Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Martin Luther special on PBS
Public Broadcasting System (PBS) ^ | July 9, 2003 | PBS

Posted on 07/09/2003 9:05:32 PM PDT by AnalogReigns

Documentary was shown on various PBS stations this week... (you know PBS--will be on again, surely--got to get something out of those tax dollars spent). It's worth taping...

Very good portrayal in my opinion...but downplayed his theology, mainly highlighting the social consequences of what Luther discovered in the Bible. Understandable when telling about such an important historic figure in just 2 hours.

Personally, I think, but for Luther's courage, there would have been no eventual United States of America...and we'd live in a very different world...

Here's the speil from PBS's site:

Martin Luther (#101)
"Driven to Defiance/The Reluctant Revolutionary"

Driven to Defiance - Martin Luther is born into a world dominated by the Catholic Church. For the keenly spiritual Luther, the Church's promise of salvation is irresistible. Caught in a thunderstorm and terrified by the possibility of imminent death, he vows to become a monk. But after entering the monastery, Luther becomes increasingly doubtful that the Church can actually offer him salvation. His views crystallize further when he travels to Rome and finds the capital of Catholicism swamped in corruption. Wracked by despair, Luther finds release in the pages of the Bible, discovering that it is not the Church, but his own individual faith that will guarantee his salvation. With this revelation he turns on the Church. In his famous 95 Theses he attacks its practice of selling Indulgences, putting himself on an irreversible path to conflict with the most powerful institution of the day. The Reluctant Revolutionary - The Catholic Church uses all of its might to try and silence Luther, including accusations of heresy and excommunication. Protected by his local ruler, Frederick the Wise, Luther continues to write radical critiques of the Church. In the process, he develops a new system of faith that places the freedom of the individual believer above the rituals of the Church. Aided by the newly invented printing press, his ideas spread rapidly. He is called before the German Imperial Parliament in the city of Worms and told he must recant. Risking torture and execution, Luther refuses, proclaiming his inalienable right to believe what he wishes. His stand becomes a legend that inspires revolution across Europe, overturning the thousand-year-old hegemony of the Church. But as the reformation expands into a movement for social freedom, Luther finds himself overwhelmed by the pace of change and is left vainly protesting that his followers should be concerning themselves with God.


TOPICS: Announcements; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Germany; Miscellaneous; Philosophy; Unclassified
KEYWORDS: christianity; conscience; courage; democracy; evangelicalism; faith; freedom; luther; martinluther; pbs; protestantism; romancatholicism; westerncivilization
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 141-160161-180181-200 ... 241-249 next last
To: Bohemund
Uh huh.

I guess my AP history book was wrong.

Sorry, but it was settled by Catholics.
161 posted on 07/16/2003 12:00:47 PM PDT by rwfromkansas ("There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write 'damnation' with your fingers." C.H. Spurgeon)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 151 | View Replies]

To: Bohemund
I have done some digging. You may be right.

I don't know how my AP textbook could make such a big error. Yikes.
162 posted on 07/16/2003 12:03:57 PM PDT by rwfromkansas ("There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write 'damnation' with your fingers." C.H. Spurgeon)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 151 | View Replies]

To: TheCrusader
Hang on there fellow:

Before you hammer on Luther so hard, Look at what the Great Schism of 1054, which was caused by the arrogance of the Roman or Western Church....The same who dared to add to the Nicean Creed in defiance of anethamas placed by the Eccumenical Council of Chalcedon!
163 posted on 07/16/2003 12:05:04 PM PDT by TexConfederate1861 ("Look Away Dixie Land!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: rwfromkansas
Uh huh.

I guess my AP history book was wrong.

Sorry, but it was settled by Catholics.

Well, Maryland was settled by Catholics, and they named the new territory after the Catholic Henrietta Maria, wife of the King.

If your AP history book said that Maryland was named instead after Mary, the mother of Jesus, then it was wrong.

164 posted on 07/16/2003 12:07:11 PM PDT by Bohemund
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 161 | View Replies]

To: rwfromkansas
I have done some digging. You may be right. I don't know how my AP textbook could make such a big error. Yikes.

It happens.

