Luther believed it was the end times?

[MarcoPolo]

I was listening to a rebroadcast of an older interview by Al Kresta of former Lutheran Pastor turned Father Richard John Neuhaus. Full MP3 of that episode here. Here’s how an exchange went:*Al Kresta: If Melanchthon still had a hope as late as 1530, when was it that Luther hardened on the issue on the Pope as antichrist?

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus: Well, a part of this picture that’s very, very important to understanding what happened is that Luther was convinced that he was living in the last days. He was not only very eschatologically oriented to the end time, but apocalyptically so. He believed the world was coming to an end within a matter of months or a few years. And of course the image of the antichrist plays in, as in the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, very prominently in the end times. So Luther viewed Philip Melanchthon’s efforts and the efforts of others as reconciliation. He tolerated them but he viewed it almost as a waste of time. You know, why bother to put the ecclesiastical structure together when our Lord is returning in glory within, you know, a matter of months or years.*So I’m wondering of Luther scholars out there, what indications are there that Luther believed the end of the world was imminent? And if that is the case, did that delusion influence him to project the label of antichrist on the Pope?

 

[Contarini]

I was listening to a rebroadcast of an older interview by Al Kresta of former Lutheran Pastor turned Father Richard John Neuhaus. Full MP3 of that episode here. Here’s how an exchange went:Al Kresta: If Melanchthon still had a hope as late as 1530, when was it that Luther hardened on the issue on the Pope as antichrist?

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus: Well, a part of this picture that’s very, very important to understanding what happened is that Luther was convinced that he was living in the last days. He was not only very eschatologically oriented to the end time, but apocalyptically so. He believed the world was coming to an end within a matter of months or a few years. And of course the image of the antichrist plays in, as in the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, very prominently in the end times. So Luther viewed Philip Melanchthon’s efforts and the efforts of others as reconciliation. He tolerated them but he viewed it almost as a waste of time. You know, why bother to put the ecclesiastical structure together when our Lord is returning in glory within, you know, a matter of months or years.So I’m wondering of Luther scholars out there, what indications are there that Luther believed the end of the world was imminent? And if that is the case, did that delusion influence him to project the label of antichrist on the Pope?

The scholar who has most emphasized this is Heiko Oberman in his book Luther: Man between God and the Devil. And yes, that had something to do with the idea of the Pope as Antichrist, though it was the office and not an individual that he regarded as Antichrist. The idea that Antichrist would take over the Papacy was common in late medieval apocalyptic.

Edwin

 

[MarcoPolo]

What do you think Edwin? Speculatively, do you think it is consistent with Luther’s psychology to think he had to identify an antichrist at that time?

 

[Contarini]

What do you think Edwin? Speculatively, do you think it is consistent with Luther’s psychology to think he had to identify an antichrist at that time?

The psychology of persons still alive is mysterious enough that I avoid speculating about people whom I have never even met.

If we stratch out psychological determinism (which I think we should), we have a chicken-and-egg problem. Did his apocalyptic beliefs lead him to identify the Papacy as the Antichrist, or did his anger with what he thought the Papacy had done to Christianity lead to his apocalyptic beliefs?

In a way, Catholic beliefs about the Papacy naturally lead to a situation where dissenters are going to identify the Papacy or individual Popes as Antichrist. If you have an office which is understood to be doing the work of Christ on earth, it naturally follows that if that office goes bad it will be doing the work of Antichrist. The two ideas flow into each other.

Edwin

 

[MarcoPolo]

Fair points. Although by the time Luther was calling the Papacy anti-christ, he was denying them to have ever had Christ’s authority, because otherwise I think he would have just criticized the occupant rather than writing the very flippant “papist” letters that he did about them having no authority. I refer to the Church having the authority to authentically interpret Scripture (when Luther defended his translation).