The Luther Principle: Nail Your Complaint on the Church?s Doors
Charles E. Carlson
The new epic story of Martin Luther called ?Luther? is set in Saxony in the first quarter of the 16th Century, is a truly unique movie, cut close to history in Luther?s early life, and artistically stunning.
But far more important, it carries a message for anyone of faith in any religion. The message is this; do not be afraid to nail Your complaint to the door of the church.
The issue in Luther?s time was corruption of the state church, Roman Catholicism, combined with a feudal land system of knights, earls, serfs, landed gentry and peasants. Pope Leo X, both as portrayed in the film and as recorded in my 1908 edition of Historians History of the world, raised money to build the magnificent St. Peters Basilica by selling what was known as indulgences.
Hundreds of religious edifices are being erected today. Most are financed by the unknowing peasants and serfs who never stop to think about who holds the title to this elegant land.
And today’s political Warmakers are dependent on the support of the Judeo-Christian leaders, much as the knights, earls and electors in Luther’s lifetime were enabled by the popes and cardinals. If you doubt this, read back issues of Pharisee Watch, starting with The Cause of the Conflict. Fixing Blame, by this author.
Pope Leo X, differed from Pat Robertson only in the instrument used to extract wealth. The Pope gained one coin at a time from the peasants and workers, and he invested some of it on gifts to noblemen whom he sought to control. Leo promised spiritual salvation for a nominal commitment from the person who had a coin to drop in the box. The others were left dammed! And he also saved the peasants? departed loved ones who were standing on the brink of the torments of Hell. Indulgences issued by agents of the Pope cleaned the sins and turned sinners heaven bound regardless of their earthly lives, so the movie as well as most histories tell us.
An indulgence was a small scroll bearing Leo‘s seal and executed in blank. It promised salvation to the bearer, and was bought for a coin, an hour of penance, and a moment of confession. Luther himself, in his early experience as a monk and in the movie version, bought an indulgence for his grandfather, but it caused him to see what Jesus said about salvation, and how the peasant class was deprived of the New Testament.
With more than a touch of sarcasm, Martin Luther said this of one high-powered indulgence peddler named Tetzel:
“He had such grace and power from the pope that if a man had defiled the Virgin Mary, he could be forgiven as soon as a fitting sum was deposited in the chest.”
WHTT?s purpose is not to heap coals on the heads of long departed Pope Leo X or anyone else in a different era. There is enough abuse and guilt in all churches to go around the globe a hundred times. The Pharisaic Christian leaders of our own day make Leo appear benevolent by comparison. But the issue we peruse is not the amount of money extracted, but the false and Pharisaic teaching of our Judeo-Christian leaders who promise an even easier salvation than Leo did, with less responsibility, and with instant and repetitive forgiveness of any past and future sin.
The Judeo-Christian leaders (this write was a layman leader) put the Pope to shame. And they do it far more effectively than did Tetzel, using mass marketing and television churches, schools and colleges to monger their indulgences. In addition to the minor earthly problem of fleecing the flocks to build more impressive temples, Pharisee leaders of our evangelical churches also enable and, in many extreme cases such as Pat Robertson?s surrogate Jay Sekulow, openly promote serial wars. Pope Leo at least worried about the wars of his day, and only promoted one if the Church had something to gain.
It is the warmaking by-product of the affluent Judeo-Christian religious business that is intolerable. It drags all of us into their temples with them. That is why WHTT must nail the indictments of Serial War Enablers to their doors, just as Luther nailed up his 95 Thesis. If we do this, we will help free some of those inside who are embarrassed by the practice of paying indulgences for false security that fails to honor God, or even teach who He is. We will help spark an uprising, as Luther did without ever wanting to. If we are to have a chance to end the trend for Pharisee-Christian enabled serial wars, and the attendant evils that go with it, we must challenge the church openly, as did Martin Luther.
One Luther quote that is not in the movie, but which is most applicable to We Hold These Truths:
“Yet truth, left alone will save itself by its own right hand- not mine, nor yours, nor any man?s; last of all if I perish the world will lose nothing.” -Martin Luther
Why Nail Your Complaint On The Church?s Doors?
