500th Anniversary of Luther's New Testament

Happy Reformation Day!

Photo reflections back from the 500-year Anniversary of the Reformation where a quarter million people flooded the little town of Wittenberg in Germany! 

October 31st is the 505th year anniversary of the Reformation, and it was also just the 500th year anniversary of Martin Luther’s translation of the New Testament into the German language.

 

A Little Background

 

We may take the easy access we have to the Bible today a little too much for granted. After all, we can just open an app on our phone, and we can have the Bible right there at our fingertips.

 

However, it was not always so easy for the common person to access the Bible. In fact, the Bible had become shuttered from access during the Medieval Period. The Catholic Church forbade the laity to even own or possess the Bible at the Synod of Toulouse in 1229, on the pain of torture and death, which many indeed ultimately endured. Vernacular translations were also opposed and only the Latin Vulgate was permitted for the Scriptures.

 

Since Latin was already a dead language, it was another barrier used to prohibit access to the Scriptures. As Oxford scholar David Daniell puts it, “It might as well have been in Chinese for all the good it did being kept in Latin! Very, very, few people could read Latin!”

 

Instead of the Scriptures “The Little Hours of Mary” were proffered which promoted the cult of Mary worship, church rituals, and generated money through stipulated donations. 

 

Enter Martin Luther 

 

Martin Luther had endured a long and difficult spiritual journey after entering the monastery in 1505. In fact, he felt further from God after going down the path of the prescribed rituals of the religious system than when he had first become a monk.

 

In all earnestness, Luther had sought to follow all the prescribed rituals dictated by the religious system and constantly confessed his sins as required. For, according to Catholic teaching, each and every sin must be confessed to be forgiven. Luther kept remembering things he’d done even as a small boy, and he came and confessed so much—once spending 17 hours at the confessional—his superior finally blew up at him saying: “Why don’t you go out and commit some real sins and come back when you actually have something to confess!” 

 

He was finally sent away from the monastery—as a way to offer him some distraction and get him out of their hair—and was thus directed to go into study of the Bible as a form of diversion.

 

It should not be assumed that this was normal activity during this time. Reading the Bible was not practiced, neither by those in the priesthood nor the laity. As mentioned previously, the Catholic Church had banned the laity from even owning or in any way having possession of a Bible at the Synod of Toulouse in 1229. Reading the Bible was reserved exclusively for those elite few who were considered theologians established in the hierarchy of the church. Only they were allowed to read and interpret it and had to stay in line with the papacy.

 

Luther was sent to study the Bible merely as a diversion; he had been a law student formerly so he was able to read Latin.

 

While reading the New Testament himself, Luther came upon passage after passage that declared that simple faith in Jesus Christ was all that was necessary for salvation. This was a complete contrast to what he experienced as a monk.

 

As a Catholic monk, he had grown exhausted and alienated from the heavenly kingdom he had sought. The heavy weight of constant rituals foisted upon him in the monastery did not draw him into relationship with the Almighty but instead created animosity in his heart and the peace with God that he so earnestly sought was nowhere in sight.

 

Here, however, in the very pages of the New Testament, he was finding something completely different from the teachings of the religious system: 

 

There was no requirement to confess all your sins to a priest. Rather the New Testament declared “There is one God and one mediator between God and man… Christ Jesus” 1Tim. 2:5

 

Nor did salvation require good works like the Catholic Church commanded, which included: giving donations to the church, venerating relics, confessing to a priest, praying to saints, vigils, holy water… and on and on! 

 

Rather the Word declared: 

 

“For it is by grace you are saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” Eph.2:8-9

 

“Then they asked [Jesus] ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’” John 6:28-29

 

The religious system Luther encountered had required rituals and works for salvation as well as to lessen one’s time in purgatory. These things they required however were not found in the teaching of the New Testament. “Purgatory” itself was just another pure invention of Catholicism not found anywhere in Scripture.

 

Simple faith drew Luther into a living and saving relationship with the Savior Jesus Christ.

