THE 500TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LEIPZIG DEBATE
Many of you know that I spent the third week in January 2019 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I was there attending the annual Symposia at the Concordia Theological Seminary campus, which I have attended almost every year since the Symposia's inception in 1978. It is the premier national conference for LCMS pastors in many different ways, and this year's conference did not disappoint.
The conference is divided into two parts. The first half deals with exegesis, i.e., the interpretation of Holy Scripture. The second half deals with doctrine and church history, especially as that relates to Martin Luther and the Lutheran Confessions. This year the second half of the conference focused on the debate in 1519 between Martin Luther and Johannes Eck on July 4 th to 14 th at the city of Leipzig in Saxony. In the year 2019, Lutherans around the world celebrate the 500 th anniversary of this debate, which was one of several significant events in the Lutheran Reformation.
Johannes Eck was a professor at the University of Ingolstadt, which is in central Bavaria on the Danube River. Martin Luther was a professor at the University of Wittenberg, which is in central Saxony on the Elbe River. The city and university of Leipzig was chosen as a neutral location for the debate. Luther framed thirteen theses, which were the focus of the debate. His position on each thesis was "pro" for some, "con" for others. They included issues such as: a) that baptized believers sin daily (pro); b) that good works are not truly "good", because tainted by sin (pro); c) that priests can inflict punishments on those who confess their sins (con); d) that a priest can refuse to forgive the sin of someone who repents (con); e) that souls in purgatory are punished for their sins on earth (con); f) that humans have free will in regard to spiritual matters (con); g) that the merits of Christ are the treasures of indulgences (con); h) that indulgences are a blessing and encouragement for good works (con); and i) that the pope can forgive any sin owed in this and the future life in purgatory (con). As you can see, most of the theses dealt with the Office of the Keys and indulgences.
The most significant of Luther's theses was #13 which read:"The very callous decrees of the Roman pontiffs which have appeared in the last four hundred years prove that the Roman church is superior to all others. Against them stand the history of eleven hundred years, the test of divine Scripture, and the decree of the Council of Nicaea, the most sacred of all councils." This was the thesis that Professor Eck attacked most vehemently, because it elevated the authority of Holy Scripture over the authority of the pope. In those days, only heretics did that -- most recently the professor of theology at the University of Prague in Bohemia, Dr.John Hus, who was burned at the stake. It became clear in the Leipzig Debate that Luther was a Hussite. Thus Luther's accusers believed they were justified in calling him a "damned heretic."
Five hundred years later, the Roman Catholic church does not go around calling Lutherans or other Protestants "damned heretics." We are all more "civillized" now. But the truth is that , in spite of many diplomtaic maneuvers, the Roman church still accepts and defends the supreme authority of the pope and all Protestants reject that authority. This is the enduring legacy of the Leipzig Debate of 1519. Thank God!
Yours in Christ,
