The Horrible Heroes of the Protestant Reformation

You will often hear in sermons detailing how God can use inherently imperfect people for great things that Abraham could be a coward, David committed adultery and conspiracy to commit murder, and Simon Peter had a short fuse and could be wishy washy. These Biblical examples are all true and accurate, and are testaments to God's faithfulness to use us, flawed and fallible, to do mighty and wondrous things. But, you will seldom if ever hear among these examples the likes of Martin Luther, John Knox, or any of the most pivotal figures of what we came to call the Reformation.

Being a member of a Calvinist church, I often hear great reverence of the titans of the Protestant Reformation, the great theologians who helped steer the Christian faith out of the clutches of the Catholic Church. The immense respect for these men to which I've been subject is one of the reasons why I was so dismayed and disappointed over time to read that many of these figures were, frankly, some rather vile people.

It should have come as no surprise that they were dirty, rotten sinners like me, because that's what we all are, from the pulpit to the porcelain. But when one is surrounded by such high praise for these men - men who are seldom, if ever, mentioned in the same ilk as an adulterer like David or a murderer like Moses to point out how God can use the worst of the worst - it makes the discovery of their "dark sides" much more devastating. If one is well versed in the flaws of Biblical heroes, but those who teach them dare not utter anything negative about Reformation heroes, a kind of subconscious reverence can be built for these men, and one is prone to forget that they, too, were awful human beings who God used to further His kingdom. 

Martin Luther was an unrepentant reviler and persecutor of Jews; John Knox preached violence - advocating for the assassinations of rulers deemed evil, and publicly applauding the unwarranted slaying of Queen Mary's servant David Riccio by a band of conspirators - and was even involved in the murder of one Cardinal Beaton; John Foxe played a bit fast and loose with facts and history in his celebrated Book of Martyrs, and even praised some corrupt or immoral figures - such as Anne Boleyn and Don Carlos, Prince of Asturias - simply because they allegedly embraced the Protestant cause (chillingly similar to many "evangelicals," whatever that means, who praise Donald Trump for his empty use of Christianity while willfully ignoring his unrepentant and base character).

Again, it shouldn't have been so shocking that these men, as fallible and fallen as Hezekiah or Job, were guilty of some awful deeds, just as I am. But I assert that our praise of these Reformers has become so borderline idolatrous that we are prone to forget - or willing to leave out - what despicable acts accompanied their efforts. Christians should openly condemn the atrocities and seedy acts of those that many praise to the point of portraying them as blameless and spotless. This is the same mistake that we Americans made with the likes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson when we heralded them as heroes of our country; patriots and visionaries they were, but we swept their sins under the rug for so long that our very culture became affected to the point of serving them as flawless idols.

But what a Christian must also remember is the same lesson we're taught from the Bible and the pulpit about Peter, Paul, David, and a slew of other Biblical figures - that we are all fallen human beings. Scripture tells us, "in Your sight no one living is righteous" (Psalm 143:2), "there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin" (Ecclesiastes 7:20), and most memorably, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

There can be, however, a difference when looking at the lives of David - who repented of his crimes against God and strove to live a just life - and Martin Luther, of whom there is no evidence that he ever repented in his hatred towards Jews. But if God can use those who don't even believe in Him for His purpose - Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians for example - then He can certainly use those who proclaim Him but continue in evil ways: the most obvious example being the Pharisees who were among the instruments through which Jesus went to the cross to fulfill God's purpose of shedding His blood to redeem you and me for our multitudes of sins.

Again, the most disheartening aspect of reading about the flagrant evils of many Protestant Reformers is the amount of heroic praise they are given by the Church today, and the fact that their work was so important in Church history. It can become tiring to hear "God uses flawed people for great things," so this blog's closing passage from the Book of Revelation puts it into much better perspective. We must remember that the flaws of Knox and Luther is irrelevant in the bigger picture, in the story of Christ's Church, against which "the gates of Hades shall not prevail" (Matthew 16:18). If every Christian in the world today were to turn away from Christ and convert to scientology, that would not render Him any less true. To claim that it's the faithfulness of Christians who make God all-powerful is nothing but laughable vanity. 

The bigotry of Martin Luther can never render Jesus' love and grace ineffective. If a hypocrite proclaims Jesus as Lord yet does not obey Him, the hypocrite is only a hypocrite, but Jesus is still Lord. It is Christ who overcame - not John Calvin. 

"And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?' And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.'" -Revelation 5:1-5

The Time I Said Martin Luther Should Burn in Hell Because He Hated Jews

Perhaps the most misunderstood, misused, distorted piece of the entire Bible is Jesus' words, "Do not judge." Many of us who are indignant when someone calls out our questionable or outright ugly deeds are quick to pull these words from our hip pockets, thinking they mean, "don't point out that I'm doing something morally wrong or destructive, because you're not God."
The trouble is, when Jesus instructed us not to "judge," He is not referring to rebuking someone for doing something wrong. If that were so, each of us as believers would be rendered hypocrites each time we bring attention to the President's or some other politician's morally vile deeds and lies. We draw arbitrary lines as to which sins are okay to denounce, and which are not - usually, the line is drawn in front of our own sins, to protect ourselves from criticism and conviction. The Bible plainly teaches us what is right and wrong in God's eyes, that we are to abhor what is evil, and even rebuke a brother or sister should they fall into such behaviors, so long as the plank of hypocrisy doesn't blind our ability to discern.

The "judgment" Jesus condemns among believers is actual judgment - one day, all of us will stand before the Great White Throne of Christ to answer for all things we've done, good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10). A fact that should delight no Christian, but rather grieve them, is that the unsaved and unrepentant will be sentenced to eternal damnation (Daniel 12:2, Revelation 20:11-15).
Only Christ has the authority to make these judgments and pronounce these sentences; for a human being to declare that someone else should go to hell for their deeds is to try and usurp His righteous judgment, His authority - and His alone - to pronounce punishment.

