I was engaged in a debate concerning Martin Luthers teaching on predestination on the Lutherans /LCMS sub forum ( thread: The Augsburg Apology Article XVIII: Of Free Will), when the thread was closed because it was deemed I was proselytizing so I thought Id post here instead.
In my posts Id showed from Luthers book The Bondage of the Will that Luther taught double predestination, and that he would have rejected the teaching of present day Lutherans that God only predestines to heaven and not also to hell. (For anyone unfamiliar with this book, this was Luthers reply to Erasmus on the subject of free will and predestination in which Luther showed from Scripture that we have no free will and that everything is predestined by God to happen). To briefly fill you in I had previously quoted from Luthers book the following two passages - amongst many others:
I SHALL here draw this book to a conclusion: prepared if it were necessary to pursue this Discussion still farther. Though I consider that I have now abundantly satisfied the godly man, who wishes to believe the truth without making resistance. For if we believe it to be true, that God fore-knows and fore-ordains all things; that He can be neither deceived nor hindered in His Prescience and Predestination; and that nothing can take place but according to His Will, (which reason herself is compelled to confess
then, even according to the testimony of reason herself, there can be no "Free-will"in man,in angel,or in any creature!
(Cole, Section 167; Packer & Johnston, page 317; Luthers Works 33, page 293)
And if God be thus robbed of His power and wisdom to elect, what will there be remaining but that idol Fortune, under the name of which, all things take place at random! Nay, we shall at length come to this: that men may be saved and damned without God's knowing anything at all about it; as not having determined by certain election who should be saved and who should be damned; (Cole, section 81; Packer & Johnston, page 199; Luthers Works 33, page 171)
In response to these passages and others someone tried to argue that Luther didnt believe that God elects people from eternity to be damned, implying that God only elects people from eternity to be saved. But there are no valid grounds for making such a claim. Never does Luther make any distinction between election and predestination to heaven and election and predestination to hell. In fact he says:
THIS, therefore, is also essentially necessary and wholesome for Christians to know: That God foreknows nothing by contingency, but that He foresees, purposes, and does all things according to His immutable, eternal, and infallible will.
(Cole, section 9; Packer & Johnston, page 80; Luthers Works 33, page 37)
To purpose and will to do something is the same as to choose to do something, which is the same as to elect to do something, and since Luther says God wills and purposes from eternity to do all things, it follows that Luther held that God elects from eternity that people should be damned just as He elects from eternity that people should be saved.
Also in response to something else Id written namely: God doesn't harden and damn people in response to anything they have done. He hardens people purely because He wills to from eternity. The same person replied saying:
Yes, all that God does he has chosen to do from eternity (including what he will do on the Last Day); but No, this doesnt mean that those whom God has chosen to damn he choses to damn without regard to their sin. Your idea that God hardens and damns purely because He wills to from eternity is obviously intended to deny that God has chosen to damn people on account of their sin. That Luther didnt deny this, but clearly taught this, is plain as daylight from the passage I quoted: The fault which accounts for evil being done when God moves to action lies in these instruments, as well as from the great bulk of Luthers corpus. Never does Luther preach in his sermons (of which we have thousands of pages) that God damns not on account of our sins but purely because he wills to; always does he say that God damns on account of our sins.
This interpretation of my words however isnt correct. I wasnt intending to deny that God damns us on account our sins. What I was meaning when I said that God doesn't harden and damn people in response to anything they have done. He hardens people purely because He wills to from eternity, was that God doesnt damn people as a response to anything they have done in their lives such that the decision by God to damn sequentially follows their committing of sin, because Gods decision to damn a person is decided in eternity before the person is even born. However of course because Gods election and predestination to hell is always in view of the fact that we are fallen and sinful creatures, God damns people because of their sin.
That Luther taught both eternal predestination to hell as well as to heaven is also proven from his Preface to the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans 1546 (1522):
http://www.vasynod.org/files/BibleStudy/GreatestHits/Vol%2035%20Romans.pdf
In chapters 9, 10, and 11 he teaches of Gods eternal predestinationout of which originally proceeds who shall believe or not, who can or cannot get rid of sin.. (page 12)
As you can see Luther says the reason why people dont believe and therefore cant get rid of their sin is because of Gods eternal predestination (i.e. this is the same as Luther saying theyve been predestined to hell). And this he says is the teaching of St. Paul in his letter to the Romans.
So if Luther were alive today he would regard present day Lutherans who deny that the Scriptures teach predestination to hell, as believing false doctrine, and he wouldnt therefore subscribe to their confessional document (i.e. the Formula of Concord) in which this teaching that God only predestines to heaven and not to hell is stated.
