MARTIN LUTHER AND THE FIRES OF REFORMATION
Chapter 3
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Martin Luther, the father of the movement which became the
Protestant Reformation, was born in 1483. He studied at the University of
Erfurt and planned to practice law. The sudden and premature death of a
friend, howeve, altered the course of his life, and he instead entered the
priesthood. In 1505 he became an Augustinian monk, a Roman Catholic priest
after the order of St. Augustine.
On May 2, 1507, Luther was prepared to offer his first mass.
He took his place before the altar and began to recite the introductory portion
of the mass until he came to the words, "We offer unto thee, the living, the
true, the eternal God." Later he said,
"At these words I was utterly stupefied and
terror-stricken. I thought to myself, 'With what tongue shall I address
such Majesty, seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of even an
earthly prince? Who am I, that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my
hands to the divine Majesty? The angels surround him. At his nod the
earth trembles. And shall I, a miserable little pygmy, say I want this, I
ask for that: For I am dust and ashes and full of sin and I am speaking to
the living, eternal and the true God."
Thus Luther's struggle with sin, guilt and the impending judgment
of a wrathful, vengeful God, which had driven him to the priesthood in the first
place, was much intensified. He once spent twenty consecutive hours on his
knees confessing his sins, and upon arising was still no less insecure in his
relationship to Christ.
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Whatever good works a man might do to save himself, these Luther
was resolved to perform. He laid upon himself vigils and prayers in excess
of those stipulated by the rule. He cast off the blankets permitted him
and nigh froze himself to death. But all such drastic measures gave no
sense of inner tranquility. The purpose of his striving was to compensate
for his sins, but he could never feel that the ledger was balanced. The
trouble was that he could not satisfy God at any point.
Once he was climbing Pilate's stairs on hands and knees repeating a
pater Noster for each one and kissing each step for good measure in the hope of
delivering a soul from purgatory. Luther regretted that his own father and
mother were not yet dead and in purgatory so that he might confer on them so
great a blessings. The stairs were climbed, the Pater Nosters were
repeated, the steps were kissed. At the top Luther raised himself and
exclaimed, "Who knows whether it is so?"
Luther probed every resource of contemporary Catholicism for
assuaging the anguish of a spirit alienated from God. He tried the way of
good works and discovered that he could never do enough to save himself.
He endeavored to avail himself of the merits of the saints and ended with a
doubt sufficient to destroy what little hope he had.
He began reading the Scriptures for the first time in his
life. As his knowledge of the Word grew, he began to teach the other monks
in the monastery. He taught and preached on the Psalms, the Book of
Romans, and the Book of Galatians. The only Scripture text he had access
to, or was even aware of, was the corrupt Latin Vulgate.
Through the providential hand of God, Luther acquired a copy of
erasmus' Greek-Latin New Testament. In 1516 erasmus had produced the first
non-Latin printed Scriptures in the world, his parallel Greek-Latin New
Testament. The Latin of erasmus was not Jerome's Vulgate, but a
translation of six or seven partial Greek New Testaments which he had collated
into one.
Although Luther could not read Greek, he could read
Erasmus'...
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Latin. Immediately he saw the corruption of Jerome's Vulgate,
revised repeatedly over the centuries to support the doctrines of the
Church. For the first time he read Matthew 4:17 where the Lord Jesus
preached repentance, not penance, as the Vulgate stated. Luther's
understanding of the language was sufficient that he now knew that God
instructed lost sinners to "repent," that is to have a "change of heart."
Penance, which amounted to payment for sins, prescribed penalties for sins, and
often, self-inflicted punishment for sins, was not a Scriptural
teaching.
Paul's admonition in Romans 1:17, "The just shall live by faith,"
pierced Luther's heart. In Habakkuk 2:4 the same truth is rendered, "The
just shall live by his faith," that is, by God's
faith. Luther was converted to Christ by the New Testament doctrine of
justification by grace through faith in the writings of the apostle
Paul.
Luther defined faith as, "Acting on the promises of God." He
said, "Faith is a living, restless things. It cannot be inoperative.
