Martin Luther’s Mistake
by Paul Harris
I grew up attending a Protestant church on
Sundays. Today, there are about 800
million Protestants in the world.1 The Protestant tradition began
in 1517 with Martin Luther’s “Ninety-Five Theses.”2 Martin Luther believed that faith in Jesus is
necessary for salvation. Because Jews
rejected this belief, Martin Luther turned against them. In his 1543 essay, “On the Jews and Their
Lies,” Martin Luther advocated extreme violence against Jews. He urged his supporters to “set fire to their
synagogues or schools….I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed.…I
advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings…be taken from
them….that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them….[w]e
are at fault in not slaying them.”3
In the 1930’s, Martin Luther’s
essay was used by Nazis to generate hatred against Jews. So Martin Luther may bear some responsibility
for the Holocaust.
What was Martin Luther’s mistake and how can we
correct it? How could he advocate
extreme violence toward other people in the name of Jesus? Does this violent attitude come from the
Bible? Can a desire for salvation combined
with a fear of damnation lead one to evil?
What is the appropriate attitude for Christians to have toward
non-Christians?
Is the way to salvation
faith, or is it love? “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in
him….There is no fear in love….If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his
brother, he is a liar. For anyone who
does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not
seen.” (1 John 4:16-20.)
“And
now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1
Corinthians 13:13.) Why is love greater
than faith and hope? First, God is
love. No one says that God is faith or
God is hope. Second, faith and hope
refer to the future. Love is
eternal. Third, people have different faiths
and different hopes. These differences
lead to conflicts which keep people apart.
Love brings people together. When
asked for the greatest commandment, Jesus replied, “'Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor
as yourself.' All the Law and the
Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-40.)
1 Jay Diamond, Larry. Plattner, Marc F. and Costopoulos, Philip J. World Religions and Democracy. 2005, page 119. "Not only do Protestants presently constitute 13 percent of the world’s population—about 800 million people—but since 1900 Protestantism has spread rapidly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America."
2 Simon, Edith (1966). Great Ages of Man: The Reformation. Time-Life Books. pp. pp. 120-121.
3 Michael. Robert.
"Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," Encounter 46 (Autumn
1985) No. 4:343-344.
