“You have often heard it said that when God formed man from a clod of earth, the devil also took earth and fashioned a toad or a monk from it. And this saying is also current, that where God builds a church, the devil places a chapel next door. The Christian Church is of two kinds. The word “church” is often a misnomer: people call that the Christian Church which is not the Christian Church, and that which is the Christian Church is often not acknowledged as such. It is not a question whether one must believe the church, or whether there is a church; but the issue is: Which is the true church? For we are agreed with the pope that there is a church. We believe that there assuredly is a Christian Church. The pope concurs in this. We are as firmly and strongly convinced as they that there must be a Christian Church on earth. But this is the question at issue and the bone of contention: Which is the Christian Church? For the devil and the pope dismember, pervert, and falsify all names.

The Anabaptists claim that they have Baptism, and that there is no salvation without it. No, we do not ask, or argue about, whether there is a saving Baptism. The same thing holds true of the Sacramentarians. We concede that they have the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.  We agree on this. But the question in dispute is: Who has the true Sacrament? It is, of course, also incumbent on the Christian Church to preach the Gospel. But this suggests the question: Which is the true Gospel, and who possesses it in its purity? Similarly, we are now debating the question with the pope whether the papists or we are the true Christian Church, whether they have and administer Baptism, the Gospel, and the Lord’s Supper correctly. They claim to have these unalloyed. So do we”  (Luther’s Works, v. 23, p. 285).

“Such are the offenses and objections directed against the Gospel. Similarly, we hear it said in the papacy today that a theologian can emerge from no other place than from Christendom and the church. This position they maintain, and on it they rely as a ram does on his horns. It is true that there is no preacher outside the Christian Church; that is impossible. It is ordained that God will make no Christians except by Baptism and the call of the Gospel. God wants all who are called Christians to be set apart from the world by means of Baptism and the Gospel. Thus there is no true preacher or prophet outside the pale of the church. Scripture states this, and no one can deny it. Just so the Jews say here: ‘No prophet is to rise from Galilee.’

This is a strong argument that agitates many who are convinced of the correctness of our doctrine. Although they are unable to advance anything to refute our doctrine, they are like an intractable horse. All they say is that the Holy Christian Church has not yet determined and approved the doctrine. …  They say: ‘The Christian Church has not yet taken action. This does not emanate from Christendom’  They are waiting for councils and diets, for a meeting of scholars to adopt resolutions. Until such a time they retain their old position. Thus both the fools and the wise declare today that they will wait until the Christian Church comes to a decision, since at present the one espouses this, the other that view.  They assert that the Christian Church has not yet taken up the question. Until the church decides what is right, they propose to hold to the faith of their fathers. Thus they delude the simple-minded….  By the same token it is true that anyone who is not in the Christian Church and whose doctrine has not been accepted by it is a false and heretical preacher”  (Luther’s Works, v. 23, p. 284-285).

John 7:41, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee?” “This, they think, is preposterous. Nothing more ridiculous and nonsensical, they suppose, has ever been said. … They say that it is impossible for the Christ to come from Galilee. If He did, He would be but a poor Christ. But that is the work of the devil. In Matt. 11:6 Christ declares: ‘Blessed is he who takes no offense at Me.’ This doctrine gives and ever will give offense if one presumes to fathom and comprehend it with his reason, if one approaches it with his head and five senses. We refer to the doctrine that Christ is the Light of the world, able to help everybody—though He walked this earth as a poor carpenter who often lacked bread; though He could not call one foot of ground His own, neither He nor His father Joseph; though finally He was nailed to the cross like the worst criminal. The thought that He was a poor carpenter’s apprentice is too offensive and cannot be brought into harmony with the words: ‘He who believes in Me, etc.’

Thus the Word of God everywhere suffers offense, defection, and obstruction. Those who would approach it are offended, as is the case here. Men offer a specious argument, still adduced by all the worldly-wise, and they repel many when they say: ‘Is the Christ to come from Galilee?’ Admittedly, Holy Writ does declare that He is to come from Bethlehem. This is stated by Micah, who adds the lineage of Christ to the place of His birth. Scripture is explicit on both. Micah says (5:2): ‘But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, etc.’ And David is told that a child of his lineage, flesh, and blood will be the Christ (2 Sam. 7:12). The Jews knew that the Christ was to come from the lineage and family of David and from the small town of Bethlehem. These facts had been drilled into them….”  (Luther’s Works, v. 23, p. 282-283).

