Posted on 08/24/2014 4:45:06 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
Let's see what the Father of Protestantism thought about the Blessed Mother.....
Despite the radicalism of early Protestantism toward many ancient Catholic "distinctives," such as the Communion of the Saints, Penance, Purgatory, Infused Justification, the Papacy, the priesthood, sacramental marriage, etc., it may surprise many to discover that Martin Luther was rather conservative in some of his doctrinal views, such as on baptismal regeneration, the Eucharist, and particularly the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Luther indeed was quite devoted to Our Lady, and retained most of the traditional Marian doctrines which were held then and now by the Catholic Church. This is often not well-documented in Protestant biographies of Luther and histories of the 16th century, yet it is undeniably true. It seems to be a natural human tendency for latter-day followers to project back onto the founder of a movement their own prevailing viewpoints.
Since Lutheranism today does not possess a very robust Mariology, it is usually assumed that Luther himself had similar opinions. We shall see, upon consulting the primary sources (i.e., Luther's own writings), that the historical facts are very different. We shall consider, in turn, Luther's position on the various aspects of Marian doctrine.
Along with virtually all important Protestant Founders (e.g., Calvin, Zwingli, Cranmer), Luther accepted the traditional belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary (Jesus had no blood brothers), and her status as the Theotokos (Mother of God):
Christ, ..was the only Son of Mary, and the Virgin Mary bore no children besides Him... "brothers" really means "cousins" here, for Holy Writ and the Jews always call cousins brothers. (Sermons on John, chapters 1-4.1537-39).
He, Christ, our Savior, was the real and natural fruit of Mary's virginal womb.. .This was without the cooperation of a man, and she remained a virgin after that. (Ibid.)
God says... "Mary's Son is My only Son." Thus Mary is the Mother of God. (Ibid.).
God did not derive his divinity from Mary; but it does not follow that it is therefore wrong to say that God was born of Mary, that God is Mary's Son, and that Mary is God's mother...She is the true mother of God and bearer of God...Mary suckled God, rocked God to sleep, prepared broth and soup for God, etc. For God and man are one person, one Christ, one Son, one Jesus. not two Christs. . .just as your son is not two sons...even though he has two natures, body and soul, the body from you, the soul from God alone. (On the Councils and the Church, 1539).
Probably the most astonishing Marian belief of Luther is his acceptance of Mary's Immaculate Conception, which wasn't even definitively proclaimed as dogma by the Catholic Church until 1854. Concerning this question there is some dispute, over the technical aspects of medieval theories of conception and the soul, and whether or not Luther later changed his mind. Even some eminent Lutheran scholars, however, such as Arthur Carl Piepkorn (1907-73) of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, maintain his unswerving acceptance of the doctrine. Luther's words follow:
It is a sweet and pious belief that the infusion of Mary's soul was effected without original sin; so that in the very infusion of her soul she was also purified from original sin and adorned with God's gifts, receiving a pure soul infused by God; thus from the first moment she began to live she was free from all sin" (Sermon: "On the Day of the Conception of the Mother of God," 1527).
She is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin—something exceedingly great. For God's grace fills her with everything good and makes her devoid of all evil. (Personal {"Little"} Prayer Book, 1522).
Later references to the Immaculate Conception appear in his House sermon for Christmas (1533) and Against the Papacy of Rome (1545). In later life (he died in 1546), Luther did not believe that this doctrine should be imposed on all believers, since he felt that the Bible didn't explicitly and formally teach it. Such a view is consistent with his notion of sola Scriptura and is similar to his opinion on the bodily Assumption of the Virgin, which he never denied—although he was highly critical of what he felt were excesses in the celebration of this Feast. In his sermon of August 15, 1522, the last time he preached on the Feast of the Assumption, he stated:
There can he no doubt that the Virgin Mary is in heaven. How it happened we do not know. And since the Holy Spirit has told us nothing about it, we can make of it no article of faith... It is enough to know that she lives in Christ.
Luther held to the idea and devotional practice of the veneration of Mary and expressed this on innumerable occasions with the most effusive language:
The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart. (Sermon, September 1, 1522).
[She is the] highest woman and the noblest gem in Christianity after Christ. ..She is nobility, wisdom, and holiness personified. We can never honor her enough. Still honor and praise must be given to her in such a way as to injure neither Christ nor the Scriptures. (Sermon, Christmas, 1531).
No woman is like you. You are more than Eve or Sarah, blessed above all nobility, wisdom, and sanctity. (Sermon, Feast of the Visitation. 1537).
One should honor Mary as she herself wished and as she expressed it in the Magnificat. She praised God for his deeds. How then can we praise her? The true honor of Mary is the honor of God, the praise of God's grace.. .Mary is nothing for the sake of herself, but for the sake of Christ...Mary does not wish that we come to her, but through her to God. (Explanation of the Magnificat, 1521).
