Outline:
Lesson 16. (Early Reformation Christian Creeds, Confessions and the Defense of the Faith)

Intro.

The nature and use of creeds and confessions. (confessions in general, Westminster in particular) 

1. To set down and put to writing the fundamental points of the faith in logical form.
2. To furnish the church with edifying material to contemplate and sanctify. 
3. To refute errors and heresy in the church. 
4. To promote Christian unity on account of the truth being confessed, not unity for the sake of unity.
i. That which is necessary. 
(creation, election, justification, limited atonement) 
ii. That which is beneficial.
Sacraments, church order. 
iii. That which is disputed.
Christ’s deity at Nicea, the true church as opposed to the Papists in the Reformed creeds, the doctrine of sin in Westminster. 
iv. That which unites Christians against outsiders. Necessary disunity (separation from heretics, those who are in scandalous sin), sinful disunity (separation over secondary issues).
App. Labor to understand the doctrine, in order to have a fuller grasp of the truth as a whole, as one unified system of Divinity. 

The relationship of the Reformation to Christian creeds. The public and political demand for a defense of Protestant doctrine. 
The occasion of the Reformation. (Papist corruption, doctrine and practice)
Justification, 
Good works,
Free will, 
Papal supremacy, 
The Mass, (transubstantiation and a re-sacrificing of Christ) 
The office of the priesthood. 
(Christ is the only Mediator between God and man. The Catholic priest would be a mediator between man and Christ) 

1. Creeds of the Reformation. 
i. 95 theses.
“The Ninety-five Theses or Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences is a list of propositions for an academic disputation written in 1517 by Martin Luther, then a professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg, Germany. The Theses is retrospectively considered to have launched the Protestant Reformation and the birth of Protestantism. It detailed Luther’s opposition to what he saw as the Roman Catholic Church’s abuse and corruption by Catholic clergy, who were selling plenary indulgences, which were certificates supposed to reduce the temporal punishment in purgatory for sins committed by the purchasers or their loved ones.

In the Theses, Luther claimed that the repentance required in order for sins to be forgiven involves inner repentance rather than merely external sacramental confession. He argued that indulgences led people away from true repentance and sorrow for sin. 

Luther sent the Theses enclosed with a letter to Albert of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, on 31 October 1517. The Theses were quickly reprinted and translated, and distributed throughout Germany and Europe. They initiated a pamphlet war with the indulgence preacher Johann Tetzel, which spread Luther’s fame even further. Luther’s ecclesiastical superiors had him tried for heresy, which culminated in his excommunication in 1521. Though the Theses were the start of the Reformation, Luther did not consider indulgences to be as important as the theological matters which would divide the church, such as justification by faith alone and the bondage of the will. His breakthrough on these issues would come later, and he did not see the writing of the Theses as the point at which his beliefs universally diverged from those of the Roman Catholic Church…” (from Wikipedia) 

(1-5 summarize them as primarily an attack on indulgences, not a contestation against the Roman pontiff, or the Catholic Church)

The events leading up to the formulation of Augsburg. Luther’s excommunication in 1521, his debates with Catholic scholars, shaping his theology, the rise of Protestantism and the call by the Emperor to make a defense of their doctrine. 

ii. Augsburg Confession (1530) (wiki) 
The Augsburg Confession, at first modestly called an Apology, after the manner of the early Church in the ages of persecution, was occasioned by the German Emperor Charles V., who commanded the Lutheran Princes to present, at the Diet to be held in the Bavarian city of Augsburg, an explicit statement of their faith, that the religious 
controversy might be settled, and Catholics and Protestants be united in a war against the common enemies, the Turks. It was prepared, on the basis of previous drafts, and with conscientious care, by Philip Melanchthon, at the request and in the name of the Lutheran States, during the months of April, May, and June, 1530, at Coburg and Augsburg, with the full approval of Luther. It was signed, August 23, by seven German Princes (the Elector John of Saxony and the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, etc.) and the deputies of two free cities (Nuremberg and Reutlingen)…. This formed an important epoch in the history of the Reformation. The deputies, and the people who stood outside, listened attentively for two hours to the new creed. The Papists were surprised at its moderation. The Bishop of Augsburg is reported to have said privately that it contained nothing but the pure truth…
Being under the papal excommunication and the imperial ban since the Diet of Worms (1521), Luther could not safely venture to Augsburg, but he closely watched the proceedings of the Diet from the Castle of Coburg on the Saxon frontier, praying, translating the prophets, writing childlike letters to his children, and manly letters to princes, singing “A mighty fortress” giving his advice at every important step, and encouraging his timid and desponding friend. Schaff. (cont. the contents)

The Augsburg cannot be received as authoritative because of its Lutheran nature, remnants of ecclesiastical dogmatism, sacramental error, insufficient statements of the primary articles of faith. 
It’s purpose was to refute papism than to comprehensively demonstrate sincerity of doctrine. Useful as a stepping stone to other confessions. 

iii. Tetrapolitan Confession (1530)
The Tetrapolitan Confession, also called the Strasbourg Confession or Swabian Confession, was an early Protestant confession of faith drawn up by Martin Bucer and Wolfgang Capito and presented to the Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg on 9 July 1530 on behalf of the four south German cities of Konstanz, Lindau, Memmingen and Strasbourg. (The name “Tetrapolitan” means “of the four cities”.) The confession was based on an early draft of the Augsburg Confession to which Bucer and Capito had secretly obtained access, but amended in the direction of Zwinglianism. Its purpose was to prevent a schism within Protestantism. It is the oldest confession of the Reformed tradition produced in Germany.
Bucer and Capito were called to the Diet of Augsburg by the envoys of Strasbourg, who were aware that Philipp Melanchthon was working on a Saxon Confession that would represent the Lutheran position. The north Germans (Lutherans) and the south Germans and Swiss had been divided in opinion since 1524 on the subject of the Lord’s Supper, with the Lutherans supporting sacramental union (the physical presence of Christ’s body in the sacrament) and the Zwinglians memorialism (the sacrament as a spiritual memorial only). This division had reached its high point in the Marburg Colloquy between Zwingli and Luther in 1529.
(Wikipedia) 

Review the outline and structure of the Tetrapolitan. Explain the difference between the Augsburg and the Tetrapolitan. The Augsburg was Lutheran, attempted a bridge between Protestantism and Rome. They were both presented at Augsburg in 1530, the latter was formed to show unity in Protestant circles, although Luther maintained his execration of Zwingli. Bucer and Capito demonstrated that the protestants in Germany were united against Rome on the basis of the doctrine of justification and the use of good works. Both confessions were necessary to show that protestants indeed had a case against Roman catholic dogma. 
Review the purpose of creeds and confessions: To set down an orderly form of doctrine consisting of that which is necessary, beneficial and disputed. 

iv. Sixty-Seven Articles of Ulrich Zwingli (1523) 
Brief history of Zwingli, summary of the articles. (Schaff) 
App. The necessity of the Spirit in theology and clarification of doctrine in history.

YouTube Audio: https://youtu.be/nesyrKBdYDI