“However, they do not want to be reformed (as they say) by this former mendicant monk. Yet this same mendicant monk (I must brag a little, but secretly, so that they do not hear about it) has reformed them considerably. I have, God be praised, reformed more with my gospel than they perhaps might have done with five councils. So far they have done nothing more in the councils than play around with unprofitable matters that do not concern the Christian church. However, now our gospel comes along, takes away indulgences, abolishes pilgrimages, puts a stop to bulls, checks covetousness, and achieves marvelous results, which they themselves accept and utilize and would not have attained by any councils. I am not even mentioning the chief articles of the faith. However, they indeed perceive that the Reformation is about to become too powerful now that the chief article and the true cornerstone of the papal church, the holy mass, is also being attacked. This is going to be too much for them. At this point—and it is time—they really have to shout, lie, murder and resort to all kinds of insults and abuses in order that their one rock of consolation and chief fortress might not fall. However, it must fall, nothing can be done about that; for Daniel has appeared on the scene and will do what the angel Gabriel has shown him” (Luther’s Works, v.38 p.231-232).

“They claim that it is the church’s and the ancient fathers’ teaching, even though their own conscience bears witness to them that it is something else.

Truly, how others feel about this matter I do not know, but I feel this way about it: If I know that a person is fighting with and going against his conscience, then I do not have to be afraid of him, even if he at first puts on a bold front and looks cross or perhaps strikes a blow; for if the opposition [of his conscience] continues to plague him, the evildoer has to give way to his bad conscience, despair, and flee. For thus says my book: ‘The Lord will give you a trembling heart’ [Deut. 28:65], and ‘One chases a thousand’ [Deut. 32:30]. In this way, by God’s help, I have been able to avoid fearing the papacy until now; in the past they have been very much afraid of me, a miserable human being, and they still have to be afraid of me. Their conscience is on my side against them; they feel that the truth is contending against them and that they are protecting themselves solely with lies and brute force. They cannot continue like this indefinitely. Yet I have truly not wished them any evil or done them any evil, but I only wanted to point them to Christ, the truth” (Luther’s Works, v.38 p.231).

“Finally, this is what I want you to consider: If the mass would produce and bestow as little of temporal honor, riches, and power as the precious gospel and the truth, how many ardent celebrants of the mass, do you think, one would find today? In truth, for the past six hundred years (I do not want to calculate backward too far) we would have seen neither pope, cardinal, bishop, nor other servants of the mass, but they all would have become evangelical or Lutheran, and we would at the present time truly wonder what these names, pope, cardinal, bishop, mass, clerics, etc., meant, and what kind of creatures they would have been, whether elf, dwarf, water nymphs, or malicious demons. However, because the mass brought in money, honor, and power, such great goods were gained as a result of this commercial activity and business that they have now subjected the world’s kingdom to themselves and have also undertaken to subject heaven and God’s kingdom and majesty to themselves, and would like to have his word be subject to themselves. However, at this point, Lucifer becomes too ambitious, desiring to establish his throne as being equal to God’s, yes, above God’s. As a result he knocks his head against the vault [of heaven] and falls down into the abyss below.

There is no doubt about it: If God would give me enough [power] so that I would be able to make the pope and his papacy as rich and as mighty as they have been till now, and they would be certain that it would remain that way, ah, I would within a month’s time make better Lutherans out of the pope, cardinals, bishops, clerics, monks, and all the worms and avaricious vermin than I myself am. These highly learned, thoughtful, thievish, and rapacious lords still think that no one, not even the Holy Spirit himself, should perceive that they are contending so fiercely for their mass solely on account of their avarice, their belly, their rule, and their power. They claim that it is the church’s and the ancient fathers’ teaching, even though their own conscience bears witness to them that it is something else” (Luther’s Works, v.38 p.230-231).

“Now if I do not know or distinguish the true church from the false one on the basis of obedience and obdurate disobedience, then I am unable to speak of a church any longer. Then one might accordingly also with due deference call all heretics, all factions and sects that are wantonly disobedient to Christ, the holy church; for they are in no way worse than the pope’s church, if indeed wanton disobedience against God does no harm. On the other hand, the papal church is no better because it is just as stubbornly disobedient to God and wickedly perverts his word and, besides, it is more insistent on being right than any other faction and heretic. This would finally be the upshot that there would no longer be either a church or heretics on earth, for by what criterion would we prove that this or that faction consists of heretics? …

