Martin Luther - the Ugly Truth

Martin Luther (1483 - 1546)  is often referred to as the father of Protestant Christianity.  He was a German priest that was a heretic against the Catholic church and led the Protestant Reformation (protestant comes from 'protest'), the first big split from Catholicism since the Early Christianity split into Orthodox Christians and the Catholic Church.

Protestant Christians (those other than Catholics and Orthodox) come from Catholic roots, not straight from Early Christianity as many like to claim.  Early Christianity evolved from Jewish heretics.

The Reformation (green) are Protestant Heretics from Catholic church (red). Orthodox split earlier (blue/purple)

The recently invented printing press allowed Luther's views to be distributed easily throughout Europe.

While Luther is celebrated for diversity in Christianity today (all the different denominations in Christianity such as Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists evolved from heresy), few Christians promote anything else about Luther.

Evolution of Protestant Christian denominations since Reformation

Catholic corruption over indulgences is often cited as the reason for Luther's protests.  Yet, Luther cited the doctrine of free will as his central reason for the Reformation.  Luther wrote there is no free will.  Modern Christians typically have a doctrine of free-will.

"...with regard to God, and in all that bears of salvation or damnation, (man) has no 'free-will', but is a captive, prisoner and bondslave, either to the will of God, or to the will of Satan."


"we do everything of necessity, and nothing by 'free-will'; for the power of 'free-will' is nil...'


Luther translated the bible into German.  Christians claim that the Catholic bible has books added.  The fact is, the Protestant bible has had books subtracted. Luther had issue with many of the books of the bible.  He separated Old Testament books he took issue with into a separate section called the Apocrypha.  He also put New Testament books into a separate section.  He expressed doubts about the books of Hebrew, James, John, Relevation and many others.

He wrote:

"...the epistle of St. James is an epistle full of straw, because it contains nothing evangelical...If nonsense is spoken anywhere, this is the very place."
"The history of Jonah is so monstrous that is is absolutely incredible."
"I feel an aversion to it [book of Revelation], and to me this is sufficient reason for rejecting it."

When Americans demanded a plain English bible because the King James Version (which also contained the Apocrypha until 1666) was in Old English and difficult to understand, printers made the decision to leave out the rarely used Apocrypha to save money.  Luther separated out books which printers later removed.  The Apocrypha has stories such as Daniel who made a dragon explode by feeding it pitch and hair.

Luther had an obsession with the Devil or Satan and demons.  He considered women, snakes and reason to be of the devil.  Women were not considered to be as clever as men and were to stay home and keep house.  Some quotes:

"Snakes and monkeys are subjected to the demon more than other animals.  Satan lives in them and possesses them."

"The Devil can so completely assume the human form, when he wants to deceive us, that we may well lie with what seems to be a woman, of real flesh and blood, and yet all the while 'tis only the Devil in the shape of a woman."

"Men have broad and large chests, and small narrow hips, and more understanding than women, who have but small and narrow chests, and broad hips, to the end they should remain at home, sit still, keep house, and bear and bring up children."

"A large number of deaf, crippled and blind people are afflicted solely through the malice of the demon."

Luther was against reason and objected to Copernicus (1473-1543) who first figured out the Earth moved around the Sun, which contradicted the long-held belief that Earth was the centre of the universe.

"People give ear to an upstart astrologer [astronomer Copernicus] who strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun and the moon.  This fool wishes to reverse the whole science of astronomy."

Luther scoffed when Copernicus demonstrated Sun is centre of our solar system (bottom), not Earth (top)

"To be a Christian, you must 'pluck out the eye of reason.' "
"Reason should be destroyed in all Christians."
"Reason is the Devil's greatest whore."
"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has."



Luther encouraged believers to sin.

"God does not work salvation for fictitious sinners.  Be a sinner and sin vigorously...sin must be committed."


"Be a sinner and sin boldly...as long as we are here in this world we have to sin.  This life is not a dwelling place of righteousness."
"Your sin cannot cast you into hell."

Luther hated the Jews and wrote a dirty little hate book called The Jews and their Lies.

Hitler admired Luther and used Luther's antisemitic writings to support his cause.  Hitler saw the Jews as an infectious disease to be destroyed, just like Luther.  Luther wrote about the Jews:

"[Rulers] must act like a good physician who, when gangrene has set in proceeds without mercy to cut, saw and burn flesh, veins, bone and marrow.   Burn down their synagogues....force them to work, and deal harshly with them...if this does not help we must drive them out like mad dogs."


"If we wish to wash our hands of the Jew's blasphemy and not share in their guilt, we have to part company with them.  They must be driven from our country." 


"What shall we Christians do now with this depraved and damned people of the Jews?...I will give my faithful advice:  First, that one should set fire to their synagogues...Then that one should also break down and destroy their houses."


"The Jews deserve to be hanged on gallows, seven times higher than ordinary thieves."
"We ought to take revenge on the Jews and kill them."

The antisemitic writings of Luther were used by Hitler

Luther condoned the deaths of 100,000 peasants who revolved in 1525 because of their miserable living conditions.  He urged the slaughter of peasants who protested:

"They should be knocked to pieces, strangled and stabbed, secretly and openly, by everybody who can do it, just as one must kill a mad dog!"

Are these the words of a man esteemed for bringing about reform in religion?  Or an evil man that aided in the murder of thousands of innocent people?

Most Christians are not aware of the ugly history of their legacy.