Martin Luther founder of Protestantism was an anti-semitic lunatic why?

Question

Because Christianity itself in anti-semitic. Martin Luthers advice to Hitler was "Set fire to their Synagogues or Schools and bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them...I advise that their houses also be razed and detroyed..." etc.

To Uncle Thesis:
Martin Luther was a German...It's like having George Washington write that about blacks. that would be wrong advice to all generations of Americans that followed wouldn't it?

To Aerilis: Hitler also probably had some good ideas but I prefer not to follow any of them....

To daisycris: those statements were common in Europe at that time because Europe was Christian. Christianity singled out Jews for persecution and discrimintion...

To Martin: Luther's words are like a blueprint to what the Nazis put into place. Those words speak louder by themselves. There is no way around it that Christians have lots of recent blood in their hands, lots of Jewish blood. Any impartial jury condemn you...

to Martin Shitnist:
I don't read hate literature or brainwashing christian ****.

Answer 1

It never ceases to amaze me that 21st Century people look at a 16th Century man with their modern day values and pass such judgment. But I really have to wonder, what your agenda is for asking this question.

I do not argue your assertion that Western Europe has always been anti-Semitic in its dealings with the Jews, especially during the Middle Ages. I can provide extensive cases of discrimination, force expulsion from countries and mass murders if you would like. And it appears that the Dispensationalists are making up for it.
But, Martin Luther gave advice to Hitler? You do realize there was over 400 years between the two people. There is also NO evidence that anyone has taken Martin Luther's words and put them into action. The assertion that Martin Luther's works were used by the Nazis was put forward by William L. Shirer author of the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. What is ironic is the fact that no one talks about German Metaphysics and its influence on the Nazi's and their views on the "Untermensch." What I also find interesting is the fact that no one talks about Heinrich Heine and his prediction of the rise of German Nationalism over 100 years before the rise of National Socialism in German. His quote, "Christianity -- and that is its greatest merit -- has somewhat mitigated that brutal German love of war, but it could not destroy it. Should that subduing talisman, the cross, be shattered, the frenzied madness of the ancient warriors, that insane Berserk rage of which Nordic bards have spoken and sung so often, will once more burst into flame. ... The old stone gods will then rise from long ruins and rub the dust of a thousand years from their eyes, and Thor will leap to life with his giant hammer and smash the Gothic cathedrals. ... Do not smile at my advice -- the advice of a dreamer who warns you against Kantians, Fichteans, and philosophers of nature. Do not smile at the visionary who anticipates the same revolution in the realm of the visible as has taken place in the spiritual. Thought precedes action as lightning precedes thunder. German thunder ... comes rolling somewhat slowly, but .. its crash ... will be unlike anything before in the history of the world. ... At that uproar the eagles of the air will drop dead, and lions in farthest Africa will draw in their tails and slink away. ... A play will be performed in Germany which will make the French Revolution look like an innocent idyll.
[Kossoff, pp. 125-126]"

You see that? Does he mention Martin Luther? Nope. He mentions Kant and Ficht by name, eluding to the German Philosophers. Lastly, I will leave you with an article on this very subject,
"Late in his life Luther wrote some very strong denunciations of the Jews which we cannot condone, but to evaluate them fairly we have to understand them in the context of his lifetime and of all of his writings. The claim popularized by certain historians, such as William Shirer, that Luther's views were similar to those of the Nazis entirely ignores the historical context of his comments.

Early in his career Luther wrote in defense of the Jews, and he held hopes that when the persecutions and false teachings which had been loaded upon them by Rome were taken away, the Jews would turn to Christ.

When this hope was disappointed and the Jews continued to reject Christ and to speak against him, Luther spoke strongly against them. His harshest remarks are in a tract written a few years before his death, "Against the Jews and their Lies." His opposition against the Jews was not racist as Hitler's was, but entirely religious. Luther did not believe the Jews had the right to propagandize against Christianity in Christian territory. In Luther's time religious rights were territorial. Lutherans did not have rights in Catholic lands or vice versa. Luther therefore advocated that those Jews who remained opposed to Christianity be forcibly expelled from Germany and be given their own territory in Palestine. He also proposed that wealth they had gained by lending money at interest, which he regarded as an immoral practice, should be confiscated for the support of the needy among them. In Luther's time usury and blasphemy were crimes punishable by law.

In the preface of these comments Luther says, "We must indeed with prayer and the fear of God before our eyes exercise a keen compassion towards them and seek to save some of them from the flames. Avenge ourselves we dare not."

Luther's language in this writing was very harsh, but in this he was a child of his time. The attacks against him by Roman writers were even sharper. We cannot defend the tone and many of the specifics of Luther's denunciation of the Jews, but it is unfair for historians to misrepresent them by detaching them from their context and times.

For an overview of this issue see the book Martin Luther and the Jewish People by Neelak Tjernagel published by Northwestern Publishing House."

My question to you is, have you read "The Jews and Their Lies?"


***Update***
I just wonder what the motivation is for people like the Questioner. Where do they get their motivation to slander historical figures? Do you just wake up one day and decide, "I am going to take aim at George Washington today and run him through the mud."

You don't read hate literature or brainwashing christian ****, but yet you feel compelled to quote it and rant about it. /sarcasm.

Answer 2

Luther lived in the sixteenth century, mate. He wasn't around to dole out personal advice to Hitler. But yeah, he was a raving lunatic that thought he got into literal battles with the devil in which they flung fecal material at each other. No one's disputing the fact that the guy had some freaking weird ideas. He also had a couple good ones, though, so there's no reason we can't take the good and leave the rest.

Answer 3

Not to excuse that sort of behavior, but you need to understand the cultural context of Europe at the time, read some Shakespear like "the Merchant of Venice," he was very anti-Semitic too.
It's seems shocking to us now, but perhaps what should shock us more, is that those kind of statements were very normal at the time, and that's the sort of climate that Martin Luther, and everybody else was raised with then.

Answer 4

That's simple the whole of medieval Christendom was deeply anti Semitic with constant pogroms and massacres. They blamed the Jews for the death of Christ, for spreading plague and sacrificing Christian children at Passover and any other lie they could invent. Why should Luthor as a man of his time be different. And, I believe at base Christianity is still structurally anti Semitic.

Answer 5

Very good Question,I have been looking at that very issue;
The "Church" the one-Martin Luther was member of,Did not
accept the State of Israel until 1992,But we have protestant
"Churches that have the same mind set.
To answer your question ,The "Church" wants Jerusalem to be
an International City,The "Church:" would have to reverse 1800
yrs,of saying ,The "Church" replaced Israel,also several Protestant Denominations have same Mind Set,The Church hasn"t replaced the covenant God Made with Israel. In the soon to be 1000 yr Reign of Christ from Temple Mount ,ISRAEL will
have from all of their covenant land grant ,from the River Nile to the River Euraphrates,now who are the Peoples sitting on this
land Grant?The World Thinks the Jew is the Problem,what Spirit is pushing this issue,God says don"t divide My Land Zech. How many Millions have died over this Anti-Semitic Mind Set.

Answer 6

Martin Luther lived hundreds of years before Hitler. Did he have a time machine? But I do agree that human history is full of self-righteous people who will readily attack and kill anyone who doesn't share their religion, politics or culture.

Answer 7

Martin Luther's advice to Hitler???

Answer 8

If that's so, you still can't say that about all of Christianity. Look at the Amish and Quakers. They vow to be peaceful. They stay out of wars.

Answer 9

He was just angry that the Jews didn't fall for his lies in starting his new cult of chritianity...

Answer 10

Protestantism is not ant-semitic. People are anti-semitic