Sunday, April 30, 2017
Righteous Anger or Wounded Pride?
After reading "Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants", I had to ask my dad if Martin Luther was being satirical...he wasn't. He truly wanted the rulers to smite the peasants. At first, I thought he was being a little harsh--and I definitely still do--but I see where he is coming from. Martin Luther defended the peasants' rights to be fed and taken care of, like the Bible commands, and yet they take it for granted and are even seeking to overthrow the government. He then tells the rulers that they should kill as many as possible, and he even says: "Stab, smite, slay, whoever you can. If you die in doing it, well for you! A more blessed death can never be yours, for you die obeying the divine Word and commandment in Romans XIII..." Dang. Isn't he doing one of the very things he condemned the Catholic church for doing? In the Crusades, the church said that whoever died in the war would be admitted into heaven, and now Martin Luther is implying the same thing. I guess in light of that, my question is, is he truly righteously angry or is he more embarrassed that he defended them to begin with? And was his idea of punishment anti-Christian?
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Honestly, great questions Natalie. And there is no way I can provide an answer. Luther's writings have created a whole mess of questions in my head over the past few days, big theological questions that I have no idea how to answer. So I understand your confusion here! I think this question of war and killing has followed us into today's time. Is it right for us to kill our enemies when one of the Ten Commandments clearly says, "thou shalt not kill"?
ReplyDeleteI am right there with Darby. When IS killing allowed? Because the Ten Commandments call for us to not kill, like Darby mentioned. However, there are several examples of God commanding people to kill. For instance, He told Israel to kill the inhabitants of the Promised Land. Also, Natalie I also want to ask the same question: is Martin Luther righteously angry?
ReplyDeleteSuch good questions. I definitely think that Luther has something to say about the wrong, sinful actions of the peasants, as well as the God-given responsibility and power rulers carry, but I'm not so certain that the consequence should be so drastically permanent as in death, or the rulers assurance should be so generally assumed on godly action when not all rulers act on God's behalf.
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