Posted on 10/18/2008 8:20:43 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
A few weeks ago, in the historic Castle Church of Wittenberg in Saxony, Lutherans from all over the world opened the “Luther Decade,” celebrations that coincide with Martin Luther’s (1483-1546) arrival in Wittenberg 500 years ago in 1508 and commemorate the achievement and global significance of the German reformer. Nine years later, on 31 October 1517, Luther not only castigated the abuses of indulgence sellers with his “95 theses” but also offered a new understanding of what it meant to be a Christian. Ushering in the modern age, Luther held that the individual, not the institutional church, stood at the center of God’s relationship with humankind.
According to his friend Philipp Melanchthon, Luther posted his sharply profiled theological arguments on the door of that same Castle Church. This signal event in Luther’s life took place while he lectured as a brilliant interpreter of the Bible in Wittenberg University, living together with other monks in the local Augustinian monastery and serving as pastor and father confessor in local churches.
Wittenberg and its university were places of pride for the leader of Electoral Saxony, Prince Frederick the Wise. This Saxon ruler also protected Luther and kept him alive during the early and uncertain years of the Reformation, enabling the movement for reform to gain momentum.
New Religious Insight
I visited Wittenberg shortly after the reunification of Germany and saw the monastery in which the reformer lived together with his wife Katharina von Bora, a former nun, and their family. The city still exhibited the drab grey colour into which all East German cities and villages appeared to be dipped during the Communist period. Earlier, in that monastery, Luther had experienced his so-called “breakthrough,” the insight that individuals could not be saved by their own merits but only by the grace of God.
Meditating on a passage in the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Romans, “The righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith,” Luther finally made the connection between faith, grace, and justification and found an answer to his troubling question: How could he, a sinner, ever be accepted by God? Up to that point, Luther had seen God’s righteousness as a punishing judgment of sinners. Now he read the text of Paul in an entirely different light as a hopeful answer to a very personal problem, that righteousness was a gift of God “by which the merciful God justifies us through faith.”
This new understanding of God’s acceptance of the sinner through the gift of his grace changed for Luther the whole face of Scripture and set the Reformation in motion. Luther would remain in Wittenberg even after his defiant stand before emperor and nobles at the Diet of Worms and subsequent seclusion in the Wartburg castle, where he also translated the New Testament into German.
Fallible Individual
Although Luther became a global icon of Protestantism and in recent years has once more won recognition as the “most famous German,” his work and persona are not without dark shadows. Luther remained a thoroughly fallible individual, whose advice to princes and lords was not always without guile. His intemperate, even hateful language against Jews provided some of the building blocks of 19th- and 20th-century anti-Semitism. Any appreciation of Luther has to recognize these limitations and failures. That there remains enough worth celebrating is demonstrated by the recent commemorative events.
Newfoundland Lutherans
In Newfoundland, Lutherans have never been a strong presence. An organized Lutheran congregation existed in St. John’s from 1956 to 1976, composed primarily of Latvians and Germans, most of whom had followed Joey Smallwood’s beckoning call to save the province economically through industrialization. The controversial figure of Alfred Valdmanis, Smallwood’s director general of economic development, was a driving force behind the early Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Saint John’s. The congregation erected a modern A-frame church building on Logy Bay Road that closed its doors in 1976 and is now the home of the Vera Perlin Society.
NO I just do not go out to ancient graveyards to dig up flesh remains to point ugly fingers as causation. Remember what Christ said to Peter it applies to each and every one of US even to this day. YOUR church was NOT even in the Yellow Book when Christ exhorted Peter.
“NO I just do not go out to ancient graveyards to dig up flesh remains to point ugly fingers as causation.”
Good ol’ Vickster, the Lutheran “Bishop’ is alive and teaching sin today. Just like the founder of his heretical sect did centuries ago.
And he has much company from many denominations hailing in the name of Christ.... And you have earned NO right to JUDGE Luther. That is the business of our Heavenly Father..... Might say clean out your own nest of Pelosi, Kennedy, etc., etc., etc., before you jute out that finger of accusation. These have far more standing in your church of Rome than little old me a nobody in your churches eyes.
He has much company, none of it in the actual teaching of Our Lord though. When faced with a choice, I choose the Church Our Lord gave us rather than the heretical sects Lucifer has placed in front of us.
As for seeing the truth that false prophets like Luther are evil, well that is called discernment. Judgment is the province of God, discernment is Gift He gives to His Elect.
Paul says the 'elect' were chosen before the foundation of this world.... Ephesians 1:4 According as He hath chosen us in Him BEFORE the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love:
Now that would have been before that 'soul' was breathed into that man called the Adam. And Luther was not singled out to be a follower of the devil anywhere or the causation of devil worship. Oh and I am not a Lutheran just so you know.
“And Luther was not singled out to be a follower of the devil anywhere or the causation of devil worship.”
You know this how? Luther exhorted men to sin, to kill, to be bigamists.
“Oh and I am not a Lutheran just so you know.”
OK. What creed do you profess?
What creed did Christ profess? John 1:1 In the beginning (Genesis 1:1) was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Can't find a flesh anointed creed given.
So you are a Uniterian? A Mormon?
I do not know about Unitarian and learned what I do know about Mormons via the Romney presidential run. I am Christian, Christ said it I believe. I have lost the need for a denominational stamp of approval.... IF God is the WORD then I have NO problem making that WORD my focus. Becomes easier to deal with Luther bashing as though he was the devil incarnate of his time. I am sure there was not much glee in religious circles when King James decided the commoners had the right to read the Written Word in his day.
Many Jews thought that Jesus was going to create a kingdom for the Jews on Earth. Jesus clearly was fighting for a heavenly kingdom.
In 1525, many peasants thought that Luther was leading a social transformation to overthrow the tyranny of the lords and the church. Luther transformation was also a spiritual one.
Great point. Not too many people realize that the papacy in the middle ages had little regard for the spiritual welfare of the peasants. Rather, the papacy was engaged in a battle for control of Christendom. Luther brought Christ to the masses.
Luther freed Christendom from the spiritual tyranny of Rome and the papacy. I don't understand the reality of the damage he has done today. Please explain.
I have pinged you to the Fruit of the Lutherian heresies.
Sensible only to those that believe in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Satan has no domain over sinners who believe. I'll bet you've never had the joy of telling the devil to go to hell or to go f-ck himself. I'll bet that you are trying to be the perfect Christian.
Not too many people realize that the papacy in the middle ages had little regard for the spiritual welfare of the peasants.What Luther thought of the masses:
“As to the common people, ... one has to be hard with them and see that they do their work and that under the threat of the sword and the law they comply with the observance of piety, just as you chain up wild beasts.”
“bet you’ve never had the joy of telling the devil to go to hell or to go f-ck himself.”
So Luther suggesting that:
“Sin cannot tear you away from him [Christ], even though you commit adultery a hundred times a day and commit as many murders.”
That is an opinion you embrace?
Keep pinging. Knowing that I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (without having an intermediary, be it a priest or the Virgin Mary) is a great joy. Knowing that I will not have to buy indulgences to keep from spending time in purgatory means that I can use my resources to help fellow human beings, and maybe spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a few. Knowing that faith alone saves me provides great peace of mind, and empowers me to do Christ's work.
It is an opinion I embrace. No matter what sin I commit, Christ's love for me is so great, and his domain over the devil is so powerful, that there is nothing I can do keep me from Christ. The flip side too, is that there is nothing I can do on my own to bring myself to Christ. It is faith alone that saves.
“Knowing that I will not have to buy indulgences to keep from spending time in purgatory ...”
LOL, as a Catholic I know that same thing. The lies people are taught about the Church are amazing.
Do you believe, ““Sin cannot tear you away from him [Christ], even though you commit adultery a hundred times a day and commit as many murders.””
As Luther taught?
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