Lutheran Reformission

At times in Christian thought, the priorities of pure doctrine and passionate mission have been perceived as opposites on a spectrum where emphasis on one results in neglect of the other, but without one, the other is deficient and doomed to crumble. Mission without doctrine is like a body without a skeleton, but apart from mission, doctrine is like dry bones in a museum. A Lutheran Reformission maintains a dual emphasis, resulting in doctrinal missions as well as missional doctrine.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Martin Luther and "Evangelical Calvinism"

Christianity Today published my Letter to the Editor in their April issue:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/april/letters-to-the-editor.html?paging=off

Unfortunately, you have to be a subscriber to see enough of the article for mine to be visible, so I've also included the text below:

The Way to Election

In "Election is for Everyone" [January/February], Roger Olson describes Martin Luther as being one of the "early reformers" whose understanding of election closely resembled the one commonly associated with Calvin. I find this a serious mischaracterization. Luther acknowledged God's receiving sole credit for salvation, but rejected the idea of God's electing to condemnation. His view much more closely (although not quite identically) resembled the "third way" Olson identifies as evangelical Calvinism. In truth, confessional Lutherans were the "third way" between Arminianism and Calvinism before either of them was even formulated.

Lutheran Reformission

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Martin Luther and "Evangelical Calvinism"

No comments:

Post a Comment

Free to be Faithful