Luther wrestled with the Apostle Paul’s teaching in Romans about being justified by grace through faith night and day. He finally understood that Christ had paid the price on the cross, for our sins, once for all, and all that is required is to believe upon Jesus!

 

When he finally understood this the Holy Spirit came upon him, and his guilt and sin were lifted off his back! He says he was "born again" as he understood that his sin was washed away by simply believing in Jesus Christ! 

 

After being set free and experiencing the liberty of God’s grace, Luther was of no mind to return to the dead rituals of the religious system. 

Luther Nails the 95 Theses

 

He in time drew up some statements or "Theses" to engage some of the church theologians on the wayward path the church had taken. It bears mentioning that Luther did not challenge other doctrines that were still orthodox within Catholicism, and there were still many orthodox foundations. Luther only wanted to challenge where they drifted from the Scriptures especially in regards to salvation. 

 

However, the Ninety-Five Theses he drew up to challenge the errors the church had embraced, set off a spark that soon fanned into an international flame. 

 

After Luther had nailed his Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, some students took them and copied and widely distributed them, using the recently invented Gutenberg printing press to reproduce them. 

 

A perfect storm soon erupted fueled forth by the truth based on the Living Word of God and the distribution of this document through new technology. Before he knew what was happening, the Reformation had been ignited and Luther was in the middle of a conflagration.

 

To paraphrase Didier Erasmus, the famous theologian from Rotterdam, this confrontation Luther sparked posed a threat to: The religious establishment’s money-making system as well as the dictatorial nature and infallibility of the papacy.

 

When the Pope got wind of the issue, he said he would “have this drunken German burned at the stake within two weeks!” Although many attempts were made to shut down the emerging Reformation, it continued to roll forward.

The Leipzig Debate

 

A debate was proffered which many in the hierarchy believed would slap Luther down. They figured the renowned Catholic theologian Johann Eck would quickly shut down this simple monk Martin Luther quite handily. 

 

However, Luther rose to the occasion at the Leipzig debate, and was equal match for Eck in his knowledge of Scripture and understanding of Christian history. Luther showed that the church had itself strayed and had contradicted its own earlier councils and teachings during its slide away from the truth in the Medieval Era. 

 

Eck in response accused Luther of being a Wycliffite and a Hussite. Many had attempted to bring reform before Luther’s era, figures such as John Wycliffe in England, and Jan Hus in Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic), as well as others like early reformer Peter Waldo in France and the Waldensians, who sought to distribute Bibles and pray for the sick. 

 

The Catholic Church had come out against these earlier reformers and continued to persecute those who attempted reform and translation of the Bible. William Tyndale was a contemporary and friend of Luther’s who was arrested and executed for his faith and work in translating and distributing the Bible in the common English language.

 

Luther declared that he himself was indeed a “Wycliffite and a Hussite” throwing caution to the wind! Luther, normally a mild-mannered person, boldly threw himself in with these earlier reformers, even though the followers of Hus and Wycliff had been ordered to be executed by the Pope, this was thus quite a daring thing to say. The Leipzig debate pretty much backfired and Luther’s popularity only seemed to grow.

 

The Diet of Worms

A Diet—a type of trial—was then set up in hopes of quelling the Reformation. Luther would have to answer before the Holy Roman Emperor—the most powerful and important man in the Western world at that time—Luther, a mere peon in contrast, sweated profusely as he was cross-examined in his presence.

 

He was originally told he would be able to explain and defend his writings and teachings. However, after he arrived in the town of Worms, Germany for the Diet, he found he had been lied to and was only given the opportunity to recant or face the consequences.

 

Before the council, while being questioned and cross-examined, Luther was being pressed hard to recant, but in response he finally retorted: “I cannot and will not recant, my conscience is captive to the Word of God, to go against conscience and the Word, is neither right nor safe, I can do no other, here I stand, so help me God.”

