On this day in 1517, the priest and scholar Martin Luther approaches the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nails a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation.
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In his theses, Luther condemned the excesses and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the papal practice of asking payment—called “indulgences”—for the forgiveness of sins. At the time, a Dominican priest named Johann Tetzel, commissioned by the Archbishop of Mainz and Pope Leo X, was in the midst of a major fundraising campaign in Germany to finance the renovation of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Though Prince Frederick III the Wise had banned the sale of indulgences in Wittenberg, many church members traveled to purchase them. When they returned, they showed the pardons they had bought to Luther, claiming they no longer had to repent for their sins.
Luther’s frustration with this practice led him to write the 95 Theses, which were quickly snapped up, translated from Latin into German and distributed widely. A copy made its way to Rome, and efforts began to convince Luther to change his tune. He refused to keep silent, however, and in 1521 Pope Leo X formally excommunicated Luther from the Catholic Church. That same year, Luther again refused to recant his writings before the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Germany, who issued the famous Edict of Worms declaring Luther an outlaw and a heretic and giving permission for anyone to kill him without consequence. Protected by Prince Frederick, Luther began working on a German translation of the Bible, a task that took 10 years to complete.
The term “Protestant” first appeared in 1529, when Charles V revoked a provision that allowed the ruler of each German state to choose whether they would enforce the Edict of Worms. A number of princes and other supporters of Luther issued a protest, declaring that their allegiance to God trumped their allegiance to the emperor. They became known to their opponents as Protestants; gradually this name came to apply to all who believed the Church should be reformed, even those outside Germany. By the time Luther died, of natural causes, in 1546, his revolutionary beliefs had formed the basis for the Protestant Reformation, which would over the next three centuries revolutionize Western civilization.
There is on earth among all dangers no more dangerous thing than a richly endowed and adroit reason, especially if she enters into spiritual matters which concern the soul and God. For it is more possible to teach an ass to read than to blind such a reason and lead it right; for reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed.
Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense and understanding, and whatever it sees it must put out of sight, and wish to know nothing but the word of God.
Behold, this is what St. Paul in his epistles wants to show Christians: that these high and divine matters, which means both his divine being and also his will, his government and work, are altogether above all men’s thoughts, understanding, wisdom, and in brief, for the whole of human reason incomprehensible, unfathomable, and completely concealed, and must remain that way, and that all is in vain and mere darkness and lies that reason might dare and try to inquire and teach and say about it.
— Martin Luther (quoted in Walter Kaufmann, Critique of Religion and Philosophy)
In short, the quintessential example of the cure being worse than the disease.
What a wonderful coincidence (??) that the article above this is about mooslims wanting their own country in Australia.
Because it proves mooslims will NEVER experience their own Reformation moment.
Islam and Christianity are both “revealed” religions. Revelation: to reveal, to make a thing known, in religion “God told me so-and-so.”.
Christianity states “All scripture is INSPIRED of God”.
As such, the Bible is a collection of writings by many different authors. You have many men writing about God and you have in some places the word of God speaking to men and still in other places you have some men simply writing about history. In other words, Christianity, by its very nature of understanding how the bible is “inspired” makes an ALLOWANCE for multiple interpretations . It is what made Luther’s Reformation possible.
The Koran, on the other hand, is a DICTATION. The speaker in the Koran – in the first person – is GOD talking DIRECTLY to man.
This means there can NEVER be an Islamic Reformation. Because ” to reform” means “to change”. And, to change requires another way of interpreting the Koran. And to re-interpret the Koran means … God himself erred when dictating directly. And this will never be acceptable to the vast majority of mooslims. Off with your head, Infidel!!!
Therefore, the difference in Christianity and Islam comes down to a difference of authority and appeal to authority. Christianity appeals to the Bible … inspired by God. Islam appeals directly TO God. Never the twain shall meet.
Islam is totally incompatible in a Christian based nation. They will kill the host nation — they, must, in fact — because it is in their DNA.
Banning mooslims from gaining a foothold in America is essential to our survival. Trump is (was) right about that!
