Catholics just don’t get it.
Protestants don’t put Luther on a pedestal. He was a man who was prone to the same weaknesses as everyone.
All the Church Fathers who are held in high esteem by Catholics said things that Catholics blow off with a “That was just his personal opinion. It is not the infallible teaching of the Church.”
In the case of Luther’s letter:
…Luther & his colleagues spent 80% of the letter discouraging the taking of more than one wife -giving both religious and secular reasoning. Then making acknowledging that the prince had already made up his mind, gave a very narrow dispensation.
Other church fathers have also acknowledged such dispensations could be considered valid.
Protestants don’t follow Luther or strive to be Luther-like. We follow Jesus and strive to be Christ-like.
Welcome back, Ginger, we missed you.
And the Catholic Church, the Church founded by Jesus Christ, always exhorted Christians to follow and imitate Jesus. Thomas a Kempis wrote a book, The Imitation of Christ.
We have saint after saint, martyr after martyr who led a sacrificial life, imitating Jesus Christ.
Luther supported polygamy - well, at least we got that concession out of you.
Luther, in his wake, led to the destruction of Christianity. How many Christian sects have arisen since his time, 12,000, 13000. All of them are right and true? Is any of them right and true?
Luther destroyed the Sacramental system of Christ’s church. He tried to keep the Eucharist, and the Real Presence. And although Martin maintained a semblance of the Eucharist, his followers set out to destroy it. Luther, at the end of his life, was depressed about how vain and sinful men had become. Men lost their souls because of him; he did not draw them to God.
In Luther’s religion, and it was his religion, not the religion founded by Christ, God had not the power to wash our sins away - just cover them over. Martin has no understanding of grace, and how it works within a man’s soul. Luther leaves us still sinners, though we are justified. How is that contradiction? He teaches all manner of lies about the Church, that we taught that men by good works solely buy their way into heaven. It constantly lied and misrepresented what the Church teaches.
Luther is not on a pedestral. How can you put such a sick, blasphemous, foul-mouthed, hateful, spiteful individual on a pedestal?
We still don’t know any Church Fathers who deemed polygamy acceptable. Luther never quoted a Father as allowing polygamy. It was his own notion, and for political reasons.
I don’t know ‘blowing off’ anything the Fathers or Doctors of the Church have taught. They may not have been totally infallible, but they were good, learned and saintly men and women. Just as the army of saints (Confessors, Virgins, Martyrs) whom we vernerate every day, and try to imitate them in their love and zeal for our Saviour.
Luther is your possession; keep him. We learn nothing from him, except what pride, ambition, and vain-glory will do to a man.
peace
