Since I was born into a catholic family, and only later decided to abandon my parents and pursue a new life following the wise words of Luther, I can say that I have experienced both catholacism and lutherism; the latter having more of an effect on my life. People all across Europe, including myself, dreamt that the Renaisance scholar Erasmus would unite with Luther to preach against the misendeavors of the Roman catholic church. I felt that Erasmus's book "The Praise of Folly" really did capture a lot of what was wrong with the church, and they way in which he brought up ideas of Humanism and Rennaissance to counter the church made his argument extremely viable. However, as I found out later, there was a great difference between my leaders teachings, and what Erasmus believed. As all of you know, Luther used the bible, God's words, to support his claims. Luther wanted to reform the church, especially its imoral and outrageous practices. Erasmus, at it turns out, couldn't care less about salvation. Erasmus supported the Pope! The same pope that was robbing millions of catholics! Erasmus thought rationally about the Renaissance, and doesn't care about the bible! He thinks that Luther has gone too far? Or does the pope just want him to say that?
After pressure from the pope and the King of England, Erasmus picked up his pen and published "On the Freedom of Will" on September 1, 524. Shots were fired at Luther. Erasmus defines what he calls free-will as "a power of the human will by which a man can apply himself to the things which lead to eternal salvation or turn away from them." If Erasmus is telling us that we can simply "turn away" from things that the church preaches, why does he still support the pope? My hero, my savior, and my leader, Luther, replied.
I don't think I have read anything quite like "The Bondage of the Will" It really made me discover for myself what god meant to me as a person. As Luther rightly states, there is no free will, because this just leads to sin. God is who we look towards, and this corrupt, so called scholar should stop preaching his lies! All I hope is thatmore people wake up and read "The Bondage of the Will" to enlighten themselves about such an issue.
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Luther VS Erasmus
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