The Protestant Reformation

Just 30 years before the birth of Luther, Johann Gutenberg invented printing from movable type—the greatest discovery in the history of the world.

The 1455 Gutenberg Bible:
The First Book Ever Printed

Biographical Sketch of Martin Luther

Martin Luther, one of a few men who significantly altered the course of world history, was born in Eisleben, Germany on November 10, 1483. He entered the University of Erfurt in 1501 and intended to study law but, as the story goes, a narrow escape from lightning moved him to enter a monastery in 1505. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1507. Soon after a journey to Rome (1510-11), Luther began his professorship at the University of Wittenberg, which was thenceforth to be his home.

Throughout his early life Luther had been burdened by a heavy sense of sinfulness. The rigors of monasticism had brought him no peace of mind. He became more and more convinced that the meritorious works of Roman Catholicism were not the means of salvation. Finally, focusing on Paul's statement, "The just shall live by faith" (Rom. 1:17), Luther came to a climax in his convictions. Men were saved by the grace of God manifested in the forgiveness of their sins and the imputation of Christ's righteousness. God's grace was given, not on the basis of good works, but on the basis of absolute faith in God's promises. However, this faith, Luther asserted, was wholly the gift of God.

In the year 1510 Luther together with another monk of the Augustinian order at Erfurt went to Rome to see the Pope regarding a matter that required settlement. Apart from this matter and the regular disciplines required of him, Luther had an amount of time at his disposal.

'Disillusionments of various sorts set in at once. ...On making his general confession he was dismayed by the incompetence of the confessor. The abysmal ignorance, frivolity, and levity of the Italian priests stupefied him. They could rattle through six or seven masses while he was saying one. And when he was only at the Gospel, they had finished and would say to him "Passa! Passa!" - "Get a move on!" ....Some of the Italian clergy however were flippantly unbelieving and would address the sacrament saying "Bread thou art and bread thou wilt remain." To a devout believer from the unsophisticated Northland such disclosures were truly shocking.

'By a like token the stories that came to Luther's ears of the immorality of the Roman clergy should not logically have undermined his faith...At the same time he was horrified to hear that if there were a hell, Rome was built over it. He need not have been a scandalmonger to know that the district of ill fame was frequented by ecclesiastics. He heard there were those who considered themselves virtuous because they confined themselves to women. The unsavory memory of Pope Alexander VI was still a stench. Catholic historians recognize candidly the scandal of the Renaissance popes, and the Catholic Reformation was as greatly concerned as the Protestant about such abuses.'

According to the historian Roland H Bainton from whose work 'Here I Stand' the above quotations made Luther have doubts and he did not exclaim at the top of the stairs at St Peters upon which he had ascended on his knees "The just shall live by faith". His spiritual journey had not reached that point. What he actually said expressed the doubt he had in his mind and soul "Who knows whether it is so."

The question of indulgences only came in to focus through the preaching of Tetzel in 1517 of indulgences for the building project of St Peters in Rome. This of course led to the nailing up of the 95 Theses against Indulgences on October 31st 1517.

		certificate of indulgence

The issue of the indulgence raised the question: How was someone saved? Was someone saved by what they did, or what the Church did for them? Or were
they saved because of what Christ had done (die on the cross)? And so that
was the issue that was at stake. And for Luther, the most important thing was
to realize that Christ had died for you and you were saved by that death, not by anything that you did or anything the Church did, but only by what Christ had done. And you had to accept that gift in faith.

What proved to be the catalyst of the Reformation was that which offended Luther's convictions concerning salvation, the sale of indulgences.

In 1517 Johann Tetzel came to Germany to sell indulgences for the building of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Indulgences meant the purchaser, or the dead for whom they were purchased for, would not have to suffer temporal punishment in purgatory for their sins. Tetzel touted indulgences with great persuasiveness, but Luther found his activities reprehensible.

Johann Tetzel
(1465 – 11 August 1519)

Johann Tetzel was a German Dominican Preacher remembered for selling indulgences and for speaking the couplet "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings / the rescued soul from purgatory springs."

Tetzel even went as far as creating a chart that listed a price for each type of sin and claiming that the indulgences he sold could save a soul who violated the Virgin Mary.

Tetzel was trying to raise money for the ongoing construction of St. Peter's Basilica and it is believed that Martin Luther was inspired to write his Ninety-Five Theses, in part, due to Tetzel's actions during this period of time.

