For all Non-Catholic Christians: Did you know Martin Luther taught this?

Question

Martin Luther is one of the Fathers of the Protestant Reformation, but many people don't realize he was a Catholic Priest.

Further, many people don't realize that he developed a catechism in which he taught the following:

"As soon as you get out of bed in the morning, you should bless yourself with the sign of the Holy Cross and say: May the will of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be done! Amen.

Then, kneeling or standing, say the creed and pray the Lord's Prayer. "


So the question for all non-Catholic Christians (i.e. Protestants):

Since one of your Church Fathers taught this, why don't all non-Catholics use the Sign of the Holy Cross when they pray???

Seems like you should if one of your founding fathers taught you to...

Source:

The Small Catechism of Martin Luther
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/little.book/book-appendix1.txt

for "hichefheidi":

you claim to be Catholic but deny Jesus in the Eucharist. You "protest" this Truth.

Sorry, but you are Protestant... not Catholic.

Answer 1

Great points here. Martin Luther also had a great devotion to the Blessed Mother, and on his deathbed denounced his own part in the reformation.

Protestant: Root word is PROTEST. Think about what this means.

Catholic: Root words: Cathos (Church/Community) Olos (Everyone).

Answer 2

Well you are partially correct Martin Luther also upon reading scripture realized he had been wrong and denounced the Catholic faith and formed what is known as Lutheranism. Or the Lutheran church as it is. He was also a man of great predjudices and if you have ever read any of his works you would know this. He was a anti jew and wrote some very vulgar works concerning his beliefs. He was a reformer and is a part of religious history but he was not a particularly nice man. I have read his works that are in the German museum archives etc. He did good things yes but he was a human and a product of his times and the beliefs of many of his peers of that time. Read up on him not just part of the story.

Answer 3

Martin Luther started the reformation which was good because of the corruption inside the Catholic church but he also burnt Baptists at the stake so I don't really claim him as a founding father, in fact, the only people who claim him as a founding father are the protestant and Lutheran churches

Answer 4

Luther started the Reformation, yes. He was still very much a Catholic in the sense that he felt many practices by the Catholic church were good. He only had problems with a few things within the Church. Therefore he removed corruption from the church and many none Bible (man-made) rules but remained very Catholic. It was later Protestants (Calvin, Wesley etc.) that made Protestantism much more unique from Catholicism

Answer 5

I would not be surprized.... Wycliff, Hus, Luther , Calivin and some early Anabaptists... were all pious scholarly priests who took their faith very seriously and Luther was a professor to train priests. I assume you know John Paul II said the Catholic Church should reconsider where Hus should have been burned.

As far as similarities of Chatholic practices to Protestant... sure.. Protestants and Catholics agree on more than the disagree problably...The orthodox presyterian church does alot of things in a catholic mass and you might be surprized... the sign of the cross is a fine thing but one should not be hung up on forms and externals. God is concerned about the heart.

When Luther gave communion the first time he was so taken by the enormity fo God communing with man he practically froze and embarrassed his dignified father who hoped his sone would be a rich laywer

Luther and Calivin did not view themselves as breaking off of the Catholic church but as renewing it and would probbaly have prefered the Catholic church acceptied criticism to change. They viewed themselves as rightly proclaiming the gospel of salvation and rightely teaching the word and the traditional church as having given in to politics and gamemanship. Luther's and Melanthon's goals were not a new church but to reform the existing one which had been seeling indulgances in a corrupt way asa fund raiser to build Saint Peter Bassilica making people feel they were adding to the work of Christ on the cross and corrupting the gospel

Luther went back and forth on some issues such as the book of James and Hebrews and made some bad statements about the Jews, however Luther never claimed to be infallible and as a sinner under renovation on a quest for truth one would certainly expect some mistakes. Face it The Apostle Paul at one time was busy arresting Christians to put them to death !!! They are sinners under renovation

