Emphasizing the universality and seriousness of God's grace and the
possibility of conversion and salvation even for those who are finally
damned, the _Apology_ proceeds: "And why should we not also reject [the
proposition]: 'The reprobate cannot be converted and saved,' since it is
undoubtedly true that, with respect to those who are finally rejected
and damned, we are unable to judge with certainty who they are, and
there is hope for the conversion of all men as long as they are still
alive? For the malefactor, Luke 23, was converted to God at his last
end; concerning whom, according to the judgment of reason everybody
might have said that he was one of the reprobates. The passage John 12,
39: 'Therefore they could not believe,' etc., does not properly treat of
eternal reprobation, nor does it say with so many words that no
reprobate can be converted and saved.... It is therefore the meaning
neither of the prophet [Is. 6, 9. 10] nor of the evangelist [John 12,
39] that God, irrespective of the sins and wickedness of such people,
solely from His mere counsel, purpose, and will, ordains them to
damnation so that they cannot be saved. Moreover, the meaning and
correct understanding of this passage is, that in the obstinate and
impenitent God punishes sin with sins, and day by day permits them to
become more blind, but not that He has pleasure in their sin and
wickedness, effectually works in them blindness and obstinacy, or that
He, solely from His purpose and mere counsel, irrespective also of sins,
has foreordained them to damnation so that they cannot convert
themselves and be saved. In all such and similar passages, therefore, we
shall and must be sedulously on our guard, lest we spin therefrom this
blasphemy, that out of His free purpose and counsel, irrespective also
of sin, God has decreed to reject eternally these or others...." (207.)
With respect to the seriousness of universal grace we furthermore read:
"They [the Neustadt theologians] say that in His Word God declares what
He approves, and earnestly demands of, all men, but not what He wishes
to work and effect in all of them. For, they say, He reveals His secret
counsel in no other way than by working in man, _viz_., through
conversion or final hardening of those who are either converted or
hardened and damned.... With regard to this we give the following
correct answer, _viz_.: that we are not minded in the least to carry on
a dispute or discussion with our opponents concerning God and His secret
counsel, purpose, or will in so far as He has not in His Word revealed
Himself and His counsel. The reason is the one quoted above from the
words of Luther himself, _viz_., that concerning God, so far as He has
not been revealed [to us], or has not made Himself known in His Word,
there is neither faith nor knowledge, and one cannot know anything of
Him, etc., which also in itself is true. Why, then, should we, together
with our opponents dive into the abyss of the incomprehensible judgments
of God and presumptuously assert with them that from His mere counsel,
purpose, and will, irrespective also of sin, God has ordained some to
damnation who cannot be converted, moreover, whom He, according to His
secret purpose, does not want to be converted, despite the fact that
through the office of the ministry He declares Himself friendly towards
them and offers them His grace and mercy? My dear friend, where is it
written in the Word of God that it is not the will of God that all
should be saved, but that, irrespective of their sin, He has ordained
some to damnation only from His mere counsel, purpose, and will, so that
they cannot be saved? Never in all eternity, try as they may, will they
prove this proposition from God's revealed Word. For nowhere do the Holy
Scriptures speak thus. Yet from sheer foolhardiness they dare employ,
contrary to Scripture, such blasphemous doctrine and speech and spread
it in all Christendom." (108 b.)