165 posted on 07/16/2003 12:08:18 PM PDT by Bohemund
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 162 | View Replies]

To: rwfromkansas
We are "all" predestined, but it is our "choice." LOL!!! This is probably my favorite. I wonder if these people actually believe this idiocy. They need to take a look at what predestination means before spouting this nonsense.

Folks give more power to corporately elect a politician than they give to God to "elect" a person unto salvation.

166 posted on 07/16/2003 12:29:55 PM PDT by Colofornian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 152 | View Replies]

To: razorbak
The name Allah, was not invented by Muhammad, but was the name of a pagan god, long known and worshiped in the Middle East. In pre-Islamic days, Allah worship was on par with Baal worship, both originating in the Babylon region and both being Astral religions: the Sun, Moon, and Stars were the objects of worship. An Allah idol was one of some 360 idols in the Kabah, the sacred building at Mecca, now containing the famous black stone, a place of Islamic prayer and pilgrimages., the place to which the faithful turn to pray, again not new to Islam, but a practice of very ancient origins. The tribe into which Muhammad was born was devoted to the god Allah, Allah being the personal name of the Moon god.

Very interesting. What is the source for this information?

167 posted on 07/16/2003 12:31:39 PM PDT by wideminded
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: Bohemund
You are definitely correct. Thanks for telling me about the error.
168 posted on 07/16/2003 1:18:43 PM PDT by rwfromkansas ("There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write 'damnation' with your fingers." C.H. Spurgeon)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 165 | View Replies]

To: MoeShrevnitz
Can one really obtain a Martin Luther bobble-head? Where? I think that my son, who attended a Lutheran College and will probably go to seminary, would enjoy getting something like this as a gift.
169 posted on 07/16/2003 1:21:47 PM PDT by wideminded
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 107 | View Replies]

To: rwfromkansas
You are definitely correct. Thanks for telling me about the error.

No problem. I think it's a common misconception.

170 posted on 07/16/2003 1:25:19 PM PDT by Bohemund
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 168 | View Replies]

To: Lurking Libertarian; Galatians513
Do you have a source for that? I had understood that the opposite was true-- that Luther originally called for tolerance of the Jews, hoping to convert them, and became violently antisemitic later in his life.

I need to clarify my earlier posts after checking into this matter more thoroughly. What I recalled was someone citing Luther's last sermon. Since I had recalled a conciliatory citation, I framed it as "repenting."

Luther indeed was conciliatory in his final statement about the Jews; but it was not an attitude of repentance re: his booklet, "The Jews and Their Lies." Luther did not take on the Jews until very late in life. Let me quote from a messianic online article (http://jesus-messiah.com) :

"Martin Luther was an avid supporter of Jews nearly all of his life until in the last few months of his life he was shown a Talmud with all of its blasphemy against Jesus and Christians. This fueled his indignation and he wrote his famous diatribe *The Lies Of The Jews.* His writing would not have been rebuked had he not gone beyond the Christian conduct and advocated violence toward Jews. But Luther had done this already against the poor peasants in the Peasant War and the Jews said nothing!"

You have to understand that Luther wrote diatribes vs. a lot of folks. It was his style. It was also characteristic of medieval times for folks to be brutally raw. Luther was certainly bombastic across the board. Some scholars distinguish what Luther said in this short (months) period of time as "religiously anti-Jewish, though not racially anti-Semitic." Source: Associated Press, 6/8/03

The bottom line of my previous post is that I was going on recollection of what Martin Luther said in his absolute final sermon:

Protestants should emphasize Luther's final word on the subject: "We want to treat them with Christian love and to pray for them, so that they might become converted and would receive the Lord" (Weimar edition, Vol. 51, p. 195). {this citation can be found as part of a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod resolution under FAQ @ the LCMS web site).

Luther's final word, which is to love and pray for the Jews, is rarely if ever quoted by those who would only quote the negative things Luther wrote about them. I think folks should tell the whole story.

