Tag: Free Will

Categories
The Uncultured Saints

Ep. 4: Free Will(y)

We can make choices about all sorts of things in our lives. But the theological doctrine of free will is not about whether you can choose what to eat for breakfast or which color shirt to put on. It’s about whether we’re able to contribute anything to our own salvation, whether we can choose to believe, whether we can “help” God help us. When it comes to worldly things, we are free to make choices as we encounter the different options. But when it comes to the things of God, not only can we not choose to help ourselves be saved, we even fight against God saving us.

 

Return to The Uncultured Saints

Categories
As Lutheran As It Gets

16: We Are Not Masters of our Own Destiny (with Lennart Pinomaa)

2018 is the 500th Anniversary of the Heidelberg Disputations. Never heard of them? You’re not alone! Listen in to Pr. Riley and Pr. Gillespie as they discuss “free will” (airquotes intentional) and what Luther and Lutherans confess.

Our text: Faith Victorious: An Introduction to Luther’s Theology (Lennart Pinomaa)

Bio: Lennart Pinomaa

Show Notes:

Predestination (Reformed)

Ani Difranco

Air Quotes

Freewill (song)

Gojira (band)

Animals as Leaders

History Buffs

Cinema Sins

Honest Trailers

Benny Hinn – Dark Lord of the Sith

Questions? Comments? Show Ideas? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact.

Please rate and review the show in Apple Podcasts, via https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/simulcast/id1037828387?mt=2.

To subscribe Apple Podcasts, please go to: pcast://feeds.feedburner.com/AsLutheranAsItGets
To subscribe directly, please paste the following link into your podcast player of choice: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AsLutheranAsItGets

And as always, don’t forget Pr. Gillespie’s coffee for your caffeination needs.

Categories
HT Video Shorts

Augustana XVIII – Free Will — free will to do good but not before God – HT Video Short


Pr. Borghardt continues our Advent tour of the Augsburg Confession. Today we study Article XVIII – Free Will — free will to do good but not before God.

► Subscribe to our channel to get notifications when we go live: https://dtbl.org/youtube || If you have questions or topics that you’d like discussed on HTV, email them to support@higherthings.org or send text to 936-647-3235.

Categories
The Black Cloister

Episode 5 – Luther’s Theses, pt. 2

Listen in as Pastors Hull and Fenker, together again after an unintended break, discuss Free Will. They talk about Theses 13–15 of Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation of 1518 and Luther’s Bondage of the Will of 1525.

Categories
Higher History

Concord #18: Augsburg Confession (Free Will?)

Article 18: Free Will (or not?)

Everyone has free will, right? You chose to wear the clothes you’re wearing. You chose to get a summer job, or to play basketball, or which colleges to apply to. You chose to click on the link that brought you to this article. And you will choose to accept what it says as either true or false. Right? On the other hand, perhaps it was all fate, all predestined, and you’re just acting out the inevitable. Perhaps free will is just an illusion.

The topic of free will is a difficult one for Christians, especially with respect to salvation. If you have free will, then it’s up to you to save yourself or else send yourself to hell. If you don’t have free will, then God is the One who decides who’s saved and who’s not. You’re just a pawn in God’s divine game.

To deal with the topic of free will, the Lutheran Confessions introduce a very important distinction.

Of Free Will they teach that man’s will has some liberty to choose civil righteousness, and to work things subject to reason. But it has no power, without the Holy Ghost, to work the righteousness of God, that is, spiritual righteousness; since the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, 1 Cor. 2:14; but this righteousness is wrought in the heart when the Holy Ghost is received through the Word. (Augsburg Confession XVIII.1-4).

