Commentaries and Podcasts

Martin Luther, in Life and Death, Part 8: Politics and Religion Must Mix

Studying Medieval European history is like untying a bundle of knots, and you have to untie one before you can get to the next. But then every so often you get one that can't be undone, so you are forced to cut the rope because there are some knots that can never be untied. The Protestant Reformation was not only religious, but it was also political. We can discuss all of the religious principals, but it is absolutely naive to think that the princes of Germany joined the Reformation because of those principles alone. Rather, politics is much more responsible for the success of the Reformation than religion. We can understand a lot of the politics, but because the sinister forces that had driven some of the players were successful at remaining in the shadows, there are always going to be some things which we cannot truly understand.

A backdrop to Luther's Reformation were the Italian Wars which spanned over 60 years and most of Luther's life. Involved at diverse times were the French, the Spanish, the Austrians, the Germans, the Popes, the Republic of Venice, and even the English and the Scots. These wars began as disputes over Naples and Milan, resulted in several invasions of Italy, and continued as struggles for control between the royal houses all over Europe. They were marked by alliances, counter-alliances, and betrayals no different than those which we have seen in the World Wars of the twentieth century. In the meantime the Austrians and the Venetians were fighting the Turks on other fronts. At one point in the wars, the French, who under Charles VIII had originally sought to use Naples as a base for the war against the Turks, had under Francis I been so treacherous as to ally themselves with the Turks, and allowed the Ottomans to use Toulon as a winter port for the alien fleets. As a result, over thirty thousand Muslims had occupied the city for about eight months, as Christians kidnapped from the coasts were being sold as slaves in its streets.

The introduction for this program employed information found at Clifton Emahiser's website here: Early Celtic Church Taught Physical Seduction Of Eve!! and here: Early Church Era On Two Seedline

Two-Seedline Christian Identity teachings are found in some of the earliest writings of the Church Fathers. But it is the greatest of Biblical Truths and therefore the most oppressed and persecuted. Ultimately, the attitudes of the Alexandrian universalists prevailed because they were the most useul for both the Jews and the Roman Imperialists.

The following are William Finck's notes for the program:

A brief discussion of the universalist poison of Clement, Origen and Eusebius

Clement of Alexandria misused the phrase “brood of vipers” in Book 1 Chapter 11 of The Instructor (Paedagogus) and in Book 4 chapter 16 of The Stromata. Then in his Exhortation to the Heathen, Chapter 1, ascertained that one could go from being of the “brood of vipers” to being a man of God by accepting Christ:

Again, therefore, some venomous and false hypocrites, who plotted against righteousness, He once called “a brood of vipers.” But if one of those serpents even is willing to repent, and follows the Word, he becomes a man of God.

The universalist position of Scripture was expressed by Clement of Alexandria, and after him it was continued by his student Origen, another Alexandrian, and then by Eusebius. By the time of Eusebius, it seems to be the only position he could imagine, although he neglected to mention at least some of his own theological opponents, such as Methodius of Olympus.

Martin Luther In Life and Death, Part 7: Luther and the Humanists.

Here we will continue our presentation of Martin Luther in Life and Death, and we are still in the portion of this endeavor which concerns Luther's life. This is the 7th installment of this series, and we hope to eventually present an understanding of the events relating to the Reformation up to the time of the Thirty Years' War. I do not know exactly why this took so long to get back to, because tonight is a culmination of what we presented over the first 6 segments, where the reason for presenting everything which we did in those segments should become manifest.

When we last discussed the life of Martin Luther, we talked at length about the indulgence dispute, and then about exchanges of letters which Luther had with certain of the Hussites, the followers of Jan Huss in Bohemia who had successfully broken away from the Roman Catholic Church. We saw that in 1519 Luther had been criticizing the Hussites for breaking from the Roman Catholic Church, but then in 1520 he began commending them. Luther's sudden admiration for the Hussites whom he had formerly criticized corresponds to his own change-of-heart and ambitions towards the Romish Church.

Here we conclude our presentation of Positive Christianity in the Third Reich by Professor D. Cajus Fabricius

Here we continue our presentation of Positive Christianity in the Third Reich by Professor D. Cajus Fabricius

The great deception of WW2 was to fool all Christians of the allied forces to fight for communism against the Christian armies of Germany and her Christian allies.

Here we continue our presentation of Positive Christianity in the Third Reich by Professor D. Cajus Fabricius

Here we continue our presentation of Positive Christianity in the Third Reich by Professor D. Cajus Fabricius

Here we continue our presentation of Positive Christianity in the Third Reich by Professor D. Cajus Fabricius

Here we continue our presentation of Positive Christianity in the Third Reich by Professor D. Cajus Fabricius

We apologize to our listeners for the technical difficulties that caused this program to be interrupted and abbreviated. The short program is just over 50 minutes long.