Jun 29, 2023

Martin Luther on Reprobation

 

"Admittedly, it gives the greatest possible offense to common sense or natural reason that God by his own sheer will should abandon, harden, and damn men as if he enjoyed the sins and the vast, eternal torments of his wretched creatures when he is preached as a God of such great mercy and goodness." (Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, in LW 33:190)

"It is likewise the part of this incarnate God [i.e., Christ] to weep, wail, and groan over the perdition of the ungodly, when the will of the Divine Majesty purposely abandons and reprobates some to perish." (LW 33:146) 

"It is clear that Luther did, at least early in his career as is evident in the writing of De servo arbitrio, assert a doctrine of double predestination. His presentation of it was not in the theological sense as seen in Calvin, but in a pastoral sense." (Joel R. Beeke, Debated Issues in Sovereign Predestination: Early Lutheran Predestination, Calvinian Reprobation, and Variations in Genevan Lapsarianism [Gottingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2017], pg. 24)



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