Martin Luther on the atonement

I am convinced that John Calvin and Martin Luther were 4-Point Supralapsarians, meaning that they held a belief in an unlimited atonement, though also with a Hard Deterministic, symmetrical Double Predestinationist perspective. Nevertheless, in terms of Unlimited Atonement, I offer the following for your review:

Martin Luther: "The Gospel supplies the world with the salvation of Jesus Christ, peace of conscience, and every blessing. Just for that the world abhors the Gospel." (http://blueletterbible.org/Comm/martin_luther/Gal/Gal001.html)

Martin Luther: "Why does the world abhor the glad tidings of the Gospel and the blessings that go with it? Because the world is the devil's. Under his direction the world persecutes the Gospel and would if it could nail again Christ, the Son of God, to the Cross although He gave Himself into death for the sins of the world." (http://blueletterbible.org/Comm/martin_luther/Gal/Gal001.html)

Martin Luther: "Isaiah declares of Christ: "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." We have no right to minimize the force of this declaration. God does not amuse Himself with words. What a relief for a Christian to know that Christ is covered all over with my sins, your sins, and the sins of the whole world." (http://blueletterbible.org/Comm/martin_luther/Gal/Gal003.html)

Martin Luther: "All the prophets of old said that Christ should be the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulterer, thief, blasphemer that ever was or ever could be on earth. When He took the sins of the whole world upon Himself, Christ was no longer an innocent person. He was a sinner burdened with the sins of a Paul who was a blasphemer; burdened with the sins of a Peter who denied Christ; burdened with the sins of a David who committed adultery and murder, and gave the heathen occasion to laugh at the Lord. In short, Christ was charged with the sins of all men, that He should pay for them with His own blood." (http://blueletterbible.org/Comm/martin_luther/Gal/Gal003.html)

Now some may suggest, "Well when Luther spoke about the world, he meant the whole world of the elect."

If so, then consider this statement: "Here someone may be tempted to call the Christians crazy. Deliberately to court danger by preaching and confessing the truth, and thus to bring upon ourselves the hatred and enmity of the whole world, is this not madness? But Paul does not mind the enmity of the world." (http://blueletterbible.org/Comm/martin_luther/Gal/Gal005.html) Additionally he says: "And this is our glory today with the Pope and the whole world persecuting us and trying to kill us." (http://blueletterbible.org/Comm/martin_luther/Gal/Gal006.html)

Calvin sounds similar to Luther in this respect, and Calvin's quotes are found in abundance on my website. This is not just one or two off-handed references. I'm talking about a library of quotes from Calvin. Ironically, in some of the pet verses in which the 5-Pointer raises issues, not only does Calvin not reflect their 5-Point views, but also even refutes them, as Matthew 1:21 particularly comes to mind.

http://www.examiningcalvinism.com/files/Gospels/Matthew1_21.html

Here is a link to a 4-Point Calvinist, Roh Rhodes. (Most 5-Pointers have absolutely no idea whatsoever how Unlimited Atonement can be reconciled with the Calvinist doctrine of Unconditional Election.)

http://www.examiningcalvinism.com/files/RollCall/Rhodes.html

 

In terms of lumping Lutheranism in as Calvinistic, I'm trying to briefly introduce readers to a perspective on "who" typically teaches Calvinism. Obviously some branches of Baptists (hardshells, primitive, ect), and the Presbyterians and Lutherans have each professed Unconditional Election, Monergism and Preterition. So I lumped them all in together as having that common bond, in contrast to the Arminian denominations of evangelicalism.

 

By the Westminster comment, I was referring to Calvinists and Lutherans sharing the Unconditional Election portion of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

 

Stephan

Arminianism has a wide umbrella that also includes Classical Arminianism, which includes an affirmation of Total Depravity. Also, if you will recall, the Remonstrance was explicitly neutral on the point of Eternal Security. I am a Classcial Arminian of the Molinistic variety and who professes Eternal Security, rather than Perseverance of the Saints or Conditional Security. What I offered in the intro of the website was not intended to be comprehensive.

 

Bcj

I was trying to give a very brief overview, in order to provide readers with the denominations that hold to Calvinism. I will trying to rework that intro.

 

Bcj

Thanks, I'll update the website when I get home.

 

I made a revision. Like I said, my desire is merely to give a very brief overview of which denominations that teach Calvinism, with Presbyterians and Lutherans being two most well-known.

http://www.examiningcalvinism.com/index.html

Does anyone dispute whether Calvinism is the central theme of Reformed Theology? After all, Sprugeon argued that Calvinism was the central theme of the Gospel.

 

Bcj

Look again, because I did make a revision, and as shown below, where I've set up the last two statements as True/False. (I can do an article that will deal with the matter more fully, but as an intro, all I have to work with is one paragraph, and with it, I want to introduce some foundational points.)

I say true. Spurgeon called Calvinism the central theme of the Gospel. If Calvinism is not the central theme of Reformed Theology, then what is its central theme?

Again, I say true. Of course Lutherans teach Calvinism, though perhaps as 4-Pointers, as Monergistic sub or infra lapsarian Preteritionists. Again, the purpose is to give two readily identifiable denominations of Calvinism, just as, in contrast, I had given two readily identifiable denominations of Arminianism (granting that Arminianism is broad) being Southern Baptists and Methodists. I'm not saying that there aren't Calvinists in the SBC. Again, the purpose of the intro is to provide a factual overview, not an exhaustive thesis.

 

Sbc

Would you consider former SBC president, Adrian Rogers, as being an Arminian? Certainly not, yet functionally, he was one. As a backdrop, "Arminian" was a label that was assigned to me by my Calvinist brothers when I left their fold, and I have kept it ever since, and became especially confortable with it, when I learned about who Arminius was, and what he taught. Classical Arminianism is precisely what Adrian Rogers teaches, though he may not adopt its name, and I feel that he truly exemplifies the SBC, along with Johnny Hunt, Jerry Vines and Paige Patterson. Each of these individuals would not dare profess the "Arminian" label, yet each teaches just that, especially considering that Classical Arminianism was NOT a movement of Conditional Security (refer to the Remonstrance), and which DID affirm Total Depravity and the necessity of Prevenient Grace, in contrast to Calvinistic Irresistible Grace. So if you are talking about "labels," then I agree with you. But if you are talking about "functionality," then I have to disagree with you.

Click on the link to the Calvinist Gadfly and tell me which category you find Jerry Falwell, Ergun Caner, Charles Stanley and Hank Hanegraaf: http://www.calvinistgadfly.com/

None of them would confess to being "Arminian," and yet the Gadfly accurately diagnoses them as functionally "Arminian." That's precisely why I listed the SBC as an Arminian denomination.

 

Are you saying that Lutherans don't teach Unconditional Election?, that they don't teach Preterition?, that they don't teach Monergism?, that they don't teach Irresistible Grace? (Yes/No?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutheranism

Clearly, Lutherans are here shown to believe in Preterition, just as that last statement affirms, which many Calvinists, like Spurgeon, Sproul and MacArthur, similarly profess in agreement with Lutherans. Therefore, I confidently stand by my answer that Lutherans teach Calvinism. The only way that you could deny this, is by reducing "Calvinism" to one narrow focus that Lutherans are here shown to reject. Yet, the fact is that Calvinism is a very broad theology, covering sublapsarians, infralapsarians, supralapsarians, Single Predestinationists, Double Predestinations, ect, ect. Calvinism is broad, and Lutherans very much have a place at its table, just as I've accurately stated on the intro of my website.