tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post8981700933716020287..comments2024-03-27T15:47:46.091-05:00Comments on Pastoral Meanderings: Taming the wild. . . Pastor Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10653554256101480140noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-53022462541134107262022-08-18T11:36:31.090-05:002022-08-18T11:36:31.090-05:00This seems to touch upon Luther’s hidden God inclu...This seems to touch upon Luther’s hidden God included in and beyond scriptural revelation, a God who predestines the elect, who blesses and hardens hearts according to His will, and whose actions are inscrutable to men.<br /><br />There are in fact two Lutheranism. One does not concern itself with the hidden God. Lutherans traditionally have contented themselves with God’s plan of salvation as revealed in the Bible. Christ’s person and finished work is our righteousness and justification, which we put on in baptism, live under daily through repentance and faith, and are nourished and strengthened by through Word and Sacrament. The elect are thus those members of the Church of God who hear the Word, accept it through faith, and live accordingly as disciples of Christ. It has been remarked that this version of Lutheranism is Baptist with a liturgy. <br /><br />There is another Lutheranism however that is gaining emphasis in the LCMS. Lutherans do not grow up with an awareness that Luther wrote the Bondage of the Will. Lutherans are often surprised when they do discover it, because this is not a Lutheranism that they know; in fact, it seems very Augustinian and Reformed. The elect are the elect not because they have heard the word and responded in faith, but rather because of the hidden God’s inscrutable will. Walther himself caused controversy in Lutheranism by reinforcing this emphasis on election, which seems to run contrary to the Gospel for all itself. Luther, for his part, left the hidden God and Bondage of the Will alone, only remarking much later in his Genesis commentary that election should not be the focus of our soteriology, as it was for the Reformed, nor should it drive men to either carnal security or despair. What should be our emphasis is instead on God’s revealed Gospel of salvation for all and the means of grace that brings us this salvation. <br /><br />The LCMS today seems at times to be influenced more by the hidden God. We delight in the explanation of the third article in which we state that “I believe that I cannot believe.” This emphasis can foreground an election-based soteriology in ways that the Lutheran Church has traditionally not. It causes us to limit faith and elevate grace. It causes us to scoff at the word “accept” in relation to an individual accepting the Gospel, even though scripture and the Lutheran Confessions (and Walther for that matter) use this term. The traditional Lutheran definition of faith, after all, is knowledge, acceptance or assurance, and trust. Emphasis on the hidden God causes faith to be seen not as ours and our responsibility, but only as a passive instrument that receives the means of grace. This in turn causes a greater emphasis on the ceremonies and rituals of the Church that deliver the means of grace. It causes us to downplay sanctification and impoverishes our sermons on Christian living. <br /><br />To be sure, the emphasis of the Lutheran Church on the preached Word and the means of grace preserves the church from fanaticism. But perhaps we should be wary of falling into the errors of the Reformed and Roman Catholics by supplementing our search for salvation by ideas about the hidden God.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com