Theology 1.0: How would Luther view Calvin's TULIP?

Luther vs Calvin?

Despite being two of the three spearheads of the Protestant Reformation (the third was Ulrich Zwingli), Martin Luther and John Calvin never personally met and only had one letter exchange. Furthermore, they were separated by geography (Calvin lived in France and Switzerland; Luther lived in Germany) and time (Calvin started towards the end of Luther's life).

While it is believed that some level of Calvin's views were influenced by Luther, it is debatable whether Luther would have concurred with Calvin. In this post, I would explore the TULIP of Calvin through the eyes of Luther.

Total Depravity

Both Luther and Calvin would agree on Total Depravity the most -- that human nature is corrupted and incapable of doing good unless transformed by Christ.

Luther adds on to state that while in creation humanity was not corrupt, original sin infected humanity to the extent that the humanity by nature and action is irredeemable.

Unconditional Election

This will be where Luther partially departs. While Luther would agree that God chooses to save individuals based on faith, he was not consistent whether people will be saved based on the faith given to those that believe, or foreseen faith based on faith shown by the repentant.

Limited Atonement

While Calvinists tend to believe that Christ died for the faithful, Luther believed that Christ died for all humanity. However, do note that Luther himself was not consistent on this, and his earlier works argued for that salvation was limited to the faithful.

Irresistible Grace
In the Bondage of Will, Luther denies that God forces people to convert. However, he also asserts that salvation was based on God's work alone.

In other words, God's grace was resistible, but it was based on God's work alone.

Perseverance of Saints

This is where Luther clearly departs from Calvin the most.

To Luther, God will ensure the salvation of the elect, but not everyone who is born again is among God’s elect, Apostasy is possible. This counters Calvin's narrative where true apostasy is not possible.

Conclusion

While it may be tempting to call Luther a 2.5 to 3.5 of a 5-point Calvinist, one must bear in mind that a few caveats:

A) Luther and Calvin focused on different issues. Luther's focus was on the justification based on faith, while Calvin was more primed on understanding the sovereignty  of God.

B) Their personalities were different. Luther spoke off the cuff a lot of the times. Our ideas of theology is based collection of his sayings (mainly by his follower Philip Melanchthon)

Calvin was quiet, reserved and collected. Calvin himself managed to write his thoughts down clearly in Institutes of Christian religion.

C) Luther was not explicitly asked to addressed TULIP. TULIP as a theological concept was formed in response to Jacob Arminius's views.

For reference:

Gospel Coalition

Alternative Culture: Tragedy in school

 

Students setting up an edible garden, taken April 2021

Recently, Singapore experienced a murder in school . I do not want to write exactly about what happened.

In fact, what really surprised me was that numerous people from reddit to Facebook have chimed in. And to some extent, I understand. After all, everyone wants to rationalise such senseless violence. A volatile, unpredictable world can be scary for one to accept.

Senseless violence

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” -- Luke 13: 1-5

'We cannot make sense of what happened' -- Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong 

In a way, there is no sense to this violence. For the Christian, it is a recognition that this earthly realm is sinful and broken. It should wake us up from complacence and call us to repentance.

And that is the learning point I want to take from it.

My confession: Samson the great moral failure

 

Hercules from the game SMITE

Synopsis of Judges 13 - 16
It started like a classic story. The ancient Israelites did evil in God's eyes, and He allowed the Philistines to oppress them. Yet God did not abandon his people by promising them a man to deliver them from the Philistines.

Samson was that man. With God's blessing, Samson was a man of great strength. He achieved great feats like killing a lion with his bare heads, and killing a thousand men with a donkey's jawbone.

Unlike the preceding judges, Samson did not follow the laws of his people. He wanted to marry outside his tribe, ate unclean food, and never seemed to develop in character. Even till the end, he never sought to follow God, but focused his life (and death) on revenge. 

Samson was a man of great gifts, but was also a great moral failure.

Cu Chuliann from the game SMITE

Parallels to mythologies
One thing interesting in my readings is that the Samson seems to fulfil the heroic archetype in most mythological stories I know.

In Greek/Roman mythology, Hercules is blessed with strength and sought to overcome the trials laid before him. Thor fulfils this role in the Norse tales, Horus in the Egyptian religion and Sun Wukong in Chinese legends. In Celtic myths, Cu Chulainn is the hero.

Even some of the deeds are similar. Hercules slayed the Nemean lion, while Samson killed a lion. Both Hercules and Samson were betrayed by women.  Cu Chulainn was weakened (and killed) only when he broke his taboo, and Samson was weakened when he broke his.

