Lead Us Not Into Temptation

by Pastor Paul Wolff

Jesus resisted the temptations of the devil out of love for us.

I recently (December 2017) read an article about how the Roman Catholic Pope, Francis, wants to change the wording of the sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “lead us not into temptation” to something more like, “do not let us fall into temptation.” At first this sounds a little wacky, and the news companies telling the story make it seem more so. The Lord’s Prayer was given to us by Jesus nearly 2,000 years ago and has served the church well throughout that time but Pope Francis may have a valid point. Yet, while he may have a valid point regarding the Lord’s Prayer, his solution is still a bit of an an overreaction.

It was reported that Pope Francis thinks that the Sixth Petition sounds like God leads people into temptation, which he is correct in saying would be contrary to Scripture. James 1:13-15 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” No Christian who loves God and His word wants to give the impression that God is the source of temptation or sin. We are the source of our sin. Even the devil cannot make us sin against our will, but can only tempt us to do what is harmful to ourselves and others. Unfortunately, according to our sinful nature, we desire to sin and take pleasure in doing evil.

However, Pope Francis should have read Martin Luther’s explanation to the Sixth Petition in the Small Catechism. Luther writes, “God indeed tempts no one. But we pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us, so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not deceive us nor seduce us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Though we are attacked by these things, we pray that still we may finally overcome them and gain the victory.” It has been nearly 500 years ago that Martin Luther acknowledged that the wording of the Sixth Petition may lead people to wonder if God tempts people to sin, yet he gave a proper explanation of the petition, and did not change the wording.

David prayed something like, “Lead me not into shame”

Lutherans have known about this “problem” for about 500 years, but because of Lutheran Doctrine which properly explains the Scriptures, we trust that God does not lead us into temptation, but leads us to find forgiveness and salvation in Jesus Christ. Yet we still pray the prayer as all other Christians have done since Jesus taught the prayer to His disciples.


There are similar statements in the Psalms. In Psalm 25 David writes, “To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse.” David trusts that God will not let him be shamed or defeated by his enemies, yet he specifically prays that God would not let these things happen.

Likewise in Psalm 27:9, David writes, “Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, O God my Savior.” Again, David is trusting that God will not hide his face from him or turn away in anger and reject him, but he prays that God will not do each of these things.

David does not pray these things because he fears that God would turn against him, but because his worldly enemies want him to be shamed, forsaken and destroyed. Likewise, when Jesus teaches us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation” He doesn’t want us to think there is any chance that God might tempt us to sin, but rather because our enemy, the devil, wants us to fall into sin and follow that broad path that leads to our own destruction, we pray that our Father in heaven would rescue us from sin and temptation.

Jesus endured torment, shame, and death to rescue you from the punishment for your sin.

The Lutheran reformation which began 500 years ago in 1517, was a conservative reformation. Luther worked very hard to conserve every good Scriptural teaching that remained in the Catholic church of his day, so he wouldn’t needlessly burden the people with unnecessary change or turn them against the truth of Christ so that they would reject their salvation. There is nothing wrong with the words of Jesus in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. Jesus was using a figure of speech similar to what David used in the Psalms. 

Christians have been praying this prayer for nearly 2,000 years without thinking that God tempts us to sin, and we can continue to do so for another 2,000 years (or more) if Jesus decides to wait that long before He returns to bring our salvation to its complete fulfillment.

Jesus let Himself be put to shame, and scorned and rejected, even by God the Father, so that He could rescue us from the results of our falling into temptation and sin. Jesus died and was put in a grave so that He would be able to rescue us all from our graves, where we will all find ourselves because of our sin. Because of what Jesus endured for our sake, we trust that God will forgive all our sins and rescue us from all the evil consequences of sin and evil.

500th Anniversary of the Reformation

by Pastor Paul Wolff

Martin Luther posting the 95 Theses on indulgences Sculpture from the Creation Museum

October 31, 2017 is the 500^th anniversary of Martin Luther posting the 95 theses on Indulgences in Wittenberg, Germany. This event sparked the Lutheran Reformation. Luther did not intend to break away from the catholic church. In fact, Luther never broke away from the church, but instead, the Roman Catholic church broke away from its Scriptural foundations and wrongly declared Luther a heretic and excommunicated him.

The Augsburg Confession, and all the confessions in the Book of Concord (Concordia), are clear that the Lutheran doctrine is not only pure Biblical doctrine, but is also consistent with the true orthodox teachings of Christians throughout history. Just as in Biblical times, when the majority of the church decides to take a path away from God, the true believers must break away to keep the truth going. Or, as in the case of the Babylonian Captivity, God protects His faithful people, and takes the rest away, and destroys them.

