Religion and Theology

Martin Luther is a son of a poor miner, but despite his status in life, he received education as a scholar and a priest in the University of Wittenberg. The Ninety-Five Theses marked the starting point of Luther s career as a reformer. The subject of these theses are not only in close connection with the center of the Christian truth, but they also touch on the characteristics of the Middle Ages.

From the beginning to the end, those ages had been a stern school of moral and religious discipline under what was universally regarded as the diving authority of the Church. St. Anselm, with his intense apprehension of the divine righteousness, and of its inexorable demands, was once the noblest and truest type of the great school of thought of which he was the founder. The special mission of the Church since the days of Gregory the Great had been to tame the fierce energies of the new barbarian world and to bring the wild passions of the Teutonic races under the control of the Christian law.

Luther s interest in the reformation of theological study did not prevent him from concerning himself with many other matters needing betterment. As time passed, his eyes were increasingly opened to existing evils in one and another sphere, and wherever he found them, he was quick to attack them.

He had the true reformer s conscience, the sense of responsibility for others as well as for himself, and the true reformer s vision of the better things that ought to be. He was never a mere faultfinder, but he was endowed with the gifts of imagination and sympathy, leading him to feel himself as part of every situation he was placed in, and with the irrepressible impulse to action driving him to take upon himself the burden of it. In any crowd of bystanders he would have been first to go to the rescue when needed and quickest to see the need that is not obvious at all. He did not possess the aloofness of a mere observer he was too completely one with all he saw to stand apart and let it go its way alone. He was fearful and distrustful of himself but his timidity naturally shrank before new and untried duties of a soul that saw more clearly and felt more keenly than most. The imperative demands inevitably made upon him by every situation led him instinctively to dread putting himself where he could not help responding to the call of unfamiliar tasks. However, once he was in the situation, he would not be able to resist throwing himself into the new responsibilities, forgetting himself in the process with a fearlessness of someone who has conquered fear. He might interpret his confidence as trust in God, won by the path of a complete contempt of his own powers. Yet, however he understood it, it gave him independence and a disregard of consequences which made his conscience and his visions effective for reform.

As a preacher in the Wittenburg church, he soon abandoned the all-too common custom of delivering mere essays on speculative theology and turned his attention to questions of immediate practical concern. The moral conditions of university life,  particularly the relations between the students and the young women of the town, left much to be desired. The citizens had not yet adjusted themselves to the new situation arising from the presence of hundreds of young and often unruly fellows in the quiet little city, and they found themselves helpless before the growing demoralization. Luther soon became familiar with existing conditions and began to speak his mind about them in no uncertain terms. He denounced parents for the laxity of their discipline, and called upon the university and city authorities to take the matter actively in hand. He brought down upon himself the enmity of many, both for his plain speaking and his fancied invasion of the sacred liberties of university life. He succeeded in bringing about a great improvement and won the lasting gratitude and confidence of the better citizens. Before long, he was the most powerful influence for righteousness in town and university as he continued to be until the end of his life. Martin Luther s passion for the betterment of a person s well-being is grounded upon the practice of virtue in order for the soul to be cleansed once it finally makes its way home to the loving embrace of God.  The piety which Luther was known for is the fuel that drove him to denounce the practice of indulgence which was prevalent during his time as a way for the Catholic Church to absolve and at some point tolerate men and women, not especially known for their virtues in exchange for some material benefits.

The practice of indulgences pervaded the whole penitential system of the later medieval Church, and had done so from the beginning of the thirteenth century. Its beginnings go back a thousand years before Luther s time. In the ancient Church, lapse into serious sin involved separation from the Christian fellowship, and readmission to communion was only to be had by public confession made in the presence of the whole congregation and by the manifestation of a true repentance in performing certain satisfactions, such as manumission of slaves, prolonged fasting, extensive alms-giving, etc. These satisfactions were the open signs of heartfelt sorrow and were once regarded as well-pleasing to God and evidence to the Christian community that the penitent had true repentance. The confession was made to the whole congregation the amount of satisfaction deemed necessary was estimated by the congregation, and readmission was also dependent on the will of the whole congregation. It often happened that these satisfactions were mitigated or exchanged for others. The penitent might fall sick and the fasting which had been prescribed could not be insisted upon without danger of death in such a case, the external sign of sorrow which had been demanded might be exchanged for another. Or, the community might become convinced of the sincerity of the repentance that the whole of the prescribed satisfaction need not be performed. These exchanges and mitigations of satisfactions were the small beginnings of the later system of indulgences. Luther denounced this practice because it is in his belief that piety should not be bought by sinners, and more importantly, forgiveness is not to be sold by the Church. He believes that the practice of indulgence breeds corruption upon an institution which was set up by the Son of Man in order to save the sins of humankind. The mission given by Christ to save the souls of mankind will be tarnished by the corrupt practices of His emissaries on earth.

