First, nobody can deny that we, as well as the papists, have received holy baptism and because of that are called Christians. Now baptism is not something new, invented by us in our own day, but it is the same ancient baptism instituted by Christ, in which the apostles and the early church and all Christians have been baptized. If then we have the same baptism as the original, ancient (and, as the creed says, “catholic,” that is, “universal”) Christian church, and are baptized in it, then we belong to the same ancient universal church; and they like us, and we like them, are baptized with one baptism; and therefore there is no difference between us as to baptism. But baptism is the first and most important sacrament, without which the others are all nothing, as they must admit. This is why the papists cannot truthfully call us a different or a new or a heretical church, since we are children of the ancient baptism, together with the apostles themselves and all of Christendom, Ephesians 4 [:5], “one baptism.” (Luther’s Works, v.41, p.194-195)

Picture:  The chalice has three scenes depicted on the cup and three on the base.  This one on the base is the Nativity scene.

For there are two kinds of churches stretching from the beginning of history to the end, which St. Augustine calls Cain and Abel. The Lord Christ commands us not to embrace the false church; and he himself distinguishes between two churches, a true one and a false one, in Matthew 7 [:15], “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing,” etc. Where there are prophets, there are churches in which they teach. If the prophets are false, so also are the churches that believe and follow them. We have been unable up to now to get the papists to willingly prove why they are the true church, but they insist that according to Matthew 18 [:17] one must listen to the church or be lost. Yet Christ does not say there who, where, or what the church is; only that where it is, it ought to be listened to. We confess and say that as well, but we ask where the church of Christ is, and who it is. We are concerned non de nomine, “not with the name” of the church, but with its essence.

It is just as if I asked a drunkard or a fool or someone half-asleep, “Tell me, friend, who or where is the church?” and he answered me, ten times over, nothing but, “One should listen to the church!” But how am I to listen to the church when I do not know who or where the church is? “Well,” they say, “we papists have remained in the ancient and original church ever since the time of the apostles. Therefore we are the true church, for we have come from the ancient church and have remained in it; but you have fallen away from us and have become a new church opposed to us.” Answer: “But what if I prove that we have remained faithful to the true ancient church, indeed, that we are the true ancient church and that you have fallen away from us, that is, the ancient church, and have set up a new church against the ancient one?” Let us hear that! (Luther’s Works, v.41, p.194)

Picture:  The chalice has three scenes depicted on the cup and three on the base.  This one on the base is the Pentecost scene.