Works in progress

I’ve decided to write more book reviews. Now that I am out of school for the summer, I’ve made up an extensive reading list I’d like to get through. Currently I’m reading a book written by one of the elders in my church, Douglas Bond. He is the head of the English department at the high school my church hosts and is a pretty good writer. The book is the first in a two part series, “Fathers and Sons.” The first book is subtitled, “Stand Fast In the Way of Truth.” Once I’ve completed it, I’m going to post a book review on my other blog http://greatmindsbookreview.wordpress.com/. Hopefully, I can do the same for the second book in the series.

I’ve also read Voddie Baucham’s newest book “What He Must Be: If He Wants to Marry My Daughter.” Unlike my brother’s teasing hinted, I’m not planning on courting Pastor Baucham’s daughter, as wonderful a young lady as I’m sure she must be. However, the initial read was pretty fast and I would like to go back to write a review after a more in-depth reading. Personally, I found Pastor Baucham’s approach to courting a little more Biblically oriented than other’s have approached the subject.

Research Paper on Martin Luther

One of the last classes I took at community college was a philosophy course. The final research paper was very short, but we were allowed to choose our topic from an extensive list of philosophers. I chose Martin Luther. Here is the paper for anyone interested in purusing it. I must admit that it still needs a lot of work, but it was enough to get me an A in the class. Enjoy!

Luther’s Foundations:

Salvation a Gift not of the Will

Jonathan Schlaudraff

Introduction to Philosophy

Professor Cochrane

June 7, 2009

Martin Luther was a man of solid belief and determination, inherited perhaps from his father, perhaps from his experiences as an Augustinian monk, but in either case, this determination drove his adamancy concerning certain doctrines of the faith that he held as especially important to legitimate Christianity. Luther was born on November 10th, 1483 to a very religious man, Hans Luther, who began his climb of the social ladder working in a mine and eventually obtaining ownership of several mines.¹ Hans Luther purposed that his son should study to become a lawyer, but was disappointed when Martin joined a monastery of the Augustinian order.² After many internal spiritual struggles over sin and redemption, disillusionments over the indulgences and relics of Rome, and searching for answers in Scripture, Luther found a passage in Romans that reformed his worldview.³ Luther embraced the Apostle Paul’s concept of “justification by faith,”⁴ which fueled Luther’s eventual rejection of Catholicism and fierce opposition to it and its practices. In Luther’s consideration of sin and salvation, as one biographer puts it, “There is… something much more drastically wrong with man than any particular list of offenses which can be enumerated, confessed, and forgiven. The very nature of man is corrupt.”⁵ Likewise, what Luther himself considered one of his greatest writings, “The Bondage of the Will,” dealt exactly with this issue, that man was not only exceptionally sinful, but also incapable of finding or obtaining salvation on his own.⁶ This belief drove Luther to oppose the Catholic Church in several important ways, the first being when Luther posted ninety-five theses on the church door in Wittenberg in 1517, which were direct challenges to Catholic doctrines.⁷ This escalated to an intellectual and sometimes violent war between Luther and his followers and the adherents to the Catholic Church.⁸ Martin Luther’s adamant position concerning the bondage of the human will to sin and corruption corresponds directly to the earlier doctrine that man can only be saved through free justification by faith. This is such that the former doctrine bears as much importance as the latter, building the foundation for Luther’s immense opposition to the Catholic Church on issues such as church authority, Biblical authority, indulgences, and marriage.

Luther’s realization from reading and teaching the Bible, and particularly the Apostle Paul, that anyone could obtain salvation simply as a free gift from God, the only prerequisite being belief on Jesus, freed Luther from his own internal spiritual struggles and gave him purpose in countering the Catholic Church’s practices. The Catholic Church taught at the time that a soul would live in a type of limbo to purge it from sin before it could move on to the eternal afterlife. Luther spoke against this on the basis of Paul’s teachings as he states so well in his “Table Talk”, “All heretics have continually failed… that they do not rightly understand or know the article of justification. If we had not this article certain and clear, it were impossible we could criticize the pope’s false doctrine of indulgences…”⁹ He continues with certainty, “If we only permit Christ to be our Saviour, then we have won, for he is the only girdle which clasps the whole body together, as St. Paul excellently teaches.”¹⁰ So Luther not only believed that salvation was a free gift from God, but also that belief in Christ was the only means to obtain it. In Romans, the Apostle Paul states, “…election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.”¹¹ This comforted and reformed Luther for before that “Luther probed every resource of contemporary Catholicism for assuaging the anguish of a spirit alienated from God. He tried the way of good works… He endeavored to avail himself of the merits of the saints…”¹² In summary of this doctrine of justification by faith Luther held so dear, it meant for Luther that the spiritual struggles for salvation from a corrupt world were vanquished through simply believing on Christ Jesus, freeing all people from the tyranny of guilty submission to the Catholic Church and all forms of salvation through works.

