Preaching Ambiguity

In an era that craves ambiguity and avoids answers, this quote from RC Sproul, describing Luther's work in The Bondage of the Will is especially timely:

...when Luther was responding to the attacks of Erasmus, he quoted Erasmus where Erasmus said that on matters of difficult doctrines like predestination, election, and issues of freedom of th will and so on, he (Erasmus) preferred to "suspend judgment," and that the proper academic posture of the scholar, when investigating issues like this, is to be very cautious, to reserve judgment, and to hesitate from coming to firm conclusions. Erasmus said that he would prefer not to make assertions. When Erasmus said to Luther, "I would prefer not to make assertions," Luther became apoplectic. He said, "You would prefer what? You don't want to make assertions? Take away assertions, and you take away Christianity. The very mark of the Christian is that the Christian bodly makes assertions before the world." Then, in his passion, Luther said, "The Holy Spirit is not a skeptic. And the things that He revealed are more certain than life itself. Away with the skeptics! Away with teh academics!" Luther would have none of the spirit of those who are always learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth. The early truth was built on the blood of martyrs, and the reason why it was so bloody was because the apostles didn't go into the market place saying, "Well, maybe Jesus rose from the dead and maybe He didn't. You need to examine this, and suspend judgment."--Feed My Sheep, p139-140 (emphasis added)