Did Luther in 1537 Condemn Paul As A False Prophet?

Elsewhere, we document from late 1531 onward, Luther changed his views about salvation by faith alone for one who already accepted Christ. Luther through his representatives in several church conferences said a second or "double justification" was now necessary based upon good works. See link. Only unbelievers were initially saved by faith alone, but a Christian needed a secondary justification. Id.

Also, we explained elsewhere that Luther originally in reliance upon Paul condemned any relevance of the Law given Moses. (See link.) Luther even proclaimed Paul abolished Sabbath forever. (See link.)

However, beginning in 1537, it finally dawned on Luther that anyone who abolished the Law was, by the Bible's clear words, a false prophet. See Deut 13:1-5. This is the Law on Apostasy.

Without ever repeating his earlier views on Paul's doctrines on salvation or the Law, Luther changed course on the Law. In the following quote from Luther's Antinomian Theses (1537) - recently reprinted as Don't Tell Me That from Martin Luther's Antinomian Theses (Lutheran Press 2004), Luther implicitly condemns Paul -- that is if you compare the early Luther with the later Luther. In fact, Luther's words have Paul seemingly very much in view:

"Where there is neither divine or human government, there is neither God nor man. The same is also true: Where there is neither God nor man, there is nothing, except the devil.

Therefore it must be that those who would rid the Church of the Law are either devils themselves, or siblings of the devil. It doesn't matter that they preach and teach a great deal about God, about Christ, about grace and the Law.

...The confession of those who would rid the Church of the Law is just like when the devil cries out to Christ 'You are the son of the living God.' (Luke 4:34: 8:28)  [i.e., profess Christ with the mouth but do not obey God's Law.] It is also like the oath of every false prophet "As the Lord lives!" [what I say is true even though contrary to the Law] as Isaiah [8:20] and Jeremiah show. ***

What those who would eliminate the Law from the church say about God, about Christ, about faith, the Law, grace, and other things is much the same thing as a parrot who says 'Hello,' that is, it is said without understanding. It is simply impossible that one can learn good theology or right living from such persons.

Therefore one should run away from their teaching as the most harmful teaching of libertines, who give permission to all kinds of infamous deeds."  (Don't Tell Me That, supra, at 67-69.)

I cannot help but note these words are after Luther's own doctrines now avoided any mention of Paul's anti-law comments where once he used to cite him incessantly, e.g., on the Law, on salvation without works, etc. Luther does not offer any explanation of Paul's contrary words to reconcile them somehow to this new view by Luther. He drops out any focus on Paul's difficult and contrary passages. Paul becomes invisible. In that same setting, Luther tells us to run away from any preacher, even if he preaches a great deal about God, Christ, grace, etc., if he says the Law is abrogated. Who more than anyone but Paul could Luther have had in mind as he wrote those words?

 

In Defiance of Christ & The Mature Luther's Warning, We Hear "Flee Moses" Is The Duty of A Christian!

But in obvious reliance upon Paul's anti-Law views, sincere zealous men like Paul Washer actually teach "flee Moses" and "turn to Christ" for salvation (as if they are contrary to one another). Washer insists in a high pitch shouting sermon that we must stop trying to "earn" our salvation by obedience / good deeds. (The latter is a common disparaging reference to Jesus' simple and blatant call to repentance and obedience for salvation.) See "What is Salvation in 2 Minutes" by Paul Washer (Aug. 2009). 

What was Washer's Bible verse in support? None. He only quotes a song verse: "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling."

However, Jesus did not talk this way to the Young Rich Man. And Jesus did one better than Washer. Jesus gave a 30 second sermon on how to enter eternal life. It simply was: "obey the commandments," and then Jesus recites several of the 10 Commandments. See "Jesus Teaching to the Young Rich Man" and chapter 8 in PDF of Jesus' Words on Salvation - Jesus' Answer to the Direct Question on How to Obtain Eternal Life.

So we see that Luther by today has failed to influence a large segment of Christianity to adopt Luther's more mature lessons. Almost all evangelicals now treat as normative teachings what Luther says comes from some unidentified false prophets among us -- whether they preach alot about "Christ" or "about grace."  Luther's words, not mine! And we can readily recognize that Luther meant Paul.

