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Title: The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther, J. I. Packer, O. R. Johnston ISBN: 0-8007-5342-9 Publisher: Fleming H Revell Co Pub. Date: April, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.24 (29 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Still a Masterpiece
Comment: There are few books which written over 400 years ago are still applicable today; Martin Luther's masterpiece, The Boncage of the Will, is one of those books. Anyone desiring to know more about the root of dissent between Luther and the Catholic Church must read this book.
In his treatise Luther systematically demolishes Erasmus' arguments in favor of free-will. Luther brilliantly illustrates why the will is in total and complete bondage and enslavement to sin, and why free-will is a completely meaningless term. Luther argues that the only thing the will is free to do is to sin and rebel against God.
Luther shows that salvation is totally dependent on the grace of God and His sovereign Will. To say that even a small part of the human will can prepare itself to receive God's grace is an utterly ludricous sentiment. Erasmus believes that a human being by a very small effort can earn God's grace. Luther totally destroys this view and shows that to espouse such a view makes one worse than the Pelagians, who held that it took numerous great works to earn God's grace.
This book is as applicable today as it was when Luther first wrote this book. When so many Protestant Churches hold to a soteriological view more akin to that of Erasmus, it is absolutely vital that the truth of the Reformation be brought back into the spotlight. Read this book to gain a greater understanding of the major area of disagreement among the Reformers and the Catholic Church of the time, and also to understand that our salvation is not predicated on any meritorious work that we accomplish, but simply on the grace of God.
Rating: 5
Summary: Luther really was a Calvinist
Comment: Wow. I first heard of this book mentioned by R. C. Sproul shortly after I read his tome, Classical Apologetics. (Sproul, Gerstner, Lindsley, Zondervan, 1984) which changed my life forever.
God blessed Luther with a find discriminating mind, and while Erasmus was no fool, he was no theologian either. The book is one sided. Luther takes each one of the (corrupted) conventional wisdoms of the Church (at least as Erasmus saw them) and turns it on it's head; how far had mother church come from the days of Augustine, the errors in logic and reason so destructive by the time Luther came on the scene. Luther dispatches the arguments with flourish, and I began to relish each upheaval as I, who had been incorrectly taught over the years, finally found my way. When Luther explains that "free will" is in fact an oxymoron (that is, that will cannot be free), I finally understood the true meaning of Grace - and Calvin's TULIP model. It is a disturbing concept - that we are completely powerless - but one that can not be rationally attacked. With Luther's book to guide you, you can dispatch that argument today as quickly as he did 500 years ago.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone, but especially to students of church history and those not yet converted to a Reformed faith.
Rating: 5
Summary: Liberty in Slavery!!!
Comment: I have viewed a few dissenting voices in some of the reviews of the this work. It amazed me to see how many yearn to defend this mythical beast called "free-will". I too was onced bitten by this monster and wallowed in it's lairs of Arminianism and Pelagianism. However, the Lord, in all of His Divine Grace and Wisdom pulled me out kicking and screaming. How arrogant I was to believe that I was anything and now I rejoice and praise with Nebuchadneezer (Daniel 4:34-36). I have to rejoice in my Liberty in my slavery. Yet, as I mentioned before, this wasn't always so.
Oh, how I hated and despised those of the reformed view and ignorantly so! How I loved to sing Amazing Grace and Rock of Ages and despised the Theology of those who wrote it. How I despised the Doctrine of Predestination and yet, never realized that this is the very Doctrine that inspired those like the Puritans and Pilgrims to begin building this great Nation. No, I loved my "free-will". When I was being abused as a child, I cried, "free-will!", when I was homeless, I cried, "free-will"! When I sat behind bars in 30x30 ft cage, I cried "free-will"! When I got sick, I cried, "free-will"! Yet, when I realized that it took the selfless sacrifice of Christ to remove my sin, I had to ask, why couldn't I have just used my "free-will"? At this point I started to notice things, scary things, and the Spirit took this BLINDED sinner who believed he had a "free-will" and began to open his eyes. I saw that nobody could tell me at what point I obtained this "free-will". I realized that as a infant, it took the will of the parent to sustain me. Place an infant in field all by himself and he dies. Why? He has no will to sutain his life. Just like an infant in Christ,maybe? Then, someone suggested that you obtained it when you reached the age of 12 (age of accountability). Of course, when I pointed out that infants less than 12 were judged and killed for thier wickedness in the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah and of course the Amalekite infants (1 Sam 15:1-3), I received a blank stare. When I pointed out that a male child was cast out of the covenant for not being circusmied, I asked, why the child and not the parents? Again, blank. I have recieved many blank stares to many questions regarding Salvation and "free-will" over the past decade.