Martin Luther and His Distinction between Law and Gospel
A clear distinction between law and gospel is that gospel is a promissio (promise), a categorical gift, while the law makes demands and convicts one of sin, which of itself it is holy, just. and good, although it still cannot be fulfilled perfectly by us. For Luther, gospel is the  other Word,  the second and last, the definitive Word of God. Luther said in one of his sermons,  I wanted to demonstrate the two concepts without mixing them  each one in its own proper place, according to its material sense the law is for the old Adam the gospel is for my despairing terrified conscience.  According to Luther, if it is true to its task, theology must orient itself by means of the distinction between law and gospel in the way it discusses all its topics. It is to seek by such effort to reflect on the sequence of events whereby God confronts human beings verbally so that they can believe and act freely. Not to distinguish between law and gospel which in actuality is the predominant state of affairs serves only the law that brings death. However, by contrast, to make the distinction serves to set forth what the gospel is in a clear manner. Luther emphasizes on the importance of finding the distinction in order for theology to be relevant in the affairs of man.  In Luther s tractate, On the Freedom of a Christian, he says

How can it be that faith alone can make one righteous and can provide such superabundant riches apart from all works when it is obvious that so many laws, commands, works, estates and instructions are prescribed for us in Scripture One ought to note here with diligence and to consider with all seriousness that faith alone, apart from all works, makes one righteous, free and joyful, about which we will hear more later and one must know that the entire Holy Scripture is to be divided into two words the commandments or the law of god and the assurances or the promises. The commandments teach and prescribe for us various good works but the problem is that they do not thereby actually happen. They indeed do give direction but they do not help they teach what a person ought to do, but furnish no power to make something occur. They are thus constructed to show that the human being will see his inability to do the good and will learn to distrust his own ability  From this he learns to despair of his ability and to seek help elsewhere, so that he can live without evil desires, and thus he learns that the law was fulfilled by someone else which he cannot do on his own

Hence, for Luther, law pertains to the commandments set before us in order to follow the path of righteousness. The problem lies in the event that a person realizes that he is powerless with the lack of faith and merely follows the law. The person then stumbles because there is no fuel in order for the engine of life to be perpetuated by promised life as talked about by the Scripture if he merely follows the laws set forth before humankind.

Thus, the difference between law and the gospel is that the latter actually helps us see the path once we start obeying the laws. It is the headlight that shines the way in the dark for us to arrive to our destination. Luther emphasizes that the law, as it functions, is there already determining human existence thus, he certainly acknowledges that law in fact precedes the gospel, but not that it has ultimate priority over the gospel. The actual superiority of the gospel remains unaffected. This keeps one from thinking that the law provides the only setting within which it is possible to understand the gospel, for when the gospel comes in the scene and is interpreted in the context of what was experienced under the law, then it can be understood correctly. The person s earlier experience of God, which did nothing but delude the self, will now be replaced with what does not come from within the individual. It comes to the person with reference to the gospel, even though in actuality, the gospel message was there beforehand.

Luther, in the course of his spiritual struggles, found the true deliverance from what we have ventured to call that deadlock to which the grand vision of Divine righteousness had led him. He realized that the straight gate is impassable by any human virtue, but he found the solution in the promise of a supernatural deliverance which was offered to faith. Luther realized that the gospel, while reasserting the inexorable nature of the moral law and deepening its demands, reveals a supernatural and divine means of satisfying it. All barriers had thus been removed between God and man, and men had been placed in the position of children living by Faith on His grace and bounty. He offers to bestow upon them the very righteousness He requires from them, if they will accept it at His hands as a free gift. This way, their true position is no longer that of mere subjects living under a law which they must obey at their peril.

The commandments laid down by the Scriptures have a very different purpose in the salvation plan of Christianity. They are meant to be punitive as a coercing power for the believers of the faith to strictly abide by the teachings of Christ and the bishops after Him in order to take their place in the Kingdom of God. They are guidelines that every believer must follow because they are meant to test the faith of the followers, and a corresponding punishment is present for every transgression. The gospels, on the other hand, are more prioritized than the law in the teachings of the Scriptures. They are the actual messages uttered by Christ, the Savior that every follower must adhere to, not because disobedience will mean a corresponding punishment, but for every person to lead a pious and virtuous life that the Christian faith demands from its believers.

