Posted on 10/31/2017 5:45:00 AM PDT by Gamecock
ith the advent of modern psychoanalysis, it’s become popular to evaluate the psyches of famous historical figures: people like Alexander the Great, Moses, Nero, and others. One of the favorite targets of study is Martin Luther. Erik Erikson, for example, emphasized that Martin Luther was not only neurotic, but psychotic as well. This accusation implies that one of our great heroes of the faith is one whose sanity is seriously questioned.
Why do some thinkers come to the conclusion that Martin Luther was a madman? To be fair, even a cursory glance at the readings of Luther reveal a man of tempestuous spirit, personal intensity, and profound passion. There are certain events in his life that seem not only strange, but at times even bizarre. We can understand, to some degree, why some people think Luther might not have been sane.
We know Luther was preoccupied with a foreboding sense of his own death, having predicted it at least six times falsely. We know also that Luther went through several peculiar episodes, such as his being knocked from his horse by lightning, which led him to become a monk. Some think this episode explains his neurosis or psychosis. We also know the story of his pilgrimage to Rome and his going through emotional turmoil in climbing the stairs of the Scala Sancta on his knees. We know of first experience in celebrating the Mass. When he came to the part when he had to say, “Hoc est corpus meum,” the words lodged in his throat. There was an awkward silence as his family and friends waited. Luther stood there quivering, unable to complete the saying. He was terrified of the thought that he was holding in his hands the transubstantiated body and blood of Christ. A strange experience indeed for a man of great poise and presence—but not enough to deem him insane.
Luther was also obstinate and single-minded in his debates with Johann Eck and Thomas Cajetan. These debates led to the confrontation at Worms, where Luther dared to defy the church on a major point of doctrine. We know how Hollywood portrays Luther’s stance at Worms. When he’s called upon to recant, Luther stands with his chest out and says: “Unless I am convinced by sacred Scripture or by evident reason, I shall not recant. For my conscience is held captive by the Word of God, and to act against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me.” He then jumps on his horse and rides off to start the Reformation.
Perhaps it happened like that, but have you ever read the prayer Luther wrote the night before that meeting? Do you remember what happened in his first encounter before the princes of the church and of the state? When they asked him to recant, he stood there meekly. He looked at the princes, and he said in a hesitant voice, “Could I have twenty-four hours to think it over?” They granted him this time. He went back to the privacy of his own chambers, and he composed a prayer. If ever a man was broken before God and experienced a sense of utter helplessness and loneliness against the forces of this world, it was Luther at that moment.
But even that moment isn’t why people think he was crazy. The biggest reason for questioning Luther’s sanity has to do with his period of intense scrupulosity in the confessional. It was customary and required of the young monks of the monastery to go through daily confession. As a matter of prescribed procedure, the monks would come into the confessional in the morning, and they would confess the sins of the last twenty-four hours, receive the absolution of the priest, and go about the day’s labors. This would typically take each monk two or three minutes.
Not Luther. He would go into the confessional and recite the previous day’s sins not for five minutes, but for two hours, three hours, sometimes even four hours—reciting in detail every sin he could remember. Luther felt the imminent wrath and judgment of God. If it was crazy to feel this imminence, then Luther was undoubtedly a crazy man. He would come back from the confessional tormented after spending hours confessing his sins. As soon as he got back to his room, he would remember a sin he had forgotten to confess. This is a neurotic preoccupation with guilt, and so they say Luther was crazy. But was he really?
One of the things about Luther that’s often overlooked is that before the episode of his being knocked from his horse, Luther had already distinguished himself as one of the most brilliant students of law in all of Europe. His father was furious when Luther left a promising career in law to waste his life on religion. The keen analytical ability of Luther’s mind in understanding the demands of law were applied to Scripture.
Luther’s logic worked like this: “If the great commandment is to love God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and your neighbor as much as yourself, then what’s the great transgression? The failure to love God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and to love every human being in this world as much as you love yourself. To fail to do that is to commit an act of cosmic treason against the Lord God Almighty. That’s not a peccadillo. That’s enough to send me to hell forever, and so I tremble with every slightest act that transgresses the holiness of God and the sanctity of those who are created in His image.”
Logically and theologically then, Luther was the sanest man in Europe. He understood the demands of the law of God, and it seemed to be driving him crazy. That is, until his brilliant mind, in his preparation of lectures for Romans, turned its attention to Romans 3: “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” Then Luther read a word that is the most precious word in all of Scripture. It’s the gospel in one word—but: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.” Then he read the conclusion in verse 28: “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”
Luther said, “When that message made an impact on my mind and penetrated my understanding, the gates of paradise swung open and I walked in. The just shall live by faith.” Luther moved from torment to peace, from neurosis to confidence, from seeming insanity to sanity, giving him the strength and the courage to change the world.
Therefore, I hope that during this significant 500th anniversary of the Reformation, you are sane like Luther. On the one hand, Luther understood the holiness of the law of God, and on the other hand, he understood his utter and complete dependence upon the righteousness of Christ for peace and justification.
It’s one thing to understand justification by faith in the head. It’s another thing to get it in your bloodstream—to let it flow into the lives of everyone you meet. By this and by God’s grace, we can ensure that this gospel may never be hidden or obscured again.