On 31 October 1517, in Saxony (in what is now Germany), Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church which served as a notice board for university-related announcements. This was the customary manner of calling for a debate, but this act was the spark which exploded the powder keg of the Protestant Reformation. These were points for debate that criticized the Church and the Pope. The most controversial points centered on the practice of selling indulgences and the Church's policy on Purgatory.

Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us, may do so by letter. In the Name our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Over the next several years the Catholic Church tried by various means to force Luther to recant, but he only drifted further and further away from Catholic orthodoxy. Moreover, Luther found many scholars and much of the German populace in sympathy with his views. Ordinarily, he would have been burned at the stake for heresy, but he enjoyed the protection of Elector Frederick the Wise. The political situation was such that neither the Holy Roman Emperor nor the pope felt confident in moving against Luther. However, on January 3, 1521 the final bull of excommunication was issued against Luther, and later that year he was placed under an imperial ban, which made him an outlaw.

Under the protection of German princes Luther continued to advance Reformation ideas through vigorous writing and preaching.

Luther had many messages. He wrote about specific issues or problems. But he had one over-arching message. And that one message, he put in his pamphlets, he put in his longer treatises, he put in his hymns. And that was: Christ died for you. If you can believe and have faith, you are saved. There's nothing that you can do on your own to be saved. In fact, even believing is a gift of the Holy Spirit. But if you believe, you are saved. And all the paraphernalia of the Catholic Church of the time, where you could help and cooperate in your salvation, made no sense any more.

Martin Luther's criticism of the Church initially was that the Church was sending the wrong message, that the Church was giving to people the sense that they could save themselves by using the various things the Church offered, including indulgences. And the proper message was: No, you couldn't do that. In order to be saved, you had to leave it to Christ, and you had to simply cling to what Christ had done for you. That was his original complaint with the Church.

But when the Church did not listen, he came reluctantly to the conclusion that the Church, especially the office of the papacy, was the Antichrist, and that what it was doing was deliberate. It was the devil's attempt to subvert, to submerge the good news, the gospel. The devil was working within the Church. And once he was convinced that that was happening, the papal office to him, was the office of the Antichrist.

The issue of the indulgence raised the question:
How was someone saved?

Was someone saved by what they did, or what the Church did for them?

Luther set out to reform the Church, to bring it back to what he saw as its proper mooring.

Luther's Teachings

The Church, as the institutional Church, saw Luther as a great threat to their income and a heretic teaching things that they had not taught and which they saw undermined the Church, both in its spiritual form but also in its financial and political form.

It is at this time, the printing press comes into play.

Luther would have just been one more reformer as a small dot in history, if it had not been for the printing press. But thanks to the Guentenberg press, Martin Luther became the bestseller throughout the empire. He out-published all of his Catholic opponents. He discovered the power of the press in ways that no one else had used it up to that point: everything from woodcuts being used in a polemical way, ditties and rhymes. He mastered this new medium; he used it to spread and turn what would have been a local affair into an international movement.

The printing press is discovered and put into action in 1450.

The watchword in the early Reformation, even more important to other Protestants to Luther himself, was "scripture alone." Scripture was the only source. It was not the Pope making up his mind. It was not a church council. It was the Scripture. And individual believers needed to read the Scripture and see what the truth was for themselves.

The effect of putting the Bible into people's hands

When Luther translated the New Testament and ultimately the whole Bible from Latin into German, he wanted to make it available first to preachers and to those who could read, and then secondarily to everyone else. He thought that if the Bible was made available in the vernacular, with the assistance of his forwards and his marginal comments, everyone would read it the same way he did. The irony is, of course, they didn't. Within even a few months, people were reading it differently. Luther had released a genie. And once the genie was out of the bottle, Luther, try as he might, couldn't get the genie back in again.

Luther's Treatment of the 'Disputed Books'
of the New Testament

When Martin Luther first translated and published the New Testament, he thought that Revelation should not have the same status or authority as the gospels or the letters of Paul or Peter. And so he put it at the end, but he didn't number it. He didn't put a "saint" in front of [John's] name.Luther's criticism of these books will perhaps be found disgraceful and even shocking to modern Christians, but it should be pointed out that his attitude was not so shocking in the context of the late Middle Ages.

Luther's prefaces to James, Jude and the Revelation, from the First Edition of his New Testament. The English translation and notes are derived from the American Edition of Luther's Works, vol 35 (St. Louis: Concordia, 1963), pp. 395-399.