If we say, ‘God has commanded that lords and parents should be obeyed,’ then they have the papal church as an excellent example and can say, ‘Even the papal church does not keep God’s command; rather, it forbids keeping it and strangles and persecutes all those who want to keep God’s word.’ …  The result of the superlative skill of the papists is twofold: God’s kingdom is being destroyed by sheer heresy, and the worldly authorities are set at variance by constant revolts, and homes are filled with lost children. Nevertheless, it has to be regarded as justly done, and whoever wants to reprove it finds himself condemned and reproved as a heretic, rebel, and lost child. They should be thanked, these excellent teachers. But enough of that now; for I am indeed ready, if God so wills, to write something that deals particularly with the church.  In such a writing I should like to show who indeed they are who most assiduously teach people to be disobedient to God and man, who destroy both God’s and the world’s kingdom (as much as they are able) and make themselves free of them, and who alone possess the rule in heaven and on earth and yet do as they please” (Luther’s Works, v.38 p.229-230).

“I, too, am a doctor in their theology and neither as unlearned nor inexperienced in it as their ranters (who do not understand their own theology) believe. Still, I did not know a good argument to defend the mass. I could also say, ‘Church, church, fathers, fathers,’ as they do, and with that vindicate everything. However, I do not possess that kind of strange faith (God who once saved me from it will also guard me against it) so that I could call those the church of Christ who are factions of the godless and the church of the devil, who embellish themselves with the name of the church of Christ and glory in it and yet the fruits cogently convict the tree of being evil. Just as little am I able to place the church above Christ and allow it to change and pervert what he teaches and ordains. For he should and must be the head, and the church (as St. Paul states) is subject and obedient to him out of fear and reverence. Otherwise, by what means could one make the distinction between the true church of Christ and the church of the devil except by its obedience or disobedience to Christ, especially when disobedience, publicly known and understood, excuses itself wickedly and shamelessly and claims to be in the right? For the holy church sins and stumbles or can even err, as the Lord’s Prayer teaches. However, it does not defend or excuse itself, but humbly asks for forgiveness and improves itself as it is able. Thus it is forgiven so that henceforth its sin is no longer reckoned as sin” (Luther’s Works, v.38 p.228-229).

“Moreover, let each one see to it that he does not forget to love his enemies, pray for those who persecute him and revile him, and not seek revenge, as Christ teaches in Matt. 6. For these miserable people have already been so terribly punished, and we, I am sorry to say, avenged at such a terrible price, that the time has come for us to plead with God for them, that we may avert the punishment and judgment that is coming upon them—as Christ did for us when in our blindness we too were committing sin. You see how terribly hardened they are in their blindness. They will not listen to us, nor give us a hearing. Neither will they answer, or let us hear from them. Instead they are like the Jews with St. Stephen [Acts 7:57]: they close their eyes and stop their ears, and shamelessly execute their sentence without knowing what they are doing. If you are a Christian you should observe carefully what wrath that brings upon them, what torment and punishment, and therefore how you should intercede for them with God. They act just like the possessed and madmen who say: We shall deal with God so harmfully and insolently that he will have to beat us over the head at once. Be assured, they will not continue their madness very long. Just wait a while, and let it suffice that your God makes you this promise: He who touches you touches the apple of my eye [Zech. 2:8]. Help therefore to pray for them. And even if we are not able to save them, let us pray that God may not because of their tyranny and blasphemy take his Word away from the whole German nation, and deprive all the other poor people who really long for it. May God’s grace and strength be with you all. Amen” (Luther’s Works, v.36 p.266-267).

“For you will observe that the tyrants are not out merely to destroy Luther, but to wipe out the teaching. It is on account of the teaching that they attack you and ask you whether you are Lutheran. Here you must be sure not to speak with slippery or evasive words but frankly to confess Christ, no matter who did the preaching—Luther, or Tom, Dick, or Harry. The person you can forget; but the teaching you must confess. Paul also writes thus to Timothy in II Tim. 1[:8]: ‘Do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for his sake.’ If it had been enough here for Timothy to confess the gospel, Paul would not have commanded him not to be ashamed also of Paul—not of Paul as a person but of Paul as a prisoner for the sake of the gospel. Now if Timothy had said, I do not hold with Paul or with Peter, but with Christ, when he knew that Peter and Paul were teaching Christ, then he would actually thereby have denied Christ himself. For Christ says in Matt. 10 concerning those who preach him: ‘He who receives you receives me, and he who rejects you rejects me.’ Why this? Because holding thus with his messengers, those who bring his word, is the same as holding with Christ himself and with his word” (Luther’s Works, v.36 p.266).