 

Free

With respect to civil righteousness, there is some amount of freedom to choose this or that. This means that in things that are beneath you, in things that are subject to reason, you have free will. You can choose to have Cheerios or yogurt for breakfast, to wear green shorts or a corduroy skirt on Wednesday, to get a job in lawn care or delivering papers for the summer, to play basketball or run track or to play in the marching band. It also includes things of more significance, like choosing which colleges to apply to, what girl to date (and marry!), where to live. On the other hand, it’s also possible to choose bad things, such as skipping church or choosing a false religion, or committing adultery or murder. Even though God knows in advance the choices you will make, this is different than Him having a script of your life that you are forced to act out against free will.

Not Free

But because your will is free in matters in which it is free doesn’t mean that it is absolutely free. In matters of spiritual righteousness, there is no freedom of the will. The fact that you have a choice in things beneath you does not mean that you have a choice in higher things, in things that pertain to eternal salvation. And because of sin, your will is bound—bound to sin. You cannot choose the good no matter how much will you exert.

 

Whose Choice?

In higher things—the righteousness of Christ, forgiveness, eternal salvation—you need God’s choice. And that choice is found in Jesus Christ. Apart from Him, the choice is only sin, death, and eternal damnation. But in Christ you find God’s resounding “Yes!” He has made the choice by His holy incarnation, by His innocent suffering and death, and by His victorious resurrection. And in Him the choice is given to you. In Christ you bondage to sin is broken, and your will is bound to Christ.

You can read the Book of Concord at http://www.bookofconcord.org

 

“Concord” is a weekly study of the Lutheran Confessions, where we will take up a topic from the Book of Concord and reflect on what we believe, teach, and confess in the Lutheran Church. The purpose of this series is to deepen readers’ knowledge and appreciation for the confessions of the Lutheran Church, and to unite them “with one heart” to confess the teachings of Holy Scripture.

Rev. Jacob Ehrhard serves as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in New Haven, MO.

Categories
Higher History

Who Was Martin Luther? Part 19

Luther and the 95 Theses

by Rev. Donavon Riley

Although Luther’s comments about the sales of indulgences, capped by his posting of The 95 Theses to the church door, drew plenty of attention, the young professor continued with his responsibilities as lecturer and preacher in Wittenberg. However, since he’d translated his lectures and sermons into German for laity, then back into Latin for scholars, more and more calls came to Luther requesting he expand upon or defend his theology.

One instance occurred in the spring of 1518, when Luther was invited to defend his teaching in Heidelberg. It was the annual meeting of the Augustinians, Luther’s monastic order, and he was sent as a representative of his monastery as well as handing off responsibility for his duties as district vicar to someone else. Likewise, he was chosen to be the “disputant” for the meeting, which meant he’d engage in a debate about the theology of St. Augustine, who most monks believed was the founder of their order.

Luther did not, as many expected, take up the topic of indulgences when he was given the opportunity to talk. Instead, he presented what he believed was Augustine’s theology (and his own). As Luther presented his twenty-eight theses, one after the other, those in attendance bent their ears to him, even though the first ten theses weren’t so controversial as to stir up any excitement. However, when Luther read his thirteenth thesis: “‘Free will’ after the Fall is nothing but a word, and so long as it does what is within it, it is committing deadly sin.” This was a direct attack on what everyone in the room had been taught.

Then, the sixteenth thesis caused even more excitement: “Anyone who thinks he would attain righteousness by dong what is in him is adding sin to sin, so that he becomes doubly guilty.” Luther had now twice asserted that the accepted, orthodox theology of the day led to damnation.

After he’d finished with his theses, and after business was completed, everyone returned home. And what Luther had said at Heidelberg went home with them. It was explosive stuff, the theology Luther presented, and from his Heidelberg Theses the first serious rumblings of reformation began to spread across Germany. But for as many new allies as Luther had won, in time he could as many, if not more, enemies. Now, Luther’s teaching wasn’t only threatening the sale of indulgences, but by saying that following orthodox doctrine led one to damnation, he was attacking the papacy itself.

Next week, we will examine the fallout from Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation.

Rev. Donavon Riley is the pastor of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Webster, Minnesota.