Here, we will just note The Book of Revelation.

Revelation - The Last Judgment
by Jacob de Backer

The Blessing and the Curse ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Revelation 1 Prologue 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. Revelation 22 Epilogue 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Martin Luther's Preface to the Revelation of St. John (1522) 7

About this book of the Revelation of John, I leave everyone free to hold his own opinions. I would not have anyone bound to my opinion or judgment. I say what I feel. I miss more than one thing in this book, and it makes me consider it to be neither apostolic nor prophetic. First and foremost, the apostles do not deal with visions, but prophesy in clear and plain words, as do Peter and Paul, and Christ in the gospel. For it befits the apostolic office to speak clearly of Christ and his deeds, without images and visions. Moreover there is no prophet in the Old Testament, to say nothing of the New, who deals so exclusively with visions and images. For myself, I think it approximates the Fourth Book of Esdras; 8 I can in no way detect that the Holy Spirit produced it. Moreover he seems to me to be going much too far when he commends his own book so highly -- indeed, more than any of the other sacred books do, though they are much more important -- and threatens that if anyone takes away anything from it, God will take away from him, etc. Again, they are supposed to be blessed who keep what is written in this book; and yet no one knows what that is, to say nothing of keeping it. This is just the same as if we did not have the book at all. And there are many far better books available for us to keep. Many of the fathers also rejected this book a long time ago; 9 although St. Jerome, to be sure, refers to it in exalted terms and says that it is above all praise and that there are as many mysteries in it as words. Still, Jerome cannot prove this at all, and his praise at numerous places is too generous. Finally, let everyone think of it as his own spirit leads him. My spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book. For me this is reason enough not to think highly of it: Christ is neither taught nor known in it. But to teach Christ, this is the thing which an apostle is bound above all else to do; as Christ says in Acts 1, "You shall be my witnesses." Therefore I stick to the books which present Christ to me clearly and purely.
_____________________
7. This short preface appeared in the September Testament of 1522 and in other editions up to 1527. It was supplanted from 1530 on by a much longer preface which offers an interpretation of the symbolism of the book.

8. Luther means II Esdras, which was called IV Esdras in the Vulgate.

9. The canonicity of Revelation was disputed by Marcion, Caius of Rome, Dionysius of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem and the Synod of Laodicea in A.D. 360, though it was accepted by most as Eusebius reports. In the annotations of his edition Erasmus had noted in connection with chapter 4 that the Greeks regarded the book as apocryphal.

What's interesting about Luther in the way he felt about Revelation is that it is the only book he illustrated. Here he put graphic and sometimes gross woodcuts, allowing him to make one of his central points, which was that the papacy was the Antichrist, and the end of the world was coming. And so there you see the only woodcuts in the New Testament.

The message was clear. You didn't have to read (as most people didn't). You got the message.

Fig. 12 Lucas Cranach the Elder's depiction of "The Origins of the Papacy," printed in Luther's The Papacy at Rome, Founded by the Devil (1545). The work shows the pope being born of the devil's shit and being suckled and reared by demons.

Evolution of Luther's Views Regarding Jews

When Luther put his whole world into the context of the biblical story, it identified many different enemies. And one of the enemies were the Jews, the Jews of his own time.

Luther's attitude toward the Jews changed over his life. In his earlier period, until around 1536, he expressed concern for their situation and was enthusiastic at the prospect of converting them to Christianity, but in his later period, he denounced them and urged their harsh persecution and even murder.

Michael Berenbaum writes that Luther's reliance on the Bible as the sole source of Christian authority fed his later fury toward Jews over their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. For Luther, salvation depended on the belief that Jesus was the son of God, a belief that adherents of Judaism do not share. Early in his life, Luther had argued that the Jews had been prevented from converting to Christianity by the proclamation of what he believed to be an impure gospel by the Catholic Church, and he believed they would respond favorably to the evangelical message if it were presented to them gently. He expressed concern for the poor conditions in which they were forced to live, and insisted that anyone denying that Jesus was born a Jew was committing heresy.

Luther's first known comment on the Jews is in a letter written to Reverend Spalatin in 1514:

Luther's Writings

“Conversion of the Jews will be the work of God alone operating from within, and not of man working — or rather playing — from without. If these offences be taken away, worse will follow. For they are thus given over by the wrath of God to reprobation, that they may become incorrigible, as Ecclesiastes says, for every one who is incorrigible is rendered worse rather than better by correction.”