We are not saved by works; but if there be no works, there must be something
amiss with faith."
His heart became burdened to produce Erasmus' Bible into the native
tongue of his precious German people. I was Luther who first said, "Sola
Scriptura," "only the Scripture." John Eck, a professor from the
University of Ingolstadt, debated Luther and his "heretical" doctrines at
Leipzig. Eck charged, "I see that you are following the damned and
pestiferous errors of John Wycliffe, who siad, 'It is not necessary for
salvation to believe that the Roman Church is above all others.' And you
are espousing the pestilent errors of John Hus, who claimed that Peter neither
was nor is the head of the Holy Catholic Church." Luther's
reply--
"No believing Christian can be coerced beyond holy writ.
By divine law we are forbidden to believe anything which is not established by
divine Scripture or manifest revelation. As for the article of Hus that it
is not necessary for salvation to believe the Roman Church superior to all
others' I do not care whether this comes from Wycliffe or...
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from Hus. I know that innumerable Greeks have been saved
though they never heard this article. It is not in the power of the Roman
pontiff or of the Inquisition to construct new articles of faith. The true
Christian pilgrimage is not to Rome, but to the prophets, the Psalms, and the
Gospels."
On October 31, 1517, Luther nailed his now famous Ninety-five
Theses to the door of the Wittenberg church. It began as a peaceful
challenge to the selling of indulgences but shortly ignited one of the greatest
religious movements in history. The dominance of the catholic Church was
formally challenged for the first time. In his Theses, Luther attacked the
greed and avarice found in the Church, as well as the false teaching that men
could buy their way into heaven. Luther ended by stating that Christ was
the only source of salvation from hell, and that all men should cast their hope
upon him. It is no wonder that these and other charges were not taken well
by the Catholic authorities.
The prelude to Luther's Theses read this way: "Out of love and zeal
for truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following theses will be
publicly discussed at Wittenberg under the chairmanship of the Reverend Father
Martin Luther, master of Arts and Sacred Theology and regularly appointed
Lecturer on these subjects at that place. He requests that those who
cannot be present to debate orally with us will do so by letter."
There never was a debate, for no one responded to the
invitation.
The following excerpts are from Martin Luther's Ninety-five
Theses:
X. Those priests act
ignorantly and wickedly who, in the case of the dying, reserve canonical
penalties for purgatory.
XXI. Those indulgence preachers are in error who
say that a man is absolved from every penalty and saved by papal
indulgences.
XXVII. They preach only human doctrines who say that as
soon...
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as the money clinks into the money chest, the sould flies out of
purgatory.
XXXII. Those who believe that they can be certain of
their salvation because they have indulgence letters will be eterally damned,
together with their teachers.
XXXVI. Any truly repentant Christian has a right to full
remission of penalty and guilt, even without indulgence letter.
XLIII. Christians are to be taught that he who
gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better deed than he who buys
indulgences.
XLV. Christians are to be taught that
he who sees a needy man and passes him by, yet gives his money for indulgences,
does not buy papal indulgences but God's wrath.
LIII. They are enemies of
Christ who forbid altogether the preaching of the Word of god in some churches
in order that indulgences may be preached.
LIV. Injury is done the Word
of God when, in the same sermon, and equal or larger amount of time is devoted
to indulgences than to the Word.
LXXII. Let him who guards against the lust and
license of the indulgence preachers be blessed.
LXXXII. Why does not the pope empty purgatory for the
sake of holy love and the dire need of the souls that are there if he redeems an
infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a
Church?
KXXXIII. Why are funeral and anniversary masses for the dead
continued and why does he not return or permit the withdrawal of the endowments
founded for them, since it is wrong to pray for the redeemed?
LXXXIV. What is this new piety of God and the pope that
for a consideration of money they permit a man who is impious and their enemy to
buy out of purgatory the pious soul of a friend of God and do not rather,
because of the need of that pious and beloved soul, free it for pure love's
sake?
LXXXVI. Why does not the pope, whose wealth is today
greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of Saint
Peter with his own money rather...
