What are the 95 Theses of Martin Luther?

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[tired&retired]

And you must eat a Diet of Worms!

[tired&retired]

The Diet of Worms was an imperial diet (assembly) of the Holy Roman Empire called by King Charles V.

It was held at the Heylshof Garden in Worms, then an Imperial Free City of the Empire. An imperial diet was a formal deliberative assembly of the whole Empire.

This one is most memorable for the Edict of Worms (Wormser Edikt), which addressed Martin Luther and the effects of the Protestant Reformation. It was conducted from 28 January to 25 May 1521, with the Emperor Charles V presiding.

[ctdonath2]

The original tweet storm.

[Cvengr]

Great minds think alike.

I recalled the 1521 condemnation at the Diet of Worms by the Holy Roman Empire called by King Charles V.

[sauropod]

bkmk

[Madam Theophilus]

Don’t stop at the 95 Theses! Continue on to Luther’s next work, The Heidelberg Disputation of 1518:

http://bookofconcord.org/heidelberg.php

[ADSUM]

50 Reasons Why Martin Luther Was Excommunicated
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/darmstrong/50-reasons-why-martin-luther-was-excommunicated

1. Separation of justification from sanctification.
2. Extrinsic, forensic, imputed justification.
3. Fiduciary faith.
4. Private judgment over against ecclesial infallibility.
5. Rejection of seven deuterocanonical books.
6. Denial of venial sin.
7. Denial of merit.
8. Sola Scriptura and radically private judgment: “if we are all priests . . . why should we not also have the power to test and judge what is right or wrong in matters of faith?”
9. Denial that the pope has the right to call a council.
10. Only justified men can do good works.
11. Denial of the sacrament of ordination.
12. Denial of exclusively priestly absolution. Anyone in the Christian community can grant absolution.
13. God has not instituted the office of bishop.
14. God has not instituted the office of the papacy.
15. Priests have no special, indelible character.
16. Temporal authorities have power over the Church; even bishops and popes: “The pope should have no authority over the emperor”.
17. Vows of celibacy are wrong and should be abolished.
18. Denial of papal infallibility.
19. Unrighteous priests or popes lose their authority.
20. The keys of the kingdom were not just given to Peter.
21. Private judgment of every individual to determine matters of faith.
22. Denial that the pope has the right to confirm a council.
23. Denial that the Church has the right to demand celibacy of certain callings.
24. God has not instituted the vocation of monk
25. Feast days should be abolished.
26. Fasts should be strictly optional.
27. Canonization of saints is thoroughly corrupt and should stop.
28. Confirmation is not a sacrament.
29. Indulgences should be abolished.
30. Dispensations should be abolished.
31. Philosophy (Aristotle as prime example) is an unsavory, detrimental influence on Christianity.
32. Transubstantiation is “a monstrous idea.”
33. The Church cannot institute sacraments.
34. Denial that the Mass is a good work.
35. Denial that the Mass is a true sacrifice.
36. Denial of the sacramental notion of ex opere operato.
37. Denial that penance is a sacrament.
38. Assertion that the Catholic Church had “completely abolished” the practice of penance.
39. Claim that the Church had abolished faith as an aspect of penance.
40. Denial of apostolic succession.
41. Any layman who can should call a general council.
42. Penitential works are worthless.
43. The seven sacraments lack any biblical proof.
44. Marriage is not a sacrament.
45. Annulments are a senseless concept and the Church has no right to grant them.
46. Whether divorce is allowable is an open question.
47. Divorced persons should be allowed to remarry.
48. Jesus allowed divorce when one partner committed adultery.
49. The priest’s daily office is “vain repetition.”
50. Extreme unction is not a sacrament (the only two sacraments are baptism and the Eucharist).

[ealgeone]

The "author" of your source (bold emphasis mine):

Bachelor of Arts, Sociology (cum laude) from Wayne State University, Detroit, 1982; a broad liberal arts education, including much philosophy and history, and a minor in psychology. Multiple thousands of hours studying theology, Church history, philosophy, and general Christian and Catholic apologetics since 1981 (no formal training in theology). I have about 2000 books in my own library (mostly these same subjects).

[foreverfree]

Worms [was] an Imperial Free City of the Empire.

And, during the Cold War, located in the FRG. Wittenberg OTOH was in the GDR.

ff

[foreverfree]

The battle is re-re-re-rejoined...

ff

[ealgeone]

The battle for Truth will only end after the Final Judgment.

Meanwhile, we fight the good fight.

[Repent and Believe]

“...Continue on to Luther’s next work...”

What about his final work? Some attest that it was the same as Judas’.

The Death of Luther

How did Luther Die?

The official Protestant version narrates that the greatest architect of the Christian rupture died of a natural death on February 15, 1546, after a trip to Eisleben and suffering from angina pectoris; Was it really like this?

A contemporary German scholar, Dietrich Emme, offers a very different version in a review of events. In his book “Martin Luther, Seine Jugend und Studienzeit 1483-1505. Eine dokumentarische Darstelleng “[1] (”Martin Luther: Youth and Years of Study from 1483 to 1505. Bonn 1983”) points out that Luther committed suicide, and he is not alone in pointing this out.

