A Response to a Presbyterian Ministers Presentation on the Doctrine of Christ Alone.

The following is a response to a Presbyterian minister's presentation on the Doctrine of Christ Alone.

(Note - The entire Youtube channel entitled "Protestant Witness" was deleted at around about 13 September 2018).

Presbyterian Minister (PM) – Reads out the standard Martin Luther story of a man with a scrupulous conscience who could not find peace with God, even though he spent hours in confession every day as a monk. Luther then reads and studies the scriptures and discovers the gospel and finds peace with God.

The Martin Luther story is simply not believable –

1) The troubled monk suffered from the defect of scrupulosity. Such a defect was an occasion for Luther to invent his own version of Lutheranism, with its many contradictions. It was in fact scrupulosity that caused Martin Luther to invent a false gospel.

2) Luther’s reading of the bible is only his private account of his understanding of the text. There is no mandate, nor principle within the text that promotes the notion of private interpretation of the text as the basis for understanding the gospel, nor for binding any believer to Luther’s version of the gospel. Luther’s adventure with the text is only his own human invention.

3) Luther changed his mind several times throughout his career, indicating there was no divine origin to his Lutheranism. Luther was just an ordinary man who made ordinary mistakes like everyone else.

4) Luther could not have been a reformer. A reform of the church does not occur through the scrupulosity that caused the man to universally deny many all of the central doctrines of historical Christianity. True reform comes from within the church that is consistent with what has always been believed.

5) Luther added the word alone to the bible in several places and attempted to remove several books of the new testament. Evidently Luther’s scrupulosity did not affect him when he decided to add and remove from God’s word.

6) Luther had no authority to invent his own version of the gospel, and no authority to oppose the Roman Catholic Church, which did have authority to teach the one true gospel.

7) Luther’s understanding of faith as an instrument is only his own invention made outside of the text. There is no reason to believe Luther’s version of what faith is and does.

8) The penal substitution theory is only a theory which has many unresolved problems. One problem is the lies involved by the deity who is involved in the so called great exchange.

9) Luther was defeated in debate by John Eck at the Leipzig debate in 1519. The debate demonstrated Luther did not have command of the scriptures and could not defend his novel Lutheran gospel. The Lutheran gospel is only the machinations of a confused mind and an incompetent theologian.

10) Lutherans after Luther do not believe the same content of the Gospel taught by Martin Luther. So even Lutherans find at least some of Luther’s version of the gospel as not compelling. It seems that most of Christendom does not find Luther’s gospel compelling. It’s as though Luther really had no authority at all.

11) Luther had no objective and authoritative way to establish the canon of scripture. Therefore, Luther’s appeal to scripture is only an appeal to Roman Catholic tradition. Luther is then being inconsistent with his opposition to Catholic authority which he both accepts and rejects.

12) Luther had no proof for faith alone theology, but only appealed to several of St Pauls passages to establish his theology. An appeal to a text does not establish a doctrine when 1) the text does not say faith alone, and 2) the text was never understood prior to Luther as meaning faith alone, 3) the text is understood only by Luther and Lutherans as meaning faith alone, when the grammar of the text(s) does not mean faith alone, 4) There are other texts that either explicitly (Jam 2:24) or implicitly (1 Cor 13, Heb 1:11, etc) deny faith alone theology.

13) Luther’s imputation of the righteousness of Christ, whilst the man remains a sinner is a legal fiction unworthy of an all-holy God. Lutheranism both promotes and denies God’s holiness.

14) Lutheran theology is really only a mixture of Roman Catholic truth and human traditions invented by Martin Luther. Luther held to his version of sola scriptora, but ironically also held to many of his own self invented, human traditions.

15) The Lutheran gospel does not attain to peace with God, for the Lutheran gospel is only the invention of a man, Martin Luther, who had no authority to invent his own gospel.

16) The Lutheran gospel is based upon a false understanding of works of the law, faith and grace. Luther assumed one meaning of works, could not properly define faith and grace and then made his argument for faith alone theology. The entire Lutheran edifice is based upon shoddy scholarship concerning the meaning of several words in several passages of the Pauline corpus.

17) One story of a troubled monk is not a universal experience of believers. Many believers do not have the troubles Martin Luther had and many do not find the Martin Luther version of the gospel compelling. The man broke his vows as a monk, then invented his own gospel, with his own invented authority, without reference to historical Christianity. Many do not buy into Luther’s resolution to his own problem, which probably stemmed from his overly strict childhood.

18) Luther was only a man and as such, Lutheranism is a closet humanist based belief system, which is dependent upon the beliefs of only one man and his tenuous, incoherent claims.

