I’ve said for years that a Christian can safely reject anything said to them by someone who denies the reality of the Real Presence. This dwarf now has the shoulders of giants to stand on.
G. K. Chesterton references the Latin principle falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus. It’s translated by his editors as “If you are false in one thing, you will be false in everything.” The Reformed say that it is not Jesus Body and Blood on the altar, in the pastor’s hand, in the communicant’s mouth. No, it’s just bread and wine.
Luther, as usual, is even more doggerel than Chesterton. He writes, “Therefore, they are not to be trusted. For any spirit that does away with Christ’s flesh is not of God, says St. John [I John 4:2f.]. And he adds: Let there be testing [4:1]. No this spirit certainly does away with Christ’s flesh, because he makes of it a useless, perishable, and altogether common flesh, like beef or veal, as we have heard. Therefore, he cannot be honest. I warn, I counsel: Beware, watch out, Satan has come among the children of God” (“This is My Body,” LW, 37, 150)!
And lay people get mad at pastors today for just saying the Reformed are wrong.
Luther is even more to this dwarf’s point later in the work “Confession Concerning Christ’s Supper.” “Since this spirit has gone astray and blind over the sacrament, inevitably he fails to understand rightly any article of Christian doctrine” (LW, 37, 192).
Sure, he may be knowledgeable about finances, medicine, or football but when it comes to Christian doctrine you can be sure he or she is wrong.
