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Will the Theologians Please Sit Down  /  Chapter 15: Luther, theologian in sheep's clothing  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 6
The transcript contrasts Luther’s “gospel of easy believism” with the Anabaptists’ insistence that Christ requires “an obedient, love, faith relationship” and “real fruit”; what parts of Jesus’ teachings (as you read the Gospels) most strongly support or challenge Bercot’s framing of what saving faith entails?
Another way to ask: The chapter contrasts “easy believism” with a faith that obeys and produces real fruit. In the Gospels, which teachings of Jesus most support or most challenge Bercot’s view of what saving faith is?

Direct Answer The transcript itself doesn’t list specific Gospel passages beyond Matthew 25:40, but it strongly frames Jesus’ teaching as requiring practical obedience, love, and fruit—not merely verbal belief. So the parts of Jesus’ teachings that would support Bercot’s framing are those that stress doing, following, and bearing fruit; the transcript doesn’t provide material that challenges his framing.

Support from Transcript:

  • Bercot repeatedly labels Luther’s message a “novel doctrine of easy believism” and a “gospel of easy believism.”
  • He says the Anabaptists rejected it because they saw in Scripture that “Christ requires an obedient, love, faith relationship from his disciples.”
  • These Christians taught that true followers “must be children of the kingdom, living by Jesus' teachings, not in word, but in practice.”
  • They must “follow him and produce real fruit.”
  • Bercot criticizes both sides of the Reformation: “Neither the Catholics nor the Reformers taught a Christianity that required fruit.”
  • The one explicit Gospel citation is Jesus’ identification with his brethren (Matt. 25:40), used to show that harming disciples is harming Christ.
Discussion Follow-ups Since the transcript doesn’t quote other Gospel texts, a helpful next step would be to read Jesus’ teachings on fruit and obedience and ask: do we treat them as central or secondary?

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