© R. S. Clark, 2000
I Luther’s Critique of Erasmus (2/3)
II Luther’s Positive Development of the Doctrine of Predestination
from SS (1/3)
1 A fallen sinner is totally unable to cooperate with divine
grace.
2 Salvation is exclusively the result of divine monergism
3 God foreknows what he does and does what he foreknows
4 To say that a fallen sinner has the power to cooperate with
divine grace is a denial of the necessity of Christ’s work.
5 The human will is in bondage to sin because of our union
with Adam in his fall
6 Everything happens according to the divine foreknowledge
and will and therefore whatever occurs is, in this sense, ‘necessary’
but not ‘compulsory’.
7 The regenerate and unregenerate act according to their respective
wills
8 Necessity does not destroy moral responsibility.
9 God’s will is immutable
10 Human free will is a denial of divine freedom
11 ‘Free will’ an ‘empty term’ which should
be discarded
12 Predestination is the sine qua non of assurance
.
13 God has predestined some to eternal life and others to
eternal damnation.
14 Predestination is fundamentally paradoxical.
15 Ought does not imply can (Nominalism over
realism).
16 ‘God preached’ must be distinguished from ‘God
hidden’.
17 Sola gratia, Sola fide denies free will
18 Human inability disproves free will
