WE ARE TOLD:
“In reply to the Papal bull Exsurge Domine of Pope Leo X [1520], Martin Luther burned the document and appealed for a general council. In 1522 German diets joined in the appeal, with Charles V seconding and pressing for a council as a means of reunifying the Church and settling the Reformation controversies. Pope Clement VII [1523-34 was vehemently against the idea of a council, agreeing with Francis I of France… Pope Paul III [1534-49, seeing that the Protestant Reformation was no longer confined to a few preachers, but had won over various princes, particularly in Germany, to its ideas, desired a council. Yet when he proposed the idea to his cardinals, it was unanimously opposed. Nonetheless, he sent nuncios throughout Europe to propose the idea. Paul III issued a decree for a general council to be held in Mantua, Italy, to begin on 23 May 1537…. However, the council was delayed until 1545, and, as it happened, convened right before Luther’s death. Unable, however, to resist the urging of Charles V, the Pope, after proposing Mantua as the place of meeting, convened the council of Trento [at that time a free city of the Holy Roman Empire under a prince-bishop], on 13th December 1545…” The Council of Trent, p. 3.
i. c
viii. A summary of Luther’s teaching on Justification by 1537 show that he defined it as follows.
1. It is acquiring a new and clean heart [this is the new birth].
2. It is renewal and forgiveness of sins.
3. It is followed by good works.
ix. Other parts of his teaching that was not correct and can be charged to Melanchthon’s influence were the following.
1. Sin in the flesh is not yet altogether removed or become dead. [This is the concept called Simul Justus et Peccator, simultaneously righteous and yet a sinner.
2. Good works that follow the change of Justification may have sinfulness or imperfection in them.
3. Even though some sin still remains in the justified man, it is not accounted as sin or as a defect for Christ sake who pure grace and mercy is spread over us.
x. It was Philip Melanchthon that changed Luther’s formula of describing Justification, and also influenced Luther concept of the doctrine later. We are told.
“However, Luther was no systematic theologian; he preferred to write in response to particular needs, rather than writing theological textbooks, and the task of consolidating his doctrine was left to others, most notably Philip Melanchthon, who was responsible for the drawing up the famous Augsburg Confession of 1530. It seems that Luther’s doctrine of justification was modified somewhat by his followers, such as Melanchthon …”. Alister E. McGrath, Justification by Faith, p. 55.
xi. Again, we are told that the objective and forensic description of Justification can be attributed to Philip Melanchthon and not Luther.
“Melanchthon gives the following definition of justification: “To be justified does not mean that an ungodly man is made righteous, but that he is pronounced righteous in a forensic manner. “ Augustine had interpreted the latin verb iustficare [“to justify”] as iustum facere [“to make righteous”], but Melanchthon eliminates this idea: justification is about being declared or pronounced righteous, not being made righteous”. Ibid, p. 56.
xii. The fact that Melanchthon influenced Luther’s later expression of the doctrine of Justification can be seen in the following statements.
“We shall first observe similar pre-Reformational views in Melanchthon. But then we shall see him moving from an “analytic” [subjective] to a “synthetic” [objective] understanding of justification. And we shall see how he helped Luther discover and evangelical doctrine of the nature of Faith, the meaning of grace, and the gift of imputed righteousness …. This will become increasingly clear as we investigate how Melanchthon helped Luther discover the Gospel. For Melanchthon made important contributions to the full discovery of forensic justification. Lowell C. Green, How Melanchthon Helped Luther Discover the Gospel, p. xxvii.
xiii. Melanchthon answered and agreed to the charges by Andreas Osiander that there was no place for the indwelling of God in his justification concept, a concept; that abandoned Luther’s teaching for the sake of Aristotelianism.
“Melanchthon was concerned with Osiander’s charge that he had found no pace for the indwelling of God. Melanchthon asserted that they were in accord at this point but clarified this against possible misunderstanding. [1] The righteousness for which the believer waits is not forgiveness of his sins but rather that God may be all in all within him. [2] Although God dwells within His saints, “… nevertheless much impurity, sinfulness, and lust remains in us all …” [3] Therefore, believers should not be made to think that their justification consists in the indwelling of God or in moral perfection [“analytic view”] but shall be comforted with the assurance of God’s mercy”. Ibid, p.231.
xiv. However, Melanchthon did influence Luther with regards to his expression of Justification, Luther never gave up his concept of an indwelling God and a change within the believer as constituting Justification, even though his expressions combined with those of Melanchthon, and Melanchthon sought to subtlety guide his words to express a non-transformative Justification, Here is Luther still embracing a Justification that is inner renewal and refusing to use and “imputation” concept that means “as if”. We are told.
“Melanchthon is trying to get Luther to disavow the position of Augustine, understood as justification based upon an inner renewal. Luther accepts the view of a free imputation without explicitly rejecting Augustine. Furthermore, Melanchthon cannot get Luther to use the word “imputation…” Ibid, p. 255.
xv. However, about two years before his death in 1546, that is, in the year 1543, Luther still held to his original concept of Justification. Here is what he said.
“Where therefore is our completed righteousness? It is Christ our Lord; my righteousness is given me. It is absolute righteousness; verily, my charity is not absolute. Faith here is a work, but works of the Holy Spirit are different from those of the Law. The works of the Holy Spirit are the infusion of charity, hope and faith”. Luther, quoted in. Ibid, p. 193.
xvi. Thus we see that at the time the Council of Trent sat in 1545, a few months before Luther died, Luther still held and taught a subjective change-oriented Justification, with God dwelling in the convert, while Melanchthon and others held a Justification in which God had no place to indwell the believer, who had only an “as-if” imputed righteousness. It was this Melanchthonian concept of Justification that took over the Reformation that the Council of Trent so vindictively attacked and claimed to believe and teach the opposite.
1. The Bible did say that even though the “help” of Justification will come to the Waldensian Christians, which is the Protestant Reformation, some would join to the Reformation with flatteries or the false justification. [Dan. 11:34; Isa. 50:8,9; Jer. 8:10,11; Eze. 13:10].
2. It was also prophesied that some of them who understood the doctrine of Justification shall fall to purify the remnant church even to the time of the end in 1798. This fall starts with a false justification. Dan. 11:35
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