Similarly to justification by faith, Luther realized in his studies another important doctrine that though justification came through faith, no person apart from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, one of the members of the Trinity, could believe. This means simply that the human will is incapable of choosing to believe on Jesus because the human will, as with the entire essence of mankind, is in bondage to corruption and sin. One particularly recognized intellectual, Desiderius Erasmus, was pressed to write against Luther, which led to a book titled “On Free Will” and Luther responded with a work titled “The Bondage of the Will.”¹³ In this discussion, Luther revealed to Erasmus, “…you alone, in contrast with all others, have attacked the real thing, that is, the essential issue. You have not wearied me with those extraneous issues about the Papacy, purgatory, indulgences and such like—trifles, rather than issues—in respect of which almost all to date have sought my blood…”¹⁴ Of all the issues that Luther dealt with, this he considered pivotal to everything else. It set the foundation for justification by faith, for faith being a gift from God means justification is henceforth a free gift not won through indulgences, purgatory, or good works. Luther was emphatic on this point throughout all of his teaching whether it was his Bible commentary,¹⁵ “Table Talk,”¹⁶ or discourse on “The bondage of the Will.”¹⁷ As an Augustinian monk Luther quotes Augustine extensively throughout his book on the will. Augustine himself wrote in favor of the idea that mankind apart from God can work nothing toward his or her own salvation including faith except it is given to him or her.¹⁸ The ideology that Luther taught and propagated undermined the political and economic foundations of the Catholic Church.

Practically for Luther, these doctrines of justification by faith and the bondage of the human will to sin means that the Catholic Church’s custom of selling indulgences for salvation or for fewer years in purgatory and their practice of charging admittance to see and worship relics for the same purpose was blatant fraud. As the biographer Bainton states about Luther, “This was too much.”¹⁹ Luther took action, being particularly provoked by one man known for selling indulgences, John Tetzel.²⁰ Luther then began to realize the problems with multitudes of Catholic doctrines and practices beginning as already stated with indulgences, then also the worship of saints, monasticism in general, the papacy, the holy sacraments, marriage and especially that of ministers and priests, and many other precepts.²¹ Luther also put his new found beliefs to practice, like when he married a nun, Katherine Von Bora, and produced a multitude of children.²² This extreme opposition did not settle well with the Catholic Church and Luther was first summoned before Cardinal Cajetan, then issued a papal bull for which he was then summoned before the Diet of Worms.²³ That is where Luther made likely his most famous statement of conviction that, in response to a charge that he renounce his writings, “I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise, here I stand, may God help me.”²⁴ Interestingly, Luther was not executed, though plainly many desired that fate for him. Instead, Luther has become the icon of the Protestant reformation, known for his brash opposition of the Catholic Church.

In the twenty-first century, Luther still affects modern culture and the modern church with his ideologies concerning justification by faith and, though less recognized, but equally important, the concept of the bondage of the human will to sin. There is even a denomination that bears the title of Lutheran. In an introduction to the book titled “The bondage of the Will,” J. I. Packer writes that many other reformers such as “John Calvin… Ulrich Zwingli, Martin Bucer, and all the leading Protestant theologians of the first epoch of the Reformation, stood precisely on the same ground here,” that of Luther’s ideologies concerning will and justification by faith.²⁵ One has only to see that over fifty percent of Americans in the United States label themselves as Protestants to realize how much of an influence Luther has been throughout history as one of the most pivotal people in a movement that has shaped entire cultures and countries.²⁶ J. I. Packer quotes insightfully an editor on Luther as stating concerning the book “The Bondage of the Will” that “Whoever puts this book down without having realized that evangelical theology stands or falls with the doctrine of the bondage of the will has read it in vain.”²⁷ Likewise, anyone who has read into the man Martin Luther without realizing the foundational doctrines of justification by faith and the bondage of the human will as how Luther describes being the “essential issue… the vital spot,” has studied Luther in vain.²⁸ To understand Luther’s doctrine is to understand his influence, his character, his passion, and his God.

