A
Ani_Ibi
Guest
Luther wanted himself. This desire was the compulsive fruit of a brutally violent childhood. The only use he had for the Church was as an adjunct to his own impaired drive to escape pain and evil. When his own methods failed, he blamed the nearest authority figure which was the Church. He blamed her, cut Her loose, and demonized Her.
At Wittenberg, he was beset by the pain of burnout resulting from a combination of too much work (external stress) and too much scrupulosity (internal stress). Coupled with burn out were the torments of the original post traumatic stress disorder re-emerging in response to the horrors of the Plague.
Rather than examining his own disordered perception of self-actualization and rather than turning to the Church for advice and solace, he chose his own means, his own solace, and his own standards. This decision gained momentum in the form of obsessions and as compulsions which quickly interfered with his ability to do his work.
He was setting himself up to succeed at failing. By failing, he got to punish himself (at least )as severely as he had been punished as a child and thus prove to himself that he was the authority figure, he was the strong one, he was the one in control. I find it difficult to believe that his prolongued fasting, harrowing mortifications, and sleep deprivation could not have affected his sanity.
Eventually this had to come to a head and rather than question the soundness of his thinking and of his decisions and of his actions, he lashed out, projecting all hurt, all damage, all shortcoming, all disappointment onto the authority figure nearest at hand which was the Church.
Luther was a man in conflict. He cannot cast off the mantel of accountability for his part in the polarization which ensued, a polarization which occurred in a time fraught not only with corruption but with rebellion, self-interest, and instability. His part included the inflammatory and vitriolic rhetorical language with which he prosecuted his views. His part included contradicting himself on a regular basis and reneguing on what he agreed to do:
Mar 03, 1519, to Pope Leo X: “Before God and all his creatures, I bear testimony that I neither did desire, nor do desire to touch or by intrigue to undermine the authority of the Roman Church and that of your holiness.”
Mar 13, 1519, to Spalatin: “I am at a loss to know whether the pope be antichrist or his apostle.”
One day he promises to observe silence if his assailants did the same; to give complete submission to the pope; to publish a plain statement to the public advocating loyalty to the Church; and to place the whole vexatious case in the hands of a delegated bishop. The next day he ridicules and disregards the whole gesture.
At the Leipzig disputation, Luther set himself up to succeed at failing again. Luther, ever quick to explode, felt humiliated by Eck’s placid methodology concerning papal supremacy. It was after this, that Luther seemed to throw caution to the wind. He seemed not to care about the collateral damage which would most assuredly result from his obsession with restoring himself to potency in his own eyes and on his own terms. His subsequent association with Ulrich von Hutton and Franz von Sickengen fanned the flames of political rebellion.
His ideas for reform were one thing. His unsound and harmful methodology were quite a different thing. He could not be reasoned with. He knew no temperance. He could not be restrained. There was no middle ground for him. It was his way or the highway. But most sinister of all was the demonstrable fact that he could not be trusted.
God’s grace is freely given,correct?If you refuse God’s grace you are choosing not to be saved,you are choosing against God.If our cooperation in God’s grace is not neccesary then why is it important to evangelise?Why worship God?What is the point?Do you believe that God predestines people to hell?I am trying to figure out where you are going with this
could have worked within the Church to heal his grievances, but no, the lack of humility in the man led him out to disobey the established Church. He is widely known as having repented on his death bed, as he did not intend to set up an adversary organisation (not Church).