This means there can NEVER be an Islamic Reformation. Because “to reform” means “to change”. And, to change requires another way of interpreting the Koran. And to re-interpret the Koran means . . . God himself erred when dictating directly.
Not necessarily. One could just say Mohammed fucked up when transcribing God’s dictation – pretty small beer as far as theological convolutions and doubletalk go.
Christianity states “All scripture is INSPIRED of God”. [. . .] The speaker in the Koran – in the first person – is GOD talking DIRECTLY to man.
A distinction which makes no difference. In either case, how do I know it isn’t just Joe Blow pulling it out of his ass? Why can’t God just tell everyone what He wants, directly? Or at least provide unambiguous and irrefutable confirmation of His revelation, totally independent of the veracity of any particular witness? For instance, by having a pulsar blink Morse code of essential portions of the text of His chosen spokesman – which shouldn’t be any problem for God, being omnipotent and all.
Off with your head, Infidel!!!
It is a plain fact of history that Christianity has done plenty of conversion by the sword. The only real difference is that Islam is more honest about it. And, IMO, conversion by the sword is much less reprehensible than conversion by threat of eternal torture.
“A distinction which makes no difference.”
Perhaps to YOU, because you come from an atheistic mind set. (That is not a condemnation.)
But when discussing Christianity/Islam/Reformation it is essential, to understand clearly the issues, to look at the situation from THEIR point of you.
In such a case, you would be mistaken. The difference between one Holy Book being “inspired” vs another Holy Book being “dictated” makes an enormous difference to all parties involved.
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“It is a plain fact of history that Christianity has done plenty of conversion by the sword. The only real difference is that Islam is more honest about it.”
Another difference is Islam STILL chops off heads!
That is not a condemnation.
Peace offering accepted. I’ll just say I think metastatic Islam is at most an opportunistic infection; if Western society weren’t gravely ill from other causes it couldn’t be any problem, and leave it at that.
The Muzzies believe that Mohammed (piss be upon him) was illiterate – thus his producing the Koran was – itself – a miracle. In fact, Mo was continually asked why he couldn’t perform any miracles as Jesus was understood to have done. His answer was that the Koran was the miracle.
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I am so glad to see this history moment on TBP. Just this past Sunday my father mentioned to me that this year is the 500th celebration of the reformation. I was shocked that I hadn’t heard that on the pixelverse anywhere. I suggested to him that he read (he is a devout 7th Day Adventist) TBP since we have covered many religious topics. I hope he sees this.
On the Jews and Their Lies, 1543 by Martin Luther (1483-1546)
I had made up my mind to write no more either about the Jews or against them. But since I learned that those miserable and accursed people do not cease to lure to themselves even us, that is, the Christians, I have published this little book, so that I might be found among those who opposed such poisonous activities of the Jews and who warned the Christians to be on their guard against them. I would not have believed that a Christian could be duped by the Jews into taking their exile and wretchedness upon himself. However, the devil is the god of the world, and wherever God’s word is absent he has an easy task, not only with the weak but also with the strong. May God help us. Amen.
https://ia601405.us.archive.org/19/items/TheJewsAndTheirLies1543En1948/LUTHERDr._Martin-The_Jews_and_their_Lies_1948-EN.pdf
Today, a descendant of Martin, Les Luther, would nail a copy of Mein Kampf to the doors of Congress.
I hear the bitching about Jews around here all the time….while Roman Catholics buy forgiveness and worships idols, trinkets, statues, and some dude called the Pope. Looks like there’s room for more “religion rage” in these parts.
I suspect that had Luther just presented his 95 truths to the Catholic leaders behind closed doors instead of nailing them to the door in public they would never have been made known and Luther would probably never have been seen again.
There is a lesson in this.
This year is the 100th anniversary of the Miracle of Fatima.
This month was the 100th anniversary of the Fatima Miracle of the Sun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_the_Sun
Some people think it was a UFO that was blocking the sun. I don’t know what it was, but they saw something.