David H J Gay

Luther On Baptism David H J Gay

Martin Luther had been reared in the medieval, Roman Church. Naturally enough, he was fully convinced of the Roman view of infant baptism. But after his conversion, Luther found the Roman doctrine too weak. Reacting against it, he developed a system of his own, making the baptism of babies the be-all and end-all of spiritual experience - literally, from the cradle to the grave. Then, within a few years, Luther was confronted by the Anabaptists. Reacting against their claims, he hardened his view even further. How a man who had such a clear view of justification by faith alone could ever write the things he did on the subject of baptism beggars belief. Millions, alas, have adopted his system, to their everlasting delusion. What is more, the tentacles of baptismal regeneration are, even today, reaching much further than Lutheranism. David Gay has fully documented and commented on Luther's writings on this subject, and in this auspicious year - the 500th anniversary of the nailing of Luther's theses at Wittenberg - his book should serve as a necessary reminder to us all that we must never put our trust in men, no, not even in princes.