For this evening’s lecture, Dr. Walther opened up by discussing how the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s most offensive doctrine to the reformed church is the doctrine that the grace of God, the forgiveness of sins, righteousness in the sight of God, and eternal salvation, is obtained in no other way than by the believer’s putting his confidence in the written Word, in Baptism, in the Lord’s Supper, and in absolution. Then he covers the Reformed view of those three things which are; “The true baptism is baptizing with the Spirit and with fire. ... The true food and drink by which the hunger and thirst of the soul is really stilled is the truth that came down from heaven. ... My sins are not forgiven except when God Himself speaks these words in my heart and makes me feel their force.” Then he talked about how a Lutheran pastor will point and direct the penitent to the truth of God’s promise that the Lord offers and gives in the means of grace, and why the Reformed not have this view. They do not have this view because they do not know how a person is to come into possession of the divine grace, the forgiveness of sin, righteousness in the sight of God, and eternal salvation. Spurning the way which God has appointed, they are pointing another way, in accordance with new devices which they have invented. Then Walther talked about Zwingli’s main theological focus, which was basically external objects conveying the Spirit, which was all messed up. Later, Walther discusses how the Anabaptists try to make Baptism part of the Law instead of the Gospel, and how when they receive baptism, that is to be viewed as an act of kindness on their part: they are doing God a service by it. Then he draws the evening to a close by making a good closing point, “I trust that even you have passed through some spiritual experiences that have taught you the true comfort in every affliction and its only source, the Word of God, which, whenever you feel worried, assures you of your salvation.”
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