We must follow Martin Luther?s example because it works. It is true that you can find more people in one place at the nearest NFL football stadium, you might even find the “Lions“ playing the “Saints.“ It is true there are bigger meeting places, but we will not succeed there. The spirit is not right for reform in the stadium, the symphony hall, in front of a Federal building, and especially not in front of the Capital where there are no votes to win.
Luther sparked instant change with his words because they were true and reasonable and because he took those words to a silent minority who hungered for truth in the church. These few already knew they are not getting veracity, but they attended anyway, because like church-goers today, they didn’t know were else to look for God. WHTT, like Luther, must go to the door to fulfill Jesus? promise that the truth will be where He is. And He will be present if you are there!
We Hold These Truths is not alone in rediscovering the Luther Principle, Nail It To The Church Door. We are finding others who are carrying out this principle in their own way.
*In a recent picket of the Billy Graham Crusade in San Diego, California WHTT volunteers found ourselves joined by, and even competing for space with honest and determined local pro-life men and women, whose signs proclaimed that Billy Graham gives only lip service to the unborn child, but when it comes to action they rate Billy near zero. Every pro-life organization should follow their example. How much influence can you have in front to a shabby abortion clinic? Why not the church and the School?
*A pro-life “women’s doctor? in Denver once told me his church was failing to inform and protect even its own unborn children. He and his wife now apparently raise the issue about saving the lives of unborn children in several churches. Jesus said, “I COME TO DIVIDE, HENCEFORTH IN EVERY FAMILY IT WILL BE THREE AND TWO, OR TWO AND THREE.” We have now heard of churches the doctor has not even attended that fear him because he nails the truth to doors wherever he enters.
*A college teacher in Southern California now has a group that leaflets high schools protesting war. They provide solid information explaining why students should not enlist and become professional soldiers in distant killing fields. This is a great and workable idea because students will listen (to anyone other than their patents). Nailing your 95 Thesis on the schoolhouse wall would have probably met the approval of Martin Luther.
The church is the answer, as Luther found, because people come there seeking the truth and even if they rarely find it they are open to it, one by one. Luther began with only one supporter, an old monk who saw his great potential and forced him out into the world he feared. He catalyzed a reformation, and sparked a revolution that he did not himself foresee or approve against the oppressed that came out of the Dark Ages of European civilization.
In a scene before his trial for “heresy” and faced with the possibility of death, the older priest who first led Luther to Christ by teaching him of the New Testament, wanted him to recant, but only because he loved him like a son. Luther said the words we all should ask ourselves:
“When you sent me out to change the world, did you think there would not be a cost?”-Martin Luther
This Brings Me To My Appeal; There Is A Cost to what we ask, but a small one. It will require an early Sunday morning October 5, drive from northern Virginia, Maryland, or DC, to Jerry Falwell?s Liberty University to post our 95 Thesis on the gate. There, some of the Pope Leo’s of our day will present what they call the “Purpose Driven Church.“ Let us appeal to the honest seeking people inside to adopt a Godly purpose, stop enabling death.
-end
Book Sales support much of WHTT’s efforts: Books that fit:
V-109 Gaza, War And The Christian Right, American Missiles In Gaza and Why Christian Zionist are Enablers, by Charles E. Carlson.
T-149 The Final Apostasy – by Gordon Ginn Ph.D. ?Final Apostasy?, 218 pages $14.00
B-127 The Incredible Scofield And His Book. By Joseph M. Canfield. The best biography of Scofield by Joseph M. Canfield. Hardcover, 314pp. $17.50
B-134 God?s Wrath On Left Behind – Exposing the Anti-Christ Agenda of the Left Behind Series, by Lisa Ruby, 215 page paperback, $15.00
B-129 Sherry?s War, a Special Report The anatomy of grassroots Christian heresy, by Charles E. Carlson, 20 page report, $6.00
B-130 The Source Of Our War Problem Why Judeo-Christians Do Not Demand Peace, by Charles E. Carlson, 12- page Pamphlet, $6.00 (www.whtt.org/eshop.php)
