aught the very opposite in his unequivocal proclamation
of the universality of divine grace, of the all-sufficiency of the
merits of Christ, and of the universal operation of the means of grace;
and he even opposed that doctrine [of _De Servo Arbitrio_] expressly as
erroneous, and by his corrections took back his earlier utterances on
that subject." Endorsing Philippi's view as "according well with the
facts in the case," J. W. Richard, who, too, charges the early Luther
with "absolute predestinarianism," remarks: "But this is certain: the
older Luther became, the more did he drop his earlier predestinarianism
into the background and the more did he lay stress on the grace of God
and on the means of grace, which offer salvation to all men (_in omnes,
super omnes_) without partiality, and convey salvation to all who
believe." (_Conf. Hist._, 336.)

Time and again similar assertions have been repeated, particularly by
synergistic theologians. But they are not supported by the facts.
Luther, as his books abundantly show, was never a preacher of
predestinarianism (limited grace, limited redemption, etc.), but always
a messenger of God's universal grace in Christ, offered in the means of
grace to all poor and penitent sinners. In his public preaching and
teaching predestination never predominated. Christ Crucified and His
merits offered in the Gospel always stood in the foreground. In _De
Servo Arbitrio_ Luther truly says: "We, too, teach nothing else than
Christ Crucified." (St. L. 18, 1723; E. v. a. 7, 160.) Luther's sermons
and books preached and published before as well as after 1525 refute the
idea that he ever made predestination, let alone predestinarianism, the
center of his teaching and preaching. It is a fiction that only very
gradually Luther became a preacher of universal grace and of the means
of grace. In fact, he himself as well as his entire reformation were
products of the preaching, not of predestinarianism, but of God's grace
and pardon offered to all in absolution and in the means of grace. The
bent of Luther's mind was not speculative, but truly evangelical and
Scriptural. Nor is it probable that he would ever have entered upon the
question of predestination to such an extent as he did in _De Servo
Arbitrio_, if the provocation had not come from without. It was the
rationalistic, Semi-Pelagian attack of Erasmus on the fundamental
Christian truths concerning man's inability in spiritual matters and his
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