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Martin Luther Playmobil Toy is Fastest-Selling of All Time
Newsweek.Com ^ | 2/12/15 | Felicity Capon

Posted on 02/13/2015 7:14:24 AM PST by Gamecock

Astronomical sales of a tiny figurine of the Protestant reformation figure Martin Luther, have confounded its maker, Playmobil, by becoming the fastest-selling Playmobil figure of all time.

The German toy manufacturer announced this week that the first edition of 34,000 pieces sold out in less than 72 hours, forcing the company to urgently request its factory in Malta to produce more of the so-called “little Luthers”. Fans have been warned that the next batch will not be available until the end of April.

“...he had very modern ideas. He believed every person had the right to an education, including women and girls. In this aspect, he was a very 21st century man.”

(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...


TOPICS: General Discusssion
KEYWORDS: malta; martinluther; playmobil; toy
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To: Vigilanteman

I think it’s important to not underplay his anti-semitism as I think it’s had a lingering effect on European thought through the centuries. The Nazis used the treatise “On the Jews and Their Lies”(1543) as a key part of their propaganda campaign in the run up to the war and throughout it. Section XI of the treatise urged Christians:

to burn down Jewish synagogues and schools and warn people against them;
to refuse to let Jews own houses among Christians;
for Jewish religious writings to be taken away;
for rabbis to be forbidden to preach;
to not offer protection for Jews on highways;
for usury to be prohibited, and for all silver and gold to be removed, put aside for safekeeping and given back to Jews who truly convert; and
to give young, strong Jews flail, axe, spade, spindle, and let them earn their bread in the sweat of their noses.

The shocking thing is that this is the same man who had written in 1523: “If I had been a Jew and had seen such dolts and blockheads govern and teach the Christian faith, I would sooner have become a hog than a Christian. They have dealt with the Jews as if they were dogs rather than human beings; they have done little else than deride them and seize their property. When they baptize them they show them nothing of Christian doctrine or life, but only subject them to popishness and monkery... If the apostles, who also were Jews, had dealt with us Gentiles as we Gentiles deal with the Jews, there would never have been a Christian among the Gentiles ... When we are inclined to boast of our position [as Christians] we should remember that we are but Gentiles, while the Jews are of the lineage of Christ. We are aliens and in-laws; they are blood relatives, cousins, and brothers of our Lord. Therefore, if one is to boast of flesh and blood the Jews are actually nearer to Christ than we are...If we really want to help them, we must be guided in our dealings with them not by papal law but by the law of Christian love. We must receive them cordially, and permit them to trade and work with us, that they may have occasion and opportunity to associate with us, hear our Christian teaching, and witness our Christian life. If some of them should prove stiff-necked, what of it? After all, we ourselves are not all good Christians either.”

Luther was a great man, but as he aged he grew bitter, jaded and hateful towards Jews and Judaism. I think younger Luther was convinced that the conversion of the Jews was just a matter of time if Christians would just treat them nicely. When he realized they weren’t going to leap into the arms of Jesus any time soon, he started to see them as the enemy.


41 posted on 02/13/2015 8:10:43 AM PST by Blackyce (French President Jacques Chirac: "As far as I'm concerned, war always means failure.")
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To: UCANSEE2

Now with decapitated infidels!


42 posted on 02/13/2015 8:11:57 AM PST by reed13k (For evil to triumph it is only necessary for good men to do nothings)
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To: Gamecock
As long as every person wasn’t a Jew. He hated Jews and wanted them all dead. He was perhaps one of the biggest Jew haters of all time. --overwatcher

As long as every person wasn’t a Jew. He hated Jews and wanted them all dead. He was perhaps one of the biggest Jew haters of all time. --Gamecock

Carl Trueman dedicated a full lecture to this, in his Westminster Seminary lectures on Reformation history.

The upshot: "the ordinary does not require explaination". A worn and somewhat embittered Luther at the end of his life shared the common antisemitism of his era. It is the attitude of the younger Luther ("That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew") that requires explanation.

