This week's program was a continued response to Matt Haney's lecture against baptismal regeneration. I dealt with John 3, and Haney's attacks on Luther's beliefs and character. Here's the program.
First of all, Haney is being VERY disingenuous in his reference to President Harrison and the decline in church attendance in Lutheranism. The very same thing is happening in almost every denomination in America, and that includes the Baptists. In doing this, Haney is unwittingly (at least, I hope it's unwittingly) equating true Christianity with large attendance numbers for a given denomination, something which has no basis in Scripture whatsoever. And for the record, I can show Pastor Haney MANY ex-Baptists who are no longer in the faith. Departure from the church is not a uniquely Lutheran phenomenon.
And as far as his diatribe beginning about Luther's treatment of the Jews, I have read the work in question, and you hit the nail on the head, Jordan: this work is against Judaism, not against Jews as an ethnicity. On the contrary, Luther in that very same work PRAISES Jewish Christians whom he references, and the majority of the work is a theological argument against Judaism. Only the end part carries anything extreme concerning the Jews, and to be honest Luther is guilty of using much of the same vulgar terminology about the Papacy and Muslims (Turks) because he was passionate about clinging to the truth. To paint Luther as a racist is quite unfair and shows a disregard for the substance of the text.
2 comments:
Hoo boy, where do I begin...
First of all, Haney is being VERY disingenuous in his reference to President Harrison and the decline in church attendance in Lutheranism. The very same thing is happening in almost every denomination in America, and that includes the Baptists. In doing this, Haney is unwittingly (at least, I hope it's unwittingly) equating true Christianity with large attendance numbers for a given denomination, something which has no basis in Scripture whatsoever. And for the record, I can show Pastor Haney MANY ex-Baptists who are no longer in the faith. Departure from the church is not a uniquely Lutheran phenomenon.
And as far as his diatribe beginning about Luther's treatment of the Jews, I have read the work in question, and you hit the nail on the head, Jordan: this work is against Judaism, not against Jews as an ethnicity. On the contrary, Luther in that very same work PRAISES Jewish Christians whom he references, and the majority of the work is a theological argument against Judaism. Only the end part carries anything extreme concerning the Jews, and to be honest Luther is guilty of using much of the same vulgar terminology about the Papacy and Muslims (Turks) because he was passionate about clinging to the truth. To paint Luther as a racist is quite unfair and shows a disregard for the substance of the text.
Okay, I feel better...
Here is a link to what Jordan referenced at beggarsallreformation website that deals with many Luther quotes in context...
apparently Haney is not the first to use this against him, but it mainly came from Roman Catholics in the past.
http://beggarsallreformation.blogspot.com/search?q=worse+than+before
in Him,
Joe H
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