Martin Luther, the great leader of the Protestant reformation, shook the entire world with his thoughts. He did great things freeing people from the tyranny of indulgences and other heretical teachings by the ancient Catholic church. God mightly used Martin Luther to translate the Bible into German, write moving hymns like "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God", and reintroduce the masses to the idea of grace and salvation by faith not works.
Having recently seen the movie "Luther" about this famous figure, I got a much better appreciation for the forces working against him. I saw how he must have been overwhelmed by the power and influence of the Pope and the Catholic church. He appeared to be hounded by the devil and plagued by his own genius. Luther was a brilliant scholar and a zealous man.
Yet Martin Luther lost his bearings along the way. At first he was peaceful. He only used his pen never his sword to fight. But eventually, he took to using methods that he would have never ascribed to during his earlier days. Luther became bitter as he crushed the power of the Catholic church and yet many people did not respond to his teaching. Luther expected the Jews to reconnect with Christianity through his teaching. It did not happen. Thus, he turned his ire to the Jewish people. Some of his writings are quite antisemitic. Adolph Hitler used some of Luther's writings to incite anti-Jewish sentiments created in World War II. Hitler commonly referred to Luther's writings, giving him a spiritual basis to conduct the Holocaust.
Luther even took up arms to persecuate the Anabaptists because they believed that people should be baptized as adults. Both protestants and Catholics killed many thousands of Anabaptists. Luther supported infant baptism and saw baptizing adults as heretical and contrary to the doctrine of salvation by grace. Luther had worked hard to prop up salvation by faith and viewed baptism as a works based view of salvation. Luther saw Anabaptists as agents of the devil spreading false doctrine.
Like most famous figures in history, Luther was neither all good nor all bad. He contributed much to modern Christianity. But he also detracted from it and did some unspeakably wicked things in the name of God. Of course, these were not rooted in love and thus were sin. Luther had some deranged ideas and became a radical Pharisse for his beliefs.
What caused Luther to get so far off course? He took his eyes off Jesus and got swept up in his own ideas and revolution. It could happen to anyone. He failed to see that the truth means nothing unless it is told in love. Burning people to death or persecuting those we view as heretics is not a symbol of love. Luther is the perfect example of what happens to a gifted person when he loses a humble heart and tries to make things happen on his own. Luther forgot that only God can changes someone's heart. In his zeal, Luther lost his way.
