Lutherans. How do you feel about youre religious sects name being derived an anti-semite like Martin Luther?

Question

I am not religious any more, but i was raised in a Lutheran family, and having my religion named after a person like Martin Luther always bothered me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Jews_and_Their_Lies
you can read about his writings at this link if you didnt already know about his anti-semetic beliefs.
he refers to the jewish people as "poisonous envenomed worms"

i would consider written anti-semitic literature to be pretty solid evidence that he was anti-semetic.

i would consider written anti-semitic literature to be pretty solid evidence that he was anti-semetic.

martin, my information come from many years of being forced to study martin luther. wikipedia is just a quick way to show info and let you know im not b.s.ing you. you think people cant be influenced by something that happened 400 years ago??? youre a christian?? how old is that bible people still fight wars over???

Answer 1

I would like to point out that the term "Lutheran" was given to us by Romanists as a derogatory term. Luther and the Lutherans always wanted to become Evangelicals, but now that name has been ruined. So I think your question might be better suited by asking Roman Catholics. Remember, not everything that Martin Luther said, wrote or believed was embraced either in the Lutheran Confessions or by Lutherans. If we did, we would be a cult. No instead we as Lutherans follow Jesus.

I also find it funny that when people imply that Luther influenced Hitler. As if a 16th century man could solely influence an 20th century dictator and mass murderer. You guys do realize there was 400 years between these two individuals? 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 who we all learn about in school.

Also, How do you feel about getting your information from Wikipedia?

Answer 2

Well I'm sure you are confident making this claim. Was it adopted by you on the basis of others? Or was it adopted on the basis of your having read Luther's 54 volumes of works? While Luther was critical of the Jewish faith and for good reasons, there is no solid evidence whatsoever that he was antisemitic, nor was he anti-Islamic yet he had very little good to say about this faith. Luther was zealous for the faith as we all should be, but he was not fanatical about it. I would suggest you read some of what Luther wrote and taught.

Answer 3

Actually, the Protestant "Old Testament" is almost exactly like the Jewish Tanakh. The Catholic "Old Testament" has more books added and the books are out of order.

Luther at first, like many with a "new slant" or new faith, tried to convert the Jews. Paul tried to get the Jews to accept his faith and when they did not, he turned on them. Muhammad tried to get the Jews to accept his faith and when they did not, he made them into second class citizens. Luther at first tried to convert the Jews, pointing out his version of Christianity did away with the "idol worship" of the Catholics. But the Jews again did not convert and Luther, like Paul and Muhammad before him, turned on them.

The vile anti-Semitic writings of Luther put a mindset in the German people that Hitler was able to capitalize on centuries later. What Hitler said was in many ways the same as what Luther said.

Perhaps you are right, they should change their name.

Answer 4

If I were a Lutheran my biggest problem would not be that he disliked Jews but that Martin Luther defied the Church and started his own simply by declaring he was inspired by the Holy Ghost to interpret the sacred scriptures in a new way.

Definitely a "man made" religion.

What arrogance!

Answer 5

Everyone in Europe and the middle east was a damn nasty anti-semite, including the lutherans. Have you forgotten about the spanish inquistion and the holocaust? The only ethnic/religious group to have never persecuted the Jews were the Hindus. -Muski

Answer 6

It's just plain naive to think that Luther was an anti-semite. The source of this accusation is not real scholarship, but simply anti-christian polemic.

Answer 7

I was also raised Lutheran. If yo would see the movie called Martin Luther you would see how good he was and that from the get go they changed his teachings as well. Today's Lutheran isn' the original. Krishna says in the Gita "Whenever their is a decline in religious principals and the truth appears to be lost, I appear again and again or send my representative to reestablish the Truth." Luther was gust reestablishing the Truth that the Catholic church was distorting and so many have come again and again but people are attached to their traditions not the truth. Cheaters and the Cheated the poor hearted sheep's who flock in herds not follow truth. For the original teachings of Jesus before king Constantine changed so many things google gospelofthenazirenes.com for sincere seekers of Universal truth.

Answer 8

Get over it. Read a Bible and see:
there is not one that is good, but God. -Matthew 19:17.
CORRECTION: Protestants have REMOVED 5 books of the bible, not the Catholics added. Sacraments are all there in the Bible. Unfortunately, one has to read it to see.

Answer 9

Martin Luther was not Jesus.

Answer 10

Many Lutherans don't know and those who do know choose to ignore it.