In the upcoming 500th anniversary of the Protestant Revolt, Catholics should pray and offer sacrifices in atonement for the corruption in the Church that led to Luther’s schism and the division of Christendom. If the Church had been less infected with corruption and scandal then perhaps the Protestant Revolt would not have happened.
That said, Luther was a very bad man. Aside from denying key aspects of Christian theology and substituting his own, deceptively adding the word “alone” after “faith” in Romans in his version of the Bible to deceive literally millions of people about the Word of God; excising 7 books from Sacred Scripture, denying the efficacy of 5 of the 7 sacraments, and declaring the Church to be the Whore of Babylon and the Popes to be Antichrists, consider his proposal for dealing with the Jews:
From Luther’s 1543 book
On the Jews and Their Lies, wherein he proposes a form of the Final Solution.
- “First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying, cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his Christians.”
2.“Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. For they pursue in them the same aims as in their synagogues. Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a barn, like the gypsies. This will bring home to them the fact that they are not masters in our country, as they boast, but that they are living in exile and in captivity, as they incessantly wail and lament about us before God.”
3.“Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them.”
4.“Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb.”
5.“Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the countryside, since they are not lords, officials, tradesmen, or the like. Let them stay at home.”
6.“Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping. The reason for such a measure is that, as said above, they have no other means of earning a livelihood than usury, and by it they have stolen and robbed from us an they possess. …] Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred florins, as personal circumstances may suggest. With this he could set himself up in some occupation for the support of his poor wife and children, and the maintenance of the old or feeble.”
7.“Seventh, I recommend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow, as was imposed on the children of Adam (Gen. 3 :19]). For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and farting., and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat. No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants.”
In other words, burn down all the synagogues, burn down the houses of the Jews, deprive the Jews of their employment (and take all their money for “safekeeping”), and kill their rabbis and any Jews who leave home. Since the Jews weren’t going to simply stop practicing their religion, Luther’s proposal would require murdering an endless series of rabbis and their successors.
