Protestant Christmas services are so wonderful. Each denomination varies in how they do it of course, but as someone who’s attended non-denominational and Pentecostal churches, I do think those ones are particularly nice. They capture both the humbleness and the awe of a Savior born to commoners in a manger. The simple service of a joyful sermon, seeing the lights and tree, seeing everyone’s face shine with happiness is so good and just makes your soul lift. I think fancy services just tend to miss the point entirely. I love that most Protestant churches really get the beauty of Jesus’ birth in their culture.
Like most places, America has always had potent strains of anti-Semitism - crude and polished, K.K.K. and country club. But unlike many places, we have always had important strains of philo-Semitism as well; there is a long American tradition, with both Protestant and Enlightenment roots, of really liking Judaism and the Jews.
<“SOLA SCRIPTURA” IN SCRIPTURAM NON EST> is Latin for LUTHER IS WRONG
So do you wanna maybe explain how “scripture alone” makes Martin Luther wrong? Just because a common saying he used isn’t found in scripture, doesn’t make any of his teachings less valid. He specifically said that if you could prove him wrong with anything in scripture then he would not recant anything he said. You also can’t just isolate a part of his saying to try to discredit him, because it didn’t stop with just “sola scriptura”, it’s “sola fide, sola gratia, sola scriptural, solus Christus” or “faith alone, grace alone, scripture alone, Christ alone.” Luther never said it was JUST by scripture that we are saved. even then, if we look at just the argument you’re giving, It is stated many times in the Bible that faith (of which we have in Christ) comes from hearing the word of Christ. Which is scripture. (See Romans 10:17, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, John 20:30-31)
You may disagree with Luther on some of his ideas, but it doesn’t mean he’s wrong, especially since he left the Catholic Church because he believed them to be straying to far from what scripture said. You can read more on the disagreements that he and Philip Melanchthon had with the Catholic Church, supported by scripture, in the Augsburg Confession and it’s apology, which can be found here: http://bookofconcord.org/augsburgconfession.php
“One man, Martin Luther, took a stand that literally shredded the fabric of Europe. It changed theology, it changed politics, it changed society and it changed political boundaries. It gave us a revolution in education, in literacy. There are many, many manifestations of the Reformation.”
—Tom Rassieur, curator, “Martin Luther: Art and the Reformation”
