because schmucker denied the real presence in the lord's supper, he is categorically placed in the "un-lutheran" camp by charles porterfield krauth. schmucker wrote, "worthy communicants, in this ordinance, by faith spiritually feed on the body and blood of the redeemer, thus holding communion or fellowship with him." this demonstrates schmucker held to the calvinist spiritual explanation of the lord's supper rather than the lutheran teaching of sacramental union. wilhelm sihler of the missouri synod criticized samuel simon schmucker, terming him "apostate," and asserting that schmucker and other like-minded leaders of the general synod were "open counterfeiters, calvinists, methodists, and unionists...traitors and destroyers of the lutheran church".