We interrupt our serious discussions to bring you the Web’s latest crass levity: The Lutheran insulter.
No, it’s not a way to insult Lutherans. It’s a way for you, the websurfer, to be insulted by the published words of Martin Luther. Here, for example, is the last gem I received:
You are full of poisonous refuse and insane foolishness.
(From Against Latomus, pg. 140 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 32)
Lest I be accused of intolerance, I hasten to add that although I’m not Lutheran, I am a confessional Protestant of the Reformed variety and as such admire Luther greatly. No disrespect intended, by me at any rate.
(HT Tim Challies)
I was going to mention the fabulous mine of insults that is Shakepeare’s corpus, but the same fellows who made Luther so accessible have already pointed to the analgous service for the Bard: http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html
Just so no one misunderstands:
What Luther said around the table is no part of the Lutheran Confessions. It is adhering to the Lutheran Confessions that makes one a Lutheran. These are the Augsburg Confession, the Catechisms, the Formula of Concord, etc. They are readily available online, e.g. at Pastor David Webber’s Lutheran Theology site.
Thus Luther’s remarks about Jews, peasants, his bowels, and so on, are not part of the Lutheran confession of faith. His remark about the Epistle of St. James as an epistle of straw is not part of what it means to believe as a Lutheran.
I mention this because it sometimes seems that Roman Catholics and Orthodox know almost nothing about Luther but the above stuff… and of course that he “destroyed the unity of Christendom” (which he didn’t, but that’s another topic).
That said: many might agree that some shepherds of the Church could be a little more robust in their denunciations of false doctrine!
To be fair to Luther, he was at least openly honest about certain usurious anti-Christs in his midst. If he believed it, the man would say it. Sometimes the truth is spoken without love…which is still better than keeping the “love” and tossing the truth out the window.
Wasn’t he supposedly a big, burly man? Most pastors and priests I have met who looked like linebackers were a bit…rough with their beliefs from time to time. Comes with the territory.
Read it here:
http://www.humanitas-international.org/showcase/chronography/documents/luther-jews.htm
I keep getting the “You are the prostitute of heretics” line. hmmmmmmm