Martin Luther

This film is about Martin Luther, a simple monk who was able to have a greater impact on human history than anyone of his time. After years of serving as a monk, Luther's scholarship and questioning led to his realizing that many of the Church's practices were wrong (most notably the horrid practice of selling indulgences). How his questions posed in his 95 Theses is truly amazing, as his ideas snowballed.

I loved this PBS biography of Martin Luther and felt it did a great job of bringing a sense of greatness to the man. Using dramatic music and exceptional interviews, the director really did a first-rate job in conveying the message. I would have given the film a 10 but there was one big problem and one itty-bitty one. While there were lots of interviews with what appeared to be protestant clergy and historians, there was no modern Catholic view on the man. Despite what many think, many within the Church today actually have a lot of favorable things to say about the guy, as his writings later led to a Catholic revival--when they FINALLY agreed changes were needed--though this was long after Luther's death and way too late, as the Reformation was all but complete! I also wish the film had briefly discussed the chaos that followed Luther's death and this schism in Europe resulted in the amazingly bloody 30 Years War. Still, perhaps this was just too much material for the time allotted to the life of Luther.

The video comes across like a North Korean propaganda film: Our glorious leader was the best of all monks. He is nothing short than the cause of human freedom, itself. Our glorious leader was justified in founding his own religion because he was the most spiritual person of his age. You think I am exaggerating? At one point the narration actually calls Luther, "this monk who had been the Church's most devoted servant..." Really, where is the evidence that he was ever even simply a committed Catholic, much less a devoted servant, much less her most devoted servant?

Since Luther's 95 thesis are mostly fair questions concerning the abuses of indulgences that were going on at the time. The question of where Luther came in to conflict with the Church must lie elsewhere. I suspect that it was the combination of political intrigue combined with Luther's other writings that lead to this conflict. The Thesis' only role was in spreading the Luther's notoriety. However the program plays fast and loose with the truth. Sacraments are cunningly referred to as rituals giving a false impression about their true nature. If you don't already know you won't learn from this program that indulgences are only for the forgiveness of temporal punishments for already forgiven sins, which means that a sincere repentance would have already taken place. In fact this program does everything in its power to obscure what indulgences may or may not actually be. Considering this in light of the weight they put on Luther's thesis as the fulcrum of his career then it is absolutely diabolical that they would do this, and I mean that quit sincerely: if the devil were to defend his servant Martin Luther the results wouldn't likely be much different from this program.

Was Pope Leo X also a servant of Satan? Yes. Is this surprising? No, I don't believe it should surprise any Christian considering how far we saw evil enter even into the ranks of Christ's chosen apostles, themselves, at the beginning. However Christ has promised that His bride would be preserved despite the sins of men of like Judas Iscariot, Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici and Martin Luther. This being exactly the point in how the Father of Lies works in this world to visit fresh evils upon it. His minions gets into the heart of a man like Giovanni then through Martin Luther's indignation they get into his heart too only to play both sides against the middle. Who suffers? The world suffers as Christ's church is chipped away at the edges and reality, itself, becomes distorted. When you combine the so-called "reformation" with other philosophical movements like modernism, men lose all sense of moral direction and you have the type of carnage we call the the 20th century.

The image of people, like some medieval Cultural Revolution, storming into the churches to defile the images of the Saints, who are history's very instructional models for us on what piety looks like in actual practice, says everything one needs to know to understand who really was the true author of reformation. As we quickly approach 21st century's store of carnage the noise of more than 20,000 screaming and often hysterical voices of various Protestant "faiths" are drowning out John the Baptist's voice as his words can still be heard echoing through the ages.