 

Luther threw up his hands into the air in the gesture of a knight and marched out to the applause of the Germans and the hissing sneers of the Spaniards—some of which were dyed-in-the-wool fanatics and enforcers of the Inquisition, torturing dissenters of Catholic strictures.

 

Frederick the Wise, the Elector Prince of Luther’s German region of Saxony, who was on the council judging Luther, saw that he was merely returning to the true roots of the Christian faith and declined to condemn Luther, as did some others in the Diet, but a rump of the Diet still voted to condemn him as a heretic.

 

During the night, however, the Bundeschuh—the sign of the peasants’ revolt—was placarded on the wall of the building where the Diet was taking place. This was a serious threat from the people that if Luther was arrested there in Worms, there would be rioting by the people. This sent the Diet into a panic. To appease the peasants—to whom Luther was becoming a hero—he was allowed to return home to Wittenberg and would be remanded into custody later to face the consequences of being condemned as a notorious heretic.

 

Frederick the Wise knew fanatics and assassins would be waiting for an opportunity to murder Luther on his return home, so he arranged for some of his own knights to hold up and kidnap Luther shortly after he embarked on his return home, so as to secretly take hold of him and hide and protect him.

 

The knights grabbed him shortly after he left the town of Worms, and with much yelling and cussing—purposely making a loud ruckus—they then had different knights ride off in different directions, while having Luther hidden and taken away to an old, abandoned castle, making sure no one followed after them.

Luther Translates the New Testament at the Wartburg

For ten months Luther was hidden away, holed up in the abandoned Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, Germany, where he testifies to experiencing some heavy and serious spiritual warfare. He says the attacks of men, including other priests and the pope railing against him and everything else he had endured, paled in comparison to the onslaught of Satan’s attacks on him while alone in the Wartburg. Isolated and without other things to distract his attention, Luther took on the great task of translating the New Testament into the common German tongue and completed his translation while he was there at the Wartburg.

 

Luther wanted others to see the clear teaching of the New Testament for themselves and see that: The Scriptures teach that Jesus Christ alone is the Savior! That Jesus Christ alone is the one Mediator between God and man. That one only need come to Christ in faith for salvation. These simple declarations became foundations of the Reformation and led to later revivals.

 

His publication of the New Testament spread a return of the true roots of the Christian faith throughout Germany and Europe and fanned the flames of the Reformation and spawned numerous revivals later. 

 

Jan Hus’s Prophecy Fulfilled

After the Diet of Worms in 1521, with Luther still at the Wartburg and his popularity seeming to only increase, the time passed and the possibility of safely arresting him was even less viable and was eventually abandoned, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Jan Hus, the Bohemian reformer, from a century before. 

 

Hus had attempted during his time to reform the wayward religious system of his day, and as he was about to be executed and burned at the stake for seeking to bring these reforms, he spoke out and prophesied:

 

“Today you burn me a goose (Hus’s name in Czech meant goose) but in 100 years another [reformer] shall rise, he shall be a swan, him you will not be able to burn nor boil!”

 

Hus was martyred in 1415. It was one hundred years later in the year 1515 when Martin Luther began to study Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, which led to his conversion. This encounter with God and His grace during Luther’s born-again experience set off the chain of events which fomented into the Reformation. 

Luther pictured with a swan

The Holy Spirit had opened Luther’s eyes to the salvation which is given freely through faith in Christ and the justification given by His grace. Try as they might they were not able to kill this swan. In his later years, Luther often had himself pictured in paintings with a swan next to his side, showing that God had fulfilled Hus’s prophecy through him!

 

 

These are some videos we’ve produced are helpful to learn a bit more about Martin Luther:

 

Martin Luther and the Reformation 

 

Martin Luther: Born Again into Amazing Grace 

 

The Priesthood of All Believers 

 

Luther quotes on the need to be filled with the Holy Spirit (short video with notable quotes)

The Reformation Spreads: Playlist of Reform Spreading into other Areas.

