Janet Mefferd in Denial
@JanetMefferd Tullian not an antinomian? really? This memento may help you: pic.twitter.com/XNWDfez54j
— Paul M. Dohse (@PaulMDohse) June 23, 2015
@PaulMDohse You’re judging from a one-sentence tweet w/an unreadable link. I’m judging by my lengthy personal conversations with the man.
— Janet Mefferd (@JanetMefferd) June 23, 2015
@JanetMefferd That’s because Luther was an antinomian, so what’s your point? His tweet matches Luther’s mortal/venial law/gospel construct.
— Paul M. Dohse (@PaulMDohse) June 23, 2015
@JanetMefferd Better yet let’s have a discussion about the Heidelberg Disputation and can make a fool out of me. Your place or mine?
— Paul M. Dohse (@PaulMDohse) June 23, 2015
@JanetMefferd Calvin? Please, invite me on your show and let me read excerpts from the Institutes where he proffers perpetual re-salvation.
— Paul M. Dohse (@PaulMDohse) June 23, 2015
@JanetMefferd Tullian is a symptom; the progressive justification of Protestantism, and its sum-zero-life worldview is the root problem.
— Paul M. Dohse (@PaulMDohse) June 23, 2015
@JanetMefferd Um Janet, title of Calvin Institutes 3.14: “The Beginning of Justification. In What Sense Progressive” What’s our first clue?
— Paul M. Dohse (@PaulMDohse) June 23, 2015
@JanetMefferd “The message of free reconciliation with God is not promulgated for 1 or 2 days, but is declared perpetual in the church.”
— Paul M. Dohse (@PaulMDohse) June 23, 2015
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Sean, and others, do any of you know what Janet Mefferd’s background is? Specifically, what is her education? She obviously does not know that Luther advocated the use of state-sponored violence, torture and murder against the Mennonites and other Anabaptists, that Luther was an antisemite, and had horrible demeaning attitudes towards women. On the latter, here are some quotes:
“The word and works of God is quite clear, that women were made either to be wives or prostitutes.”
Martin Luther, Works 12.94
“Men have broad and large chests, and small narrow hips, and more understanding than women, who have but small and narrow breasts, and broad hips, to the end they should remain at home, sit still, keep house, and bear and bring up children.”
Martin Luther, Table Talk
“Even though they grow weary and wear themselves out with child-bearing, it does not matter; let them go on bearing children till they die, that is what they are there for.”
Martin Luther, Works 20.84
“God created Adam master and lord of living creatures, but Eve spoilt all, when she persuaded him to set himself above God’s will. ‘Tis you women, with your tricks and artifices, that lead men into error.”
“We may well lie with what seems to be a woman of flesh and blood, and yet all the time it is only a devil in the shape of a woman.”
“No gown worse becomes a woman than the desire to be wise.”
I could go on and quote his anti-semitic statements too. Oh, and Martin Luther despised reason. Here are some quotes:
“People gave ear to an upstart astrologer [Copernicus] who strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun and the moon. Whoever wishes to appear clever must devise some new system, which of all systems is of course the very best. This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred scripture tells us [Joshua 10:13] that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth.”
Martin Luther, “Works,” Volume 22, c. 1543
“We know, on the authority of Moses, that longer than six thousand years the world did not exist.”
Martin Luther, “Lectures on Genesis”
WRONG LUTHER, we now know that the Earth is 4.54 million years old, and the universe is 13.7 billion years old!
“Reason is the Devil’s greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil’s appointed whore; whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, she and her wisdom … Throw dung in her face to make her ugly. She is and she ought to be drowned in baptism… She would deserve, the wretch, to be banished to the filthiest place in the house, to the closets.”
Martin Luther, Erlangen Edition v. 16, pp. 142-148
Do you ever notice how Luther seems to be obsessed with prostitutes?
“Reason is the Devil’s greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil’s appointed whore; whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, she and her wisdom … Throw dung in her face to make her ugly. She is and she ought to be drowned in baptism… She would deserve, the wretch, to be banished to the filthiest place in the house, to the closets.”
Martin Luther, Erlangen Edition v. 16, pp. 142-148
“There is on earth among all dangers no more dangerous thing than a richly endowed and adroit reason… Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed.”
Martin Luther, quoted by Walter Kaufmann, The Faith of a Heretic, (Garden City, NY, Doubleday, 1963), p. 75
Also, Luther was an advocate of drinking alcohol in excessive amounts. I could go on, but Luther’s quotes make me ill and nauseous. Obviously, Janet Mefferd has studied Christian history well.
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Very apt as I am putting together tomorrow’s radio program. I may even use it.
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Ryan,
I don’t think it would really matter what these quotes would suggest about Luther’s character. They seem to have an uncanny ability to be able to separate character from doctrine. I think they would simply find some way to worm around it and make excuses for it. It is almost sociopathic, really.
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Sorry, I meant to say that Janet Mefford has not studied Christian history well.
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And thanks Paul! I’m going to be listening to all your Heidelberg Disputation Presentations this weekend while hiking up the mountain near my office. :o)
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Andy, you’re absolutely right And thank-you, but I’m fully aware of all of that. As with Calvin, the excuse usually goes along the lines of “he was a man of his times”. Borrowing an idea from John Immel’s book, it is almost as if sin is defined by what era you live in. In other words, it is defined by time. A New Calvinist preacher actually told me “It is okay for Robert Lewis Dabney to have been a racist becuase everyone was racist back then.” You can’t make this stuff up!
I’m white and my wife is black, and thankfully we live in a time when we can have a good laugh at Dabney’s racist stupidity. In the future, we’ll no doubt look back at Piper, Mahaney, and Mohler, and do the same thing.
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And another thing… sometimes we have to bring these quotes to the attention of other Christians. It is a bit of a shock tactic, but on occasion it gets the old gears turning in their minds.
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