Immediate Pupils of Martin Luther on Distinction between Law and Gospel
Philip Melanchthon
Philip Melanchthon was within the inner circle of Luther s teachings.  At the age of 21, he came to the University of Wittenberg to become its first professor of Greek. Together with Martin Luther, he composed the Augsburg Confession before the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, considered as the most important treatise of the Reformation. Mainly the work of Melanchthon, the confession was based on Marburg and Schwabach, articles written by Martin Luther. He also wrote the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, where the distinction between the gospels and law were discussed accordingly to Lutheran tradition.  The Augsburg Confession itself (1530) concludes with the words
Our meaning is not to have rule taken from the bishops but this one is requested at their hands, that they would to be purely taught, and that they would realize a few observances, which cannot be held without sin. But if they will remit none, let them look how they will give account to God for this, that by their obstinacy they afford cause of division and schism, which it were yet fit they should aid in avoiding.

It was not that he believed that the existence of the visible Catholic Church depended on what has been ambiguously called an apostolic succession of bishops, who, through gifts conferred in ordination, creates priests who in turn make Christians out of natural heathen by the sacraments. He did not believe that ordination needed a bishop to confer it he made his position clear upon this point as early as 1525, and ordination was practiced without bishops from that date. However, he had no desire to make changes for the sake of change.

Johannes Agricola
Johannes Agricola was a follower and friend of Martin Luther and a part of the German Reformation. He studied at Wittenberg where he met Martin Luther, and the two exchanged ideas. He went with Luther to the assembly of German divines at Leipzig acting as a recording secretary. He also taught at the University of Wittenberg but moved to Frankfurt at around 1525 in order to build a Protestant community there. He disagreed with Martin Luther on the matter of the obligation of law on Christians as an obligation. He maintained that Christians are the only group of followers that do not adhere to the laws laid down in the Old Testament. The priority was that they are no longer relevant because of the existence of the gospels which Christ himself has preached.

Antinomianism Controversy
In the theological tradition, Antinomianism is the practice of a certain sector of a specific religion where that group is of the idea that they are no longer obligated to follow the laws of ethics or the moral customs set forth by the same system of beliefs that they are a part of. This fatalistic point of view holds that the salvation of men s souls are already predestined, making the obedience of a codal law of a particular religious group is not the way to salvation. According to Luther, what makes a theologian a theologian is being able to correctly distinguish law and gospel. The issue addressed by this statement is not recognized with utter seriousness today or is even relegated to the time-bound form of the Reformation and its theology. However, this continues to raise a ruckus in the midst of the problematic relationship between reason and faith, faith and politics, and in the assessment of evil and its power, including the question about whether there is a chance that evil can be overcome as well as in the question about the future of humanity. As in the past as well as the present, the issue deals with foundational questions of anthropology, ethics, and eschatology.  

The Antinomian Controversy started when there were dissensions among the Lutherans stigmatized as Antinomianism. The main person connected with this schism is that of Johannes Agricola, who maintained that the principles and motives contained in the New Testament furnished the man who had faith in Christ with all that was necessary to guide him in life and that was therefore exempt from the operation of all law, even from the law of Moses. This difference between the orthodox Lutherans and the Antinomians was exaggerated by the bitterness of both sets of disputants. The latter was charged with holding that as long as a man is in a state of grace, it matters not how immoral his life may be. The schism tore the very heart of the Lutheran Church and left upon Luther  an abiding and melancholy impression.