Now we need a generation that can bravely call out the name of Paul as a false prophet. A sincere dupe yet a false prophet nevertheless. Luther hesitated doing so for obvious social and political consequences created by his own previous success. But if a mature Luther could see his error, there is hope that when young church figures like Paul Washer are pressed by the laity to study the Problem of Paul, they will come to the same answers that the mature Luther found. Let's pray for that day to come, which I sense is fast approaching.

Study Notes & Email Critiques

Modern Publication of 'Antinomian Theses'

In 2008, Lutheran Press published Solus Decalogus est Aeternus: Martin Luther's Complete Antinomian Theses & Disputations (2008) Edited by Holger Sonntag 416 pages; Latin/English, available for $15.50 at Lutheran Press. This is advertised as the Antinomian Theses "for the very first time in English...." although the Lutheran Press previously published Don't Tell Me That in 2004 as an English translation of the same.

A book review of Don't Tell Me That--Martin Luther's Antinomian Theses from the Lutheran Concordia journal is at this link. This explains the context of Antinomian Theses was Luther's effort to reply to Agricola's position. Agricola was the first to propose dispensationalism -- that Jesus' words on the Law did not apply to us, but a prior dispensation. Hence, for Agricola, there was no duty to repent for violating the Law given Moses as the commands of Jesus that upheld the Law were now to be seen as no longer applying to us. The Concordia article in 2010 explains the context:

Toward the end of his life, Luther had to deal with a controversy that went to the heart of this distinction, known as the Antinomian controversy. Over several years, his friend and colleague, John Agricola, distorted the proper distinction, particularly in the area of repentance. During the final years of the 1530s, Luther wrote six sets of theses for public disputations addressing the distortions present in Agricola’s position.

Agricola’s antinomianism, an ever-present human attitude, provides a beneficial foil for contemporary discussions of the proper employment of Law and Gospel in the Christian life. Paul Strawn introduces his project by suggesting that “there is a general uprising in the Church nowadays against any preaching, teaching, ministering and music which would involve the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, convicting hearts of sin . . . ” (9). However, he adds that there is also a true joy that comes when God’s Word is properly used: “It is the joy that can only follow the confession of sin and the conviction, by means of the Holy Spirit working through the Word of God, that sin has been forgiven because of the atonement of Christ on the cross for that sin” (11).

Also the Concordia gives us references to further research on the topic:

Timothy Wengert’s Law and Gospel:Philip Melanchthon’s Debate with John Agricola of Eisleben over poenitentia (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1997) is also very helpful in providing a broader historical setting for these theses. Basic background to the controversy is available in volume 4 of James Mackinnon’s Luther and the Reformation (New York: Russell & Russell, 1962, pages 161–179).

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Luther's Early View More Harmful To Seek To Obey Than Avoid Sin

Luther in this period taught that any effort to do "good works" to satisfy God's requirement for justification (such as the repentance -- not faith -- that Jesus taught in the Parable of the Publican had "justified" the publican) is a "perverse Leviathan," and such works then become not "good," but "truly damnable works." (Martin Luther, Selections from His Writings (Knopf Doubleday 2011) at 71-72.) The full quote is: 

(71) From this it is easy to know how far good works are to be rejected or not, and by what standard all the teachings of men concerning works are to be interpreted. If works are sought after as a means of righteousness, are burdened with this perverse leviathan, and are done under the false impression that through them one is justified, they are made necessary and freedom and faith are destroyed;

(72) Makes them no longer good but truly damnable works. They are not free, and they blaspheme the grace of God since to justify and to save by faith belongs to the grace of God alone.... We do .. condemn them [i.e., good works] on the account of this godless addition to them and the perverse idea that righteousness is to be sought through them…"

Hence, Luther in his faith-alone period taught you are damned for doing good works to maintain a right to salvation. Luther's early view clearly implies that Jesus's teaching is somehow inapplicable where he tells us in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats that salvation for those who call Him Lord (faith) turns on good deeds of feeding and clothing the poor. Jesus calls them the "righteous." In the Parable, only those with these good works of charity go to heaven. Those who call Jesus Lord without such good works (i.e., faith alone) Jesus clearly says will be sent to a place "of weeping and gnashing" with Satan and his angels.

No wonder Luther changed later to write the Antinomian Theses as well as adopt in 1541 Bucer's and Melancthon's views on Double Justification. In that doctrine, faith alone initiates an initial justification, but good works are necessary for final justification and salvation.