Luther goes even further, and gives the Blessed Virgin the exalted position of "Spiritual Mother" for Christians, much the same as in Catholic piety:
It is the consolation and the superabundant goodness of God, that man is able to exult in such a treasure. Mary is his true Mother, Christ is his brother. God is his father. (Sermon. Christmas, 1522)
Mary is the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of us even though it was Christ alone who reposed on her knees...If he is ours, we ought to be in his situation; there where he is, we ought also to be and all that he has ought to be ours, and his mother is also our mother. (Sermon, Christmas, 1529).
Luther did strongly condemn any devotional practices which implied that Mary was in any way equal to our Lord or that she took anything away from His sole sufficiency as our Savior. This is, and always has been, the official teaching of the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, Luther often "threw out the baby with the bath water," when it came to criticizing erroneous emphases and opinions which were prevalent in his time—falsely equating them with Church doctrine. His attitude towards the use of the "Hail Mary" prayer (the first portion of the Rosary) is illustrative. In certain polemical utterances he appears to condemn its recitation altogether, but he is only forbidding a use of Marian devotions apart from heartfelt faith, as the following two citations make clear:
Whoever possesses a good (firm) faith, says the Hail Mary without danger! Whoever is weak in faith can utter no Hail Mary without danger to his salvation. (Sermon, March 11, 1523).
Our prayer should include the Mother of God.. .What the Hail Mary says is that all glory should be given to God, using these words: "Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus Christ. Amen!" You see that these words are not concerned with prayer but purely with giving praise and honor.. .We can use the Hail Mary as a meditation in which we recite what grace God has given her. Second, we should add a wish that everyone may know and respect her...He who has no faith is advised to refrain from saying the Hail Mary. (Personal Prayer Book, 1522).
To summarize, it is apparent that Luther was extraordinarily devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is notable in light of his aversion to so many other "Papist" or "Romish" doctrines, as he was wont to describe them. His major departure occurs with regard to the intercession and invocation of the saints, which he denied, in accord with the earliest systematic Lutheran creed, the Augsburg Confession of 1530 (Article 21).
His views of Mary as Mother of God and as ever-Virgin were identical to those in Catholicism, and his opinions on the Immaculate Conception, Mary's "Spiritual Motherhood" and the use of the "Hail Mary" were substantially the same. He didn't deny the Assumption (he certainly didn't hesitate to rail against doctrines he opposed!), and venerated Mary in a very touching fashion which, as far as it goes, is not at all contrary to Catholic piety.
Therefore, it can be stated without fear of contradiction that Luther's Mariology is very close to that of the Catholic Church today, far more than it is to the theology of modern-day Lutheranism. To the extent that this fact is dealt with at all by Protestants, it is usually explained as a "holdover" from the early Luther's late medieval Augustinian Catholic views ("everyone has their blind spots," etc.). But this will not do for those who are serious about consulting Luther in order to arrive at the true "Reformation heritage" and the roots of an authentic Protestantism. For if Luther's views here can be so easily rationalized away, how can the Protestant know whether he is trustworthy relative to his other innovative doctrines such as extrinsic justification by faith alone and sola Scriptura?
It appears, once again, that the truth about important historical figures is almost invariably more complex than the "legends" and overly-simplistic generalizations which men often at the remove of centuries—create and accept uncritically.
Is Mary his mother?
Nope...Mary is the mother of the body that was provided for God to be manifest in...
1Ti_3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
And that's without controversy...
And that body died...Mary's portion in the Trinity died...God/Jesus put on a new/glorified body that had no connection with Mary...
When Jesus shows up he won't be the blond haired, blue-eyed, light complected Jesus that Mary bore...
Cardinal Cajetan (the same one who opposed Luther) and Cardinal Ximenes, both contemporaries of the era, wrote against the canonicity of these books as well. Further, there was opposition within Trent regarding these books, spearheaded by the group led by Giralamo Cardinal Seripando (for more information on this, read Hubert Jedin’s Cardinal Seripando, Papal Legate at Trent). The mere fact that there was opposition at Trent substantiates that no canon was in effect where the “judgment of the churches” would authoritatively bind the Catholic to the decision at Hippo and Carthage. (http://beggarsallreformation.blogspot.com/2011/10/did-jerome-change-his-mind-on-apocrypha.html)
Since you seem so enamored with these seven books, why don't you share with us a few of your favorite passages? While you are at it, can you explain all the doctrines they teach that are found nowhere else in the Bible?
I think the reason I keep doing so is not so much for the obstinate few for which NO facts will suffice but for others who may be reading the thread so that they can have those facts to make up their own minds.
The Divinity part is still a bit of a mystery since we know that the supposed Divinity of God withing the flesh of Jesus didn't know the day nor hour when Jesus would return to set up his Kingdom...However, that may be as simple as God hadn't made up his mind specifically on what day he would return...
But since we know that Mary was not the mother of Jesus' divinity insofar that the divinity was provided 100% by God, it's akin somewhat to a female dog nursing and raising a kitten...Does that make the dog the kitten's mother???
Or suppose with science that it now is, if a pig fetus was planted inside a woman and the pig was born, is the female human the mother of the pig??? Or just the bearer???
