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.
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.
It happens.
Folks give more power to corporately elect a politician than they give to God to "elect" a person unto salvation.
Very interesting. What is the source for this information?
No problem. I think it's a common misconception.
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.
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."
That may be your experience. I associate truth with freedom, not pain.
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.
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)
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