Grace World Mission

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Website: http://www.graceworldmission.org

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Ministry Update: Winter 2021

We recently ministered with Centro Cristiano Esperanza in Orange County sharing a message of hope on the grace given to us through faith in Christ and His power that is available for our lives today. It was a blessed time and the presence of the Holy Spirit was very refreshing. 

We also just had a divine appointment recently when we were driving home and it was getting late, so we stopped at a motel for the night. When leaving the next morning, I forgot something in the room and had to go back. A male service worker had already begun taking care of the room. I started talking for a few minutes and as we spoke I felt led to ask if he needed prayer for anything. It turned out his good friend had just died and had the funeral coming up the next day and so he would actually really appreciate some prayer! He went on to say that he had been a believer for some years but had some ups and downs and his friend passing away had really shook him up. I spoke to him about God’s mercy and love and then prayed for him and he was clearly ministered to in a significant way. He shared afterwards that he was greatly encouraged by this divine appointment and thanked me for stepping out in faith to ask if he needed prayer! Hallelujah! 

Reflections 

 

As we have entered fully into the new decade, it causes us to reflect on the grace that the Lord has blessed us with to be able to minister in different places around the world over the last few decades, including: Latvia, Romania, Kosovo, France, Spain, Norway, Sweden, England, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Argentina, Ghana, West Africa, and in the US: all over California, as well as in Arizona, Oregon, Montana, Colorado and Hawaii.

We are thankful for God’s grace to minister through us and have been blessed to experience many receive Christ, get filled with the Holy Spirit, and receive healing and deliverance. It is a blessing to see lives impacted by the Kingdom of God in these different places as we have ministered over the years. We are thankful for the different divine appointments we have experienced along the way as well. 

 

Books We’ve Been Published In 

 

We have also been blessed to have some Holy Ghost Stories published in some different books over the years, including: 

• Stories From the Front Lines: Power Evangelism In Today’s World by Jane Rumph. Tells about some Holy Ghost healing stories and wild divine appointments we have had in Mexico. 

• Signs and Wonders in America Today by Jane Rumph. Miracles taking place while we are ministering in the Bay Area. 

• Divine Intervention: True Stories of Heaven Invading Earth by Julia Loren. A radical Holy Ghost surfing miracle and divine appointment on the coast of Israel. 

• Kernels of Hope: Real People, Real Stories by Bob and Gail Kaku. The divine appointment sequel to the Israel story but this Holy Ghost surfing miracle is on the Coast of Spain where a divine appointment took place with some guys who just turned out to be friends of the surfer from Israel! 

• Not By Might Nor By Power: The Great Commission (Book Two) by Lonnie Frisbee with Roger Sachs. Shares about Lonnie’s influence on us as well as a story of Bryan getting filled with the Holy Spirit. 

• Not By Might Nor By Power: Set Free (Book Three) by Lonnie Frisbee with Roger Sachs. Shares stories from a mission trip to Colorado with Lonnie (interestingly enough, much spiritual warfare was experienced in the Colorado trips mentioned) and a wild encounter while hiking in Tahquitz Canyon in Palm Springs, amongst some other things. 

If you’re interested in one of the books we’ll get you a copy for a donation of whatever you can afford—typical suggested donation is $15 per book. These are also all available at Amazon.com. 

Audio and Video Programs 

We have also been able to create a host of different audio and video programs that are available on different formats and platforms. They have covered lots of different topics, including those from Christian History such as the Reformation to Revivals to Biographies on Revivalists and Reformers as well as Divine Appointment Stories and Mission Adventures and many other topics. 

The programs on historical Christian figures are amongst our more popular topics on different sites. I see now more than ever the dire need for programs like ours that tell the history that has largely been ignored by secular institutions. Moreover, our programs do it from a uniquely Spirit-filled perspective which is something that is greatly lacking in this arena. For example, our recent program we put out on Charles Finney talked about his powerful Baptism in the Holy Spirit, others who’ve done programs on Finney have omitted this important aspect of his life and ministry, not even mentioning it at all. 