Likewise, a Freudian psychoanalyst, M. Roland Dalbiez, in his study Luther’s Anguish [2], attributes him “... a very serious neurosis of anguish, so grave that one may wonder whether it has not been due to a border-state between neurosis on the one hand and “suicide raptus” on the other, a teleological anti-suicidal automatism”[3].

Indeed, Luther had suicidal tendencies, as it can be corroborated in his own “Tischreden” (”Table Talk”), where one of his conversations with Pastor Güben Leonhard Beyer, in 1551 is documented:

“He told us that when he was a prisoner the devil had wickedly tormented him and that he had laughed heartily when he (Luther) took a knife in his hand, saying:” Go ahead! Kill yourself! “(...). This has happened to me very often, so much as to put a knife in my hand ... and what evil thoughts came to mind in this way, so evil that I could no longer pray “[4].

In 1606, Franciscan Heinrich Sedulius in his “Preaescriptiones adversus haereses”, narrates something analogous bringing up the valuable testimony of Ambrosio Kudtfeld, a witness and man of confidence of the “reformer” who, far from accounting a death from angina , says:

“On the night before his death, Martin Luther let himself be overcome by his habitual intemperance and in such excess that we were obliged to take him, completely drunk, and place him in his bed. Then, we retired to our bedroom, without sensing anything unpleasant! The next morning, we went back to our lord to help him get dressed, as usual. Then - oh, what a pain! - we saw our master Martin hanging from the bed and strangled miserably! His mouth was crooked, th right part of his face was black, his neck was red and deformed.”[5]

Indeed, at that time raised beds supported by columns were used.

“In the face of this horrible spectacle, we felt great fear! We ran, without delay, to the princes, his guests of the day before, to announce to them the execrable end of Luther! They, full of terror like us, immediately promised us, with a thousand promises and the most solemn oaths, to observe, with respect to that event, an eternal silence. Then they ordered us to remove the rope from Luther’s hideous corpse, lay him on his bed, and then report to the people that “Master Luther” had suddenly abandoned this life!”[6]

Maritain himself points out that Dr. De Coster, who examined Luther, explained that the deceased’s mouth was crooked with the face black and the neck red and deformed [7].

Likewise, Oratorian priest Bozio, in his book “De Signis Ecclesiae”, published in 1592 [8], points out that one of the reformer’s household indicated that his lord was found hanged from the columns of his bed; Dr. Géorges Claudin says the same: [9].

As Villa points out, “Luther, then, did not die a natural death, as has been falsely written in all the history books of Protestantism, but died as a suicidal, hanged from his bed after a splendid dinner, in which, as usual, he had drunk too much and was satisfied with food beyond all bounds!”[10].

Paradoxically, that February 15, 1546, feast of the Chair of St. Peter, he, who had railed against the Church, the Papacy, and the Catholic doctrine, voluntarily abandoned his mortal life at three in the morning, the anti-hour of Redemption that Our Lord Jesus Christ brought to us on Calvary.

It’s sad: but that’s the end of those who live in a bad way.

Don’t let them deceive you…

P. Javier Olivera Ravasi

SOURCE. Translated from Spanish by Catholicity blog.

[ealgeone]

Regarding your tagline:

Only the Douay-Rheims translates the verse this way.

The NRSVACE renders the passage as:

No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.

****

The NABRE:

By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!

***************

Another example of a bad translation leading to bad theology.

[ADSUM]

God’s Truth is already with us. His mysteries will be explained to us later.

It is man’s attempt to falsely interpret God’s Truth that causes disputes in understanding God’s Truth.

Peter taught that “no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Pet. 1:20–21) and went on to warn about those who taught without authority: “There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction” (2 Pet. 2:1).

Paul instructed, “Stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter” (2 Thess. 2:15), and “If any one refuses to obey what we say in this letter, note that man, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not look on him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother” (2 Thess. 3:14–15).

If we are open to God’s Truth and defend it, a reasonable discussion can lead us to a better understanding God’s Truth.

[ealgeone]

Paul instructed, “Stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter” (2 Thess. 2:15), and “If any one refuses to obey what we say in this letter, note that man, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not look on him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother” (2 Thess. 3:14–15).

Bible study 101:

What is the context of these "traditions" Paul is writing about?

[reed13k]

Now this was interesting to me because the Japanese legislative branch is called a Diet and I always wondered where that term came from as I haven’t seen it in use elsewhere.

[Repent and Believe]

“Another example of a bad translation leading to bad theology.”

Here are the bad translations: NRSVACE and the NABRE.

[ealgeone]

They are approved translations by the Roman Catholic church. You have an issue with them you know who to write to.

[Wallace T.]

You have to be a bit skeptical of accounts published in one case 46 and in another case 60 years after Luther's death. There are stories, for example, of Washington converting on his death bed to the Catholic faith. Perhaps it is true, as he never wrote an anti-Catholic item in his extensive correspondence. He further rebuked anti-Catholic activities on the part of New Englanders while commander of the Continental Army. However, the accounts of his conversion were written in the 1830s, over 30 years after Washington's death, and were second hand accounts.

Luther may have committed suicide, but the evidence of it is not strong.