Welcome to NotFreeWill.com

With this site I have created a study guide for Martin Luther’s Bondage of the Will and hope to generate interest in both his book and teachings.

How important is the topic of Free-will?

Many, (as in, nearly all) Christians believe that by the power of their ”free- will” they chose to believe in and follow after Christ. Martin Luther, who initiated the Protestant Reformation in 1517, selected free-will as the topic of his most important book. In Bondage Of The Will, Luther complements Desiderius Erasmus for his insight in choosing to debate Luther over the issue of free-will, which is for Luther the essential point of the Reformation and the very heart of the Gospel.

I give you [Erasmus] hearty praise and commendation on this further account—that you alone, in contrast with all others, have attacked the real thing, that is, the essential issue. You have not wearied me with those extraneous’ issues about the Papacy, purgatory, indulgences and such like—trifles, rather than issues—in respect of which almost all to date have sought my blood (though without success); you, and you alone, have seen the hinge on which all turns, and aimed for the vital spot. For that I heartily thank you; for it is more gratifying to me to deal with this issue [free-will], insofar as time and leisure permit me to do so.

Luther was not alone in his assessment that free-will was the essential element of the Reformation. John Calvin wrote,

“The Papists [Catholic Church] … hold that man, through his own free will, returns to God; and on this point is our greatest contest with them at this day.”

Neither did the dispute over free-will begin with Martin Luther and Desiderius Erasmus. Hhistorically free-will was known as Pelagianism, named after its best known adherent and teacher, a monk named Pelagius in the fourth Century A.D. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.) opposed Pelagianism by asserting that salvation is the work of God alone and not of human origin. It was not until 529 A.D., long after the death of Augustine, that the semi-Pelagianism controversy was suppressed, (at least for a time) after the decision of the Synod of Orange. All of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation; Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli opposed the doctrine of free-will as did the pre-Reformation teachers John Wycliffe and John Hus.

More: “The Hinge On Which All Turns”