Hi Randy,
So, by upholding and supporting the office of the papacy every time I donate to the annual Peter’s Pence collection, I’m supporting the anti-Christ.
It is pretty ridiculous isn’t it Randy?
My wife and I once attended a Knights of Columbus celebration of our local chapter 100th anniversary. It was quite an event. My brother was in town and the next day I was driving him to the airport and describing this amazing event the night before.
He said” “At the church where I was saved, the preacher said from the pulpit, that the Knights of Columbus are…………………(long pause)”
I filled in the blank with: “Intrinsically Evil?” To which he said ‘Yes.’
I was so stunned that I didn’t know what to say and began to tell him about how the Knights donate more money and more member service hours than any other similar organization in the world. That didn’t make a difference to him. To him his little Bible Church was the most true expression of the Christian Faith. Of course in the 12 or so years since, he has been through at least a half a dozen churches, each of which is the ‘most true’.
What it really came down to, both with my brother, and also with Luther, is this: He (they) wanted that assurance of Salvation that the Church wanted to “steal from them” (exact words). They wanted an assurance today that would be ‘good’ for the rest of their lives. Of course we will hear that that is not what Lutherans believe, but it sure was what drove Luther to his Revolt.
This kind of hatred has a source. I recently read an intriguing book that MaryT777 recommended about a dozen or so Lutheran converts to Catholicism. Most of them were clergy so they had no choice but to be extremely committed to their decision. The following is an excerpt about Luther’s hatred for the Jews, which I think is cut from the same cloth as his hatred for Catholics in that both of them caused him to doubt himself as being led to ‘reform’ the Church:
In a section about his conversion entitled “Luther’s attitude towards Jews troubles me”, Anthony Gerring wrote about being assigned a research paper in college:
“The moment I heard the name Martin Luther, I knew what my [research paper] topic would be. While I had studied his life in high school, this seemed to be a good way to learn about my boyhood hero. However, as I began to do the research and read what Luther actually wrote about the Jews his comments began to trouble me……
Clearly, Luther’s writings against the Jews violated Christ’s teaching to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’. Moreover, his writings prompted me to question the esteem with which I held Luther. How could it be that the man God had chosen to rediscover the pure Gospel after having been obscured for so many centuries could become so hateful? At the time, I didn’t think about it too deeply and merely chalked it up to sin. After all, Luther had written these statements many years after having overcome what I thought were the false teachings of the Catholic Church and the Pope. What did it really matter, I thought? Many Godly men have fallen into sin and Luther was certainly no different. As I finished my [research] paper, I concluded with the thought that it was ‘sad to know that the great reformer, Martin Luther, could not show love to the Jewish people.” “Are You a Religious Person”, Anthony L. Gerring, in “There We Stood, Here We Stand”, Edited by Timothy Drake.
Gerring’s comments seem to mirror a common theme that we have seen here on CA from converts from Lutheranism. In their upbringing in Lutheranism, there were portions of the history of Martin Luther, and areas of his teaching, to which they had not been exposed (to put it nicely). Gerring mentions studying Luther (his “hero”) in high school, but apparently was not aware of the whole issue of Luther against the Jews. That is pretty common.
Gerring’s question is crucial:
“How could it be that the man God had chosen to rediscover the pure Gospel after having been obscured for so many centuries could become so hateful?”
I would suggest that Luther’s hatefulness was not some late career development. He was calling for the death of his enemies pretty much throughout his entire career. He called for his followers to wash their hands in the blood of Catholics, even before his excommunication.
“…If we punish thieves with the gallows, robbers with the sword, and heretics with fire, why do we not all the more fling ourselves with all our weapons upon these masters of perdition, these cardinals, these popes, and all this stink of Roman sodomy that ceaselessly corrupts the church of God and wash our hands in their blood so that we may free ourselves and all who belong to us from this dangerous fire.” Marius page 283
Are people supposed to believe that, as Gerring puts it, Luther was “the man God had chosen to rediscover the pure Gospel?” Are we supposed to believe that God also ‘chose’ Luther to teach about death for Jews, Anabaptists, Peasants, ‘reluctant wives’, and numerous other wild rants, all the while quoting Scripture (madly) but somehow ‘correctly’? Just exactly how plausible is that?
As Gerring attests, and so have many CA converts from Lutheranism, their former tradition has not exactly anxious to reveal the whole truth about Luther. As we have seen, people actually sometimes begin to question Lutheran doctrine when they become more aware of Luther’s actions and ‘lesser known’ teachings.
God Bless You Randy, Topper