Graham Noble writes that Luther wanted to save Jews, in his own terms, not exterminate them, but beneath his apparent reasonableness toward them, there was a "biting intolerance," which produced "ever more furious demands for their conversion to his own brand of Christianity" (Noble, 1-2). When they failed to convert, he turned on them.

Martin Luther's On the Jews and Their Lies. Wittenberg,1543

On the Jews and Their Lies (German: Von den Jüden und iren Lügen; in modern spelling Von den Juden und ihren Lügen) is a 65,000-word treatise written by German Reformation leader Martin Luther in 1543.

In the treatise, Luther writes that the Jews are a "base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth." They are full of the "devil's feces ... which they wallow in like swine," and the synagogue is an "incorrigible whore and an evil slut ..." He argues that their synagogues and schools be set on fire, their prayer books destroyed, rabbis forbidden to preach, homes razed, and property and money confiscated. They should be shown no mercy or kindness, afforded no legal protection, and these "poisonous envenomed* worms" should be drafted into forced labor or expelled for all time. He also seems to advocate their murder, writing "[w]e are at fault in not slaying them." The prevailing scholarly view since the Second World War is that the treatise exercised a major and persistent influence on Germany's attitude toward its Jewish citizens in the centuries between the Reformation and the Holocaust. Four hundred years after it was written, the National Socialists displayed On the Jews and Their Lies during Nuremberg rallies, and the city of Nuremberg presented a first edition to Julius Streicher, editor of the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer, the newspaper describing it as the most radically antisemitic tract ever published.

* envenomed = hostility; desire to inflict injury or suffering. malignant:

Luther, German theologian and religious reformer, initiated the Protestant Reformation and forever split Christianity from Catholicism. His influence extends beyond religion to politics, economics, education and language. In 1505, after receiving a bachelor's and master's degree, he suddenly abandoned his studies, entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt and became a monk. He became a controversial figure when he published his Ninety-Five Theses, opposing the indulgences (release from the penalties for sin through the payment of money by the Catholic Church). This resulted in his split from the Roman Catholic Church where he established unique Christian interpretations about the Bible and theology. His influence resulted in the major Protestant denomination of Lutheranism where their churches today use Luther's name.

Protestant Christians so admire Martin Luther that he stands as a respected "Patron Saint" to their beliefs and morals. Christians often quote him, theologians write books on him, and many name their children after him (Martin Luther King Jr., for example).

Luther's anti-Jewishness

Unfortunately few popular books on Luther go into detail about Luther's anti-Jewishness, or even mention that he had a hatred for Jews at all. This has resulted in a biased outlook towards Martin Luther and Christianity. This unawareness of Luther's sinister side, while honoring his "righteousness" leads to a ratcheting promotion of Luther which supports a "good" public image while also transporting his Jewish beliefs to those who carry the seeds of anti-Semitism. This will present an unwanted dilemma for many Christians because Luther represents the birth of Protestant Christianity as well as the genesis of the special brand of Jewish hatred that flourished only in Germany.

Although Luther did not invent anti-Jewishness, as the Roman Catholic Church and most of their popes were anti-semetic) Luther in his rage against them, promoted anti-semitism to a level never before seen in Europe. Luther bore the influence of his upbringing and from anti-Jewish theologians such as Lyra, Burgensis, (and John Chrysostom, before them). But Luther's 1543 book, "On the Jews and their lies" took Jewish hatred to a new level when he proposed to set fire to their synagogues and schools, to take away their homes, forbad them to pray or teach, or even to utter God's name. Luther wanted to "be rid of them" and requested that the government and ministers deal with the problem. He requested pastors and preachers to follow his example of issuing warnings against the Jews. He goes so far as to claim that "We are at fault in not slaying them" for avenging the death of Jesus Christ. Hitler's Nazi government in the 1930s and 40s fit Luther's desires to a tee.

So vehemently did Luther speak against the Jews, and the fact that Luther represented an honorable and admired Christian to Protestants, that his written words carried the "memetic" seeds of anti-Jewishness up until the 20th century and into the Third Reich. Luther's Jewish eliminationist rhetoric virtually matches the beliefs held by Hitler and much of the German populace in the 1930s.