The Word of God is life and salvation for all who believe.

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther was intending to have a discussion of the anti-Scriptural abuses in the practice of selling and offering indulgences. The Pope took this as an attack on the financial aspect of the church, and condemned Luther for reasons other than his doctrine. Pope Leo X was more interested in power and wealth than doctrine. The main problem with this is that neither power nor wealth saves people. The church ought to be about how Jesus saves us from our sins, by God’s grace through faith, not how rich and powerful the Church can be. Unfortunately, the Roman Catholic church didn’t learn the right lesson, and nearly all the abuses that Martin Luther wrote against are still part of Catholic practice, including veneration of the saints (including the near deification of the blessed virgin mother of our Lord), false teachings on purgatory and good works, and indulgences. In the past 500 years the price of indulgences has been reduced, but the practice of offering indulgences is still practiced in the Roman Catholic church.

Those Lutherans who are still faithful to the Holy Scriptures and to the Lutheran Confessions (Concordia) maintain the same faith as Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, King David, Isaiah and all the prophets, the Twelve Apostles, Saint Paul, and all faithful believers of all time (including those who remain faithful believers in the Roman Catholic Church). We believe that Christ’s Church will continue to the end wherever there are believers, as Scripture promises.

“Now to him (God, the Father) who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)

The Intellectual Brilliance of Martin Luther

by Pastor Paul Wolff

The Reformation

Martin Luther from Holy Cross, Lutheran Church Detroit

When Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses against indulgences on October 31, 1517, he didn’t intend to change the world. He intended to reform the Catholic Church’s teaching to bring it back in line with the true teaching of Holy Scripture. Luther wanted to do this so that people could receive the comfort of the Gospel and be led to trust in Christ for their salvation, instead of being driven away from Christ by false teaching. However, it didn’t happen the way Luther intended. Instead of reforming its doctrine to conform to the truth, the Roman church dug in its heels (so to speak) and held fast to its false doctrine (and the ill-gotten riches which they stole from ignorant parish members) to the extent that by the time of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) they enshrined false practices into dogmas which are still taught in the Catholic Church today. Indulgences, for example, are still issued from the Catholic Church even though Martin Luther clearly showed that they were false five centuries ago.

Martin Luther certainly changed the world, and that is the main reason why the world remembers him, but the trouble is that most of the world learned the wrong lesson. The Catholics became entrenched in their false practices which came from bad practices which, over time, had become traditions. The radical reformers, on the other hand, rejected (almost) everything that Rome did, including many good Scriptural Christian teachings and practices. The irony is that both the Roman Catholics and the radical reformers held on to the same semi-Pelagian works righteousness (to a greater or lesser degree) even though that is what prompted Luther to start the Reformation in the first place!

The Intellectual Brilliance of Martin Luther

Martin Luther from Zion Lutheran Church, Columbus, Ohio

Martin Luther was a brilliant scholar – probably one of the most brilliant men who ever lived – yet he really taught nothing new. This really ought to be a lesson to those who praise “newness” above everything else. Luther preferred to be true rather than new. Luther’s brilliance was that he used his intellect to determine what was true and what was false. Despite facing opposition from the Pope on the one side, and the radical reformers on the other, Luther taught the Scriptures in their truth and purity and held them to be the true Word of God. The Bible not only tells us of our salvation, but actually delivers Christ’s salvation to those who listen and believe.

Today most schools teach that in order to be considered intellectually brilliant you must discover something new that no one else has ever found. This sounds like a worthy goal, but it is a fallacy. In pursuit of this unreachable goal, scholars are encouraged to make things up that aren’t true, or pursue outrageous ideas which even the ancient peoples rejected because they had already researched and discovered those ideas to be false and/or destructive. Already three thousand years ago, King Solomon studied the world and discovered, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again, there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) Solomon was right then, and he is still right today. Those who say otherwise are either ignorant of history, or they are trying to deceive people into believing their lies. It is easy to say that something is new, when it has been tried and rejected so thoroughly throughout history that few remember it. Many lazy scholars take this easy way out, instead of doing the hard work of true scholarship. These “new” ideas which simply recycle bad old ideas certainly ought to be rejected.

Martin Luther, in his God-given brilliance, taught the Scriptures against all errors and, in doing so, changed history. This is what the world commends. However, this aspect of Luther’s legacy is trivial. The world is changing all the time, and rarely for the better. What is more important was that Luther’s teaching brought the true comfort of God’s Word to people who were lost in sin and despair. The comfort that they found in Luther’s teaching is the power of God working through His Word, and it has nothing to do with Luther. It was all about Jesus and His saving work to win forgiveness and salvation for all sinners, and how He brings that salvation to us through the Word and Sacraments.