Luther prior to the Antinomian Theses attacked the Ten Commandments. Luther believed that the Mosaic Law, and reading it in particular, was bad for us. First, he wrote: "We must remove the Decalogue [i.e., 10 commandments] out of sight and heart." (De Wett, 4, 188.)

Luther's doctrine on the deadliness of good works likely emanated from Luther's view that studying the Law would pervert your mind. As Paul stated in Romans 7, Paul would not have known to covet his neighbor's goods absent the Law's command against it. As a result, Luther early on believed teaching obedience by citing the Law would pervert your behavior, and make you sin more, as Paul said was the case.  For further excellent discussion in a YouTube from LaVidaEterna on this issue, see beginning at the 2:11:06 mark of this video link.

Clearly, we see in Antinomian Theses a complete reversal in Luther's attitude toward obedience or any danger from reading the Law. He now preaches it is dangerous for anyone to say obedience is no longer required, or that ignoring the Law is better than reading it.

Melancthon, the right-hand-man to Luther, early on in Loci Communes, defended the notion that 'obeying is itself sin'  principle, citing Paul: "Paul, in nearly all his letters, but especially in Romans and Galatians, does hardly anything but teach that all works and all efforts of human power are sins or vices [peccata or vitia]. You have Romans 3:9 where he says: 'All men...are under the power of sin." (See Melancthon and Bucer (ed. Wilhelm Pauck) (John Knox Press, 1969) at 37.)

Luther emphasized another time that as long as you had faith and charity, you had to follow no other laws:

…of no avail and must be done away with. Mark these words: All our works are worthless. I am your justification, says Christ our Lord…We don't care a straw for man-made laws…Where true Christian charity and faith prevails, everything that a man does is meritorious and each one may do as he pleases, provided always that he accounts his works as nothing…What matters it if we commit a fresh sin! So long as we do not despair but remember that Thou, O God, still lives! (Robert H. Fife, The Revolt of Martin Luther (New York 1957) at 652; Hartmann Grisar, Luther (ed Luigi Cappadelta) (6 vols.)(St. Louis 1913) Vol. II 63, 339, quote on page 63).

Incidentally, initially Luther's emphasis upon Paul led him to exhort sinning to show your confidence in Christ. Luther wrote in 1521: 

Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides... No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day." ('Let Your Sins Be Strong, from 'The Wittenberg Project;' 'The Wartburg Segment', translated by Erika Flores, from Dr. Martin Luther's Saemmtliche Schriften, Letter No. 99, 1 Aug. 1521)

Clearly again, this is quite unlike what Luther says in Antinomian Theses.

 

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Email Critique from Scholar

Sonntag Email 4/25/2013

Antinomianism traditionally has meant claiming the Law of Moses is abrogated in its totality. (“Antinomianism,” Jewish Encyclopedia.) Luther’s reformation led some to find in Paul’s writings explicit antinomianism. Luther tried to stop this “far-reaching but logical conclusion” that stemmed from his commentaries on Paul. (“Antinomianism,” Catholic Encyclopedia) As a result of Luther’s struggle to stop Agricola, antinomianism came to be defined as:

Antinomianism [is] the view....that those possessing saving grace [are] exempt from the...laws of the community. Antinomians believed that salvation came through faith alone and that individuals who are saved need only obey the spirit within them rather than the moral law. (“Antinomianism,” http://www.ushistoryplace.com/glossary/a.html, The Longman History Place.)

Agricola deduced antinomianism from Luther’s readings of Paul. Even though the early Puritans tried claiming full-blown antinomianism was wrong, the substance of Agricola’s teachings are normative teachings today among most Protestants. Agricola first deduced that since no good works save you, no evil deeds cause you to lose salvation. As the Catholic Encyclopedia explains his view, “justified Christians... are incapable of losing their...final salvation by any act of disobedience to, or even by any direct violation of the law of God.” (“Antinomianism,” Catholic Encyclopedia.)

Agricola’s view is now part of the teachings on eternal security.

Second, Agricola deduced that the Jews were under one dispensation, but Christians under another. We are supposedly divorced entirely from the terms of the old, including its moral precepts. (Id.) Thus, Agricola deduced that any attempt to cite the letter of the law from the Bible was misplaced, even as to moral laws. Agricola’s dispensational logic is likewise a normative Christian teaching today.

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