Luther unconsciously set the stage for the future of German nationalistic fanaticism. William L. Shirer in his "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," puts it succinctly:

If you wish to read the entire unabridged book online, click picture

The following gives a few quotations from Luther's dirty little book:

No apologist can claim that Martin Luther bore his anti-Jewishness out of youthful naivete', uneducation, or out of unfounded Christianity. On the contrary, Luther in his youth expressed a great optimism about Jewish conversion to Christianity. But in his later years, Luther began to realize that the Jews would not convert to his wishes. His anti-Jewishness grew slowly over time. His logic came not from science or reason, but rather from Scripture and his Faith. His "On the Jews and Their Lies" shows remarkable study into the Bible and fanatical biblical reasoning. Luther, at age 60 wrote this dangerous "little" book at the prime of his maturity, and in full knowledge in support of his beliefs and Christianity.

Few people today realize that Luther wrote 'On the Jews and Their Lies.' (He also wrote such works like "Against the Sabbatarians.") Freethinkers should become aware of the anti-Semitic influence that Luther has brought on the world. His vehement attack on Jews and his powerful influence on the believers of the Germans has brought a new hypothesis to mind: that the Jewish holocaust, and indeed, the eliminationist form of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany may not have occurred without the influence from Luther's book "On the Jews and Their Lies."

Walter Buch, the head of the Nazi Party court, admitted Luther's influence on Nazi Germany:

When Luther turned his attention to the Jews, after he completed his translation of the Bible, he left behind "on the Jews and their Lies" for posterity.
-cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]

Many people confess their amazement that Hitler preaches ideas which they have always held.... From the Middle Ages we can look to the same example in Martin Luther. What stirred in the soul and spirit of the German people of that time, finally found expression in his person, in his words and deeds. -"Geist und Kampf" (speech), Bundesarchiv Berlin-Zehlendorf, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]

Erich Koch, the Reich Commissioner for Ukraine and President of the East Prussian Protestant Church Synod wrote:

Only we can enter into Luther's spirit.... Human cults do not set us free from all sin, but faith alone. With us the church shall become a serving member of the state.... There is a deep sense that our celebration is not attended by superficiality, but rather by thanks to a man who saved German cultural values.
-Konigsberg-Hartungsche Zeitung, 20 Nov. 1933, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]

Bernhard Rust served as Minister of Education in Nazi Germany. He wrote:

Since Martin Luther closed his eyes, no such son of our people has appeared again. It has been decided that we shall be the first to witness his reappearance.... I think the time is past when one may not say the names of Hitler and Luther in the same breath. They belong together; they are of the same old stamp [Schrot und Korn].
-Volkischer Beobachter, 25 Aug. 1933, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]

Hans Schemm became Bavarian Minister of Education and Culture. Throughout the Reich, Germans particularly knew Schemm for his slogan, "Our religion is Christ, our politics Fatherland!" He writes:

His engagement against the decomposing Jewish spirit is clearly evident not only from his writing against the Jews; his life too was idealistically, philosophically anti-semitic. Now we Germans of today have the duty to recognize and acknowledge this.
-"Luther und das Deutschtum," Bundesarchiv Berlin-Zehlendorf (19 Nov. 1933: Berlin), [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]

Julius Streicher (one of Hitler's top henchmen and publisher of the anti-Semitic Der Sturmer) was asked during the Nuremberg trials if there were any other publications in Germany which treated the Jewish question in an anti-Semitic way., Streicher put it well:

"Dr. Martin Luther would very probably sit in my place in the defendants' dock today, if this book had been taken into consideration by the Prosecution. In his book 'The Jews and Their Lies,' Dr. Martin Luther writes that the Jews are a serpent's brood and one should burn down their synagogues and destroy them..."

Indeed, no historian has yet to put Martin Luther on trial for his incitement of crimes against humanity.

Today, white-supremacists and Neo-Nazis continue to spread Luther's Jewish hatred and use quotes from this book as "proof" of their convictions. I trust that readers will see the horror and danger of Luther's book and will realize the potential threat that comes from his belief.

At the end of his life, Martin Luther decided he had to issue his final testament against all the enemies of the gospel. And he published treatises, he encouraged people, but words were not sufficient. He also had to use images. And so he asked his friend, the painter Lucas Cranach, to do a series of woodcuts, and Luther wrote the verses for them. And these woodcuts were designed to show as graphically as possible, to those who could read and those who couldn't, what Luther thought of the papacy. So for example, there's a woodcut which shows the pope on his throne and peasants with their tongues out, their
trousers down, farting in the pope's face.