After all, all of us deserve death, but God gave His Son so that those who accept Him will, by His grace, be saved (John 3:16).

This is what Jesus forbids when He forbids judging another - to declare, "you're going to hell; you're beyond redemption; Jesus' blood is not powerful enough to save you."

I've known this for years, and have been deeply irked when people shriek the words "don't judge me!" when confronted with some unrepentant behavior that goes against God's Word. I've written many things on this subject, harping about it and beating my breast with indignation.
However - gasp - I, a fallible human being stumbled in lack of understanding, committing the very same sin for which I so often denounced others.

2017 marked the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, of which Martin Luther was a pivotal figure. Were it not for God's use of this man, many more would still be misled by the mire of man-made rituals and lies concerning Jesus, the Scripture, the Church. Not that man-made rituals, doctrines of men taught as if they were commandments of God, don't still frustrate the faith of many who seek Jesus. But God used Martin Luther (and countless other heroes of the Church, like John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, John Foxe, to name but a few) in an upheaval of human greed in God's name.

In 2017, my church group began a several weeks-long study of the Luther and the Reformation. Aside from John Foxe's Book of Martyrs, I knew relatively little about many of the heroes of Christian history. So, I did some research on Martin Luther and

gooooood GASH!!!

I was surprised and mortified to find that Luther, for all the truth and wisdom he spoke, for the mighty vessel he had been in the Reformation, was an unrepentant anti-Semite. He held a disdain for Jews, encouraged their fiery persecution, and, though he originally wrote a book aimed at Jews to show them that Jesus was the Messiah for whom they'd waited, he later gave up and wrote an entire book called On the Jews and Their Lies. That's not something I learned in my church group's study. I felt a portrait of a man abundantly superior to other sinners saved by grace had been painted; of all people who should have known that hatred of Jews is wrong, it would be someone who knew the Bible well - someone who had literally translated it!

I went to my one of my fellow Christians, bewildered, asking "what gives?!" I felt a bit dismissed when he replied with a link to an article from The Gospel Coalition that described many other noted theologians who did awful things. But I still felt shocked; I could accept that Martin Luther was a racist - no one, no matter how many mighty works God gives them to do, is infallible. God uses awful people to speak truth and do mighty things all the time (such as yours truly, who - after being saved and having the knowledge that it was wrong - once stole money from my friend's son's piggy bank to buy an ice cream sandwich; and trust me, that's nowhere near the worst thing I've done in my stumbling and backsliding during my walk with Christ). Nonetheless, I felt that Martin Luther's terrible deeds concerning the Jews should be brought to believers' attention in studies of the man, to show how wrong he was, to avoid turning him into an idol against whom no one should speak ill, and to demonstrate, again, that even the mightiest of people are prone to wrong.

After ruminating on the whole thing, I told myself a sad and horrible truth - or what I decided was a truth: Martin Luther, the great teacher of God, will be sentenced to eternal damnation on the Day of Judgment. As someone who encouraged the burning of synagogues, he was, I decided, a ravenous wolf in sheep's clothing. He was the epitome of those described by Jesus in Matthew 7 - those who prophesy, cast out demons, and do many wonders in His name, but who never truly knew Him.

I harbored this feeling for almost two years. My resentment grew deeper toward many Christians whose reverence for the figures of the Reformation is so fervent it's akin to idol worship.

Sometimes, you can read a Bible passage a hundred times, know it by heart, but not truly grasp every jewel of truth it has for us. I'd read Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount" countless times. I'd written and spoken endless diatribes on the true meaning of "judging" and what it entails. But it wasn't until yesterday, quite literally, that I realized I had been judging Martin Luther in a most sinful way.

My judgment of Luther was not in my disappointment and shock that he was an anti-Semite. If I didn't have that feeling of disappointment, what kind of person would I be? Rather, my judgment of Martin Luther was what I'd told myself about his eternal fate; my sin of judgment was that I'd decided he should and will spend eternity in weeping and gnashing of teeth because of his unrepentant hatred.

I, too, declare Jesus' name and the salvation He offers to all people. And I, too, struggle with an abundance of sinful behaviors. I tell myself, "at least I know my sins are wrong; at least I want to do better." But my own righteousness is, as Isaiah 64:6 tells me, filthy rags. I have no right, no wisdom near suitable enough to decide Martin Luther's punishment for condemning Jews. Just as he would have had no right or righteousness near approachable to God's perfection to declare that I should go to hell for the slew of terrible deeds I've done in my life.

There are no doubt countless examples of people who we can observe and study and be certain that that person will not see heaven - the go-to examples of human evil being people like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and etc. But there's a vast difference between knowing evil must be punished, and knowing evil can only be punished by God. If He is the only One righteous and perfect who could cleanse us of sin, He is also the only One righteous and perfect to fit the role of assigning our fates and consequences of those sins.

Like Martin Luther, like all of us, I deserve hell. But by the promise and sacrifice of Jesus the Son of God, I've been delivered from that eternal terror. Luther knew this, too. I can rant all I want that he also knew racism to be wrong, that he knew that a Christian who reviles is a Christian to be avoided (1 Corinthians 1 5:9-13). But I, who must adjust my heart, mind, and body to the Holy Scriptures, also know, by the grace of God who softened this sinful skull so that I would understand, that my sentence of Martin Luther to damnation was gross hypocrisy. May it be burned up and remembered no more at my own appearance before Christ:

"For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." -1 Corinthians 3:11-15