The Captivation of the Will: Luther vs. Erasmus on Freedom and Bondage by Gerhard O. Forde

Author:Gerhard O. Forde [Forde, Gerhard O.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Published: 2010-12-03T21:16:00+00:00

[T]here has always remained deeply implanted in the hearts of ignorant and learned alike, whenever they have taken things seriously, the painful awareness that we are under necessity if the foreknowledge and omnipotence of God are accepted. Even natural reason herself, who is offended by this necessity and makes such efforts to get rid of it, is compelled to admit it by the force of her own judgment, even if there were no scripture at all. (LW 33:190)

Packer and Johnston translate the Latin a bit more dramatically and, I think, are more true to Luther: "The arrow of conviction has remained, fastened deep in the hearts of the learned and unlearned alike..." (Packer, 218). Luther repeats the same thought a bit later in dealing with the problem of how an act can be done in apparent freedom and contingency and at the same time happen under absolute divine foreknowledge.

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