A great talk on this is on Tyndale by Piper at www.desiringGod.com and very well writtern... definitely worth the 6 bucks for the DVD

as to the succession of autority, the Greek Orthodox church traces its 'pope' back to the early Jerusalem church and I wonder if Catholics know this. It is not the succession but the faithful preaching of the gospel and teaching the word of God that is most important

Answer 6

It is a well-known fact that Martin Luther used to be a Catholic priest. He rebelled because the Catholic Church forbade laymen the God-given right to read and understand the Scriptures. It is vitally important to note that Luther's "Small Catechism" further scolds the Catholic Church for its wrong-doing in this matter. Luther remarks that laymen "[do not understand and] cannot [even] recite either the Lord's Prayer, or the Creed, or the Ten Commandments; they live like dumb brutes and irrational hogs."

It's inutterably sad to think how many people died in ignorance because the Catholic Church refused to permit the people to study scripture or hear a Mass in their native tongue.

Luther goes on to write:

"Therefore I entreat [and adjure] you all for God's sake, my dear sirs and brethren, who are pastors or preachers, to devote yourselves heartily to your office, to have pity on the people who are entrusted to you, and to help us inculcate the Catechism upon the people, and especially upon the young. And let those of you who cannot do better [If any of you are so unskilled that you have absolutely no knowledge of these matters, let them not be ashamed to] take these tables and forms and impress them, word for word, on the people"

Luther did not write these Cathchisms. What he did teach was, "this is all we've got, preachers. Make sure your parishioners learn it! It's your duty!"

Protestants do not make the sign of the cross because Jesus didn't; see His "model prayer." Jesus does not command us to make any hand gestures or pray in certain postures. In fact, He states in Matthew 6:7 "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words." This can certainly be applied to the Creeds and rhote prayers of the Catholic Church.

Answer 7

My founding father is God the Father. Yes, Luther was a pivotal part in reformation, but that's it. He is not God and still has his faults. Besides, in my opinion, the sign of the cross is just that, the sign of the cross. That doesn't make or break whether or not your going to heaven. There are many more essentials in the Catholic faith that have problems, the sign of the cross is minimal in comparison.

Answer 8

Good points all. A lot of Protestants don't realize that the Universal Church was founded about 1200 years before any of the Protestant branch. I always ask, "Why would Christ say He's founding His Church on the Rock that is Peter and then really start it 1200 years later?" It doesn't make sense.

Answer 9

The protestant veiw is looking at Jesus. Those that wrote after him that were inspired are also examples of what a Christian is to do, and not to do. Those writings, as you probalby know, are considered scripture. Within the scripture we see no evidence that Paul, Jesus, Peter, John ( any of them ) , Andrew, etc. ; prayed with Rosaries, became a Pope, wore a hat traced to Dagon the fishgod, kissed a crucifix or wore a ring to be kissed, worshipped Mary, prayed to statues, ate the literal flesh and drank the literal blood of Christ, centered their faith around the Vatican, demanded an unmarried preisthood, did funny things with their hands to pray, and any other tradition that Roman Catholics seem to keep themselves in bondage with.

Protestantism tends to lend themselves to the word of God, not the bondage by a ' church. '

I'm sorry if all this seems rude to you, but your question seemed that way to me when it assumed that Christians needed to adhere to traditions that are not scriptural.

Answer 10

Well of course he was a catholic priest. He saw a number of things wrong with the catholic church and wanted to start a christian religion that bypassed those issues.

As for the other items, churches change. I wouldn't know what would be going on in a Latin Mass, but that doesn't make me a bad catholic.

Answer 11

Well in that case, don't you know a lot of what Catholics do was done to appease both the Pagans of the time and the Christians. All the non-Catholics did was take all of the unecessary out of the relgion and bring it strictly back to the bible. I don't see the big deal either way. We both pray to the same God. Whether or not we fold our hands or trace the outline of a cross...