19) A Christian can believe in the one true faith without any reference to the Reformation whatsoever. The Reformation occurred at a particular time and place and many Christians prior to and after the Reformation continued to believe what has always been believed by Christians without reference to anything Martin Luther or John Calvin said. For many Christians, the Reformation never happened, and is entirely irrelevant to their faith and relationship to God, and their final salvation. Reformation theology is only subjectively compelling to those who buy into the system with its unproven assumptions and tolerate the many associated problems such as lack of authority, inherent instability within Protestantism and denominationalism.

20) To be a Presbyterian is to buy into the Martin Luther story only in part, without actually following Martin Luther’s theology. The Presbyterians who claim Martin Luther was a Reformer are themselves unconvinced of Martin Luther’s version of the gospel and are therefore not confessional Lutherans. The inherent weaknesses of the Reformation become obvious when Protestants only selectively quote from Luther, whilst also denying, or ignoring much of what Luther taught in other areas of faith and morals. Luther is called a reformer, but almost every
Protestant denomination in practice thinks Luther was also wrong on many points.

21) Even if Roman Catholicism is in error, there is no guarantee that either Martin Luther or John Calvin, or any of the Reformers were right, or partially right, and were in fact almost always wrong. Protestantism bears out the logic of the denial of the authority of the Catholic church to guard the deposit of faith. Once denied, the unresolvable problem of authority to bind and loose within Protestantism provides an occasion for real doubt in the veracity of the truth claims of the Reformers and all subsequent denominational teaching.

PM quotes from Romans 1:16-17 to promote Luthers gospel.

Answer - Citing passages in Romans to establish Luther’s gospel does not in fact establish anything. For Luther’s gospel was not heard of prior to Luther inventing his gospel. The scriptures cannot be used to establish the inventions of one man, or of a group of men, apart from Christian tradition. Quoting Rom 1:16-17 does not mean Luther understood what St Paul was really arguing for. Quoting from Romans only assumes Luther’s novel faith alone gospel is contained in Romans, when in fact Romans was written by St Paul to a Roman Catholic faith community in Rome. Those who initially received the letter were Roman Catholics and not Lutherans. So, Paul wrote about the Roman Catholic gospel to be received by Roman Catholics and to be understood in the Roman Catholic sense in accord with Roman Catholic doctrine and practice. Lutheranism is an artificial construct of Martin Luther, forced upon some passages in Romans, Galatians and Ephesians.

PM – Christ is our only redeemer.

Answer – Christ is the only God man who redeemed men through the cross. But Christ’s sufferings are participated in by Christians, making Christians other redeemers by participation (2 Cor 1:6, Col 2:24) as an imitation of Christ (Gal 2:19-20). Sola Christus is an implicit denial of the redemptive role of suffering and merit of Christians.

Question – If one assumes the reformation never happened, where does a Christian find the gospel of justification by faith alone in church history, or at church council?

PM – Christ alone is all we have.

Answer – False. We have the Father, the Holy Spirit, the church, the sacraments, and the saints with us in our journey. Sola Christus is an implicit denial of all of these other helps given to us by God. To deny the power of God affected through the church is to deny Christ is the Messiah. For the Messiah came to restore Israel as the kingdom of priests through the new Exodus. Christ’s resurrection and ascension into heave was a new Exodus, which caused the birth of the new kingdom of priests. The church is the historical institution which can trace its origin back to Christ and the apostles and which has the function of priest to offer sacrifice to God for sins. The doctrine of Christ alone is only another Lutheran invention that promotes a false understanding of what Christ did, what faith is and what salvation is.

PM – The Roman Catholic church has no saving power in it.

Answer – The history of the Roman Catholic faith demonstrates many sinners have been converted into great saints. For example, saint Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Ambrose, Albert the Great and many others. Luther’s claims are only his claims based upon his own physiological complex derived from his strict childhood.

PM – the gospel is the power of God.

Answer – one of the ironies of the Lutheran gospel is the power of God does not affect righteousness, but only a legal fiction. The Lutheran Christ is an ineffective god who only acts to impute righteousness, without causing righteousness. The Lutheran gospel sadly lacks the power of God.

Question – if the Roman Catholic church does not have the power of God to cause righteousness and justification, why then believe in the Lutheran gospel that expressly teaches men are sinners imputed with righteousness? After all such an imputation is an admission of the lack of the power of God, is it not?

Question – faith alone, Christ alone, grace alone, scripture alone are all mutually exclusive phrases. Why believe in a series of mutually exclusive statements, when none of those phrases are in the scriptures and each phrase excludes the others?

Question – If Presbyterianism is the true faith, then all other Christian believers are in fact, unbelievers. What then happens to all other Christians who do not believe the Presbyterian version of the gospel?

Question – If Presbyterianism is the true faith, then there is statistically only one chance in about 30,000 that a Christian actually believes what God has revealed. All other Protestants are in error on at least one point of doctrine and practice, making all other Protestants believing and acting contrary to the divine will. According to the logic contained within Presbyterianism, Protestantism is a large failure. Why then believe in a system whereby nearly everyone in the system fails to believe and act in accord with God's will?