Martin Luther and Bilge Water

"bilge water"

by
Dean Gotcher

Aristotle "teaches nothing other than that virtue is acquired by works, saying, 'By doing good we become good.' The Christian conscience curses this statement as bilge water of hell and says, 'By believing in a Christ who is good, I, even I, am made good: his goodness is mine also, for it is a gift from him and is not my work.' To sum up, in this you see the theology of all the schools condemned, speculative as well as practical, because they teach not Christ but human wisdom, which on their own admission they allege even creates the faith they call acquired faith. Woe to these lost and dreadful men of Sodom and Gomorrah!" "I greatly fear that the universities, unless they teach the Holy Scriptures diligently and impress them on the young students, are wide gates to hell." "I would advise no one to send his child where the Holy Scriptures are not supreme. Every institution that does not unceasingly pursue the study of God's word becomes corrupt." (Luther's Works: Vol. 44, The Christian in Society)

"We do not become righteous by doing righteous deeds but, having been made righteous, we do righteous deeds." "Thomas [Aquinas] wrote a great deal of heresy, and is responsible for the reign of Aristotle, the destroyer of godly doctrine." "Virtually the entire Ethics of Aristotle is the worst enemy of grace." "Miserable Christians, whose words and faith still depend on the interpretations of men and who expect clarification from them! This is frivolous and ungodly. The Scriptures are common to all, and are clear enough in respect to what is necessary for salvation and are also obscure enough for inquiring minds ... let us reject the word of man." "The sophists have imposed tyranny and bondage upon our freedom to such a point that we must not resist that twice accursed Aristotle, but are compelled to submit. Shall we therefore be perpetually enslaved and never breath in Christian liberty, nor sigh from out of this Babylon for our scriptures and our home?" "The sophists, nevertheless, rise proudly up, hold their ears, close their eyes, and turn away their heart just so that they may fill all ears with their human words, and alone may occupy the stage so that no one will bark against their assertion[s] ... The word of man is sacred and to be venerated, but God's word is handed over to whores ... the meaning of sin ... is dependent on the arbitrary choice of the sophists." "This theologian of glory, however, learns from Aristotle that the object of the will is the good and the good is worthy to be loved, while the evil, on the other hand, is worthy to hate." "... with the assistance of the mastermind Aristotle, they (Papal Church) decree further that the soul is "essentially the form of the human body" [which] make[s] it possible for them to hold fast to the human dreams and the doctrines of devils while they trample upon and destroy faith and the teaching of Christ." "It is just such a god that Aristotle, too, depicts for us, that is to say one who drowses (enjoying undisturbed blessedness in the contemplation of his own being) and lets all and sundry use and abuse his kindness and severity." "Here (Col. 2:8) it is clear that Paul wants Christ alone to be taught and heard. Who does not see how the universities read the Bible? ... it has been so bothersome to read and respond to this filth." "[P]hilosophy must be separated from theology. Philosophers and Aristotle are not able to understand or to define what the theological man is, but by the grace of God we are able to do it, because we have the Bible." "We say that philosophy knows nothing at all about man. Aristotle assumes a primum mobile or mover. Hence he concludes that all things are done by the prime mover with inner cooperation, and so dreams that the prime mover acts like a nursemaid who rocks the cradle of a child, yet admires herself. Thus Aristotle condemns us. In short, philosophers know nothing about God the creator and man made of a lump of earth. Augustine says that he found all things in the Platonic books except this one thing, that the Word was made flesh. But Hermese Trismegistus composed that book of Plato and pilfered it all from the Gospel of John. That book reached Augustine and he was deceived by its persuasion." [in his foot note concerning Tristmegistus, Luther writes: "Augustine has an extensive discussion of Trismegistus in the City of God"] (Luther's Works: Career of the Reformer)

Concerning Trismegistus: "That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above, corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of the One Thing." (The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, translated by Dennis W. Hauck) "The Hermetic tradition was both moderate and flexible, offering a tolerant philosophical religion, a religion of the (omnipresent) mind, a purified perception of God, the cosmos, and the self, and much positive encouragement for the spiritual seeker, all of which the student could take anywhere." (Tobias Churton The Golden Builders: Alchemists, Rosicrucian's, and the First Freemasons)