Here is an endorsement of our ministry (link: https://youtu.be/TYtTLR5K_pY) from a historical figure himself, Harald Bredesen, one of the fathers of the Charismatic Renewal, and some of what he had to say in his endorsement of our ministry: 

Of all the ministries I’ve worked with, there is none that I have the greatest confidence in the purity of the motivation and the fact that it was the Holy Spirit who gave birth to it than Grace World Mission, led by its founders, Bryan and Mercedes Marleaux...I’ve seen the sacrifice; I’ve seen the zeal; I’ve seen the Spirit-ledness…and I am so happy to be a part of it—I hope you will be and will support it as well... I’m sure He’ll bless you for it.  

We greatly appreciate your prayers and support! 

God bless! 

Bryan and Mercedes Marleaux

Charles Finney's Conversion and Baptism in the Holy Spirit

Our recent ministry update includes a few recent divine appointments, as well as an account of a recent outpouring where the Holy Spirit moved powerfully. We also have a link in our update to a powerful historical podcast we recorded on Charles Finney’s Conversion and Baptism in the Holy Spirit, which is one of our latest uploads to our SoundCloud page and offers fairly easy access for listening on demand.

A Little About Charles Grandison Finney

Charles Finney was a powerfully used evangelist and minister in America in the early part of the 1800’s. He also ministered in England. In fact, he is considered to be the forerunner to those who did mass evangelistic campaigns later like D.L. Moody, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, and Reinhard Bonnke.

Like Martin Luther, Finney also studied law, however it was after becoming a lawyer that Finney went on to experience a dramatic conversion and soon after a very powerful baptism in the Holy Spirit…which he says “took place before he even knew what that was.”

His baptism/filling of  the Holy Spirit also touched several other people right as it took place and included some manifestations that have been seen in many different revivals, such as profuse weeping, holy laughter, and God’s overwhelming presence!

Finney is in many respects a product of the Reformation; similar to Martin Luther he received a revelation by the Holy Spirit regarding the grace of God. Finney was given a revelation from his experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit that: “Justification by faith through grace is a present reality and something to be received now.” Not just something to hope for at the end. This was the effect of the Reformation as it fanned out through history, it brought forth evangelism.

Our friend Harald Bredesen, a Lutheran that got filled with the Holy Spirit himself and who also recaptured that original Lutheran revelation of "justification by grace" via the filling of the Holy Spirit, said when he witnessed to others: The problem with religion versus the Gospel, is that religiosity often leaves one stuck in limbo not knowing if you will be hung or acquitted on the Day of Judgement, hoping the rituals one did will be enough, which they never can be. The Bible however makes it clear that the Gospel saves and brings forth eternal security: salvation was brought forth on the cross through Christ and all you need to do is receive Christ as Savior and Lord. Then you have peace with God having been justified by His grace through faith (Romans 5:1-3).

Finney took that revelation he received into the harvest fields. And while Luther’s revelation resulted in the Reformation, Finney’s revelation resulted in pioneering campaigns of evangelism. Though they may have differences in some respects regarding the way they looked at things, the truth they received by revelation of the Holy Spirit about God’s grace brought great impact.

Finney also worked tirelessly to bring an end to what he called “the vile sin of slavery.” Many other believers like him worked hard to do the same in this respect as well. It is important to learn about historical figures like Charles Finney, a Holy Spirit-filled warrior who battled for souls, as well as to free those in slavery.

His conversion and filling of the Holy Spirit is an extraordinary power encounter. Check it out, I’m sure you’ll get a renewing touch of the Holy Ghost by just listening to that powerful Baptism in the Holy Spirit that Finney experienced!

Here’s the link to our podcast on Charles Grandison Finney: https://soundcloud.com/graceworldmission/finneys-conversion

The Need for Programs Like This

After graduating from Fuller Theological Seminary, and while ministering in different situations, I began to see the need to share certain aspects of Christian History, a lot of which was rarely covered in general and basically flatly ignored, particularly by secular universities. (I attended a few of those before my graduate studies at Fuller and they were biased against, and edited out, much of the Christian History of the US and other places then, and have only gotten worse now!)

