Enough! These persons who claim that Martin Luther was an Antinomian (which means Against the Law, meaning against the accountability of believers to practice the deeds of faith in order to receive resurrection of the body, glorification, and everlasting salvation at the Lords return) are grievously mistaken and remarkably uneducated and ignorant on the subject. One isnt justified by works, but rather by faith, but to quote Luther, even though we are saved by faith alone, the faith that saves is never alone. A purified heart will only do good, and if it is corrupted again, it must be restored again, by the same means of confession to the Lord and repentance. Luther didnt at all believe in the perseverance of the saints, once saved, always saved, eternal security of the believer etc. Considering that not only was he entirely against the idea of claiming to have saving faith while actively practicing sin, he in fact converted the chief founder and leader of the Antinomians in his time, and persuaded him to recant his beliefs. Luther wrote an entire treatise against Antinomianism, saying himself that if he did not, many people would come along and twist everything that he taught into it, and claim his as the originator of their madness. Many often misquote statements by Luther on grace and forgiveness, and indeed some of his statements appear when read a certain way, to be suggesting that we could freely sin and be excused, but they only appear that way to those looking for such a suggestion. To those who read them as they are written, they are great inspirations of the power of Jesus Christ to overcome sin in ones life, and how his active power is greater than any sin, and no sin is too great for him to restore us from. Within only a few years of Paul having preached, it was being said of him that people should sin so that grace should abound, which he refuted directly, and then later Peter wrote of Pauls writings not even with mere high regard, but specifically cited them as scripture, and pointed out that many things were hard to be understood, but that those who were of sinful minds twisted his writings to their own destruction, as they did with the other scriptures also. For those who doubt the veracity of such a statement, I included as good of proof as could be possibly found: the photo-scans of his very original letter which he wrote on the subject, with each page translated into English in a transcript. Luther promoted and adhered to a standard of righteousness, wrought from a pure heart cleansed by believing on Christ, not a heart purified by and made worthy of Christ by good deeds. To suggest that is Antinomianism is complete insanity.
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 10:25:02 +0000