Luther, Protestant theology and the Epistle of James...

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kaycee said:
Was’nt the Pope a Nazi for a while?
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:eek: Absolutely not! Benedict deserted his post in the Wehrmarcht (Hitler Youth). Every young (“Aryan”) man was in the Hitler youth (Hitlerjugend). If Benedict had been a Nazi do you think he would have been hand selected by John Paul to be the leader of the Inquisition (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith)?
kayceep:
Being from Deutschland, does’nt that make him a German Shepherd? Or maybe the Top Dog?
😃
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German Shepherd is fine. 👍
 
steffenlaursen said:
Not after 1939
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Point taken.

It is also interesting that he (Ratzinger) didn’t join until he was fourteen. It had been compulsory for two years by that time.

This speaks well for him. Evidently he had been avoiding it.
 
Semper_Fi said:
If Benedict had been a Nazi do you think he would have been hand selected by John Paul to be the leader of the Inquisition (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith)?
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This is a great point.

There is no way John Paul II would have appointed Ratzinger to the second most important and powerful post in the Catholic Church if he had ever been a true Nazi.
 
steffenlaursen said:
This is specially a question for my Protestant/Lutheran brothers,

Luther rejected the Epistle of James (among others), and based his entire theology on a Bible without that epsitle in it.

Now, since Protestants today don’t reject the Epistle of James, Luthers theology ought to be flawed in their view, since it’s based on an incomplete Scripture. Yet I still hear Luther’s teachings being preached almost as he would’ve done it himself, and Luthers books are considered almost authoritative in my church.

I acutally admire Luther a bit for being frank… he found that his theology contrasted with James, and he threw out James rather than just pretending there was no conflict. He read what he saw and he got offended by it… fine. But Lutherans today seem to try and twist James into saying something that fits right into Luthers theology.

Fight on! 😉
  • Steffen
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There is one thing that needs to be understood about the Lutheran church. If this SOUNDS patronizing, please note that it was not meant in that manner:

Luther does not have the status in the Lutheran Church that the Pope does in the Catholic Church. Ergo, it is not simply true because Luther said so. Luther himself were wrong on several occations (first and foremost in his writings against the Jewish people).

That being said, I do not see the letter of James conflicting with the “sola fide”-doctrine. And the best way to illustrate this is to look around at the millions of people in Western Europe and North America who CALL themselves Christians, but who disregard Scripture, and therefore lives just as the heathens.

That the fact that a “faith” without works is no faith at all should be in conflict with the biblical dogma that we are saved by (true) faith alone, is something that I can’t see?

In Christ

Mark
 
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