43 posted on 02/13/2015 8:14:48 AM PST by Lee N. Field ("And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" Gal 3:29)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
He penned some harsh rhetoric towards the Jewish community. What his actual wishes were, are not so clear

False

Near death, he still wrote to his wife, conspiring how he might betray Jewish refugees as outlaws. Do you not know what it meant for you and your family to be declared outlaws ? You could be robbed, your wife and daughters raped, tortured, and murdered with impunity, as Islam does today to non Muslims. The parable of the sheep and goats is staring at us. The Nazis loved their wives and children as well as Luther.

On the 28th the party crossed the Saale, and passed on to Eisleben with a cavalry guard of honor, through the little village of Rixdorf inhabited by the Jews. From Eisleben Luther wrote often to his wife, the most beautiful letters he ever penned, full of affection, trust, and gentle humor. In spite of his approaching end his good spirits seem to have come back to him. TO CATHARINE LUTHER AT WITTENBERG (eislebbn,) February 1, 1546. I wish you grace and peace in Christ, and send you my poor, old, infirm love. Dear Katie, I was weak on the road to Eisleben, but that was my own fault. Had you been with me you would have said it was the fault of the Jews or of their God. For we had to pass through a village hard by Eisleben where many Jews live; perhaps they blew on me too hard. (In the city of Eisleben there are at this hour fifty Jewish residents.) As I drove through the village such a cold wind blew from behind through my cap on my head that it was like to turn my brain to ice. This may have helped my vertigo, but now, thank God, I am so well that I am sore tempted by fair women and care not how gallant I am. When the chief matters are settled, I must devote myself to driving out the Jews. Count Albert is hostile to them, and has given them their deserts, but no one else has. God willing, I will help Count Albert from the pulpit. I drink Neunburger beer of just that flavor which you praised so much at Mansf eld. It pleases me well and acts as a laxative. Your little sons went to Mansfeld day before yesterday, after they had humbly begged Jack-an-apes1 to take them. I don't know what they are doing; if it were cold they might freeze, but as it is warm they may do or suffer what they like. God bless you with all my household and remember me to my table companions. Your old lover, M. L.

44 posted on 02/13/2015 8:16:10 AM PST by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
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To: .45 Long Colt

Let’s just take a look at Luther’s contemporary, Pope Pius V, who was made a saint for his efforts:

http://www.zionism-israel.com/hdoc/Papal_Bulls_Jews.htm

...Besides usury, through which Jews everywhere have sucked dry the property of impoverished Christians, they are accomplices of thieves and robbers; and the most damaging aspect of the matter is that they allure the unsuspecting through magical incantations, superstition, and witchcraft to the Synagogue of Satan and boast of being able to predict the future.

We have carefully investigated how this revolting sect abuses the name of Christ and how harmful they are to those whose life is threatened by their deceit.

On account of these and other serious matters, and because of the gravity of their crimes which increase day to day more and more, We order that, within 90 days, all Jews in our entire earthly realm of justice — in all towns, districts, and places — must depart these regions...


45 posted on 02/13/2015 8:17:32 AM PST by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: Gamecock

The Roman Catholic Church didn't write the Bible,

and I'm convinced they've never read it, either.... (in particular the letter that Paul wrote to especially to them).

46 posted on 02/13/2015 8:32:26 AM PST by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: jjotto

Ghettos for the filthy Jews. That’s just lovely.

The God-given power these antichrist popes believe they possess is astounding.


47 posted on 02/13/2015 8:33:55 AM PST by .45 Long Colt
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To: Dr. Sivana; Gamecock
Women had been educated in Catholic universities for centuries prior.

Regardless. The catholic "church" still considered biblical interpretation too important to be left to "laymen" and didn't want anyone other than "clergy" to possess Bibles. They wanted theirs to be the only game in town.