What the world sees as “brilliant” (or at least, exciting)

Luther the Hymnwriter from Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Detroit, Michigan

The world is enthralled with what is “new”. It doesn’t matter if the latest “new thing” is true or false, those who promote such things are praised simply because their ideas seem “new”. As it turns out, “newism” is more likely to be false, or immoral, or otherwise destructive. It doesn’t matter to these “newists” if the latest “new thing” is something that will stand the test of time – and will last a thousand years, or if it is just a passing fad that is here today and will be mercifully forgotten tomorrow. In fact, what is praised as “new” is more likely to be only a passing fad, rather than something which has lasting benefit for all people of all times. The “new” fad doesn’t have to have a broad appeal, but can be very narrow. The “new” is most often not healthy, but harmful. It is culturally bound, and does not transcend boundaries. It does not appeal to a broad range of people, but is very specific to only a few people in a severely limited time and space. It does not satisfy a fundamental need within any person, but appeals to base desires and fleeting whims. It does not give honor to people, but degrades them. It does not liberate people, but enslaves them – usually under the pretense of giving “freedom”. It does not build up, but exalts in destruction. It does not unite people, but divides them. Where there is one united people it divides them into subgroups until there is only individuals, and even within an individual it pushes him to war against his own self. It cannot abide true love (selflessness), but promotes a radical selfishness. It does not value life, but always favors death. It cares nothing for the truth, but revels in the boldest lies. It does not give lasting joy, but only fleeting guilty pleasure and lasting pain and suffering. This is the kind of thing that the world exalts as “brilliant”, and is why most people have stubbornly refused to learn the proper lessons from the Reformation.

The True Lesson of the Reformation

It is Christ alone who saves us from Holy Cross Lutheran Church Detroit, Michigan

Though we remember Martin Luther as we celebrate the Reformation, the importance of the Reformation is not in Martin Luther. Luther trusted in God’s Word and proclaimed Christ alone as our salvation. Though the world attacks the authority of God’s Word, yet the Holy Scriptures still are true, and have the power to bring you forgiveness and salvation. Remember that when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness He did not use His divine power to resist the devil’s temptations. Instead He simply trusted that the Scriptures are the Word of God, and because Jesus was faithful in all He did, the devil was defeated and has no claim on you. If you are a baptized Christian you belong to Jesus who rescued you from sin and death, and He gives you everlasting life. To God alone belongs all the glory and praise – for He has redeemed us from our sins and brings to us everlasting salvation. Happy Reformation Day!

Heresies and Half-Truths

by Pastor Paul Wolff

Jesus taught the truth at Nazareth

There is an understanding among faithful Christian scholars that there are two ways to fall into heresy (i.e. false teaching or false belief). The first is the chosen heresy, and the second is the exact opposite teaching. This is counter-intuitive, but it has been shown in history to be true time and again. But why is this so? What is going on? How can the opposite of a false teaching also be false, and not true?

The post-modern cynics would say this is just another example that shows that there is no such thing as truth, or at least that all truth is subjective and relative. However, if that were true it would contradict the very idea that the cynics are trying to sell to gullible people who think they are a lot smarter than they really are. There is in reality such things as truth and lies, and the exact opposite of the truth is still false, and vice-versa.

However, there is a simple explanation for why the exact opposite of a heresy is also false, and it explains why so many Christian teachers throughout history who have wanted to oppose false teachings have also fallen into heresy. The reason is that most heresies are not completely false, but are merely half-truths or contain some sliver of truth. This happens because false teachers try to rationalize teachings that they don’t understand or refuse to believe, and they try to come up with something that sounds believable (even though it contradicts the teachings of Holy Scripture). If false teachers want to convince others of the truthfulness of their heresy they can’t push something completely false or no one would fall for it. Then, if a Christian tries to counter the half-truth with its opposite, then that is also false because it is still half wrong – it is just the opposite half. A half-truth is still a lie, so its opposite is also a lie because it is still only half-true.

The devil tried to lure Jesus into heresy

To illustrate this let’s consider the Biblical doctrine of the person of Christ. The Holy Scriptures paradoxically describe Jesus as God and Man in one person. Faithful Christian teachers maintain the paradox and confess Jesus as 100% God and 100% Man even though we admit that we don’t (and can not) understand how this could be, yet we trust that God is faithful in the Scriptures in describing who He is.

