Never-Before-Published Letter Reveals Concentration Camp Churches — Nazis ‘Received God’ After Atrocities

Townhall.com ^ | October 15, 2020 | Marina Medvin

[dangus]

>> Luther was not “white-washed into Catholicism”; Luther WAS a Catholic, an Augustinian monk. <<

Yes, yes, Luther HAD BEEN Catholic. Every idiot knows that. What I meant was that his LATER beliefs were so white-washed that what is taught by Lutheranism nearly match what the Catholic Church taught in opposition to him.

>> His creed was not simply “sola fide”, it was “sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura” <<

Yes, he also taught the Catholic doctrine of Sola Gratia, but that it was ONLY THROUGH faith. There’s no point in arguing “only” something also includes something else. Faith is necessary, but contra Luther, it is not sufficient, as is clearly taught in scripture: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?... In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead... The devils have faith and tremble.” Of course, Luther simply threw this out of the bible, which brings us to the Catholic objection to sola scriptura

[Albion Wilde]

The “only" with regard to faith means that even though salvation is only through the grace of God and cannot be earned by works*, it will only have effect if the person believes in God’s gift of salvation and has faith in Him and His Word.

Mottoes typically are short and sweet as a aid to remembrance, but there is a depth of meaning that is taught and catechized by the orthodox Lutheran church in American, the LCMS.

(works are an evidence of faith in salvation, but not a means to it)

[dfwgator]

"God is with us."

[dfwgator]

“The Mohammedan religion would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?” Had Charles Martel not been victorious at Poitiers — already, you see, the world had fallen into the hands of the Jews, so gutless a thing was Christianity ! — then we should in all probability have been converted to Mohammedanism, that cult which glorifies heroism and which opens the seventh Heaven to the bold warrior alone. Then the Germanic races would have conquered the world. Christianity alone prevented them from doing so.”

Hitler to Albert Speer

[keving]

And 4.5 million non-Jewish death campers. Don’t forget them and I won’t forget the Jews either.

[colorado tanker]

It is intellectually and historically dishonest to attribute 20th Century German antisemitism among some Lutherans to Martin Luther's 16th Century antisemitism. Antisemitic views were prevalent among Christians in Western Europe in the 16th Century. Spain had expelled its Jews and was not the only country to have done so. By the 20th Century views were much more tolerant, although many still held antisemitic views.

As noted earlier in this thread, there was a strong German Lutheran movement to oppose the Nazis for which many were sent to camps and some murdered.

The author would have been on far firmer ground inquiring about the nature of evil in the world and how people could have gone about this sadistic and murderous work during the week and then attended a church on the weekend as if what they were doing was somehow acceptable behavior for a practicing Christian - the same question that baffled the writer of the letter and his fellow soldiers.

[GreyFriar]

The WW1 German Army belt buckle had “Gott Mit Uns” around the German Imperial Crown. The Nazi’s replace the crown with their eagle and swastika motif. I’ve yet to master posting pictures here, thus look at the WW1 and Weimar Republic German Army belt buckles at this site:

https://www.epicmilitaria.com/german-ww2-militaria/ww1-imperial-germany/belt-buckles.html

[reasonisfaith]

Distinguishing the real God from the father of lies is not difficult.