48 posted on 02/13/2015 8:34:47 AM PST by LouAvul ("GOP" is an acronym for "We had our nuts cut off and lost our spine in the process.")
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To: Vigilanteman
You are trying to hold Luther responsible for something that happened 400 years later. This makes even less sense than trying to hold Darwin responsible for the reprehensible theory of social Darwinism which the same group of Nazis implemented through perversion of his theories.
    When you make that supposition, ask about yourself ? Are you
  1. trying to rehabilitate Luther specifically, or antisemites in general ?
  2. afraid that if Luther is not in the kingdom of heaven then his doctrines are uninspired ?

Julius Streicher defends himself at Nuremberg (1946)

On April 29th 1946 Julius Streicher, NSDAP member and publisher of Der Sturmer, was cross-examined at Nuremberg by Dr Marx:

Marx: Witness, what aims did you pursue with your speeches and your articles in Der Sturmer?

Streicher: The speeches and articles which I wrote were meant to inform the public on a question which appeared to me one of the most important questions. I did not intend to agitate or inflame but to enlighten.

Marx: Apart from your weekly journal, and particularly after the Party came into power, were there any other publications in Germany which treated the Jewish question in an anti-Semitic way?

Streicher: Anti-Semitic publications have existed in Germany for centuries. A book I had, written by Dr. Martin Luther, was, for instance, confiscated. Dr. Martin Luther would very probably sit in my place in the defendants’ dock today, if this book had been taken into consideration by the prosecution. In the book, “The Jews and Their Lies”, Dr. Martin Luther writes that the Jews are a serpent’s brood and one should burn down their synagogues and destroy them…

- See more at: http://alphahistory.com/holocaust/julius-streicher-evidence-nuremberg-1946/#sthash.ngQ4KzJe.dpuf

49 posted on 02/13/2015 8:38:58 AM PST by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.)
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To: .45 Long Colt

Scratch an anti-Semite and you’ll find a misanthrope. But some never learn.


50 posted on 02/13/2015 8:39:21 AM PST by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Likewise, Catholics do not worship images.


51 posted on 02/13/2015 8:45:50 AM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Gamecock

He needs a hammer in his hand instead of a pen...


52 posted on 02/13/2015 8:49:49 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Gamecock
Nooooooooooooo!! Graven images..........ROFL!!!!
53 posted on 02/13/2015 8:53:03 AM PST by marshmallow
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To: Salvation
It it walks like a duck...


54 posted on 02/13/2015 8:53:48 AM PST by Gamecock (Joel Osteen is a minister of the Gospel like Captain Crunch is a Naval line officer.)
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To: Gamecock

These people are praying, not worshiping.


55 posted on 02/13/2015 8:54:59 AM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Salvation

Are they “praying” to Mary?


56 posted on 02/13/2015 9:04:34 AM PST by .45 Long Colt
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To: Salvation

Praying in the direction of a piece of carved rock.


57 posted on 02/13/2015 9:07:24 AM PST by Gamecock (Joel Osteen is a minister of the Gospel like Captain Crunch is a Naval line officer.)
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To: Blackyce
In general, I think you have a reasonable balanced explanation as opposed to the "cut and paste" crowd which simply has an axe to grind.

The younger Martin Luther, attempting to question and persuade, remains a giant figure in Christian thought. The older Martin Luther grew embittered and comfortable in the praises of men and negated a lot of the good he'd done earlier in life. He wasn't the only reformer to fall in this trap.

Just further evidence that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

58 posted on 02/13/2015 9:17:36 AM PST by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: LouAvul
and didn't want anyone other than "clergy" to possess Bibles

And why they didn't want the printing press invented. All those centuries of monks labouring away in the scriptorium to produce beautiful Bibles were meaningless, the Church should have just allowed laypeople to order a Bible from Amazon. They are so evil.

59 posted on 02/13/2015 9:18:41 AM PST by pbear8 (the Lord is my light and my salvation)
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To: Alex Murphy
I think the FRoman Catholic crowd is just jealous that this little guy isn't selling better:

Pope Francis Says He Would Definitely Baptize Aliens If They Asked Him To

60 posted on 02/13/2015 9:20:56 AM PST by Gamecock (Joel Osteen is a minister of the Gospel like Captain Crunch is a Naval line officer.)
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