The Lord's Supper in the Theology of Martin Chemnitz Bjarne - Logia

The Consecration |
formulated, for example, in the Exegesis Perspicua (1573). In the 1880’s
in the United States the term “Crypto-Calvinism” was revived with
the charge against the Synodical Conference Lutherans that they
were secretly introducing Calvin’s absolute decree of election and
reprobation. While these synods publicly repudiated that they ever
taught any kind of Calvinism, and insisted that they confessed the
gratia universalis with all seriousness, the charge of Crypto-Calvinism
persisted into the twentieth century. In 1932 when the Lutheran
Church Missouri Synod adopted its “Brief Statement,” they publicly
and unambiguously repudiated the charge of Calvinism:
On the basis of these clear statements of the Holy Scriptures we
reject every kind of Synergism, that is, the doctrine that conversion is
wrought not by the grace and power of God alone, but in part also
by the cooperation of man himself . . . . On the other hand, we reject
also the Calvinistic perversion of the doctrine of conversion, that is, the
doctrine that God does not desire to convert and save all hearers of the
Word, but only a portion of them . . . . Our refusal to go beyond what
is revealed in these two Scriptural truths is not “masked Calvinism”
(“Crypto-Calvinism”) but precisely the Scriptural teaching of the
Lutheran Church as it is presented in detail in the Formula of Concord.
(Brief Statement, par. 12, 13, 15).
305 The situation of the Synodical Conference Lutherans was not unlike
that of Chemnitz and others who rejected the veneration of the
sacrament outside its prescribed use but did hold to the permissibility
of the adoration within the prescribed action. They were both
bound to Scripture, even though what they read and from which they
drew valid implications seemed contrary to reason and even against
the prevailing winds of thought found among their associates. Their
conviction that there was a permissible external veneration of the
sacrament came from their innermost faith that the words of our
Savior are not conditioned on anything man does or leaves undone
or on time and place or on the external rite itself. When the Words
of Institution sound from the altar by the officiant, they believe them
to be almighty creative words that achieve what they say, “This is
my body,” “This is my blood of the Covenant which is poured out
for many.” And since it was the Savior’s last will and testament, the
words, “Do this in remembrance of me” mean that it is an institution
for all times. Because of this they were certain that when they
followed the mandate to do what Christ did that evening, they had