There are probably more Muslims than Catholics in the world (upwards of 2 Billion now) and it's growing. Yet, Jesus said, "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
We all know what co- something means...It they wanted it to mean differently, they would change it...Or wouldn't have used it to begin with...
“....it’s akin somewhat to a female dog nursing and raising a kitten....”
.
Dumbass comparison — was the kitten ever a physical part of the dog?
I will ignore your attempt at blasphemy.
Was the Divinity of God ever a physical part of Mary???
The answer is no in both cases...Therefore the dog is not the mother of the kitten and Mary is not the mother of God, or Jesus' Divinity...
“Luther was an alcoholic, Jew-hating, Catholic-hating, heretic, who only through the grace of God didn’t lose his head at the gallows.
“
That makes the miracle even more amazing doesn’t it? God chose that problem ridden man to restore His Gospel of Grace! There was probably no better man who needed grace than Luther. What a great sense of irony the Father has!
Thanks for calling our attention to it.
Yeah. The misrepresentations of Luther need to be countered with the truth.
Good thing God protected him from the loving arms of the Catholic church, or he would likely have suffered a worse fate than the gallows.
Satan is aware of the perpetual virginity of Mary. Why shouldn’t a tool of his also be?
The Catholic church teaches that.
Are you sure you want to go there?
Chapter 9 of the Apocalypse opens with Saint John’s terrifying vision:
“And the fifth Angel sounded the trumpet; and I saw a star fall from Heaven upon the earth, and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit.
>>“And he opened the bottomless pit: and the smoke of the pit ascended as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun was darkened, and the air with the smoke of the pit:
“And from the smoke of the pit, there came out locusts upon the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.” (Apoc: 9:1-3)
Devout Catholic Scriptural commentators for the past 500 years have seen in this vision a prediction of Luther and his Protestant Revolt.<<
http://www.cfnews.org/page88/files/5ae7de14f0fb304f7bb78d6243389368-91.html
This is either an out right lie or the biggest load of bull ever.
Council of Rome 382 accepted them. Councils of Hippo and Carthage 393 and 397 respectively both accepted them.
As for your comments about Jerome: "What sin have I committed if I follow the judgment of the churches? But he who brings charges against me for relating [in my preface to the book of Daniel] the objections that the Hebrews are wont to raise against the story of Susannah [Dan. 13], the Song of the Three Children [Dan. 3:29–68, RSV-CE], and the story of Bel and the Dragon [Dan. 14], which are not found in the Hebrew volume, proves that he is just a foolish sycophant. I was not relating my own personal views, but rather the remarks that they are wont to make against us. If I did not reply to their views in my preface, in the interest of brevity, lest it seem that I was composing not a preface, but a book, I believe I added promptly the remark, for I said, ‘This is not the time to discuss such matters’" (Against Rufinius 11:33 [A.D. 401]).
Matthew 12:31 Therefore I say to you: Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven.
Matthew 12:32 "And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come.
Luke 12:10 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but to him that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven.
Denying the diety of the Holy Spirit by pretending that it is right and good to throw a large portion of the Old Testament into the garbate in order to avoid contridicting Protestant heresy without fail leads to hearing, "I never knew you" from the very same Jesus Christ who says that blaspheming the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven.
You either accept the diety of the Holy Spirit or you don't and if you accept the diety and perfection of the Holy Spirit you don't throw out a large portion of the Old Testament as it existed prior to and at the time of Christ and the Apostles so you can be comfortable defying the clear teaching of God in the Scriptures you throw out.
Someone spounting the trash about why they follow the same anti-Christ, anti-Christian, Pharisees Jesus Christ condemned rather than Christ and the Holy Spirit is spouting an excuse for why they follow Eve rather than Jesus Christ. It's that simple and straight forward.
May God have mercy on such pretenders and grant them Grace sufficient to deliver them from the strong delusion of Self and Self Alone they love and cling to.
When people start to get to know God’s Word for themselves, they for the most part realize that the Catholic Church got far away from it. Even just knowing the Gospel and getting a sense of what it promises tends to turn people away from the Catholic Church in droves. There are some who turn to it for reasons like pride in that they believe there’s something good in themselves, or that they like how much the Catholic Church embraces the wisdom of the world and beliefs like evolution. But overall, if you have once and for all surrendered all you are to the Lord, understanding that there’s nothing to trust about your own nature and that He wants you to live in continual dependence on Him, then you understand that if you have completely given up on yourself, He is all you need and will take care of you, and He will bring you into fellowship with those who also have given up on themselves and surrendered to Him.
I can say this because I am a revert to the Catholic Church. I left, due to poor catechesis, embraced the lie of anti-Catholicism, and then after a thorough investigation and God's grace came back.
And plainly people leave for two reasons, poor catechesis, or unconfesed sin. anything else they tell you is a lie to make themselves feel better.
It wasn’t until the last 200 years that Mary was announced to be immaculate. And it was until 1965 that Mary was proclaimed the Mother of the Church.
This was well after Martin Luther’s time who I’m sure would have disagreed with both views.
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