The many contributions made by Christians like Finney—who was quite a well known and popular figure during his time—are often purposely ignored in the secular school system today. This is especially pronounced in the secular universities, with the modern zeitgeist that willingly embraces a collective historical amnesia and biased slant. One of the axioms of Stalinism and Marxism was: If we rewrite history then we can control the people.  We can see this happening today throughout the land.

Learning about believers like Finney helps to give us perspective and is a step in seeing beyond the historical revisionism of our day. 

We have put out lots of different programs, including those on historical Christian figures, which are amongst some our own more popular topics on some sites. I see now more than ever the dire need for programs like ours that tell the history that has largely been, and is being, ignored by secular institutions. Moreover, our programs do it from a uniquely Spirit-filled perspective. We appreciate your prayers and your prayerful consideration towards financially contributing to us in this seriously needed work!

Here is an endorsement of our ministry from a historical figure himself, Harald Bredesen, a Lutheran that got filled with the Holy Spirit who was one of the fathers of the Charismatic Renewal, and some of what he had to say in his endorsement of our ministry: 

"Of all the ministries I’ve worked with, there is none that I have the greatest confidence in the purity of the motivation and the fact that it was the Holy Spirit who gave birth to it than Grace World Mission, led by its founders, Bryan and Mercedes Marleaux...I’ve seen the sacrifice; I’ve seen the zeal; I’ve seen the Spirit-ledness…and I am so happy to be a part of it—I hope you will be and will support it...I’m sure He’ll bless you for it."

God Bless!
Bryan and Mercedes Marleaux

Grace World Mission—Useful Links
Email: gracewm@flash.net
Website: www.graceworldmission.org
Donate Online: www.graceworldmission.org/contact_us.htm
Blog Grace Notes: gwmgracenotes.blogspot.com
Blog Reflections from the Road: reflectionsftroad.blogspot.com
Podcast: Grace Alone on Apple Podcasts
YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/graceworldmission
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/graceworldmission

500th Anniversary of the Reformation

We are in Wittenberg, Germany for the 500 Year Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. We’ve just come from ministering in other parts of Europe: England, France, Spain, and lastly in Scandinavia, where we experienced some powerful visitations of the Holy Spirit in Sweden and Norway!

We’ll have a full update on all that a bit later on, but this being a unique occasion, and feeling a bit surreal that we are here in Wittenberg at the moment, I’ve been reflecting on the first time we came here and how the Lord intervened to make it happen. It speaks to me of how the Lord brought us here then and now, and of the importance of the message that is at the center the Reformation.

So here is how the Lord worked to bring us here to Wittenberg the very first time:

We were in Germany years back, staying at a friend of Mercedes in a little German town with a German family.

The family we were staying with asked one day if there was any thing or any place in particular we would like to see in the area.

Without knowing where it was in relation to where we were staying, I just blurted out that we would like to go and visit Wittenberg since it was the birthplace of the Protestant Reformation.

Their faces dropped and they said very strongly, “Well, that is very far from here, and we are really busy so that would just not be possible.” They went on: “You must understand that that is in the former GDR (Communist East Germany), which is a very long way from here.”

Previous to this, I had been personally studying about Martin Luther and the Reformation and was really touched by Martin Luther’s story and powerful conversion to forgiveness and freedom in Jesus Christ.

Earlier in the trip I had sensed that the Lord might be saying that we would visit Wittenberg. However, when they said it was impossible I was a bit perplexed but thought there still could be a way.