Notes

1. Roland H. Bainton (1995), Here I Stand: A life of Martin Luther, (New York : Meridian), xii, 19.
2. Ibid, 25-26.
3. Ibid, 48-49.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid, 41.
6. Martin Luther (1957), The Bondage of the Will, (Michigan: Fleming H. Revell), 40.
7. Bainton, Here I stand, 60-61.
8. Ibid, 63-64.
9. Martin Luther (1995), Table talk of Martin Luther, (Michigan: Baker Books), 188.
10. Ibid.
11. Rom. 11:5-6 (King James Version).
12. Bainton, Here I stand, 40.
13. Ernst F. Winter (1961), Discourse on Free Will, (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing), v.
14. Luther, The bondage of the Will, 319.
15. Martin Luther (2002), Faith and freedom: an invitation to the writings of Martin Luther, (New York: Vintage), 90.
16. Luther, Table Talk, 186.
17. Luther, The bondage of the Will, 319.
18. Aurelius Augustine, A Treatise on Grace and Free Will, http://www.lgmarshall.org/Augustine/augustine_willgrace.html.
19. Bainton, Here I stand, 60.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid, 15, 106.
22. Luther, Faith and Freedom, 245.
23. Peter Manns (1982), Martin Luther: an illustrated biography, (New York: Crossroad), 221-222.
24. Luther, Faith and Freedom, 20.
25. Luther, The bondage of the Will, 58.
26. CIA, World Fact Book, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html.
27. Luther, The bondage of the Will, 58.
28. Ibid, 319.

Bibliography

Augustine, Aurelius. A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. http://www.lgmarshall.org/Augustine/augustine_willgrace.html

Bainton, Roland H. (1995). Here I Stand: A life of Martin Luther. New York : Meridian.

Brian Tierney (1977). Martin Luther –Reformer or Revolutionary. New York: Random House, Inc.

Luther, martin (2002). Faith and freedom: an invitation to the writings of Martin Luther. New York: Vintage.

Luther, Martin (1995). Table talk of Martin Luther. Michigan: Baker Books.

Luther, Martin (1957). The Bondage of the Will. Michigan: Fleming H. Revell.

Manns, Peter (1982). Martin Luther: an illustrated biography. New York: Crossroad.

Winter, Ernst F. (1961). Discourse on Free Will. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing.

Back to blogging

Well, it has been over six months since I last posted on this blog. A lot has happened since then and I cannot say that I have much motivation to continue blogging. I do like being able to write book reviews and every now and again argue with an atheist or two, but in general, blogging I must admit is very impersonal. Perhaps I will start posting again, but the goal or the result of such activity I cannot see.

So until later then,

~Jahothanan

And the snow came down down down…

Okay,  normally I don’t like saying things political, but I can’t help myself this time.

IT IS FREAKING COLD OUT!!!

Okay, so that means little, but the fact of the matter is that many places are having record cold winters. Not just Washington State (where I reside). Texas had an unusual snow fall. Bagdad last summer had snow (explain that to me). Chicago is having extremely cold weather. Everywhere I hear about is having unusually cold weather. The only people having unusually hot weather are the global warming advocates who think everything is going to burn up.

Now, the excuse I hear about the cold weather is that the polar ice caps are melting so we are feeling the cold leaving the earth’s poles. That’s nice, but there is absolutely no evidence of that. Al Gore used computer generated images for his film or just took clips from other fictional movies. There are no instruments to measure all of the ice in the arctic and antarctic. As a matter of fact, in the 1990s they closed down a lot of the Siberian measuring stations. The global temp. spiked at the time. I bet the average temp. would go down if they reopened those stations.

Well, okay, I went on my little rant about global warming. I hope you don’t mind. If you are interested further though, here are some good vids on global warming and Al Gore’s movie. You’ll have a hard time believing it after you hear this guy talk.

Oh yeah, and this is also a good link: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57605

Christmas Carols

Going caroling is relatively a lost art these days. In the past few years, my church college group has gone caroling in some nursing homes. This year, we will be going to an apartment building. You don’t see mahy people braving the cold to do that anymore.

So, if you are reading this, what is your favorite Christmas carol? Every year, I find another that I like, not one I’ve never heard before, but one that kind of grows on me, if you understand my meaning.

Anyway, Merry Christmas and I hope you get to sing a lot of Christmas carols this season.

Christmas Traditions

Christmas is right around the corner and everyone is going in every direction to buy gifts, decorate, buy Christmas trees, plan parties, send cards, and many many more things.

Well, I’d like to ask you all about Christmas traditions. We just got a tree today and that in itself is a tradition not unfounded in the Bible, but actually prophesied by Isaiah.