171 posted on 07/16/2003 2:36:56 PM PDT by Colofornian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 150 | View Replies]

To: rwfromkansas
I know, but if Luther hadn't done it God would have raised up someone else. God's purposes never go unfulfilled. That's all I'm saying.
172 posted on 07/16/2003 3:08:46 PM PDT by Terriergal ("multipass!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 159 | View Replies]

To: homeschool_dad
Well now there is great beauty in the Catholic church as well, I think. I am in our local production of the Sound of Music. (I get to be the 'crabby' nun Sister Berthe) and in researching the Latin we have to sing, I am struck by its beauty... the idea of setting oneself apart to serve God is a wonderful thing.
173 posted on 07/16/2003 3:10:47 PM PDT by Terriergal ("multipass!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 135 | View Replies]

To: wideminded
I'll have to look up the source again. But you'll notice the Muslim counterpart to the Red Cross is the Red Crescent. The symbol of Arabic Islam has always been the crescent moon. During their centuries of military conquest they even had their swords made in the shape of the crescent moon.
174 posted on 07/16/2003 5:38:25 PM PDT by razorbak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 167 | View Replies]

To: Terriergal
There were other before Luther who paved the way for him. And had their not been a hunger on the part of so many for reform, Luther would've simply been burned at the stake as another lone "heretic" as the Catholic church designated its critics. For instance:

John Wycliffe lived almost 200 years before the Reformation, but his beliefs and teachings closely match those of Luther, Calvin and other Reformers. As a man ahead of his time, historians have called Wycliffe the "Morning star of the Reformation."

Born in the 1300s, Wycliffe criticized abuses and false teachings in the Church. In 1382 he translated an English Bible--the first European translation done in over 1,000 years. The Lollards, itinerant preachers he sent throughout England, inspired a spiritual revolution.

But the Lollardy movement was short-lived. The Church expelled Wycliffe from his teaching position at Oxford, and 44 years after he died, the Pope ordered his bones exhumed and burned. Intense persecution stamped out his followers and teachings. It would be hundreds of years before men like Martin Luther resurrected the reforms of which Wycliffe dreamed.

Ultimately Wycliffe's writings strongly influenced the Bohemian religious reformer John Huss in his revolt against the church. Martin Luther also acknowledged his great debt to Wycliffe. John Huss was ordained to the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church in 1401, after receiving the bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Prague. He became a powerful preacher of Roman doctrine, until he be- gan to translate some of the sermons of John Wycliffe into the Bohemian language. These sermons moved him to cry out for reform in the Church, and a return to the authority of the Scriptures as the sole source of faith and doctrine for the Christian.

He at once was branded a heretic, excommunicated, and his writings were suppressed. He found refuge outside of Prague, where he continued to preach, write, and study. The chief product of his pen concerning the Church developed the Wycliffe teachings concerning the universal priesthood of all believers, stating in no uncertain terms that Christ is the only Head of the church.

In 1414 he was promised safe conduct by the Pope and the Emperor Sigismund to the Council of Constance to present his views. Instead of hearing him, the Council had him ar- rested, gave him a mock trial without the benefit of an advo- cate, and condemned him to death as a heretic. He was kept in prison for seven months before he was brought forth to be burned. As Huss stood before the stake he said, "In the truth of the Gospel which I have written, taught, and preached, I die willingly and joyfully today."

The Pope dismissed his own broken promise of safe conduct to Huss with, "When dealing with heretics, one is not obligated to keep his word."

175 posted on 07/16/2003 5:56:40 PM PDT by razorbak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 172 | View Replies]

To: rwfromkansas
The truth hurts.

That may be your experience. I associate truth with freedom, not pain.

176 posted on 07/16/2003 6:56:22 PM PDT by Barnacle (A Human Shield against the onslaught of Leftist tripe.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 158 | View Replies]

To: Truelove
Too bad that's so often confused with the Roman Church.
177 posted on 07/16/2003 7:05:02 PM PDT by The Grammarian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Barnacle
Scripture is sharper than any two-edged sword.

It does bring true freedom, but the route to accepting the truth is anything but peaceful.
178 posted on 07/16/2003 7:28:51 PM PDT by rwfromkansas ("There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write 'damnation' with your fingers." C.H. Spurgeon)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 176 | View Replies]

To: TexConfederate1861
"Before you hammer on Luther so hard, Look at what the Great Schism of 1054, which was caused by the arrogance of the Roman or Western Church....The same who dared to add to the Nicean Creed in defiance of anethamas placed by the Eccumenical Council of Chalcedon!"

