Calvin Luther and Zane Hodges on Sola Fide

Absolutely Free Critical Analysis

In Absolutely Free by Zane Hodges, the author argues that the Evangelical church should return to a faith alone orientation. By using the New Testament as a basis for argumentation, Hodges posits that salvation is a free gift, unearned but by an act of faith. Throughout the book, Hodges contrasts the salvation by faith alone perspective with the salvation via surrender/repentance perspective. He uses the theology of Calvin and Luther to support his view and suggests that lordship salvation is a departure both from the bible and from the Protestant theologians of the Reformation.

One of the problems with Hodges’ argument is that it relies on Lutheran theology, itself problematic and somewhat inconsistent. Luther himself struggled with the meaning of faith and what it meant to be saved, and this is evident throughout much of his writings. While others have interpreted Luther in their own ways, it is not at all evident to everyone that his viewpoint on the matter was consistent or coherent. Luther, for example, argued that after one is saved by faith alone, one might still then go on to be tested and that this test was part of the same sola fide process.

Hodges also attempts to explain this process by indicating that those who are saved will develop within themselves the type of spiritual life representative of grace. At the same time Hodges argues that being a Christian is not without its own spiritual warfare—which is somewhat contradictory to the concept that he promotes, namely that salvation cannot be lost. If salvation cannot be lost, then there is no battle to lose and therefore no battle to be waged. One is either battling in a dramatic fashion for one’s salvation, or one is guaranteed salvation and there is nothing else to it.

References

Hodges, Zane. Absolutely Free. Zondervan, 1989.