[XII.] Other Factions ‹Heresies› and Sects
That Never Embraced
the Augsburg Confession
[1] In order that ‹heresies and sects› may not be pinned on us silently (for in the preceding explanation, we have made no mention of them), we intend at the end ‹of this writing› simply to make a list. The list will show the articles in which ‹the heretics of our time› err and teach contrary to our Christian faith and confession (to which we have often referred).
Erroneous Articles
of the Anabaptists
[2] The Anabaptists are divided among themselves into many factions, because one fights for more errors, another for less. However, they all in common profess the sort of doctrine that cannot be tolerated or allowed in the Church, in the commonwealth and secular government, or in home life.
Articles That Cannot Be Tolerated in the Church
[3] 1. Christ did not receive His body and blood from the Virgin Mary, but brought them with Him from heaven.
[4] 2. Christ is not true God, but ‹is only superior to other saints, because He› has more gifts of the Holy Spirit than any other holy man.
[5] 3. Our righteousness before God stands not on the sole merit of Christ alone, but in renewal, and therefore in our own godliness in which we walk. This is based in great part on one’s own special, self-chosen spirituality. In fact, it is nothing other than a new kind of monasticism.
[6] 4. Children who are not baptized are not sinners before God, but righteous and innocent. In their innocence, because they have not yet gained the use of their reason, children are saved without Baptism. According to their assertion, children do not need Baptism. Therefore, they reject the entire teaching about original sin and what belongs to it.
[7] 5. Children are not to be baptized until they have gained the use of their reason and can confess their faith themselves.
[8] 6. The children of Christians, because they have been born of Christian and believing parents, are holy and children of God even without and before Baptism. And for this reason they do not attach much importance to the Baptism of children or encourage it, contrary to the clear words of God’s promise, which applies only to those who keep His covenant and do not despise it (see Genesis 17:7–14[; also Acts 2:38–39 and Colossians 2:11–15]).
[9] 7. There is no true Christian congregation [church] in which sinners are still found.
[10] 8. No sermon is to be heard or attended in those church buildings [German: Tempeln] where formerly papal Masses have been celebrated and said.
[11] 9. ‹A godly person› must not have anything to do with the ministers of the Church who preach the Gospel according to the Augsburg Confession and rebuke the sermons and errors of the Anabaptists. Also, a person must not serve or in any way work for them, but must flee from them and shun them as perverters of God’s Word.
Articles That Cannot Be Tolerated
in the Government
[12] 1. Under the New Testament, public office is not a calling that pleases God.
[13] 2. A Christian cannot with a good, clear conscience hold or fulfill public office.
[14] 3. In cases that require action, a Christian cannot use the office of the magistracy against the wicked without harming his conscience. For protection and defense, citizens may invoke the power that the magistrates possess and have received from God.
[15] 4. A Christian cannot take an oath with a good conscience. Nor can a Christian ‹promise loyalty› with an oath to the hereditary prince of his country or sovereign.
[16] 5. Under the New Testament public officials cannot, without injury to conscience, impose capital punishment on evildoers.
Articles That Cannot Be Tolerated
in Domestic Life
[17] 1. A Christian cannot with a good conscience hold or possess property, but is in duty bound to devote his property to the common treasury.
[18] 2. A Christian cannot with a good conscience be an innkeeper, merchant, or maker of weapons.
[19] 3. Married people may be divorced on account of ‹differences in› faith. One may abandon the other and be married to another person who shares his faith.
Erroneous Articles
of the Schwenkfeldians
[20] 1. All those who regard Christ as a creature according to the flesh have no true knowledge of Christ as the reigning King of heaven.
[21] 2. By exaltation, Christ’s flesh has assumed all divine properties with this result: Christ as man is in might, power, majesty, and glory altogether (as regards degree and position) of equal essence to the Father and to the Word. So now there is only one essence, property, will, and glory of both natures in Christ. And now Christ’s flesh belongs to the essence of the holy Trinity.
[22] 3. The ministry of the Church—the Word preached and heard—is not the means God the Holy Spirit uses to teach people and work in them the saving knowledge of Christ, conversion, repentance, faith, and new obedience.
[23] 4. The water of Baptism is not how God the Lord seals the adoption of sons and works regeneration.
[24] 5. Bread and wine in the Holy Supper are not means through and by which Christ gives us His body and blood.
[25] 6. A Christian who is truly regenerated by God’s Spirit can perfectly keep and fulfill God’s Law in this life.
[26] 7. A congregation ‹church› that does not excommunicate or regularly ban people is not truly Christian.
[27] 8. A minister of the Church who is not truly renewed, regenerate, righteous, and godly cannot helpfully teach other people or distribute genuine, true Sacraments.
Error of the New Arians
[28] Christ is not true, essential, natural God, of one eternal, divine essence with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is only adorned with divine majesty inferior to and alongside of God the Father.
Error of the Anti-Trinitarians
[29] This is an entirely new sect, not heard of before in Christendom. They believe, teach, and confess that there is not only one, eternal, divine essence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But [they teach that] God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons. Each person has its essence distinct and separate from the other persons of the Godhead. Some in this sect think that all three persons are of equal power, wisdom, majesty, and glory (just as otherwise three people are distinct and separate from one another in their essence). Others think that these three persons and essences are unequal with one another in essence and properties, so that the Father alone is properly and truly God.
[30] These and similar articles, one and all, with whatever other errors depend on and follow from them, we reject and condemn as wrong, false, and heretical. They are contrary to God’s Word, the three Creeds, the Augsburg Confession and Apology, the Smalcald Articles, and Luther’s Catechisms. All godly Christians of both high and low estate should be on their guard to the extent that they hold dear their soul’s welfare and their salvation.
[31] This is the doctrine, faith, and confession of us all. We will give an account of it on the Last Day before the just judge, our Lord Jesus Christ. We will not speak or write anything against this doctrine, either secretly or publicly. By God’s grace we intend to persevere in it. After mature deliberation we have testified, in the true fear of God and invocation of His name, by signing ‹this Epitome› with our own hands.