Johannes Agricola contributed to the schism of the Lutheran Reformation by deviating from the teaching of Martin Luther with regard to the need for the importance of laws as in conjunction with faith. According to Agricola, there is a need to follow the law as it is laid down in the Scriptures of the Old Testament for the salvation of every believer. In Johannes Agricola s dissertation on the gospel of Luke, he propounded that following the laws of the Scriptures was not necessarily to pursue the salvation plan of God in his plan for mankind. The point of contention is that non-Christians still follow the Mosaic Law, the Islamic and Jewish faith as examples. In his findings, sins are subject to the forgiving nature of the divine as opposed to the eternal damnation that is characteristic of God in the tradition of the Old Testament. For Agricola, repentance is needed in order to veer away from evil instead of seeking absolution because of the overwhelming guilt coming from one s disobedience from the laws of God. Salvation is not grounded on the basis of repentance of the believers. The question of faith is established from the illumination of the existence of the love of God to humankind. One of Luther s followers, Philipp Melanchtho, stated that a believer s asking for forgiveness must first be put forward before one s faith. As stated earlier, one s institution of the law according to the Scriptures is instigated in order for the salvation plan of God to be realized. Melanchthon said in his Confessions in Augsburg that forgiveness of believers is a two-way process the first is forgiveness from one s realization of the believer s sins for shielding himself from the threat of the absence of him receiving grace from God. The other comes from the gospel as expounded by the Article IV of the Augsburg Confession that salvation is rooted in the obedience of the teachings of the gospels, which in turn redeems the believer from sin and in the process grants them deliverance from sin.

Although the term designating this error came into use only in the sixteenth century, the doctrine itself can be traced in the teaching of the earlier heresies. The Gnostic sect   possibly, for example, Marion and his followers, in their antithesis of the Old and New Testament, or the Carpoeratians, in their doctrine of the indifference of good works and their contempt for all human laws   held Antinomian or quasi-Antinomian views. In any case, it is generally understood that Antinomianism was professed by more than one of the Gnostic schools. Several passages of the New Testament writings are quoted in support of the contention that even as early as Apostolic times, it was found necessary to single out and combat this heresy in its theoretical or dogmatic as well as in its grosser and practical form. The indignant words of St. Paul in his Epistles to the Romans and to the Ephesians (Romans 38, 31 61 Ephesians 56), as well as those of St. Peter, the Second Epistle (2 Peter 218, 19), seem to lend direct evidence in favor of this view. Forced into a somewhat doubtful prominence by the  slanderers  against whom the Apostle found it necessary to warn the faithful, Antinomianism reappeared definitely as a variant of the Protestant doctrine of faith early in the history of the German Reformation, persisting spasmodically in several of the Gnostic bodies, and possibly also coloring some of the tenets of the Abigenses.

At this point, it is of interest to note the sharp controversy that it provoked between the leader of the reforming movement in Germany and his disciple and fellow townsman, Johannes Agricola. The Antinomian controversy, which had really begun some ten years previously, broke out afresh with renewed vigor and bitterness. Agricola, who was undoubtedly anxious to defend and justify the novel doctrine of his leader upon the subject of grace and justification, and who wished to separate the new Protestant view more clearly and distinctly from the old Catholic doctrine of faith and good works, taught that only the unregenerate were under the obligation of the law, whereas regenerate Christians were entirely absolved and altogether free from any such obligation. While it was highly probable that he made Agricola responsible for opinions which the latter never really held, Luther attacked him vigorously is six dissertations, showing that  the law gives man the consciousness of sin, and that the fear of the law is both wholesome and necessary for the preservation of morality and of divine, as well as human, institutions.  As a result, on several occasions, Agricola found himself obliged to retract or modify his Antinomian teaching. In 1540, Agricola forced to this step by Luther, who had secured to this end the assistance of the Elector of Brandenburg, definitely recanted. However, it was not long before the wearisome controversy was reopened by Poach of Erfurt (1556). This led ultimately to an authoritative and complete statement, on the part of the Lutheran, of the teaching upon the subject by the German Protestant leaders, in the fifth and sixth articles of the  Formula Concordia.  St. Alphonsus Liguori stated that after Luthers death, Agricola went to Berlin, commenced teaching his blasphemies again, and died there at the age of seventy-four without any sign of repentance. Liguori also stated that Florinundus called the Antinomians  Atheists who believe in neither God nor the devil,  so much for the origin and growth of the Antinomian heresy in the Lutheran body. Among the high Calvinists, the doctrine was to be found in the teaching that the elect do not sin by the commission of actions that in themselves are contrary to the precepts of the moral law, which the Anabaptists of Munster had no scruple in putting these theories into actual practice.

The Reformation stemmed from the doubts of Martin Luther in his readings of the Gospel and the Scripture and had a rupture of faith because of his fear that salvation was already predestined and that only a few souls will be saved from sin even after the promise that a Savior will come to save mankind. Martin Luther was disenfranchised with the current practice of the Catholic Church that he was a part of. In essence, Martin Luther believed that he will not be saved because of his readings that he will not be part of the salvation plan of God, and he made a belief system that protested from the teachings of the Catholic Church and not necessarily from what the Catholic Church would want Christians to believe.