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Martin Luther, helped usher in the Reformation, translated the Bible into German, & focused the church on the Grace of God. He was used by God. But he was also used by the devil. At the end of his life he let bitterness consume him. The Bible says to bless the Jewish people. But Luther wrote, "...set fire to their synagogues..to be done in honor of our Lord and Christendom..I advise their houses also be razed and destroyed..all money and treasure be taken from them."

It is written we are to give no room to the devil. But Luther gave the devil not only room, but a country. The evil fire of anti-semitism would grow through his words, untill Nazis republished his tracts, his words against the jews, to ultimately lead to the death of 6 million men, women and children. Luther let satan have a foothold. It was all the devil needed to accomplish his genocide of the children of Israel. Do not allow a satanic foothold in your life. All it leads to is holocausts.

Luther's anti-Semitism is often brought up when his other ideas are discussed. By any standard, certainly Martin Luther was anti-Semitic...however by medieval European standards, he was by no means unique. Remember the Roman Catholic Inquisition began a generation before Luther (targeted at Jews and heretics) with many hundreds killed and tens of thousands exiled (and that NOT for the most part in Germany)...Anti-Semitism is an historically European sin...of which Luther never on earth recovered.

Also Luther's statements against the Anabaptists and of course the Roman Catholics were every bit as inflammatory as those he said against the Jews--all based on his theological certainty that their beliefs were leading them--and others--to eternal hell.

The Nazis were profoundly anti-Christian (and therefore anti-Luther) however--atheistic in full, and we cannot blame their holocaust on Luther, they only used what was convenient for their own godless hatred. As many or more Roman Catholic Germans (and Austrians etc.) participated in murdering the Jews as did Lutherans.

We shouldn't let Luther's zealous overstatements cloud the clear and wonderful things he found in scripture about the gospel of justification by faith in Christ alone.

while it's true that ML said this, he also acknowledged that his statements were wrong and that all people need Jesus.
he stated this in his last sermon. you can request a copy of his last sermon by going to www.appleofhiseye.org - a
mission group in LCMS.

also the tour guide (dosent?) at the st louis holocaust museum said that the next largest number of people in the
concentration camps after Jewish people were lutheran pastors!