Oh really, how so?
The Bondage of the Will is often misread as if it is teachings were identical to Calvinist teachings on predestination; I am hardly the first to suggest it is not. At any event, we must not read this one book as if it were the only or last thing Luther wrote on the subject of predestination (Genesis commentaries).
Sacred scripture doesn’t teach limited atonement. Sacred Scripture teaches single predestination, not double predestination. There is a paradox. The problem with false teachings from Calvin and Zwingli, is not that its “logical”, but that it misuses logical syllogism to overthrow scriptural teachings.
Another problem with the “Reformed” is they read Luther through a Reformed lens, most don’t get the real Luther. They get Luther through R.C. Sproul, Ligonier ministries, or some other Reformed ministries or books. Most of the time is quite limited in scope (to a few of his works) and they are spoon feed though a Reformed lens.
Let me tell you something about Martin Luther. You do realize Martin Luther
adhered to the Unaltered Augsburg Confessions, Small and Large Catechism, etc. right? Have you read his Genesis commentary, or any other writings of Martin Luther? I referenced the Lutheran confession. How about The Book a Concord (Augsburg Confessions, Small and Large Catechism, etc.)? You should read what Martin Luther has to say about those who neglect the sacrament of private Confession and Holy Absolution (A Brief Exhortation to Confession).
You do realize Martin Luther and Lutheran Confessions never abolished a Mass? Not only did they not abolish the Mass, Lutherans maintain the historic Sacramental Theology (e.g. Holy baptism (baptismal regeneration), private confession and Holy Absolution, The sacrament of the Altar (The true corporeal body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins, etc.). You realize Martin Luther subscribe to it all… all the sacramental Theology of the Lutheran Church (the historic church).
The Mass. The Lutheran Reformers did not seek to abolish the Mass. Our confessions, contained in the Book of Concord make this abundantly clear. In other words the Lutheran Church is a liturgical Church and our worship is properly called the Mass.
That is Martin Luther and confessional Lutheranism. Not some flaky Baptistic evangelical with scorched earth theology and double predestination which dams most to hell before Genesis 1:1.
Calvin taught that God elected some people to salvation and others to damnation. Concerning election he said, “Predestination we call the eternal decree of God, by which he has determined in himself the destiny of every man. For they are not all created in the same condition, but eternal life is foreordained for some, and eternal damnation for others. Every man, therefore, being created for one or the other of these ends, we say, he is predestinated either to life or to death.”
Institutes of the Christian Religion III, xxi, 5
Concerning his teaching that God elected some to reprobation, Calvin wrote, “Whom God passes by, he reprobates, and from no other cause than his determination to exclude them from the inheritance which he predestines for his children.”
We love Luther says the Protestant Calvinist. That’s a one-way street, because Luther didn’t like those who followed after the one true Lutheran Reformation. There is a reason why the Lutheran confessions (Book of Concord) rejects the false teachings of Zwingli and Calvin (I bet you didn’t know that). Your hero (Luther) rejects your theology.
Lutherans, like Calvinist adhere to divine monergism. Calvinistic double Predestination, limited Atonement. No.
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Logia (Journal of Lutheran Theology) : Bondage of the Will Calvin and Luther Burnell F. Eckardt Jr.
“In some respects Luther’s position sounds similar to Calvin’s. He too declared, “God foreknows and predestines all things.” For Luther, however, a divergent vantage point can soon be detected. Where Calvin was concerned with upholding God’s sovereignty, Luther was primarily concerned with upholding God’s grace.”
“Luther’s concern was always Christocentric, whereas Calvin’s was theocentric.”
“The doctrine of the double predestination is the classical expression of the sovereignty of God. None of this is true for Luther.”
“Yet for Calvin this motif was the sovereignty of God, while for Luther it was his mercy. The bondage of the will was a reality for Luther and for Calvin alike. The critical divergence between the two is their divergent understandings of God himself. For Luther it is the nature of God to be merciful: he punishes the wicked because he has to; he saves the faithful because he wants to. But for Calvin it is the nature of God to be sovereign: he saves the faithful to glorify himself; he punishes the wicked likewise to glorify himself. In the end, it makes no divergence, for in either case God is glorified. Such a view was foreign and inimical to Luther. It can be seen, therefore, that Calvin’s approach to all of theology is radically divergent from Luther’s, and here is the most helpful result of a comparison between the two. This comparison demonstrates that Christian theology either must begin with a merciful God, or it will inevitably result in a God whose chief aim is to take rather than to give.”
https://logia.org/pdf-back-issues/7-4-bondage-of-the-will?rq=Bondage of
Luther also believed that any debate, discussion, or argument over the doctrine of election should be largely avoided. Luther did not teach double predestination nor was the doctrine of predestination central to his theology. If you only read the Bondage of the Will (Luther’s Genesis commentaries clearly teacher single Predestination) think otherwise.
He wrote:
“A dispute about predestination should be avoided entirely... I forget everything about Christ and God when I come upon these thoughts and actually get to the point to imagining that God is a rogue. We must stay in the word, in which God is revealed to us and salvation is offered, if we believe him. But in thinking about predestination, we forget God . . However, in Christ are hid all the treasures (Col. 2:3); outside him all are locked up. Therefore, we should simply refuse to argue about election.
Such a disputation is so very displeasing to God that he has instituted Baptism, Absolution, the spoken Word, and the Lord’s Supper to counteract the temptation to engage in it. In these, let us persist and constantly say., I am baptized I believe in Jesus. I care nothing about the disputation concerning predestination.”
Amen!
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