what is the Lutheran view of soteriology. I have been studying Calvinism and Arminianism, and Lutheranism is it’s own thing, it seems.
How does Lutheranism reconcile predestination with Free Will? Also, how do you defend prevenient grace?
I’ve studied the Arminian stance on prevenient grace and it did not really convince me, though maybe the Lutheran perspective can.
What parts of TULIP do you agree with, and which do you disagree with?
I’ve read that Lutherans are monergists when it comes to salvation, but synergistic when it comes to people and hell. Is this accurate?
It's probably best to understand that the Calvinist-Arminian thing is really its own thing; it happens largely within the context of Reformed Protestantism. It may be strange to think of Arminianism as "Reformed" but in the sense that Jacob Arminius was Reformed himself, but took issue with the Calvinist orthodoxy of his day.
The Lutheran position exists entirely separate, and while some similarities (and in many/most cases only superficially) can be found, it doesn't fit in the Calvinist-Arminian debate.
The absolute first thing I'd state is that on these issues the central Lutheran thesis, the material doctrine of Lutheranism, is salvation by grace alone, through faith, on Christ's account alone. Thus talking about predestination and election is to talk about grace, not Divine Sovereignty.
Lutheranism doesn't reconcile predestination and free will. The human person, on account of sin, is a slave to sin and not only cannot come to God, but will not come to God. The Prophet Jeremiah having written that the human heart is desperately sick and wicked.
But understand that this isn't framed in the context of God's sovereignty over the world, and that we are all acting out a part in a play that we have no control over; human actions and choices exist, and there is real culpability because our actions and our choices really are our own. In fact it is
precisely by our own choice that we resist and refuse God's grace, we are the willful architects of our own damnation.
Salvation, therefore, can only be from outside of ourselves; from a loving and gracious Other who intervenes on our behalf, to comes down to do something about it. That is precisely what salvation is: God come down to rescue us, to redeem us, to restore and heal us. And He does this apart from us, by His own loving-kindness, through the life, death, and resurrection of His only-begotten Son. And this which Christ has done He has done for the whole world, yes
everyone. Where the Calvinist teaches Limited Atonement, and the Arminian teaches Unlimited Atonement, the Lutheran teaches Universal Atonement. Christ did not die only for the few, nor did Christ only die for those who would believe, Christ actually died for everybody, that means that in a real sense everyone is objectively included in Christ's work. It's what the Apostle says, "
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men." (Romans 5:18)
And yet, that objective reality still needs to come to us personally, and that's why Christ gave His Church Means, Word and Sacrament, that by these the Holy Spirit might appropriate to us this great work of Christ, grant to us faith, and apply it to us. Faith is the open palm of the beggar, who has nothing and can only receive passively the gifts of God; and God alone is the One who takes our balled up fist and turns it into an outstretched hand, for God reconciled us even while we were His enemies (Romans 5:10), God loved us not only when we had nothing, but when we actively opposed and resisted Him and He took this wretch and declared the wretch to be His beloved child and heir on Christ's account. For all that is Christ's has been given freely as pure gift, His righteousness, His sonship, His life. For in Baptism we died and were buried with Christ and raised up to new life in Him (Romans 6:3-10) having been clothed with Him (Galatians 3:27). We have been found in Christ, by God's overwhelming kindness toward us, having granted to our hearts the faith to trust upon His Son, that we might have the life that belongs to Christ now by faith as a promise and, on the Last Day, in fullness when we are raised up to everlasting glory in the Age to Come.
And, indeed, we can find assurance of this because God's word is faithful, true, and good. For we did not choose Him, He chose us out of His great kindness. Having predestined us, elected us in Christ even before the foundation of the world. Not as an act by which He said to some, "I choose you" and then to others, "I do not choose you"; not at all, for Christ died for all and God desires that all be saved--no really, for
everyone to be saved.
Salvation is for all, and it is by God's grace alone, which He accomplishes us apart from ourselves. So on this we are monergists: God does everything.
But we are not synergists when it comes to damnation, we are monergists here also--but in a very different way. God doesn't damn anyone, God condemns no one to hell; that's something that
we do.
The only reason we are damned is because we damn ourselves--we refuse mercy, we resist grace, we turn away from God, we go our own way.
God alone saves, it is God's will and God's choice that we be saved and find our rest in Him.
Man alone damns, it is the will and choice of fallen sinful man that we be damned and resist the life that is found in God.
This is the paradox of the Crux Theologorum.
-CryptoLutheran
