Did Martin Luther promote the idea of "Grace" because he despised the idea of having to learn the Torah laws ?

Question

Learn from this, dear Christian, what you are doing if you permit the blind Jews to mislead you. Then the saying will truly apply, "When a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into the pit" [cf. Luke 6:39]. You cannot learn anything from them except how to misunderstand the divine commandments...

-Martin Luther (On the Jews and Their Lies)


“I hope I shall never be so stupid as to be circumcised; I would rather cut off the left breast of my Catherine and of all women.” --- Martin Luther

“What then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews? First, their synagogues should be set on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered or spread over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or stone of it. And this ought to be done for the honour of God and of Christianity, in order that God may see that we are true Christians. Secondly, their homes should be likewise broken down and destroyed. Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayerbooks and talmuds in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught. Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threats of death to teach anymore.” – Martin Luther

St. John Chrysostom: “I know that many people hold a high regard for the Jews and consider their way of life worthy of respect at the present time... This is why I am hurrying to pull up this fatal notion by the roots ... A place where a whore stands on display is a whorehouse. What is more, the synagogue is not only a whorehouse and a theater; it is also a den of thieves and a haunt of wild animals ... not the cave of a wild animal merely, but of an unclean wild animal ... When animals are unfit for work, they are marked for slaughter, and this is the very thing which the Jews have experienced. By making themselves unfit for work, they have become ready for slaughter. This is why Christ said: “as for my enemies, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them and slay them before me’ (Luke 19.27).”

Answer 1

No. He realized that our Salvation is not about our deeds. It is all due to the grace of God and His mercy on us.

Answer 2

The first European country to deport all the Jews from their borders was England under King Edward I. This all was done for financial reasons to win the favor of the people:
1. By throwing out their creditors (Jewish lenders who had no problem with usury with non Jews) and absolving the people's debt. It is also suspected that the King probably owed creditors money and benefited from the expulsion.
2. Throwing out prominent merchants and disrupting an influence the Jews had on trade.

This all happened a good 200 years before Martin Luther! It wasn’t because a Pope told him to do so, it wasn’t because Martin Luther wrote a book about it, it was because early Europe and Europe of the Middle Ages was anti Semitic and suspicious of the Jews. I guess the Roman Emperors like Vespasian and Titus brought back their anti Semitism to Rome, Europe and transplanted it. Again, it wasn’t the Pope (Rome at this point was staunchly anti Christian) and it wasn’t Martin Luther’s writing that prompted the Roman Emperors to destroy Jerusalem, and exile the Jews.

I would content that the majority of Anti Semitism in Europe was perpetrated more out of Political, Social and Cultural reason than religious. But hey, Europe has never had a problem with separating these factors with religion.

You (Arians) all need to think before you spam Yahoo! Answers and try to Character Assasinate Martin Luther and the Early Church Fathers.

Answer 3

Since Luther was born 1,500 years after the foundation of Christianity (otherwise known as Catholicism), and since the fullness of Christian truth had already been preached by the Holy Christian (otherwise known as Catholic) Church for all those centuries, grace was hardly a novel idea by Luther. The Catholic Church taught in Luther's day, as it teaches now and will teach until the end of time, that salvation is by grace alone, a free gift of God that cannot be earned or merited. But Luther's error (one of several) was to emphasize the need for grace-generated faith, to the exclusion of grace-generated works of Christian charity, thereby rejecting half of what the Word of God tells us about salvation. The Bible makes it clear, through multiple passages, that anyone who lacks faith OR works will forfeit salvation. No-one who reads the last paragraph of Matt 25 could possibly doubt this.

Answer 4

The short answer to your question is "no". His concept of "Grace alone" was is sharp contrast to the indulgences practices of the Catholic church in his day.

Answer 5

So you hate Jews, is that it?