Isn't it strange how eastern "Orthodox" blame the Pope for the schism, when it is their hurt pride that caused them to break from true orthodoxy and make their own Patriarch their head. The Greek "Orthodox" Church still calls the Pope "first among equals", yet they treat him like last among un-equals, even refusing to send a high "Orthodox" Church official to greet him during his visit to Greece.

History clearly shows, without argument, that the eastern Church recognized Rome and the Pope as the central authority of the entire Church. Even the writings of the early eastern Saints proves this; writings by Athanasius, Chrysostom, Cyprian of Carthage, St. Ephram the Syrian; all recognized Rome as the seat of Church authority.

That the Pope added the "filioque" to the Creed was certainly within his authority, especially since the Bible itself makes it abundently clear that the Holy Spirit does proceed from the Son as well as from the Father.

The Greek Church claims that Jesus somehow does not have the authority to "send" the Holy Spirit on His own, that the Holy Spirit proceeds only from the Father, thereby making Jesus less than God the Father. But hear what Jesus Himself says on this matter: "And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." (Mathew 28:18).

The Holy Spirit can proceed directly from the Son, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Son: "If you have not the Spirit of Christ, you have not the Spirit of God", (Romans 8:9).

The schizmatic Greek "Orthodox" Church wants to separate the divide the authority of the Holy Trinity, (just as they separated and divided the authority of the Catholic Church) - but Jesus Christ chatises this schizmatic theology when He says:"The Father and I are one." (John 10:30)

Now we see Jesus Personally sending the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, on His own authority: "And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit." (John 20:22)

But perhaps the greatest evidence of all that the Greek "Orthodox" schism was a horrendous error on their own part, was the Council of Florence in 1439, where the Greek Church admitted their grevious error and put it in writing. At this Council the Greek Church signed a written proclamation of their belief in the "filioque", (that the Holy Spirit does proceed from the Father and the Son), and thereby reconciled with the Pope and Holy See of Rome. That they have pulled away from Rome again after signing this proclamation at the Council of Florence shows their own fickleness and self will in action.

Saint Athanasius, the great Eastern Saint who fought so courageously against a similar error called 'Arianism', (which claimed that Jesus was the Son of God, but not equal to God), must be turning in his grave at this arrogant Greek schism.

179 posted on 07/17/2003 10:42:09 AM PDT by TheCrusader
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 163 | View Replies]

To: rwfromkansas
"Furthermore, nobody can lose their salvation, for "nobody can snatch them out of My hand." Predestination simply means you will be saved in the end and since you can't lose your salvation, of course it will cointinue to the end."

Luther's doctrine of "predestinatoin" is a novelty to the Christian faith - it is nowise Biblical or traditional. You claim that nobody can snatch our salvation from God's hands, but this is merely a half-truth, for God gave us self will and choice. We can lose our salvation all on our own without somebody "snatching" it from us. Listen to the rest of Scripture, and not just one verse; for Jesus said that: "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word of God".

"For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries." (Hebrews 10: 26 - 27)

Luther's doctrine, and your belief in it, strip away the Christian doctrine of Judgement Day. What will there be to judge? The "predestined" will simply be sent to heaven, and the rest to Hell. According to Luther and you, our actions while alive on earth will be as nothing. But true Christian teaching and the Bible mock this nonsense.

(1). "For you have need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised". (Hebrews 10:36).

(2). "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body." (2 Corinthians 5:10).

(3). "Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to every man according to his works". (Revelation 22:12).

(4). "With fear and trembling work out your salvation". (Philippians 2:12).

(5). "Serve the LORD with fear, with trembling kiss his feet, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way; (Psalms 2: 11- 12).

(6). "For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done. (Mathew 16:27)

(7). "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." (James 1:22)

(8). " but I chastise my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be become a castaway". (I Corinthians 9:27)

180 posted on 07/17/2003 11:12:15 AM PDT by TheCrusader
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 149 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 141-160161-180181-200 ... 241-249 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson