Thursday, January 7, 2021

Luther on Civil Rulers

“For God the Almighty has made our rulers mad; they actually think they can do – and order their subjects to do – whatever they please.  And the subjects make the mistake of believing that they, in turn, are bound to obey their rulers in everything.  It has gone so far that rulers have begun ordering the people to get rid of books, and to believe and conform to what the rulers prescribe.  They are thereby presumptuously setting themselves in God’s place, lording it over men’s consciences and faith, and schooling the Holy Spirit according to their own crackbrained ideas.”

-- Martin Luther, excerpt from his tract Temporal Authority: To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed, in Luther’s Works, vol. 45, pp. 83-84.

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