Martin Luther: "Justification is the Article by which the Church Stands and Falls"

Friday, September 22, 2023 at 02:46PM
Embryo Parson in 39 Articles, Anglican Formularies, Anglican Realignment, Anglo-Calvinism, Anglo-Catholicism, Calvinism, Caroline Divines, Church Fathers, Church of England, Continuing Anglicanism, Crypto-Puritanism, Dogmatic Theology, Eastern Orthodoxy, English Reformation, Future of Protestantism, Historical Theology, Holy Scripture, John Calvin, Justification By Faith, Lutheranism, Martin Luther, N.T. Wright, New Perspective on Paul, Oxford Movement, Roman Catholicism, The Gospel, Tractarian Divines, Traditional Anglicanism, Why Anglicanism?

N.T. Wright on Martin Luther Not Being All That Right

"The point here being that whenever anyone says 'Luther was wrong,' it doesn’t matter what he says next. As soon as you grant Luther’s error, you raise serious questions as to the legitimacy of the Protestant Reformation."

And that, my friends, is the nub of it.  Sanders, Dunn, Wright, et al. have arguably taken the legs out from under the entire Protestant Experiment. 

What's left?  How about the Catholic Church, East and West, that *stood*, without solafidianism, for 1,000 years before the Great Schism and 1,500 years before Reformation,  and which still stands 500 years after it?  When one carefully and honestly observes the sweep of Protestant history and where it has brought Protestants today, he must ask himself which church truly no longer stands.

See here for McGrath's account of how later Caroline divines began chafing at Luther's error, a version of which unfortunately made its way into certain Anglican formularies.

Article originally appeared on theoldjamestownchurch (http://www.oldjamestownchurch.com/).