Skip to content

Add your phone number?

Optional. Nothing is sent unless you choose it.
The Historic Faith
Sign in
All Questions
Question 2
Luther is quoted saying the “highest degree of faith” is believing God is merciful while “sav[ing] so few and damn[ing] so many” and “makes us necessarily damnable”; what kind of worship, love, and assurance would logically grow out of that view, and what kind of spiritual/emotional damage might it produce?
Another way to ask: If you believed God saves very few and damns many, what kind of worship, love for God, and confidence would that create? What spiritual or emotional harm could it cause?

Direct Answer The transcript suggests this view would produce a kind of worship marked by resignation and fear—trying to trust God’s mercy while admitting He may damn most people by sheer will—so assurance becomes fragile and love can feel forced rather than relational.

Support from Transcript:

  • Luther’s “highest degree of faith” is quoted as believing God is merciful while He “saves so few and damns so many.”
  • Luther also says God “according to His own will, makes us necessarily damnable,” which implies people may be unable to do otherwise.
  • Bercot says Luther denied salvation is by “accepting Christ” in a real sense, because only those given faith can believe.
  • He notes evangelicals spent centuries trying to convince the world this arbitrarily predestining God is one “we should love,” implying the emotional difficulty is obvious.
  • Bercot contrasts this with early Christian teaching that people are accountable because they can “avoid evil and choose good.”
Discussion Follow-ups How would this reshape a believer’s sense of God’s nearness—like Father, or like distant sovereign—and what does that do to prayer?

Jumpstarter 2 of 10
Back Questions Next