Now, the complete opposite of the true doctrine that Jesus is fully God and Man in one person is to say that Jesus is neither God, nor Man, and never existed at all. This is not likely a teaching that you will find among anyone who calls themselves a “Christian” because no Christian (and few others) will be persuaded by something so completely false. You may find some militant atheists who would try to pass this along, but even among them this is more wishful thinking than anything else. Heretics use half-truths because they make the lie easier to swallow, first for themselves, then for anyone else who may wish to follow them.

But with this example there are many variations among those who either want to resolve the paradox or want to lead Christians astray through false logic. Like many heresies, these are quite rational, which only adds to both their appeal and their danger. This is especially true in this example because this doctrine is a paradox. In many ways God is the opposite of man, yet Jesus is somehow both fully God and fully man. Paradoxes seem irrational so any attempt to rationalize the paradox will end up with only partial truth which will be false in some way.

“Behold the Man” (John 19:5) “Jesus Christ ... is God over all” (Romans 9:5)

One false teaching from history says that Jesus is fully God, but he only seemed to be a man. This is called “docetism” and it is false because it denies the full humanity of Jesus. Docetism contains partial truth because it tries to maintain the deity of Jesus.

An opposite teaching from docetism is Arianism, which says that Jesus is a man or some kind of being less than God, but is not God. The false part of this teaching is that it denies that Jesus is fully God.

Another possible variation of this could maintain that Jesus is part man and/or part god. This is found in the Apollinarian heresy and perhaps others, though in practice both Docetists and Arians hold to this in a greater or lesser degree.

The doctrine of Christology is just one example of how blindly reacting to heretical half-truths can lead to other false teachings. There are many more such examples in history. We can see a stark example of this in the Lutheran Reformation. The brilliance of Martin Luther is that he steadfastly worked toward a conservative reformation. He only wanted to get rid of the false teaching in the Church, but he worked hard to conserve those true teachings which either were Biblical or otherwise promoted good Christian teaching. Not all of Rome’s teachings were wrong. Even today the Roman Catholic church still has many correct teachings mixed in with the false teachings. Luther’s reformation was the harder way to go, not only because it took much more work to sift out the wheat from the chaff, but also because it put Luther at odds with the Roman Catholics, and with the more radical reformers. However, it was the right way to go.

Martin Luther conserved the truth while removing the false teachings

On the other hand, the radical reformers wanted to throw out every teaching that ever reminded them of what was done in the Roman Catholic Church. This is where they went wrong. In teaching the exact opposite of what the Roman Catholic Church taught, the radical reformers threw out many true Christian teachings and fell into the opposite false teachings.

This is why the descendants of the radical reformers have come full circle to teach the same Semi-Pelagian errors of the Roman Catholic church. The radical reformers simply said, “We are going to do the opposite of what Rome does. Since Rome is wrong, we will be right.” But they only exchanged one lie for another. As their descendants recognized the wrongness of their teachings, they reacted similarly by holding to the exact opposite teaching, then they eventually came full circle to embrace the same false doctrines which their ancestors first reacted against.

An example of this is Rick Warren’s comments at the Pew Forum on Religion, Life, and Politics in 2005 where he said,

“You know, 500 years ago, the first Reformation with Luther and then Calvin, was about beliefs. I think a new reformation is going to be about behavior. The first Reformation was about creeds; I think this one will be about deeds. I think the first one was about what the church believes; I think this one will be about what the church does.”

To my Lutheran ears this seems to take Warren back to the days of Pope Leo X, though it may be worse because many of Martin Luther’s Roman opponents would not have separated faith and works so thoroughly. The 16^th century Roman church was Semi-Pelagian, and not completely Pelagian. Warren seems to be exalting works over faith.

It is good to want to correct false teaching. However we must be careful not to react too quickly. It often takes discernment and study of the Holy Scriptures to learn the whole truth. Saint Paul gives a valuable instruction when he wrote, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” (Galatians 6:1) This clearly warns against falling into the same temptation as the transgressor, but it could also easily warn against falling into the opposite error, or falling into self-righteousness. Either way, we ought to take care when dealing with error in the church.

The word of God is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105

The best way to avoid false teaching is to stick with the truth. God’s Word is the truth (John 17:17) because Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6). If we try to explain away parts of Scripture, then we lose Jesus and are in danger of losing our salvation. If we hold to God’s Word we hold on to Jesus because Jesus is the Word made flesh (John 1). Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you truly are my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

See also The Seductive Danger of Lies

See also What Do You Choose to Believe?