For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. -Isaiah 55:12-13

What sorts of traditions do you have during Christmas? Do you know the origins of them? Maybe you would not mind sharing some with us. Perhaps it will help many of us with our own celebrations this year.

Thanks to all for visiting and Merry Christmas!

School’s OVER!

Yay! School is over for the year. Now I just need to focus on applying to Hillsdale and getting my textbooks for next quarter.

Oh yes, and get ready for Christmas, everyone’s favorite holiday (or at least it should be ). Anyhow, I’m too happy and excited to try to think of a post right now, so Merry Christmas everyone!

A passage for this season:

1John.4 (KJV)

[1] Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
[2] Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
[3] And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
[4] Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
[5] They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
[6] We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
[7] Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
[8] He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
[9] In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
[10] Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
[11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
[12] No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
[13] Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
[14] And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
[15] Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
[16] And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
[17] Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
[18] There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
[19] We love him, because he first loved us.
[20] If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
[21] And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/k/kjv/

I love verse 10. It really demonstrates the necessity for Christ coming into this world to die for our salvation. Is it not wonderful that we can now know love for God and for one another through fellowship because of Christ’s love demonstrated by His actions on our behalf?

Merry Christmas everyone!

Free Hugs Campaign

This is really funny and kind of cool.

Here is what it says on the official website at http://www.freehugscampaign.org/:

“How it all started:

I’d been living in London when my world turned upside down and I’d had to come home. By the time my plane landed back in Sydney, all I had left was a carry on bag full of clothes and a world of troubles. No one to welcome me back, no place to call home. I was a tourist in my hometown.

Standing there in the arrivals terminal, watching other passengers meeting their waiting friends and family, with open arms and smiling faces, hugging and laughing together, I wanted someone out there to be waiting for me. To be happy to see me. To smile at me. To hug me.

So I got some cardboard and a marker and made a sign. I found the busiest pedestrian intersection in the city and held that sign aloft, with the words “Free Hugs” on both sides.

And for 15 minutes, people just stared right through me. The first person who stopped, tapped me on the shoulder and told me how her dog had just died that morning. How that morning had been the one year anniversary of her only daughter dying in a car accident. How what she needed now, when she felt most alone in the world, was a hug. I got down on one knee, we put our arms around each other and when we parted, she was smiling.

Everyone has problems and for sure mine haven’t compared. But to see someone who was once frowning, smile even for a moment, is worth it every time.”

Atheism: is there sufficient morality?

In my discussions with atheists, the issue of morality comes up an awful lot. Many of them claim that ethics and morality is relative to society or the individual or they say it is “culture-dependant.” They mean that morality changes over time and that it is not absolute. What may be “right” for one person or one culture may not be “right” for another person or culture depending on the time, place, and technology.

As a Christian, my morality is and must be based on the Bible because it is an unchangeable concrete foundation for all morality and ethics. The thing about that is, though, that man is fallen. For anyone to deny that man is fallible and corruptable, they are either a lyer or just plain stupid. It is everywhere. We see it in the news everyday. We hear about it on the radio. We often times witness its horrors first hand. Even ourselves, we are corruptable and tend toward bad behavior.  I do not think this fact is disputable.

That being said, it is of utmost importance to me as a Christian, to share my faith in Christ, the only means I see for hope of a more perfect, good, and holy existence, not in this world by trying to create a utopian society, but after death.

For the atheist, though, I do not understand why they feel the necessity to challenge Christians. If they are right, what difference does it make? People will eventually die and that is the end of it, no matter how much money or pleasure you amase to yourself in this world. However, if the Christian is right, would it not be advisable that as many people as possible come to faith in Christ?

If there is no God and people believe in Christianity or some other religion, what ultimate difference does it make? But, if God does exist and people do not believe in him, we are all in a lot of trouble since we decided not to follow God’s morality, but our own or some culture’s morality. In either case, as a religious person, and I believe as a Christian, I will always have the upper hand.

To depend on a changing morality, one that either changes over time or is relative to the person or culture creates a delema when one wants to challenge someone else’s actions. As a Christian, with an unchanging moral foundation, I do believe I have the right to challenge others on their behavior.

This is not to say that everything must be exactly the same between cultures and people, but that there are certain underlying principles that all people must abide by. Those are moral principles. Not everything deals with morality and so it is wrong to treat everything as though it did (i.e. some people, and even some Christians, seem to think trivial things such as going 1 or 2 miles over the speed limit is a moral issue). Some things are advisable, but not all things are moral.