Meanwhile, the Lord had opened a door in a local Lutheran Church for me to speak to the youth group. I shared about Martin Luther’s conversion, which come to find out most Lutherans usually know very little about:

I shared how Luther as a Catholic monk had struggled with religious rituals and dead works like penance—which is actually an attempt to pay for one’s own sin prescribed by the Catholic Church (which of course goes against what the New Testament teaches). Luther became frustrated because he knew inside himself that his human efforts always fell short. He would also fast long hours on end, ruining his health. He would also constantly go to confession; but no matter how many long, long, hours he spent confessing every last sin he could remember that he had ever done, he would always think of more later and have to confess those now too—Luther was merely following the prescribed teaching of the Catholic Church then and now—in Catholicism every last sin must be remembered and confessed in order to be forgiven. In Catholicism if you died with unconfessed sin, even those you can’t remember, you would be eternally condemned.

The chief priest in his monastery was getting exhausted from the extremely long hours Luther was spending confessing his sins. In fact, he got so upset that he burst out at him on one occasion: “Why don’t you go out and commit some real sins and come back when you actually have something to confess.”

Luther, however, was merely being sincere and following the prescribed way of Catholicism. Most other priests usually would just get disillusioned and end up just going through the motions in a cavalier way, as Luther saw in many places, especially in Rome when he travelled there on one occasion.

The chief priest of Luther’s monastery named Staupitz had grown so tired of him he finally thought of a way to get him out of his hair, and sent him away from the monastery to study the Scriptures. This was not then nor now the practice of the Catholic priests, however Staupitz just wanted to occupy him with something else.

Luther was thrown into the Bible, basically against his own will, which of course was God working to have him find the truth.

Luther began to wrestle with the New Testament teaching in Paul’s epistles of justification and grace until he saw the connection: Jesus took on our sin at the cross and justifies us by grace when we look to Him as our savior by faith—not looking to ourselves or our own works—and through faith in Christ, God credits Christ’s very own righteousness to us. Luther had been trying to pay for sin himself but now saw that Jesus had paid the price for our sins on the cross at Calvary!

As he finally understood this, the Holy Spirit came upon him and illuminated this revelation. In his own words Luther says he was born again in that moment. He now understood that God loved him and sent His Son to die for him that he might freely have eternal life.

After this conversion to Christ and His amazing grace, Luther would take his stand on the Word of God in opposition to manmade teachings in Catholicism.

He couldn’t just look the other way as his church laid heavy unbiblical burdens on mens backs just like the Pharisees did in Jesus time.

On October 31^st, 1517, he posted the Ninety-five Theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg. Luther simply wished to debate other Catholic leaders regarding errant unbiblical practices. Some students, however, grabbed the Theses and reprinted them over and over and began to distribute them in many places. A concerted Ja wohl! of agreement with Luther rang throughout the land, and before he knew it, Luther was at the center of a conflagration and the Protestant Reformation had began its birth.

The people in the youth group in Germany I shared with were stoked to hear the story, and after some prayer for them, we hung out and talked late into the night.

We finally returned from being out with the youth group and entered the darkened house together very late with our friends.

However, I almost jumped out of my shoes when the light was flipped on as we entered. Our friend’s mother was sitting there on a chair waiting for us in the dark. When we flipped the light on, there she was, looking at us anxiously and waiting to talk to us.

After all of us settled down from being startled, she began to speak to us: “I have some news for you. We have decided that tomorrow you go to Wittenberg!” We were shocked! And then she went on, “But you must get up very early tomorrow since it is a long long drive from here, so now you must go to sleep!”

I was blown away…when most Germans make up their mind about something…well, that’s it. We never got an explanation as to the sudden middle-of-the-night change of heart, but I just thanked God for moving on her heart, and left in the morning thinking, “Wow! That was the Lord that intervened here for me!”

We hit the Autobahn—the famed German motorway with no speed limit—in their car early that morning. We made sure our seat belts were fastened as our friend got up to around 160 km p/hour (100 mph) and beyond pretty quickly. It was a fast way to get around.

We got to our destination in good time with the help of the Autobahn.

Wittenberg was still in a state of being repaired after years of neglect under the GDR. I was surprised how it was still all intact after the bombing of WWll and the years of neglect under the Communists.

