Question: is the thing that God executed, according to Luther, the free will of the individual, or predermination [sic] to hell? If you could indicate from these verses, I would be grateful.Both guys devised a theology that they wanted to believe protects God's holiness and righteousness but just ended up making God into an a-hole. Judging from the way they dealt with their adversaries, their theology was probably more an example of projection than it was anything else. Though it may be rational in some systems of thought to believe in God, that's not the case with Calvin or Luther.
The thing that God executed, according to Luther in the selection I quoted, is every single thing that has, does, or ever will exist. In the selection I quoted earlier from The Bondage of the Will, written when Calvin was a young teen, Luther declared:1. that there was no will but Gods willThis is iron-hard determinism that substantively is no different than what Calvin, then 14, would later develop with bigger tail fins, and massive chrome bumpers and grills. Luther's appeal to theological determinism probably had more to do with his polemical needs at the moment in his battle with Erasmus. Im sure that later, upon reflection, Luther probably thought something along these lines:
by this thunderbolt, Freewill is struck to the earth and completely ground to powder .
2. that the appearance of contingency is an illusion
all which we do, and all which happens, although it seem to happen mutably and contingently, does in reality happen necessarily and unalterably, insofar as respects the will of God. [emphasis added]
3. that everything in creation that happens involving man or apart from man is a product of Gods will
Hence it irresistibly follows, that all which we do [everything in which man has a part], and all which happens [everything else in creation] does in reality happen necessarily and unalterably, insofar as respects the will of God.
4. that God is not limited either in will or in knowledge
If God does not foreknow all events absolutely, there must be defect either in his will, or in his knowledge ; what happens must either be against his will, or beside his knowledge
5. that everything that has happened since creation and that God is executing now in creation is identical with what God had planned since before the beginning of creation and had yet to execute at the time of creation
But the truth is, what he willed in past eternity, he wills now; the thing now executed is what he has intended to execute from everlasting; for his will is eternal: just as the thing which has now happened is what he saw in past eternity; because his knowledge is eternal.Oh, crap. This makes everything in human existence and even in scripture that appears to depend on contingency, or choice, a complete illusion within a totally deterministic universe where even my thoughts about illusion, determinism, and choice are determined, and even worse than that because what would have been the point of it all to begin with? For Gods praise and glory? Praise and glory from whom? From some sort of intra-trinitarian blackslapping? Or from automata who, like the cuckoo popping out of the clock on the hour, say Praise and glory. Praise and glory with no more awareness or understanding or will than the wooden cuckoo has of clock-making and timekeeping?
Thanks for your essay.
I haven’t read deeply into Luther.
I didn’t realize he dealt so thoroughly with questions about determinism.
Loved your description of “cuckoo clock” style worship, another issue I’ve thought about frequently.