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than with the money of poor believers? (Marcus Licinius
Crassus lived from 115-53 BC. He was noted for his wealth and luxury by
the classical Romans.)"
In the ensuing written rebuttals between Luther and Rome, the
flames of propsition were fiercely fanned. Luther wrote to the
pope,
"Peter said that you should give a reason for the faith that is
in you, but you condemn me from your own word without any proof from Scripture,
whereas I back up all my assertions from the Bible. I ask thee, ignorant
antichrist, dost thou think that with thy naked words thou canst prevail against
the armor of Scripture?
"The wrath of God is coming upon the papists, the enemies of
the cross of Christ, that al men should resist them. You then, Leo X, you
cardinals and the est of you at Rome, I tell you to your faces: I call
upon you to renounce your diabolical blasphemy and audacious impiety, and, if
you will not, we shall all hold your seat as possessed and oppressed by Satan,
the damned seat of Antichrist, in the name of Jesus Christ, whom you
persecute.
"It is better that I should die a thousand times than that I
should retract one syllable of the condemned articles. And as they
excommunicated me for the sacrilege of heresy, so I excommunicate them in the
name of the sacred truth of God. Christ will judge whose
excommunication will stand. Amen."
Luther's sermons and tracts had spread not only across Germany but
also across international boundaries. Hundreds of copies made their way to
France and Spain. Many were circulated in England. Zwingli, the
Swiss reformer, brought several hundred to Switzerland. In Rome itself,
disciples of Luther were spreading his tracts under the shadow of the
Vatican.
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On November 12, 1520, Luther's books were burned in a massive
bonfire at Cologne. Ulrich von Hutten wrote this peom and circulated it in
both Latin and German:
O God, Luther's books they burn.
Thy godly truth is slain in turn.
Pardon in advance is sold,
And heaven marketed for gold.
On December tenth of the same year, Luther hosted his own bonfire,
reducing the pope's writings to cinders. He said,
"I will not be reconciled nor communicate with them. They
damn and burn my books. Unless I am unable to get hold of a fire, I will
publicly turn the whole canon law. Since they have burned my books, I burn
theirs. The whole canon law was included because it makes the pope a god
on earth. Seldom has a pope overcome anyone with Scripture and with
reason."
In March of 1521, Luther's books were outlawed and condemned.
On the sixth of May, Luther was charged with attacking the seven sacraments
after the manner of the "damned Bohemians."
The final draft of the Edict of Worms, the Church's official
judgment against Martin Luther, was worded as follows:
"He has sullied marriage, disparaged confession, and denied the
body and blood of our Lord. He makes the sacraments depend on the faith of
the recipient. This devil in the habit of a monk has brought together
ancient errors into one stinking puddle and has invented new ones. He
denies the power of the keys and encourages the laity to wash their hands in the
cblook of the clergy. His teaching makes for rebellion, division, war,
murder, robbery, arson, and the collapse of Christendom. He recognizes
only the authority of Scripture, which he interprets in his own
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sense. Luther is to be regarded as a convicted
heretic. No one is to harbor him. His followers also are to be
condemned. His books are to be eradicated from the memory of
man."
Frederick the Wise, Elector of Germany, was at least non-combative
if not sympathetic to the cause of Luther. Pope Hadrian scathed him with
the following letter:
"Our predecessors exhorted you to desist from corrupting the
Christian faith through Martin Luther, but the trumpet has sounded in
vain. We have you to thank that the Churches are without people, the
people are without priests, the priests without honor, and the Christians
without Christ. The veil of the temple is rent. Be not beguiled
because Martin Luther appeals to Scripture. So does every heretic, but
Scripture is a book sealed with the seven seals which cannot be so well opened
by one carnal man as by all the holy saints. This robber of Churches
incites the people to smash images and break crosses. He has rejected the
sacraments and rejects the daily celebration of the mass. He has commited
the decretals of the holy Fathers to the flames. Separate yourself from
Martin Luther and put muzzle on his blasphemous tongue. If you
refuse, then in the name of Almighty God and Jesus Christ our Lord, whom we
represent on earth, we tell you that you will not escape punishment on earth and
eternal fire hereafter."
Luther responded in his own defense with a tract entitled
Assertion of All the Articles Wrongly Condemned in the Roman Bull.
Number 18 of the condemned articles stated that indulgences are the pious
defrauding of the faithful. Luther commented: "I was wrong, I admit it,
when I said that indulgences were the pious defrauding of the faithful. I
recant and say indulgences are the most impious frauds and imposters of the
most...
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rascally pontiffs, by which they deceive the souls and destroy the
goods of the faithful."
Proposition 29 condemned Luther's views that certain articles of
John Hus were most Christian, true and evangelical, which the universal church
could not condemn. Luther's reply?
"I was wrong. I retract the statement that certain
articles of John Hus are evangelical. I say now, not some but all the
articles of John Hus were condemned by Antichrist and his apostles in the
synagogue of Satan. And to your face, most holy Vicar of God, I say freely
that all the condemned articles of John Hus are evangelical and Christian,
and yours are downright impious and diabolical."
Luther was summoned to appear before the Roman Catholic tribunal at
Worms and pressured to recant and renounce his "heretical teachings," especially
the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
Luther's friends tried to convince him not to acquiense to the
demands of the papists. They knew he would be walking into an ambush that
would cost him his life. He responded,
"I will go even if I am to sick to stand on my feet. If
violence is used, as well it may be, I commend my cause to God. He lives
and reigns who saved the three youths from the fiery furnace of the king
of Babylon, and if He will not save me, my head is worth nothing compared with
Christ. This is no time to think of safety. I must take care that
the gospel is not brought into contempt by our fear to confess and seal our
teaching with our blood.
"This is not the time to cringe, but to cry aloud when our Lord
Jesus Christ is damned, reviled, and blasphemed."
Where can we find such boldness, such determination, such love for
truth and for right in our generation? I am afraid there is a severe
shortage of MartinLuthers, even in our fundamental, Bible-believing ranks.
We have enough cowards. We have enough...
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compromisers. We have enough "men of God" who choose to bow
to the pressures of the world. But where are the Martin Luthers of our
day? Where are those steely-backboned preachers who would "seal our
teaching with our blood"?
Luther continued:
"I will reply to the emperor that if I am being invited simply
to recant I will not come. If to recant is all that is wanted, I can do
that perfectly well right here. But if he is inviting me to my death, then
I will come. I hope none but the papists will stain their hands in my
blood. Antichrist reigns. The Lord's will be
done.
"This shall be my recantation at Worms: 'Previously I
said the pope is the vicar of Christ. I recant. Now I say that the
pope is the adversary of Christ and the apostle of the devil. I will enter
Worms under the banner of Christ against the gates of
hell.'"
At Worms, before an overwhelmingly hostile audience, Luther was
challenged on his "heresies." In his defense, he stated, "I am being
judged, not on my life, but for the teachings of Christ, and I cannot renounce
these works. Why may not a worm like me ask to be vonvicted of error from
the prophets and the Gospels? If I am shown my error, I will be the first
to throw my books into the fire."
His interrogator, John Eck, fumed,
"Your plea to be heard from Scripture is the one always made by
heretics. You do nothing but renew the errors of Wycliffe and Hus.
Martin, how can you assume that you are the only one to understand the sense of
Scripture? You have no right to call into question the most holy orthodox
faith, instituted by Christ, which now we are forbidden by the pope and the
emperor to discuss lest there be no end of debate."
Then Martin Luther uttered his now famous reply,
"My...
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conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will
not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor
safe. Here I stand. God help me. Amen."
Luther was resolved within himself that he would be taken out and
burned to death, but he was kidnapped by his friends to rescue him from the
angry, frenzied mob.
He was hidden away in the dungeon of Prince Frederick's
castle. His monk's garb was discarded. He dressed as a knight and
grew a long beard. Luther later commented, "I did not want to go
there. I wanted to be in the fray. I had rather burn on live coals
than rot in that dungeon."
But God had another purpose in mind for his hiatus in the castle
dungeon, and Luther's German New Testament was translated in ninety days during
his stay at Prince Frederick's castle.
Luther used Erasmus' Greek-Latin New Testament and the Waldensian
Bible, the Bible of the anabaptists, in his translation work. Erasmus'
work is part of those manuscripts known as the Textus Receptus, the Received
Text. This family of manuscripts accounts for more than ninety percent of
all extant Greek manuscripts, more than five thousand strong, and is the basis
of the New Testament of the King James Bible.
Luther was no real friend of the Baptist people of his day, nor was
he in any way sympathetic to the Baptist cause, but ironically, when it came
time to translate the Bible into the German language, he relied on the
anabaptist text.
It was said of the Baptists in Luther's day,"
"They took the sermon on the Mount as a literal code of conduct
for all Christians, and renounced reveling and drunkenness. Simplicity and
temperance marked their communities. They believed the church should
consist only of ht twice-born. The church shoud rest on regeneration,
symbolized by baptism in the mature years. Every member should be a
priest, minister, and missionary, prepared to embark on evangelical
tours."
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In other words, the Baptists of the early sixteenth century
believed in a saved and Scripturally baptized church membership,
consecrated, separated, clean living, and that every member of the church
shoould be a soulwinner. I guess I would have fit in back then. What
about you?
A Lutheran minister in 1429 wrote of the Baptists, "They went in
among the poor, appeared very lowly, prayed much, read from the gospels, talked
especially about the outward life and good works, about helping the neighbor,
giving and lending, and living with all as brothers and sisters." Do you
suppose that if those outside our ranks looked in and saw what that utheran
minister saw we might have a greater influence on our society and a greater
impact for the Lord Jesus Christ?
In 1527 Luther wrote of the faate of Baptist people, "I am deeply
troubled that the poor people are so pitifully put to death, burned, and cruelly
slain."
In September of 1522 Luther's New Testament was printed. His
completed Bible, containing Old and New Testaments, was first printed in
1530. The desire of Luther's heart, to publish a Bible in the language of
the people, had come to fruition. Luther stated,
"Let the Scriptures be put into the hands of evrybody: let
everyone interpret them for himself, according to the light he has; let there be
private judgment; let spiritual liberty be revived, as in Apostolic days.
Then only will the people be emancipated from the Middle Ages, and arise in
their power and majesty, and obey the voice of enlightened conscience, and be
true to their convictions, and practice the virtues which Christianity commands,
and obey God rather than men."
The lollards helped Luther smuggle his forbidden Bibles and tracts
into England and other countries in Europe.
Luther's Bible was richly illustrated. In the various
editions to appear during his lifetime there were some five hundred
woodcuts.
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The illustrations for the Book of Revelation were made all too
contemporary. The temptation was too strong to identify the pope with
Antichrist. In the first edition of the New Testament in September 1522,
the scarlet woman sitting on the seven hills wore the papal tiara. So also
did the great dragon. The beast out of the abyss had a monk's cowl.
Fallen Babylon was plainly Rome.
In December 1522 the tiaras in the woodcuts were chisled down to
innocuous crowns of a single layer, but other details were left unchanged and
attracted so little notice that Emser, Luther's Catholic opponent, actually
borrowed the woodcuts to illustrate his own Bible. In the completed
edition of 1534, the woodcuts were done over and the papal tiaras were
restored.
Martin Luther literally advanced and shaped the German language,
and produced a Bible with majesty of diction and religious profundity. The
Luther German Bible is still considered the preserved Word of God for the
German-speaking world. It was produced from the same reliable text as the
King James Bible.
Luther commented, "I endeavored to make Moses so German no one
would suspect he was a Jew."
Martin Luther exhibited the kind of fire and Biblical insight that
would do a lot of fundamental Baptists good in our generation. He
said,
"I am much afraid that schools will prove to be the great gates
of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures,
engraving them in the hearts of youth. "I advise no one to place his child
where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which
men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God must become
corrupt."
He also reasoned,
"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition
every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the
world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ,
however boldly I...
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may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there
the loyalty of the soldier is proved and to be stead on all the battlefield
besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that one
point."
God give us a whole generation of independent, fundamental Baptist
"Martin Luthers."
