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    Dr. Scott Murray refutes the doctrine of recpetionsim - from the pages of Logia.

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    Murray on Reception Ism

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    Dr. Scott Murray refutes the doctrine of recpetionsim - from the pages of Logia.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    2K views6 pages

    Murray On Reception Ism

    Uploaded by

    pastorcurtis
    Dr. Scott Murray refutes the doctrine of recpetionsim - from the pages of Logia.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 6
    The Sacrament of the Altar and Its Relationship to Justification Scorr R. Murray ~ Logte D3 .thie Secale: The ford's Supper 6. [7TH END OF Tab TWENTIETH CENTURY, while the church ‘may sillbe wrangling about the doctrine of church and min- istry (and that doctrinal issue is stil worth wrangling over), the doctrine ofthe Lord’s Supper isthe watershed doctrinal sue in the twenty-fst century. Luther said of the Lord’s Supper, “The sacraments the gospel” Luthe’s most significant (not to mention long-winded) writings were directly about the sacrament of the altar But what ofthe much-prased but often ignored Hauptartike the doctrine of justification? Could Luther possibly have been guilty of ignoring his favorite doctrine? Did Luther stray from the center ofthe Bible in an attempt to develop a polemical case against Bucer, ‘wing, Occolompadins, Caristadt, and others? Theoretically itis possible Ofcourse, the questions remain rhetorical ‘Any gift of God brings with it the whole of the faith, the whole gospel, all given in the triune Name as at haptism.* This isthe import of Luther's statement “the sacrament isthe gospel.” Luther say have been able to say the same for any article ofthe faith. Our generous God grants all gifs in abundance end at once, Martin Chemnitz wrote, “the whole treasury ofall the benefits which (Christ the Mediator procured by the offering up of his body .. {are] certainly communicated to [the believer} and fismly given and pledged to him." The sacrament ofthe alla isand isabout the gospel, and the gospel is and is about the sacrament. Thus a crisis of understanding in the doctrine ofthe holy sacrament of Christs body and blood isa crisis of the doctrine of justification and the sospelitsel. ‘Thisis Lather’s Houptatikel at work Luther made justification central to the whole Lutheran theological program: “The article of justification is master and prince, lord, president and judge above allkinds of doctrine. It preserves and guides every churchly doc- trine and cheers our consciences before God. In the Smalcald Articles, Luther identified the article of justification as the Hauprarttel slong with the article ofthe person of Christ (SA, 151, 25). Lather used the doctrine of justification asa critical tool to repulse every false practice and every human pretense before God (SA mt, xtv 1 1G Preface) “True Lutheranism, guided by the doctrine of justification, will take a certain doctrinal stand on the teaching ofthe Lords Supper. ‘While the Lutheran teaching of the Lor’s Supper has been shame- fally abandoned by the ELCA, we too ought to beware of the Scorr R. Musnay, a Loox contributing eit, s pastor of Memorial Latheran Church, Houston, Texas, n Thaolgy ¢ Wadn Chena by Blu. Ter igen. A«é. plague of purely formal confesllonaism, Perkape we are gully of ‘aypto-Calvinism, all the while congratulating ourselves for and ‘rowing loudly about how deeply Lutheran we are, Now; Ido not ‘mean to sey that we are intentionally crypto-Calvinistic, as was the faculty majority at the Univesity of Wittenberg in the 1560s. "Nevertheless, we may be guilty ofthe theological laziness tha leads to mouthing oft-repeated truisms, for which there may be little basis in our Lutheran confessional witness. So we may be “crypto” of a different and far worse kind: our theological failure may be hidden from ourselves. ‘THE PROBLEM OF RECEPTIONISM ‘The long-ingering doctrine of receptionism among conservative Lutherans is the exypto-Calvinistic Trojan horse in American Lutheranism. Receptionism is the doctrine that the presence of the ‘body and blood ofthe Lord Jesus Christ finaly produced only at the reception of the elements themsdves. Receptionists belive that the bread remains bread untill three pars of the Lutheran sacra- ‘mental action are actually completed, In this way my eating ofthe bread makes it the body of Christ. My drinking ofthe wine makes itthe blood of Christ. The bread on the altar remains bread until catit. The wine onthe altar remains wine until drink it ‘The doctrine of receptionism isin conflict with the doctzine of justification and is tantamount to a denial ofit The words of insti- tution, which are the word of God, solely and entirely cause the presence, so that the bread and wine become the body and blood ‘of our Lord Jesus Christ and the body and blood of the Lord Jesus (Christies upon our altars. Thisis the tral Latheran position held by Lather and repeated by the Formola of Concord ‘We come tothe holy ofolies of our faith when we come tothe altar to receive Chriss body and blood, We have said a great deal ‘when we have said thatthe receptionistic view of the sacrament conflicts with the doctrine of justification. This is especially trou- bling since our theological hero, Francis Pieper was a defender of this doctrine. At one time, following Pieper, 1 myself adhered {aithfally to this understanding of the cause of the presence in the sacrament of the alta. Pieper inherited this doctrine from a long line of seventeenth- century theologians, beginning with Aegidius Hunnius (d. 1603) and including the great John Gerhard, as well as John Andrew Quenstedt. Hunnius wrote 2 book published in 1590 Gust ten years aftr the publication of the Book of Concord) in which he specially denies that the word of God brings about the ral pres- ence “No union of the bread and the body of Christ takes place 2

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