In my posts Id showed from Luthers book The Bondage of the Will that Luther taught double predestination, and that he would have rejected the teaching of present day Lutherans that God only predestines to heaven and not also to hell. (For anyone unfamiliar with this book, this was Luthers reply to Erasmus on the subject of free will and predestination in which Luther showed from Scripture that we have no free will and that everything is predestined by God to happen). To briefly fill you in I had previously quoted from Luthers book the following two passages - amongst many others:
I SHALL here draw this book to a conclusion: prepared if it were necessary to pursue this Discussion still farther. Though I consider that I have now abundantly satisfied the godly man, who wishes to believe the truth without making resistance. For if we believe it to be true, that God fore-knows and fore-ordains all things; that He can be neither deceived nor hindered in His Prescience and Predestination; and that nothing can take place but according to His Will, (which reason herself is compelled to confess
then, even according to the testimony of reason herself, there can be no "Free-will"in man,in angel,or in any creature! (Cole, Section 167; Packer & Johnston, page 317; Luthers Works 33, page 293)
And if God be thus robbed of His power and wisdom to elect, what will there be remaining but that idol Fortune, under the name of which, all things take place at random! Nay, we shall at length come to this: that men may be saved and damned without God's knowing anything at all about it; as not having determined by certain election who should be saved and who should be damned; (Cole, section 81; Packer & Johnston, page 199; Luthers Works 33, page 171)
In response to these passages and others someone tried to argue that Luther didnt believe that God elects people from eternity to be damned, implying that God only elects people from eternity to be saved. But there are no valid grounds for making such a claim. Never does Luther make any distinction between election and predestination to heaven and election and predestination to hell. In fact he says:
THIS, therefore, is also essentially necessary and wholesome for Christians to know: That God foreknows nothing by contingency, but that He foresees, purposes, and does all things according to His immutable, eternal, and infallible will.
(Cole, section 9; Packer & Johnston, page 80; Luthers Works 33, page 37)
To purpose and will to do something is the same as to choose to do something, which is the same as to elect to do something, and since Luther says God wills and purposes from eternity to do all things, it follows that Luther held that God elects from eternity that people should be damned just as He elects from eternity that people should be saved.
Also in response to something else Id written namely: God doesn't harden and damn people in response to anything they have done. He hardens people purely because He wills to from eternity. The same person replied saying:
Yes, all that God does he has chosen to do from eternity (including what he will do on the Last Day); but No, this doesnt mean that those whom God has chosen to damn he choses to damn without regard to their sin. Your idea that God hardens and damns purely because He wills to from eternity is obviously intended to deny that God has chosen to damn people on account of their sin. That Luther didnt deny this, but clearly taught this, is plain as daylight from the passage I quoted: The fault which accounts for evil being done when God moves to action lies in these instruments, as well as from the great bulk of Luthers corpus. Never does Luther preach in his sermons (of which we have thousands of pages) that God damns not on account of our sins but purely because he wills to; always does he say that God damns on account of our sins.
This interpretation of my words however isnt correct. I wasnt intending to deny that God damns us on account our sins. What I was meaning when I said that God doesn't harden and damn people in response to anything they have done. He hardens people purely because He wills to from eternity, was that God doesnt damn people as a response to anything they have done in their lives such that the decision by God to damn sequentially follows their committing of sin, because Gods decision to damn a person is decided in eternity before the person is even born. However of course because Gods election and predestination to hell is always in view of the fact that we are fallen and sinful creatures, God damns people because of their sin.
That Luther taught both eternal predestination to hell as well as to heaven is also proven from his Preface to the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans 1546 (1522):
http://www.vasynod.org/files/BibleStudy/GreatestHits/Vol%2035%20Romans.pdf
In chapters 9, 10, and 11 he teaches of Gods eternal predestinationout of which originally proceeds who shall believe or not, who can or cannot get rid of sin.. (page 12)
As you can see Luther says the reason why people dont believe and therefore cant get rid of their sin is because of Gods eternal predestination (i.e. this is the same as Luther saying theyve been predestined to hell). And this he says is the teaching of St. Paul in his letter to the Romans.
So if Luther were alive today he would regard present day Lutherans who deny that the Scriptures teach predestination to hell, as believing false doctrine, and he wouldnt therefore subscribe to their confessional document (i.e. the Formula of Concord) in which this teaching that God only predestines to heaven and not to hell is stated.
