I thought I’d share how the previous post with the long title came about: What the Lord’s Prayer really says about FORGIVING. Jesus made it clear right after “Amen”: “IF YOU DON’T forgive…” vs. Luther’s Catechism: “God forgives WITHOUT CONDITION,” even “REVENGE!!!”
Recently, I was talking with a friend of mine, who also has a strong Lutheran background, about the who-really-goes-to-heaven topic. And I brought up the Lord’s Prayer. I was surprised to discover that she didn’t know that Jesus clarified the forgive us our trespasses as we forgive… line right after the Amen — so that we would all know.
So I thought maybe I should write a post about this, because perhaps there are many who have memorized the Lord’s Prayer but haven’t gleaned from the source material (Matthew) that Jesus kept right on going after the Amen: “For if you forgive…,” to make sure we understand what He means by “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who sin against us” — that He really meant business. This is no trivial matter.
As I wrote the post, I thought: I’ll just check Luther’s Small Catechism to see if the part after the Amen is in there. I thought: probably not, which turned out to be correct. And I just now looked it up in Wikipedia [Does anyone know if Wikipedia is derived from wicked or wicca?] to make sure the the isn’t supposed to be capitalized in the Lord’s Prayer. Wikipedia outlines each phrase from the prayer while also not including the two verses after the Amen that are key to understanding the forgiving concept in the prayer.
So I found out for sure that the Small Catechism stopped with the Amen, with Luther actually calling this phrase The Conclusion. But I vaguely remembered Luther’s Large Catechism (not having read it in probably 35 years), and wondered if Martin Luther mentioned The Clarification (I’ll call it, verses 14 and 15, the two verses right after the Amen).
I discovered that he has a whole section explaining what he calls The Fifth Petition (“forgive us our trespasses as we forgive…”), and I include this in its entirety in the post. Reading it carefully, I was amazed to find that not only does Luther spin verses 14 and 15 into something other than what Jesus said, but he even included the revenge concept, which he seems to be so fond of, and attempts to justify it: in that we have much cause for doing it in our poor miserable lives; and because we’re already sealed and forgiven without condition anyway.
So I’m now sitting here, for the first time realizing that as a youth, I was formally taught from a book that professed that revenge is okay and that Jesus didn’t really mean that we must forgive others in order to go to heaven.
[Brainwashing; mind-control comes to mind: like how I see FOX News and so-called conservative talk-radio spinning evil as being good, and good as being evil. I document this deception with many different examples at ToBeFree.]
No wonder so many of us still need major deprogramming for us to become ONE, which is supposed to be normal for Christians, according to Jesus (John 17).
Notice, I include myself. The Bible is so amazingly clear if one reads it afresh, without bias, and with the Holy Spirit’s help. But the programming was so powerful! We were Lutherans, after all. We were taught to follow Luther without question — a man who didn’t really understand what real Christianity is.
Which is why many still respond to the question, are you a Christian? this way: “I’m Lutheran,” or “I’m Catholic.” We drank the Kool Aid as we were programmed to do.
Thank God I saw the light, decades ago, while reading the Bible on my own — though I’m convinced that somebody must have been praying for me, as the Holy Spirit helped me start to break free from the matrix.
But I still need more light to fully think and walk as a follower of Christ, Himself — Holy Spirit led — always walking in the love of Christ, manifested…!
May we be holy and walk free — breaking out of the traditional shackles, emerging as sons and daughters — unencumbered with disinformation — walking fully in truth and in God, having read the Bible again, to make sure — wishing each other well, having confessed our sins one to another, right with each other so we can be healed!!!!!!!
I can see us breaking free of the fog and into the light — on the mountain top where we can see clearly for miles and miles!!!
God bless you all!
May we be ONE in Christ — together — free — always!!!
Jeff : )