So instead of changing his doctrine to line up with scripture, Martin Luther decided to change scripture.
And tragically, much of today’s willfully-sin-and-still-go-to-heaven ‘Christianity’ is based upon Luther’s unbiblical, unworkable theory.
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From: “The life and letters of Martin Luther” by Preserved Smith, Ph.D., 1911 (CHAPTER XXIII—THE GERMAN BIBLE, page 269). Also available here.
In the introduction to Romans (1522), he says : “This epis-
tie is the kernel of the New Testament and the clearest of all
gospels, worthy and worth that a Christian man should not
only know the words by heart, but should converse with them
continually as the daily bread of the soul. It can never be too
much read nor considered, but the more it is used the more
precious it becomes.” Then, by way of explaining the apostolic
use of such words as law, sin, grace, faith, justification, flesh,
and spirit, he gives an excellent summary of his own doctrine.
Revelation he holds neither apostolic nor prophetic, for
Christ is neither taught nor recognized in it.
Again, when he was asked what were the best books of the
Bible, he said the Psalms, St. John’s and St. Paul’s epistles for
those who had to fight heretics, but for the common man and
young people the first three gospels.
The often quoted condemnation of James as an epistle of
straw is far better known than the more drastic things he said
about it to his table companions: —
Many sweat to reconcile St. Paul and St. James, as does Melanch-
thon in his Apology, but in vain. “Faith justifies” and “faith does
not justify” contradict each other flatly. If any one can harmonize
them I will give him my doctor’s hood and let him call me a fool.
Let us banish this epistle from the university, for it is worthless. It has no syllable about Christ, not even naming him except once at
the beginning. I think it was written by some Jew who had heard of the Christians but not joined them. James had learned that the Christians insisted strongly on faith in Christ and so he said to him-self : “Well, you must take issue with them and speak only of works,” and so he does. He says not a word of the passion and resurrection of Christ, the text of all the other apostles. Moreover, he has no order nor method. He speaks now of clothes, now of wrath, jumping from one topic to another. He has this simile : “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Mary, mother of God ! He compares faith to the body when it should rather be compared to the soul ! The ancients saw all this and did not consider the epistle canonical.
Luther’s marginal notes in one of his own Bibles are equally
trenchant. To James i, 6 (But let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering), he remarks : “That is the only good place in the
whole epistle“ ; to i, 21 (Receive with meekness the engrafted
word), “Others engrafted it, not this James” ; to ii, 12 ff.,
“What a chaos !” and to ii, 24 (Ye see then that by works
a man is justified, and not by faith only), “That is false.”
From: Canterbury Tales, Chasing Down the Luther Quotes about James
For your awareness, I provide a few more authentic quotes from Luther:
Therefore St James’ epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to these others, for it has nothing of the nature of the Gospel about it.
(Luther’s Works 35, 362)The epistle of James gives us much trouble, for the Papists embrace it alone and leave out all the rest…Accordingly, if they will not admit my interpretations, then I shall make rubble also of it. I almost feel like throwing Jimmy into the stove, as the priest in Kalenberg did.
(Luther’s Works 34, 317)We should throw the epistle of James out of this school [i.e. Wittenburg], for it doesn’t amount to much. It contains not a syllable about Christ. Not once does it mention Christ, except at the beginning. I maintain that some Jew wrote it who probably heard about Christian people but never encountered any. Since he heard that Christians place great weight on faith in Christ, he thought, ‘Wait a moment! I’ll oppose them and urge works alone.’ This he did.
(Luther’s Works 54, 424)
Related:
Martin Luther’s Subordinate Bible Books: Hebrews, James, Jude & Revelation
Martin Luther Cursed from His Heart Catholic Leaders, ‘Every Day
Hating, unforgiving, James-3 cursing, Biblically disqualified MARTIN LUTHER: “When I die, I want to be a ghost…So I can continue to pester the bishops, priests and godless monks until that they have more trouble with a dead Luther than they could have had before with a thousand living ones.”
Who-Goes-To-Heaven Scriptures — Narrow is the Way | Who are the Children of God? (Where Paul is reconciled with James — and with Hebrews and 1 John — and with Jesus. It all works!)
Anonymous
Luther later changed his views on Revelation by 360 degrees. Obviously his initial concerns about the book are better known because they are more controversial. His change is documented in his 1545 preface to the German translation. He gives a “brief” overview of his general interpretation of the book and concludes with these words, “for we see, in this book, that, through and above all plagues and beasts and bad angels, Christ is with His saints, and wins the victory at last.”
While I disagree with Luther about the apostolicity and also the value of James, some of the early Church Fathers also questioned the value and apostolicity of James. For instance, James is absent from the landmark Muratorian Canon. James is one of the books in what has been called the Antilegomenna. These are the books whose acceptance as part of the canon were “spoken against” [anti {against} legomenna {spoken}] by certain authoritative Church Fathers. Luther may have questioned the book, but note that he doesn’t actually remove it from the German Bible. His disparaging of James (and even the blessed Revelation) does not show him to be a heretic but one who is repeating objections made by some orthodox Fathers. Luther and the Fathers are just wrong sometimes, and how often is that we do not change our own thinking but begin change our perceptions of a certain passage or verse until it lines up with what we wish it said? We don’t intend to do it, but it is the lifelong battle of a Christian with his own sinful mind and the enemy who wants us to worship him through worshiping ourselves. Luther isn’t a perfect teacher, but he’s usually high quality – like Ignatius, Irenaeus, Athanasius, Augustine, etc. The Church is a hospital for sinners, not a showroom for idols. We are addicts who receive advice from other addicts about how to battle the addiction we share. Sometimes we’re wrong, but praise be to Christ Jesus who has developed the antidote of the Resurrection on the Last Day when He will finally expunge totally our addiction. Until that day, we’ve all got the shakes.
james jordan
“Luther later changed his views on Revelation by 360 degrees. Obviously his initial concerns about the book are better known because they are more controversial.”
Yeah, right. Convenient lies from an anonymous coward and loser. Luther was a bombastic ass from beginning to end, and a drunken louse.
Anonymous
If Luther changed his opinion then clearly he contradicted himself and to quote the great counter-reformer, “…a single contradiction proves that one does not possess the spirit of God, for He cannot contradict himself.” St. Alphonsus De Lugouri. The expression throwing the baby out with the bathwater is attributed to Luther for his constant self contradictions.