Beliefs of Luther, Zwingli, the Anabaptists and the Roman Catholics

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Luther, Zwingli, the Anabaptists and the Roman Catholics all had their conflicting views. There some similarities, but mostly these four groups disagreed upon many subjects. Some of which were the topics of, communion, baptism, the relationship between church and state and lastly the form of worship. On the issue of communion, Luther, Zwingli and the Roman Catholics greatly differed on their views. The Roman Catholics had the most extreme view, then the Lutherans and then the followers of Zwingli. The Roman Catholics believed that when taking communion, there was an actual conversion of the bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood. This was known as transubstantiation. Since the blood and wine turned into Christ’s body and blood this meant that Christ was being sacrificed over and over again. Luther and Zwingli strongly disagree with transubstantiation and continual sacrifice, yet they still differ in much smaller areas. Luther believed that even though the bread and the blood did not turn into Christ’s physical body; Christ’s body was mystically in the bread and the wine. During many debates against Zwingli, Luther would back up this point with a verse from Matthew 26:26 which says, "While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."" So, even though Luther did not believe in the practice of transubstantiation, he still believed that Christ's body (in some mystical way) was in the bread and the wine. Zwingli, one of Luther’s rivals, believed that the bread neither transformed nor had Christ's mystical being in it, but instead, communion was just a reminder and representation of Christ’s sacrifice. This is shown by looking ... ... middle of paper ... ... to stick with things that are solely in the Bible. However, what Martin Luther realized that Zwingli didn’t was that you can have songs that express a theme or convey an idea in the Bible using different words and music. Martin Luther realized that, and this new way of thinking led to much of the church music we have today. In conclusion, Luther, Zwingli, the Anabaptists and the Roman Catholics all had their problems and differences. However, these differences raised many controversial questions that caused people to really think about the government they were serving under and the religion they followed. People like Martin Luther questioned the authority of the pope and the church and caused many people to think of whether they were following the right thing. So despite many of the arguments between these three groups there was still much accomplished for Christ.

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