Copy of the Resolution of the Elector of Saxony

Now, further: 1. I will also show you that we are just as certain of our salvationThe original German "Seligkeit" refers to the state of being blessed or saved in eternity. as the Apostle Paul was.

In the Bible, to be sure, not all people are listed by name, even though they are all meant by it.

The Bible does not say: Pope Clement, Urbanus, Luther, Ignatius, or Calvin shall be saved; and yet, it is not possible that at least one of these should not have been saved.

But here is what is written in Mark 16, verse 16: "Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved." I and you both believe, and we were baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity (Matthew 28, verse 20). Therefore, we shall be saved. "Whoever turns from evil and does good shall have a good life and good days" (Psalm 34, verses 12–13). We both intend, through divine assistance, to turn from evil and do good; therefore we shall have a good life and good days—though hardly in this world, then certainly in the next. Ezekiel 18, verses 20 and 32: "Whoever turns from their transgression shall not die because of their iniquity, but shall live." We both now turn from our transgression, therefore we shall not die, but live. For, because that same passage speaks of the eternal death of the unrepentant, it likewise speaks of the eternal life of the repentant, and does not deal with temporal life (which both types of people possess). God wills that all people be helped; now, we are also people, therefore He also wills that we be helped. God has consigned all things under sin, so that He might have mercy on all (Romans 11). We, too, have hitherto been consigned under sin; therefore He wills to have mercy on us as well. As surely as He is a living God, He does not desire the death of the sinner; I and you are also sinners, therefore He does not desire our death either, etc.

O, what more comforting conclusion could be reached! My final declaration and advice is that we immediately renounce the Papist errors, go to Lutheran places to join their preachers, follow their advice, look to the counsel of our souls, and obtain and keep a gracious God. That is my only wish, and my only desire.

I could wish for nothing dearer or more blessed right now. Therefore, I gladly follow your suggestion; let us set out on our journey tomorrow, discuss God’s Word further with one another, and make it known to all the world that out of me, an apostate, has come a renewed Lutheran, and out of you, a Papist FriarOriginal: "OrdensBruder," literally a brother of a religious order., a converted Evangelical Christian; let happen to us what will.