Yet unlike most of these heroes, Samson shows no improvement in his morals. From the start he started seeking things for his self gratification, even though he was an appointed judge of Israel. In his last prayer he still sought revenge for himself, rather than to free God's people.

Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes."
(Judges 16: 28)

What can we learn from Samson?
Despite his moral failure there a few lessons we can learn from this:
1) Be careful worship people with great gifts

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
(2 Peter 2:1-3)

In our meritocratic Singapore (and maybe world), there is a tendency to follow or listen  people who are seemingly gifted or produce great results. Yet we forget that our human idols are just that -- merely human, and therefore are open to selfishness and manipulation.

For instance, the evangelist Ravi Zacharias misused his reputation to manipulate women. This came as a shock to the Christian community as Zacharias was well-know for his oratorical skills and converts. 

2) Jesus is greater and better

He [Jesus] said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
(Luke 24:44)

For my Christian readers, we must interpret our heroes and our own lives in the light of our saviour Jesus. Jesus is a way better example and hero than Samson.

He [Jesus] grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
(Isaiah 53: 2-3)

As described by Isaiah, Jesus was not attractive by contemporary standards (of that time). Jesus did not use his outward appearance (beauty or majesty) to attract us to the message, but in his personhood.

Alternative Culture: Falcon and the Winter Soldier theological review

 

Many minor things right, few major things wrong

It is hard to describe my feelings about the show. On one hand I enjoyed the fast-paced action scenes and the redemptive arc of the new Captain America. On the other hand, it is over sympathetic to terror and violence, making it too cringed to watch. Regardless, let me go through the rights and wrongs of the film.

Synopsis
Falcon and the Winter Soldier begins like a buddy cop movie. Both heroes, with little love for each other, are forced to work together for the sake of countering the terrorist group called the Flag Smashers led by a charismatic Karli.

Meanwhile, the mantle of Captain America has been passed down to John Walker, a highly decorated American soldier. This caused further conflict as both Falcon and the Winter Soldier consider themselves the true heirs of Captain America legacy.

To complicate things further, our heroes rope in dubious characters like Zemo and Carter to aid their cause.

The minor rights
Americans can get along with each other
In half a breather episode, the show portrays the great potential when people from different background works together. This is most prominent when Falcon's neighbours, together with the Winter Soldier, chip in to help out his financial situation.

For a brief moment in time, it reminded me what America is actually like. Race was no issue when it came to helping each other. This ideal echoes the ideal Christian community,

For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him -- Romans 10:12

Importance of closure

Another major win is that the series showed that the Winter Soldier struggle with his past. He attempted to right the wrongs by going after the people that manipulated him.

However, he forgot that even such drastic actions failed to redeem him from his past actions. The only way for him to get any closure was to confront his sins and the people he wronged, rather than doing even more deeds. The action has to be relevant to the intention.

This is similar to the Christian concept of forgiveness, where it is not something that we do to redeem ourselves (but rather what Christ has done for us).

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us -- Ephesians 1:7-8

The major wrongs
Although the movie gets many things right, it gets major things wrong. This really hindered my enjoyment of the series as it goes ventures slightly into asinine logic.

Activism vs Terrorism
The one of the major flaws of the show is to portray the Flag Smashers as misguided "activists" rather than violent terrorists. This despite the fact that the Flag Smashers killed guards, and Walker's partner Lemar, and attempted to murder the world leaders.

Their aims were also laughable. The Flag Smashers' goals were poorly defined from the start, and their methodology less so. To summarise, they wanted to displaced the people in authority via the use of violence, and that will somehow garner global support for their cause.

I knew it was weird the moment I rooted for Zemo's and Walker's solution to lethally eliminate the Flag Smashers, compared to Falcon's illogical solution.

Falcon's view on politics
Falcon's political speech in the last episode was as childish as Greta Thunberg yelling at the United Nations. He claimed that the reason why the Flag Smashers rose to power was due to the incompetency of the world government. 

He basically asks the world government to "do better", and claims that they can "move borders" and "feed a million people" with ease.

Falcon seems to forget that the world government has an impossible task on its plate. Half the world's population had reappeared, and they are trying to solve problems of congestion with limited resources. Basically, you cannot house and feed everyone if you do not have enough buildings or food.

Conclusion: A wasted opportunity
Falcon and the Winter Soldier could have been so much more, but wasted its potential in childish view of  politics and activism.

For another take: 
Forbes's review

With due respect: Later Christians invented a divine Jesus!

One of the common accusations is that Jesus was just a person who became a legend and eventually God. In other words, Jesus was retconned as God by later Christians.

1 Corinthians 15

However, a reading of Paul's writings will disprove that notion. In the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul recites the earliest Christian creed (1 Cor 5: 3–8). 

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. -- 1 Corinthians 5: 3–8

Paul states that more than 500 hundred people saw Jesus die and came back to life (in fulfillment of the Scriptures; which showed that Jesus was who he claimed to be, i.e. God.).

Note that 1 Corinthians is estimated to be written around 54 AD, about 20 years after Jesus’s execution. Thus Paul’s claim could have been easily challenged by other Christians. As his record of events is backed by eyewitnesses and other apostles, it showed that Christians had regarded Jesus as God from the start.

Pliny the Younger
In 112 AD, Pliny the Younger (a Roman governer) wrote a letter to the Roman Emperor on the policy towards Christians (i.e. how to persecute Christians). In it, he described the religious practices of the Christians. He mentioned that Christians worshiped Jesus and even practised the a ritual of communal eating (i.e. the Holy Communion).

Other sources of early Christian worship are recorded by historians Josephus, Tacitus and Suetonius.

Conclusion

Early Christians did worship Jesus as God.

Alternative Culture: WandaVision theological review

 

Recently, I managed to watch the long awaited series WandaVision on Disney Plus. As a result, I will do a theological review of it by discussing some of the events of the series. Thus there are SPOILERS ahead.

Synopsis
Unable to cope with her grief of losing Vision, Wanda creates a reality based on TV sitcoms from the 1950s to early 2000s. In this reality, the citizens of West View are brainwashed in becoming extras. Hence the agency SWORD and the FBI dispatch agents to rescue West View and to investigate the cause of Wanda's mental breakdown.

Comforting Lies vs Hurtful Truth
One of the theme's explored by the show is the question of whether Wanda's reality is whether it is beneficial to Wanda (and the residents of West View). Wanda created a family for herself, and a simple, carefree life for her neighbours. (While it is not explicitly implied, Wanda did provide for their town's basic needs as well as making relatives of the residents forget them and thus worry.)

This weirdly echoes the attitude of our current world, which advocates for changing current realities to avoid serious conversations. For instance, sports authorities rather let transgenders have an unfair advantage in woman's sports than to deal with serious repercussions of it. The Washington Post would rather maintain the narrative that Trump is evil bully rather than to give a truthful nuance report.

Why is that so? Because it is so much easier to live in created falsehood in which we are heroes, or have "made it" in life. Real life is tough, competitive and merciless. Yet it is real. If we are unable to identify reality, we will be ill-suited to come up with pragmatic or realistic solutions to our circumstance.

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. -- Romans 1:25

Question of identity
Another theme that pleased me was the conclusion of the battle between the two Visions. There is the Vision which Wanda conjured up (Wanda's Vision), and the other which was reassembled from the original Vision's destroyed body (Body Vision).

The Body Vision was programmed to eliminate Wanda and Wanda's Vision, as SWORD saw them both as a threat to humanity. During the confrontation between the two Visions, Wanda's Vision rightly brings up the ship of Theseus argument: Who is the real Vision? 

After all, Wanda's Vision has the personality of the original vision but not his body. Body Vision has the physical parts of original Vision but not his personality. Only by sharing memories, does Body Vision finally make the right decision and deicide to abandon his programming.

This parallels the Christian concept of salvation -- without the Holy Spirit, humans will never convert accept Christ. Our inherent nature or "programming" is geared towards rejecting Christ. Only via the Holy Spirit will we be able to go on the right path of salvation.

The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. -- Romans 8:7-9

Conclusion
There are things I did not like about WandaVision, especially the stuff that were not logical.

The Director of Sword randomly decides to shoot to two unarmed children. Wanda is portrayed as a hero who sacrificed her dream instead of an anti-villain who brained-washed civilians. A FBI agent can be expelled by SWORD despite it being a cooperative investigation.

In addition, the build-up was slow; it took three episodes to finally establish the plot.

Despite this, I still enjoyed WandaVision and encourage people to watch it.

With Due Respect: Did Martin Luther kill himself?

 

Recently, I have encountered some articles which claimed Martin Luther, one of the Protestant Reformists, killed himself, instead of dying of chest pains, or stroke. 

While the sources seemed to rely on fringe Catholic propaganda, I feel I must deal with this claim.

Poor sourcing

Much of the evidence comes from an alleged eyewitness called Ambrosio Kudtfeld. According to Kudtfeld, Luther hung himself after suffering a mental breakdown. 

However, none of Luther's contemporaries was "Kudtfeld". Luther's confidents (such as Philip Melanchthon and Katrina Luther) are well-recorded, but none of them mentioned a "Kudtfeld".

Conclusion

In a world of propaganda and fake news, we Christians must be wary of what sources we used.

For more reading
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