After that,I moved onto creation, the scriptures teach that God created all things and I believe it true. If I believed that God created all things, then time is His creation. If time (part of ALL things)is made up of past, present and future. Then, where does my "free-will" fit into the scheme of time? This has provoked alot of head scratching in numerous discussions. Nobody I have met in the realm of Orthodox Christianity has came up with a non-contradictive answer to that one.
I then moved onto the question of Salvation. Well, I won't labor you with the questions I found there. All I can say is that the rest of you can enjoy being the "Free-willer" in Christ and I'll happily remain a slave. By the way, did anyone ever notice Christ never asked Paul to become a Christian? Come to think of it, Christ never asked any of his Apostle or offered them Salvation. Huh? By the way can anyone show me an example of a "sinners prayer"? I thought the Lord's ears were closed to the unrighteous?!
Know what I've been thinking about lately? Did you ever wonder why the Lord spoke in Parables? You Armenian and Pelagian types may want to cover your eyes:
Mark 4:10 And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable.
11. And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:
12. That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.
I now ask. Why didn't he want them to percieve or understand or better yet, be converted and thier sins forgiven? HMMMMMM? Why did he chose those around him and not the others to reveal the meanings of the parables? It sure puts Romans 9 in perspective, doesn't it?
Hard to imagine, that the Lord used Bondage of the Will to get the old mental Hampsters in me to start turning the old thought wheels!
Well, goodbye for now. I have to get back to some free-will experiments I have been working on like becoming totally free of all Federal, State, local and natural laws or flapping my arms and flying or head-butting an oncoming Semi-Truck (I'll let you know how this one works out) and there's the oldie but a goodie, trying to catch a fart with my hands and painting it red!
(Here's a little free-will news update (3-14-04). I recently had a young man rob me at gunpoint. As he pressed the gun in my face, a little part of me actaully wondered, where is my "free-will" at this point.What is so free about a will when the options are do or die? Since then, I have meditated even further upon the subject. I stand even more convinced of the selfish attitude that drives people to defend this concept of "free-will". How can they defend an attribute that not even God himself can claim! For the scriptures teach that not even God can do anything contrary to his greatest attribute,HIS HOLINESS! So, if God's decisions are regulated by His own Holiness, how much more are we regulated by our sinfulness? Remember Paul,
Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil I would not, that I do.
Paul then goes on to refer to himself as a wretched man and then asks who would deliver him "from the body of this death." The answer is obvious to those who think like Paul, Luther and Calvin, the answer is Christ ALONE!
Think about it! Because the next person with a gun in his face could be you, at that point there will be no debate! If my will had been truly free, I would have never CHOSEN this experience! A divine once stated, "on the deathbed, there are very few free-willers!" Death is inevitable and many will scream "free-will" right into the dirt!
One more thing, if you really believe in this "free-will" myth and you are Christian. Try never sinning again! Go ahead! Try it! READ THIS BOOK!!!!!! )
Soli Deo Gloria!
Nikki
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Title: By Faith Alone by Martin Luther ISBN: 0529109670 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.99 |
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Title: The Freedom of the Will by Jonathan Edwards ISBN: 1573580333 Publisher: Soli Deo Gloria Pubns Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Luther's Ninety-Five Theses by Martin Luther, C. M. Jacobs, Harold J. Grimm ISBN: 0800612655 Publisher: Fortress Press Pub. Date: December, 1957 List Price(USD): $5.00 |
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Title: Luther's Large Catechism: A Contemporary Translation With Study Questions by Martin Luther ISBN: 0570035392 Publisher: Concordia Publishing House Pub. Date: December, 1988 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther by Roland Herbert Bainton ISBN: 0452011469 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: April, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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