Posted on 06/30/2017 4:43:54 PM PDT by Gamecock
The year 2017 is the year of Martin Luther—or at least it should be. Nearly 500 years ago on October 31, 1517, Luther nailed (or “mailed,” for some historians debate this point) his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle Church.
Even so, Luther didn’t become a full-fledged protestor of the church in that single moment. It took him about eight years (1513-1521) to challenge and hammer out a more robust understanding of the gospel.
Have you ever wondered what Martin Luther was reading during this crucial time in his life? Maybe I’m just a nerd, but I thought at least someone else might be interested in what Luther was reading during his slow, but steady, transition out of the medieval church and into the world of reformation.
Remember, Luther’s goal wasn’t to invent or start an entirely new church. His goal was to reform the church and call her to repentance and faith in the abiding Word of God.
Here are four books Martin Luther read that made him question everything:
1. The Psalms Luther spent time studying and lecturing through the Psalms in the Bible. He began to realize that the Bible teaches we are not generally sinful, we are totally sinful. Here, Luther had the beginnings of what theologians later would refer to as “total depravity,” meaning that we are sinful in our thoughts, words, and deeds.
2. Romans After that, Luther lectured through Paul’s letter to the Romans. He came across Romans 1:17, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” The last part of this verse is a direct quotation from Habakkuk 2:4.
Luther began to see something that he never saw before. He began to see the doctrine of imputation—that we are declared right before God not by our own righteousness, but by the righteousness of another. He began to understand that the righteousness of God that was such a terror to him as a priest (because it told him that he was unholy and unworthy), was actually the righteousness from God that told him he was holy and worthy. God gives this right standing by faith alone. It is a righteousness that is received as a gift and not earned.
3. Galatians It wasn’t until Luther started lecturing through Galatians that he began to realize that faith does not justify us before God. Faith is merely an instrument that God uses. Faith is a tool by which we embrace Jesus Christ as he is offered to us in the gospel.
Faith is, as John Murry once said, “extrospective.” It looks outward—not inward—to embrace the God who gives himself. In other words, faith is only an empty hand. It justifies because it grabs hold of the Jesus who justifies (Rom. 3:26).
4. Hebrews The last book that turned a medieval priest into a true Reformer was the letter to the Hebrews. Luther began to embrace an entirely different understanding of how the Old and New Testaments relate to one another. He realized that the law is not simply the Old Testament and the gospel is the New Testament, but that the gospel of God can be seen as preached throughout both Old and New Testaments.
The same Jesus of the same gospel was offered freely to both Jew and Gentile alike, throughout the whole Bible. Sure, there was a greater and fuller proclamation of that message, such that it went out to the whole world instead of only Israel and their close neighbors—but the gospel was preached nonetheless!
In short, reading and studying the Bible is what ultimately made Martin Luther “protest” the medieval church. Luther was convinced that the Bible was worth listening to. So this year we celebrate the anniversary of a “recovery of the bright light of the gospel.” To God alone be all the glory (Soli Deo Gloria).
Which manner of adulation would constitute worship in Scripture, yet Catholics imagine that by playing word games then they can avoid crossing the invisible line between mere “veneration” and worship.
I believe you are also right about it starting while John was still alive.
For instance they will deny that they pray to Mary but i have never been to a Catholic Church so i don`t know.
I do believe that they call every priest father, which Jesus plainly said not to do, but they have a very poor excuse for that.
But i am capable of only one thing at a time.
1 Cor 4
14 I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.
15 For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
It appears to me that the Catholic`s came by calling the Church leaders father through Paul and not Peter.
The protestants are also very good at playing the word game so we need to look in both directions.
Yes, with Magic Thinking, the utterances of fools are deemed wisdom.
I do so enjoy your posts! Your remind me of an NFL referee ...
Bye bye!
Enjoy your “retreat!”
;^)
I'm appropriating this one, Vet!
May I ask why post 235 was removed, and if I may be allowed to rewrite it without the offending particle?
I consider it very important work.
Oh my! Is there any way to recover that post for my own use? I don’t seem to be able to access it through my cache.
Shoot...No replies again to this line of inquiry. Have you ever received an answer to this?
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No!
Yehudi means members of the tribe of Yehudah.
Jewish means followers of Phariseeism.
Phariseeism is a man made religion, just as Catholicism is.
Phariseeism was completely denounced by Yeshua during his ministry; in fact that was his ministry; to demolish the unbearable burden of phariseeism.
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Where does the Bible say any of what you claim, and how do you square your claim of “completely denounced” with Matthew 23:1-3?
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>> “All the speculation about some hidden strain of Protestantism that existed from the time of Christ...” <<
No, not Protestantism, as there was nothing to protest until the 4th century when Roman catholicism was invented by Eusebius and Constantine.
It was the faith of the Netzer, Yeshua: the Netzerim.
That is what is plainly described in The Acts. They carefully, and completely followed Torah, and sought to teach it to the new Hebrew believers that had been separated from the true worship for centuries.
Literally everything in The Acts is Torah centered. That is the faith of Yeshua.
That is what the apostles taught, and the total reason John penned his first epistle.
Protestantism is just catholics protesting catholicism. They’re both man made at their foundation.
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The entirety of Matthew 23 is a complete denunciation of all that the Pharisees did and taught.
Just count the “woes.”
Verse 3, in the original Hebrew reads “ All therefore whatsoever He (referring to Moses) bids you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after the pharisees’ works: for they say, and do not.”
The remainder of the chapter makes that crystal clear.
Also, note that every miracle that is recorded in the gospels directly violated one of the chosen Takanot of the pharisees. That is not an accident.
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Did you wake up yet?
Your post simply reinforces mine.
The word “Jew” is centuries post-biblical, and grounded in ignorance.
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That’s a lot to assert with no supporting documentation.
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The Book of Matthew is not documentation?
Your vacuous denial is comical.
You could try actually reading it.
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I can go along with all they did, but all they taught is directly contradicting Christ.
1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, 2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: 3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, [that] observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
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Pardon me, I thought you were responding to a different post.
Try reading the Acts. Is there anything in it that is not Torah?
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Oh, I have no problem reading it; it's the reading INTO it I have trouble with....
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