Let me put it another way. I get tired of reading cut and paste articles from Wikipedia I also never put down Luther.
He was a good man who wanted changes made in the Church and they were made. He never wanted the Church to break apart. He always said the authority for the Church was Rome. He always believed in the “real presence” at the Eucharist. He would have never wanted a religion called Lutheran and most certainly would never wanted 35,000 religious demoninations, with no central authority, setting their doctrine by a show of hands instead of the word of God. Luther weeps at what PROTESTants have done to God’s Pilgrim Church on Earth. I’ve always wondered what are they still protesting 600 years after the reformation.
“He never wanted the Church to break apart.”
Luther on the Roman Catholic Church:
First, addressing your arguments in this thread:
“The chief cause that I fell out with the pope was this: the pope boasted that he was the head of the Church, and condemned all that would not be under his power and authority; for he said, although Christ be the head of the Church, yet, notwithstanding, there must be a corporal head of the Church upon earth. With this I could have been content, had he but taught the gospel pure and clear, and not introduced human inventions and lies in its stead. Further, he took upon him power, rule, and authority over the Christian Church, and over the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God; no man must presume to expound the Scriptures, but only he, and according to his ridiculous conceits; so that he made himself lord over the Church, proclaiming her at the same time a powerful mother, and empress over the Scriptures, to which we must yield and be obedient; this was not to be endured. They who, against God’s Word, boast of the Church’s authority, are mere idiots. The pope attributes more power to the Church, which is begotten and born, than to the Word, which has begotten, conceived, and born the Church.”
On the Pope and his war against him:
“But I fall upon the pope’s soul, his doctrine, with God’s word, not regarding his body, that is, his wicked person and life. I not only pluck out his feathers, as the king of England and prince Georg of Saxony do, but I set the knife to his throat, and cut his windpipe asunder. We put the goose on the spit; did we but pluck her, the feathers would soon grow again. Therefore is Satan so bitter an enemy unto us, because we cut the pope’s throat, as does also the king of Denmark, who aims at the essence of popery.”
Luther on the fall of the Papal temporal empire, as well as some commentary on Italians in general:
“’Tis wonderful how, in this our time, the majesty of the pope is fallen. Heretofore, all monarchs, emperors, kings, and princes feared the pope’s power, who held them all at his nod; none durst so much as mutter a word against him. This great god is now fallen; his own creatures, the friars and monks, are his enemies, who, if they still continue with him, do so for the sake of gain; otherwise they would oppose him more fiercely than we do. The pope’s crown is named regnum mundi, the kingdom of the world. I have heard it credibly reported at Rome, that this crown is worth more than all the princedoms of Germany. God placed popedom in Italy not without cause, for the Italians can make out many things to be real and true, which in truth are not so: they have crafty and subtle brains.”
Luther on the idolatry of Catholic ordination, since they do not encourage the teaching of the scripture, but only the celebration of mass:
“The papists in their ordinations make no mention of preaching and teaching God’s Word, therefore their consecrating and ordaining is false and unright, for all worshiping which is not ordained of God, or erected by God’s Word and command, is nothing worth, yea, mere idolatry.”
Luther wishing he wasn’t so mild against Popedom:
“There are many that think I am too fierce against popedom; on the contrary, I complain that I am, alas! too mild; I wish I could breathe out lightning against pope and popedom, and that every word were a thunderbolt.”
Luther on Catholic gullibility:
“A German, making his confession to a priest at Rome, promised, on oath, to keep secret whatsoever the priest should impart unto him, until he reached home; whereupon the priest gave him a leg of the ass on which Christ rode into Jerusalem, very neatly bound up in silk, and said: This is the holy relic on which the Lord Christ corporally did sit, with his sacred legs touching this ass’s leg. Then was the German wondrous glad, and carried the said holy relic with him into Germany. When he got to the borders, he bragged of his holy relic in the presence of four others, his comrades, when, lo! it turned out that each of them had likewise received from the same priest a leg, after promising the same secrecy. Thereupon, all exclaimed, with great wonder: Lord! had that ass five legs?”
ROFL
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1535luther.asp
“He was a good man who wanted changes made in the Church and they were made. “
Watch this opinion change in 5-4-3-2-1...
” He always believed in the “real presence” at the Eucharist. “
Luther denied transubstantiation and affirmed the sufficiency of grace for salvation, making the mass irrelevant to salvation.
“He would have never wanted a religion called Lutheran and most certainly would never wanted 35,000 religious demoninations, with no central authority, setting their doctrine by a show of hands instead of the word of God. “
Which is exactly why he coined the phrase “sola scriptura,” something Catholics don’t believe in.
If I post certain paragraphs that help explain a point I am trying to make, I make sure to cite the source and not pretend the words are all my own. That's the rule here.
Your version of what Martin Luther did or did not think or do doesn't comport with the truth. Many of the points you make don't match the truth. It will probably be a huge waste of my time to prove your fallacies here point by point since you have already indicated you won't read them. Some people get comfortable in their ignorance and no amount of proof will budge them. I'm not here to defend Martin Luther. The truth of the gospel is clearly revealed in sacred Scripture. The Holy Spirit is in the world to convict it of sin, righteousness and judgment. For those who have been given eyes to see, it WILL be plain to see.