Can you believe this: Luther said be a sinner?

Question

"Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides... No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day." ('Let Your Sins Be Strong, from 'The Wittenberg Project;' 'The Wartburg Segment', translated by Erika Flores, from Dr. Martin Luther's
Saemmtliche Schriften, Letter No. 99, 1 Aug. 1521).

Luther is actually saying that our actions -- even the most sinful actions imaginable -- don't matter! He is saying we can commit any sin we want -- willfully, presumptuously, purposefully -- and we will not offend God! After all, we require nothing more than "faith" to be saved. What we do is incidental. Of course anyone familiar with Scripture will point out that this is not a Christian teaching. For throughout the Bible we are told that sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). No believer has a license to sin. Christians who willfully sin WILL be judged at the Judgment Seat of Christ (Romans 12:14; 1st Thessalonians 4:6).

CJ, aren't you bothered that the guy who started the Protestant Reformation was a shady character?
Please do not deny that some of your teachings come from Luther. Sola fide for instance?

Sky, why don't you google my source? I want you to discover for yourself I didn't use Luther's words out of context.

Answer 1

Proof he was a degenerate.

Answer 2

He said that God will never stop loving us, but sin will bring you to eternal damnation. Satan wants us to sin! Satan can only lie, he wants to commit adultery and kill and all the crap. You can't just rely on Luther though, he can be a false man, while there are can be all these other prophets teaching right. Martin is just one man, compared to the true people.

YOU'VE JUST BEEN WRATHED!!!

Answer 3

He was a sinner for sure, but who isn't (1 John 1:10). He said some anti-semitic things in his last years, perhaps affected by ill-health. But the Popes' had been misleading christians and needed to have their teachings challenged, where there were distortions or additions to the gospel (eg: salvation-by-payment via indulgences. I think crusades and not translating the Bible were bad as well).

Answer 4

i'm sure there is some sort of point to all that, and i'd like to know what it might be, but if you haven't made it in that long dissertation with footnotes, quotations, annotations, and twenty-seven 8 by 10 color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us, i'm not holding out a whole lot of hope...so i think i'll go back to playing my guitar

Answer 5

I believe it.

It is a known fact that Luther was a rabid anti-semitic, and that Hitler and his propaganda machine lifted Luther's writings virtually intact for some of Hitler's most famous "patriotic" speeches.

Answer 6

It is correct that the Bible says "Faith only", even beyond Luther's addition....

James 2:24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

Those who reject the part of works in salvation probably have excised the entire 2nd chapter of James from the Bible

This is not what the Catholic church teaches, though. Their doctrine is saved by works only; this is clear with infant baptism, a saving action that requires zero faith. One will find this missing from the Bible too

Answer 7

Anyone familiar with Luther would know that he does not endorse what you propose. This is taking him out of context. When one argues a point and makes statements that are designed only to press the point, you don't take the statements and use them in a different way.

Answer 8

Hm that's interesting. Why do you listen to men dear? Look to the word of God, the bible.

Answer 9

For many years, I have read and studied the writings of Luther and I have never come across anything he wrote that would even come near what you have quoted. On the contrary. He could not have penned these words. This is the very teaching that he fought so vigorously when he posted his 95 thesis.

What you have quoted is the very embodiment of the Catholic Church's teaching in the middle ages which Luther opposed with all the energy that the Holy Spirit gave him!

I suggest you double check your sources! :)

The Three Walls

by Martin Luther

"The Romans have raised around themselves three walls to protect them against every kind of reformation. Have they been attacked by the temporal power?--they have asserted that it had no authority over them, and that the spiritual power is superior to it. Have they been rebuked by the Holy Scriptures?--they have replied that no one is able to interpret it except the pope. Have they been threatened with a council?--no one, (said they), but the sovereign pontiff has authority to convoke one....

"They have thus despoiled us of the three rods destined to correct them, and have given themselves up to every wickedness. But now may God be our helper, and give us one of those trumpets that overthrew the walls of Jericho. With our breath let us throw down those barriers of paper and straw which the Romans have built around them, and upraise the rods which punish the wicked, by exposing the wiles of the devil." History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, by Merle D'Aubignée, p.187.

St Boniface: If you want a reliable source, you will have to read D'Aubignée's book. You will find many many quotes citing Luther on faith and works and you will see that he never taught those lies that are put foreward in those quotes you posted. I do not trust these sources no matter where they are from because it is not in keeping with the teachings of Luther in any way, shape, or form!

The only time he may have written anything like it would have to be when he was still in the clutches of Rome! :)

Here is a couple statements from Luther from a reliable source:

"He who is without God's grace sins continually, even should he neither rob, murder, not commit adultery... He sins in that he does not fulfil the law spiritually."

"Good works follow redemption, as the fruit grows on the tree. That is our doctrine--that is what is taught by the Holy Ghost and by all the communion of saints." D'Aubignee, History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, p.83.

Let us see what was the state of the Church previous to the Reformation. The nations of Christendom no longer looked to a holy and living God for the free gift of eternal life. To obtain it, they were obliged to have recourse to all the means that a superstitious, fearful, and alarmed imagination could devise. Heaven was filled with saints and mediators, whose duty it was to solicit this mercy. Earth was filled with pious works, sacrifices, observances and ceremonies, by which it was to be obtained. Here is a picture of the religion of this period transmitted to us by one who was long a monk, and afterwards a fellow-labourer of Luther's--by Mycomius:--

"The sufferings and merits of Christ were looked upon as an idle tale, or as the fictions of Homer. There was no thought of the faith by which we become partakers of the Saviour's righteousness and of the heritage of eternal life. Christ was looked upon as a severe judge, prepared to condemn all who should not have recourse to the intercession of the saints, or to the papal indulgences. Other intercessors appeared in His place;--first the Virgin Mary, like the Diana of paganism, and then the saints, whose numbers were continually augmented by the popes. These mediators granted their intercession only to such applicants as had deserved well of the orders founded by them. For this it was necessary to do, not what God had commanded in His word, but to perform a number of works invented by monks and priests, and which brought money to the treasury. These works were Ave-Marias, the prayers of St Ursula and of St Bridget: they must chant and cry night and day. There were as many resorts for pilgrims as there were mountains, forests, and valleys. But these penances might be compounded for with money. The people, therefore, brought to the convents and to the priests money, and every thing that had any value--fowls, ducks, geese, eggs, wax, straw, butter and cheese. Then the hymns resounded, the bells rang, incense filled the sanctuary, sacrifices were offered up, the larders overflowed, the glasses went round, and masses terminated and concealed these pious orgies. The bishops no longer preached, but they consecrated priests, bells, monks, churches, chapels, images, books, and cemetaries; and all this brought in a large revenue. Bones, arms, and feet were preserved in gold and silver boxes; they were given out during mass for the faithful to kiss, and this too was a source of great profit. All these people maintained that the pope, 'sitting as God in the temple of God' could not err, and they would not suffer any contradiction." p.17.

Blessing: you said that Luther said nasty things about the Jews in his last years!!! This could not be any further from the truth. You must not be familiar with The Works of Luther, a series of more than 40 volumes. In one of them, I have read what Luther said about the Jews and it flatly contradicts what you are saying. I suggest you go to a Lutheran church and ask the minister to show you this collection of books. Look up the index and find out what he really said about the Jews.

Answer 10

Do you stalk St. Boniface? I don't care about any of your pagan Christian religions.