.e. on a means of grace]

32: "Calvinist Reformed Church is also rationalistic in its doctrine of eternal election. It claims that anyone who teaches eternal election to faith and salvation must necessarily also teach eternal election to unbelief and damnation."

32-33: "The Reformed Church is also rationalistic in its doctrine of Holy Communion. What it teaches about the Lord's Supper contradicts the Holy Scriptures and is based merely on human ideas."

33: "The Reformed doctrine is excluded by the fact that the body of Christ, which is presented in the Lord's Supper to be eaten with the mouth, is not described as an image of the body, but as the true body by the addition 'which is given for you'."

34: "Christ's words with which he institutes Holy Communion are not unusual and obscure as far as the manner of speaking is concerned, but quite common and completely clear."

35: "the Reformed theologians contradict each other in their understanding of the words of the Lord's Supper."

36: "The Reformed Church also proved to be a counter-reformation by trying to oust the Lutheran Church from areas where the Lutheran Church had already gained a foothold.… one of the causes that halted the triumphant course of the Reformation and brought it to a partial standstill."

37: "the Reformed were always prepared to unite without agreement on doctrine" [= Unionism]

37: "the fact that they did not think highly of their cause was because they were not sure of their doctrine."

38: "all sins are forgiven through the Word of the Gospel, all sins are forgiven through baptism, and all sins are forgiven through Holy Communion"

38: "the conclusion that Reformed theologians allow themselves to draw, that therefore the Lord's Supper (which Christ warmly demanded to be instituted) is unnecessary, is blasphemous."

38: "they overlook the special consolation that Christ wants to give his Christians by instituting Holy Communion."

38: Luther: "I give it [Communion] to the one who takes it in particular, giving him Christ's body and blood, that he may have forgiveness of sins, acquired through his death and preached in the congregation. This is something more than the common (general) sermon"

    It may be noted that Prof. David Scaer (Pro Ecclesia 14 [2005] p. 149 ff.) and Rev. Dr. Martin Noland (see here) of the LC–MS explicitly deny Pieper's teaching above on the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit (p. 30-31), saying that the orthodox Lutheran teachers received such teaching from the Calvinists.  But Scaer and Noland should study the Book of Concord here, and Pieper's reference to 1 John 5:9-10. Then they should study Pieper's essay, pages 29-31, to see that Pieper was here defending Lutheran doctrine against the Calvinists!

      In the concluding Part 4, "The Counter-Reformation within the Lutheran Church."