The Protestant's Dilemma by Devin Rose Read Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Devin Rose
millennia after Jesus Christ cannot trust with certainty what we have been taught about him. We’re left to sift through the sparse rubble of (allegedly) historical documents and piece together a puzzle for which we don’t have the complete picture. We surely believe that God would never leave us in such a state; but if Protestantism is true, he has.
PART 2: THE BIBLE AND TRADITION
7: MARTIN LUTHER AND THE CANON
IF PROTESTANTISM IS TRUE,
It’s okay to remove books from the New Testament canon if you judge them to be non-inspired.
The canon of the New Testament slowly took shape over the first 300 years of Christianity. Some books, like the four Gospels, were widely accepted early on, whereas others were doubted by many for a long time. But by the fifth century, the New Testament canon of twenty-seven books was firmly settled. In spite of this, over a thousand years later, Martin Luther dismissed four of those books when he translated the New Testament into German.
Four on the Chopping Block
Martin Luther was excommunicated in the year 1521. 23 The following year, he published his German New Testament but relegated four of the books to the end with this preface: “Up to this point we have had to do with the true and certain chief books of the New Testament. The four which follow have from ancient times had a different reputation.” 24 Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation were the books whose inspiration he rejected.
Here is an excerpt from his introduction to James and Jude:
I do not regard it as the writing of an apostle; and my reasons follow. In the first place it is flatly against Paul and all the rest of Scripture in ascribing justification to works. . . . This fault, therefore, proves that this epistle is not the work of any apostle. . . . But this James does nothing more than drive to the law and to its works. . . . He mangles the Scriptures and thereby opposes Paul and all Scripture. . . . Therefore, I will not have him in my Bible to be numbered among the true chief books.
Concerning the epistle of Jude, no one can deny that it is an extract or copy of Peter’s second epistle, so very like it are all the words. He also speaks of the apostles like a disciple who comes long after them and cites sayings and incidents that are found nowhere else in the Scriptures. 25
So Luther submitted the books of the Bible to his own doctrine and found them incompatible with it. 26 He also judged that Jude was merely a modified copy of 2 Peter, and added his opinion that its unique sayings are further reason to reject it. Luther excoriated Revelation as well, denying that an apostle wrote it or that the Holy Spirit inspired it. 27 These four books were placed in an appendix in an effort to drop them from the New Testament entirely.
BECAUSE CATHOLICISM IS TRUE,
God guided the early Church to discern the New Testament, and no man afterward can change it.
It might appear at first that Luther was merely trying to be historically accurate in rejecting these books, since three of the four were not universally accepted early on in the Church. However, it is clear that Luther denied the inspiration of these books primarily for theological, not historical, reasons. Sure, the early doubts about these books made his claims more palatable. But in truth, these books either contained teachings that directly contradicted the novel doctrines he was proposing (like sola fide ), or he simply did not think much of them.
If he had rejected them for purely historical reasons, he should have also rejected 2 Peter and 2 and 3 John, which were also not universally attested to in the first centuries of the Church. But he didn’t reject those, because he didn’t find anything in them that disagreed with his own theological opinions. His solution was to override historical concerns altogether and appeal to no authority but his own personal discernment. Even though this particular assertion of Luther’s did
PART 2: THE BIBLE AND TRADITION
7: MARTIN LUTHER AND THE CANON
IF PROTESTANTISM IS TRUE,
It’s okay to remove books from the New Testament canon if you judge them to be non-inspired.
The canon of the New Testament slowly took shape over the first 300 years of Christianity. Some books, like the four Gospels, were widely accepted early on, whereas others were doubted by many for a long time. But by the fifth century, the New Testament canon of twenty-seven books was firmly settled. In spite of this, over a thousand years later, Martin Luther dismissed four of those books when he translated the New Testament into German.
Four on the Chopping Block
Martin Luther was excommunicated in the year 1521. 23 The following year, he published his German New Testament but relegated four of the books to the end with this preface: “Up to this point we have had to do with the true and certain chief books of the New Testament. The four which follow have from ancient times had a different reputation.” 24 Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation were the books whose inspiration he rejected.
Here is an excerpt from his introduction to James and Jude:
I do not regard it as the writing of an apostle; and my reasons follow. In the first place it is flatly against Paul and all the rest of Scripture in ascribing justification to works. . . . This fault, therefore, proves that this epistle is not the work of any apostle. . . . But this James does nothing more than drive to the law and to its works. . . . He mangles the Scriptures and thereby opposes Paul and all Scripture. . . . Therefore, I will not have him in my Bible to be numbered among the true chief books.
Concerning the epistle of Jude, no one can deny that it is an extract or copy of Peter’s second epistle, so very like it are all the words. He also speaks of the apostles like a disciple who comes long after them and cites sayings and incidents that are found nowhere else in the Scriptures. 25
So Luther submitted the books of the Bible to his own doctrine and found them incompatible with it. 26 He also judged that Jude was merely a modified copy of 2 Peter, and added his opinion that its unique sayings are further reason to reject it. Luther excoriated Revelation as well, denying that an apostle wrote it or that the Holy Spirit inspired it. 27 These four books were placed in an appendix in an effort to drop them from the New Testament entirely.
BECAUSE CATHOLICISM IS TRUE,
God guided the early Church to discern the New Testament, and no man afterward can change it.
It might appear at first that Luther was merely trying to be historically accurate in rejecting these books, since three of the four were not universally accepted early on in the Church. However, it is clear that Luther denied the inspiration of these books primarily for theological, not historical, reasons. Sure, the early doubts about these books made his claims more palatable. But in truth, these books either contained teachings that directly contradicted the novel doctrines he was proposing (like sola fide ), or he simply did not think much of them.
If he had rejected them for purely historical reasons, he should have also rejected 2 Peter and 2 and 3 John, which were also not universally attested to in the first centuries of the Church. But he didn’t reject those, because he didn’t find anything in them that disagreed with his own theological opinions. His solution was to override historical concerns altogether and appeal to no authority but his own personal discernment. Even though this particular assertion of Luther’s did
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