Another one shows the pope riding an ass, holding a pile of dung in his hands, saying "The pope is offering a counsel."

And another that shows the German emperor lying on the ground with the pope with his foot on the emperor's neck, which shows, once again graphically, Luther's belief that the papacy was trying to control secular authority throughout the world. These were all actions of the Antichrist, and Luther wanted to make it clear what he thought of the pope.

History Summary
(1512-1546)

The pope, Leo X, at first took little notice of this disturbance, but in 1518 summoned Luther to Rome to answer for his theses. His university and the elector interfered, and ineffective negotiations were undertaken by Cardinal Cajetan and by Miltitz, envoy of the pope to the Saxon court. The scholar Johann Eck and Luther held a memorable disputation at Leipzig (1519); and Luther began to attack the papal system more boldly.

In 1520 he published his famous address An den christlichen Adel deutscher Nation (Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation), followed by a treatise De captivitate Babylonica ecclesiae praeludium (A Prelude concerning the Babylonian Captivity of the Church), which also attacked the doctrinal system of the Church of Rome.

1520, German religious reformer Martin Luther burning the papal bull
containing 41 theses issued against him before a crowd of doctors, students and citizens at Wittenberg.
Original Artwork - 02 Jan 1754 (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

A papal bull containing 41 theses was issued against him. He burned it before a multitude of doctors, students, and citizens in Wittenberg. He was excommunicated, and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, convened the first Diet at Worms in 1521, before which Luther was called to retract his teachings. Luther refused to relent. An order was issued for the destruction of his books, and he was put under the ban of the Empire. On his return from Worms he was seized, at the instigation of the elector of Saxony, and lodged (for his own protection) in the Wartburg, the elector's fortress. During the year he spent there, he translated the Scriptures and composed his cogent controversial treatise, "Refutation of the Argument of Latomus'.

Civil unrest called Luther back to Wittenberg in 1522. He rebuked the unruly elements, and made a stand against lawlessness on the one hand, and tyranny on the other. In the same year Luther published his acrimonious reply to Henry VIII's attack on him in Assertio septem sacramentorum adversus Martinum Lutherum (1521) about the nature of the seven sacraments.

In 1529 he engaged with the controversial question of transubstantiation in the famous conference at Marburg with Zwingli and other Swiss theologians; he obstinately maintained his view that Christ is present in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. The drawing up of his theological views in the Augsburg Confession (1530) by Melanchthon, ably representing Luther at the Diet of Augsburg, marks the culmination of the German Reformation.

A divergence had gradually taken place also between the views of the Humanist scholar Erasmus and Luther. There was an open breach in 1525, when Erasmus published De libero arbitrio (1524, Discourse on Free Will), and Luther followed with De Servo arbitrio (Concerning the Bondage of Will). In the same year he married Katherine von Bora, a nun who had withdrawn from convent life. In that same year of 1524 Luther removed his monastic vestments and a year later married a former nun, Katherine von Bora. Six children were born to them. Luther and his wife lived in Wittenberg until his death ln Eisleben; he was buried at Wittenberg on February 18, 1546

Conclusion

Luther, German theologian and religious reformer, initiated the Protestant Reformation and forever split Christianity from Catholicism. His influence extends beyond religion to politics, economics, education and language.

Had he not thought that the book of James as: "He called the Epistle of James "an epistle of straw," finding little in it that pointed to Christ and His saving work" --- I believe rather than wanting to throw them out, perhaps his hateful and anti-semetic "dirty little books" would not have been written!

Here are the a few Scriptures:

[regarding salvation - not by force, but freely choosing]

There is a mysterious vail over the old testament,
that man cannot unlock without the keys from God.....
And I'm giving you those keys now.... It is recorded in 2 Corinthians 3:14.

"But their minds were blinded:
for until this day remaineth the same vail taken away in the reading of the old testament;
which vail is done away in Christ."

The Epistle of James "an epistle of straw,"
[regarding saving faith "alone"]

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. James 2:20, 24

And lastly - Love

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,
and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity [love],
it profiteth me nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3

Today, white-supremacists and Neo-Nazis continue to spread Luther's Jewish hatred and use quotes from this book as "proof" of their convictions. I trust that readers will see the horror and danger of Luther's book and will realize the potential threat that comes from his belief.

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