“If the great commandment is to love God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and your neighbor as much as yourself, then what’s the great transgression? The failure to love God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and to love every human being in this world as much as you love yourself. To fail to do that is to commit an act of cosmic treason against the Lord God Almighty. That’s not a peccadillo. That’s enough to send me to hell forever, and so I tremble with every slightest act that transgresses the holiness of God and the sanctity of those who are created in His image.”
GRPL Reformation Day Ping
That’s right. Christ is enough. By faith in Him it’s just as if I never sinned. Thanks to Luther, 1500 years after Christ, for rescuing us from the crushing burden of having to earn our salvation through works.
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/m/i/mightyfo.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqczuaFQpVQ
A Mighty Fortress is Our God!
In all the bad news today, fake news, this is GREAT NEWS!!
Remembering the 500th year of Reformation.
May God raise up men and women... not afraid , but courageous to meet the enemy head on in Jesus’ Name!!
Amen!!
Luther must have stopped reading there, because in the very next verse, v. 29, St. Paul makes it clear what "works of the law" mean in this context: "For is God the God of the Jews only?" So "works of the Law" in Romans 3 is something that pertains to "the Jews only"; that is, the ceremonial law of the Old Testament.
We are indeed "justfied by faith apart" from the ceremonial law of the Old Testament, but no Catholic in Luther's day claimed otherwise.
He was a poor scholar, a poor exegete, and very definitely extremely neurotic, with an infantile obsession with the toilet.
[[rescuing us from the crushing burden of having to earn our salvation through works.]]
AND Tithes- the church used to ‘sell forgiveness’ basically- Luther rebelled against that from what i understand
The 500th anniversary of Luther’s Protestant Revolution is coming up, and there seems to be an attempt to smother the celebration before it ever takes off.
The way things are going now, I would not be surprised if Protestant leaders will agree to be silent over it for fear of offending people — tear down any statues, ban commemorations, etc.
Luther was a glutton, anti Semitic, dogmatic and vindictive as well as being a heretic. Yet there is no evidence that he was psychotic. Bit delusional perhaps, but no clear evidence of psychosis.
Yep. And for the fact he took us back to what scripture taught all along, he must be punished.
Our church has had a series for the past 5 Sunday’s on the 5 Solas. It has been amazing!!
1. Scripture ALONE
2. Faith ALONE
3. Grace ALONE
4. Christ ALONE
5. Glory to God ALONE
/s
......amazing who God uses to spread His Word and fulfill His purposes!!!
Kind of what we are experiencing here in the US right now...the non conventional.
For those posting anti-Luther deficiencies, do we need the “naughty Pope” list to remind you that nobody is perfect? There is also that mirror in the hallway before the holierthanthou sets in.
You are greatly mistaken who claim such errors...
the Word of God refutes all false teaching......
Galatians 3; 10-12
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are
under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one
that continueth not in all things which are written in
the book of the law to do them.
11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight
of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth
them shall live in them.
____________________________________________
the works of the Law is all of Gods Law not just the
ceremonial law
_____________________________
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not
of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
_________________________________________
like all FALSE religion they boasts of their works.
______________________________________________
Romans 3:19-28
19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith,
it saith to them who are under the law: that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no
flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the
knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is
manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets;
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe:
for there is no difference:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of
God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past, through the
forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that
he might be just, and the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus.
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what
law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by
faith without the deeds of the law.
__________________________________________
and Gods words shut the mouths of ever FALSE
opinion put on this site.
It shuts the mouth of every FALSE religion.
Thank God for the reformation!!!!!!!!
Or paying through the nose for indulgences...
Truly an act of sheer genius. Why support the overhead necessary with collecting taxes and maintaining an army, when it was much simpler to elevate tribute to the divine via tithes?
Rather than aspire to Caesar, the patrician class merely shifted its sights to attaining control of the papacy. And so, the intrigue, alliances, internecine warfare, and murder shifted to control the divine.
If history is any guide, every generation has a new start-up religious faith. It's an extremely competitive field, as evidence indicates that only a narrow few survive past the first few years. While it took 1500 for Luther to match the power of the entrenched religion in Europe, Mohamed wisely chose to explore peripheral regions where the church wasn't too powerful.
Perhaps the single greatest effect of reducing penalties for heresy, however, is the explosion of alternative offerings without fear of reprisal. The creation of the LDS was a superb execution upon realizing that heavenly sanctioned sex would sell in an era of strict prohibitions.
As to the central question of Luther, how is any different from great thinkers throughout the ages? The perceive a flaw, and work tirelessly to develop a solution.
I think all agree that Luther was passionate and conflicted. He certainly lived in a different time and we cannot expect his views to match ours. He was raised in a strict environment and relentlessly pursued his vocation in a serious manner. The hypocrisy of his beloved Church tortured him into a path that he could not see in advance where it led. But once on it he never wavered. He stuck to his convictions though it must have seemed like his world had turned upside down.
Praying for the same reformation of Bible Colleges in this day. Was Luther a sinner? No doubt like everyone of the rest of us. He made a necessary stand for the true faith in God’s Word.
He understood the meaning of “Poor in spirit” and that no matter how he tried, he could not live up to the standards he felt he should.
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