Luther taught the Bible-doctrine that there is in God a hidden will which He has reserved to His majesty (Dent. 29); that His judgments are unsearchable and His ways past finding out (Rom. 11, 33); that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without His will, and that the very hairs of our head are numbered (Matt. 10, 29. 30); that no evil can occur anywhere without His permission (Amos 3, 6; Is. 45, 7).  To deny these truths is to reject the Bible and to destroy the sovereign omniscience and omnipotence of God.  Those who attack Luther for believing that also the evil in this world is related to God will have to change their bill of indictment:  their charge is really directed against Scripture.  Luther has, however, warned men not to attempt a study of this secret will of God, for the plain reason that it is secret, and it would be blasphemous presumption to try and find it out.  All our dealings with God must be on the basis of His revealed will.  If we only will study that, we will be fully occupied our whole life.

As regards the Scriptural doctrine of predestination, that those who ultimately attain to the life everlasting have been chosen to that end, Luther has warned men not to study this doctrine outside of Christ and the Gospel.  God has told His children for their comfort amid the vicissitudes of this life that He has secured their eternal happiness against all dangers, but He has not asked them, nor does He permit them, to find out a priori whether this or that person is elect.  Jesus Christ is the Book of Life in which the elect are to find their names recorded, and in the general way of salvation through repentance, faith, and sanctification of life they are to be led to the heritage of the saints in light.  In his summary of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters of Romans, Luther states that by His eternal election God has taken our salvation entirely out of our hands and placed it in His own hands.  “And this is most highly necessary.  For we are so feeble and fickle that, if salvation depended upon us, not a person would be saved; the devil would overcome them all.  But since God is reliable and His election cannot fail or be thwarted by any one, we still have hope over and against sin.  But at this point a limit must be fixed for the presumptuous spirits who soar too high.  They lead their reason first to this subject, they start at the pinnacle, they want to explore first the abyss of the divine election, and wrestle vainly with the question whether they are elect.  These people bring about their own overthrow:  they are either driven to despair or become reckless.—­Follow the order of this Epistle:  First, occupy yourself with Christ and the Gospel, in order that you may learn to know your sin and His grace; next, begin to wrestle with your sin, as chapters 1-8 teach you to do.  Then, after you have reached the doctrine concerning crosses and tribulations in the eighth chapter, you will rightly learn the doctrine of election