While looking for a particular quote attributed to Martin Luther, among the many articles in which I found the quote, I found this in an article by Reverend Roland F. Ziegler, Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at Concordia Theological Seminary:
“The doctrine of justification defines who God is: He is the one who was in Christ reconciling the world; He is the one who justifies through faith in Christ (Rom. 3:26). Therefore any concept of God that denies this and believes in a god who has to be reconciled by what man does is idolatrous, even if it manages to include Christ in its scheme: ‘Whoever falls from the doctrine of justification is ignorant of God and is an idolater. Therefore it is all the same whether he then returns to the Law or to the worship of idols; it is all the same whether he is called a monk or a Turk or a Jew or an Anabaptist. For once this doctrine is undermined, nothing more remains but sheer error, hypocrisy, wickedness, and idolatry, regardless of how great the sanctity that appears on the outside.‘ Therefore the doctrine of justification is rightfully called the articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae, the article with which the church stands or falls. . . .’When this article stands, the church stands, when it falls, the church falls.’ (In XV Psalmos graduum 1532-33; WA 40/III.352.3)” (Emphasis added)
The highlighted portion of the above paragraph contains the quote I was looking for. I included the remainder of the section of text from the article because it also includes this statement:
‘Whoever falls from the doctrine of justification is ignorant of God and is an idolater. Therefore it is all the same whether he then returns to the Law or to the worship of idols; it is all the same whether he is called a monk or a Turk or a Jew or an Anabaptist.’ (Emphasis added.)
That we are justified (saved) by faith alone, without the addition of any sort of work by man, was indeed one of the famous ‘five solas’ of the Protestant Reformation (see below), however the debate is not merely a Catholic v. Protestant one. Whether we add to faith the ‘accumulated merits’ of men and call justification a ‘process’; or a person’s ‘autonomous’ decision to choose Christ, asserting that obtaining faith itself is a ‘process’ that begins in man’s ‘natural’ intellect, haven’t we committed the same error?
Just asking……
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The “five solas” is a term used to designate five great foundational rallying cries of the Protestant reformers. They are as follows: “Sola Scriptura” (Scripture Alone); “Sola Gratia” (Grace Alone); “Sola Fide” (Faith Alone); “Solus Christus” (Christ Alone); and “Soli Deo Gloria” (To God Alone Be Glory).
The Battle Cry 
Wow.
Yes, I totally agree. This is not just a protestant/catholic thing. It’s about human goodness and free will…and what we think makes sense in our fallen minds.
How you think about this matter really comes down to how you view the sovereignty and holiness of God AND the deceitfulness and wickedness of the human heart.
On one hand, we are told to choose this day who you will serve…which would seem that God is saying it’s up to us. Take it or leave it.
But, the fact is, just because you have a choice does not mean you are able to make the right choice. And you are still responsible for the wrong one.
It all about how you view the term dead. Do you understand that dead means dead. lifess. Worthless. Decaying. Unable to do anything but rot? You know…dead.
Or, do you think that dead is just a metaphor for not being perfect like God but still good enough to help Him save you.
The verses below don’t say that man is basically good and that they choose God. They say we don’t seek God. They say we are dead in sin, deceitful, wicked, unable to understand God.
When we are quickened…He is the One who does the quickening…He is the One who draws.
He is the One who predestines and chooses. He is the one who justifies and sanctifies and He is the One who glorifies.
We are just slaves to sin, spiritually dead and children of wrath. Until…He saves us.
Ephesians 2
1And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
3Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
4But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
The human heart is desperately deceived and wicked…
Jeremiah 17:8-10
9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Romans 3
11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Those of us who love Him and His Son only do so because He first loved us and He called us to Him…
1 John 4
19We love him, because he first loved us.
John 6
36But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.
37All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
John 6
44No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6
65And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
Romans 8
28And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
29For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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The 5th talk is on Pelagianism…which is what we are talking about here.
http://kittykit.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/the-gnostics/
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“How you think about this matter really comes down to how you view the sovereignty and holiness of God AND the deceitfulness and wickedness of the human heart.”
If we can get those two right, the nature of God and the nature of man, just about everything else falls into place. By ‘right’ I mean agree with what God has revealed in His written word.’
Phil Johnson’s series is most excellent!
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