Fortunately, Luther was a hero to almost all Germans, including those in the GDR, and nothing was really looted or destroyed, unlike other places that had been devastated in the former GDR, especially after the fall of the communist regime. 

The little town just looked like it needed a little sprucing up and some TLC (which it has received since, as we’ve seen on subsequent visits there over the years).

We were experiencing the Holy Spirit visiting us at every turn as we took in firsthand how the Lord had worked through such an unexpected figure like Luther. We were reminded of the fact that it was all about how the Holy Spirit had revealed the grace of Christ to a simple monk, a lowly miners son.

Touched by that grace deep in his heart, Martin Luther took his stand and would not be moved from it, come what may. Once he finally understood God’s love and grace, he would face the onslaught unleashed at him for defying the traditions and dead rituals of Catholicism and undermining the money changing tables of their religious system.

It was all punctuated to us by the fact that it was a miracle to have come there at all that day. I knew the Lord had intervened to bring us there, and it spoke to us of how important this story was.

The Lord was illuminating the importance of His Gospel of grace as something that must again be understood and communicated once more!

The way the Lord brought us here speaks to me, then and now, of the importance of the message that is at the center the Reformation: The grace that is found through faith in Jesus Christ. Christ alone cleanses us from all sin when we put our faith in Him and receive Him as Savior; He did the work on the cross we could never do ourselves to pay for sin. He also credits us with His very own righteousness, giving us a right standing with the Father, justifying us and giving us peace with God, hallelujah!

Useful links for further study of  the Reformation and the revivals it spawned:

• Video: Martin Luther & the Reformation 
• Video playlist: Martin Luther Series
• Video playlist: Reformation Series
• Video playlist: Revival History Series

Remembering the Mother's Day Outpouring

While celebrating Mother’s Day yesterday, the significance of the day in contemporary Christian History came to mind, a history some may actually not be aware of:

It was at a Mother’s Day service a few decades back when Lonnie Frisbee gave his testimony at Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda (which met in the High School Gym at Canyon High School in Yorba Linda) and then invited the Holy Spirit to come and move amongst the congregation. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit that followed started a revival that went out to the nations.  

Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda at Canyon High School.

John Wimber leads worship at Canyon High School.

Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda experienced a full blown revival following that outpouring.  It would later became a Vineyard Church and pastor John Wimber, who had experienced his first Power Encounter on that Mother’s Day, so impacted by it all, began teaching and ministering on the power of God. The ministry and revival birthed that day would go out to the nations. 

This revival subsequently became known as “The Third Wave” a name coined by Fuller Seminary Missiologist Peter Wagner. Praise God that power and fire is still moving! I personally got baptized in the Holy Spirit back then in the Canyon High School Gym at  Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda where the outpouring of the Holy Spirit became a regular thing. 

Bryan is prayed for by Lonnie Frisbee and Jill Austin.

I wrote a piece on this outpouring and my own experience some time back and have included some links here to that article for more reading, as well as links to other articles and videos we’ve done regarding this subject.

Blessings to you!

Article from the Anniversary of the Mother’s Day Outpouring:

http://gwmgracenotes.blogspot.com/2010/05/thirty-year-anniversary-of-mothers-day.html

Jesus People Revival Video:

https://youtu.be/0OgfmU13sPI?list=PL9zt0pZyg_bP4yvJ-QVmM1zeZtvTZv5Z7

Reflections on Frisbee and the Jesus People and The Third Wave Revival:

http://www.graceworldmission.org/Jesus_ppl_revival.html

Wild Encounters in the Desert:

http://reflectionsftroad.blogspot.com/2011/11/encounter-at-tahquitz.html

Martin Luther: A Life Transformed by the Grace of God

• “In most big libraries, books by and about Martin Luther occupy more shelf room than those concerned with any other human being than Jesus of Nazareth.” (1) 

• [Martin Luther] revived the Christian consciousness of Europe…Religion became again a dominant factor, even in politics, for another century and a half. Men cared enough for the faith to die for it… If there is any sense remaining of Christian civilization in the West, this man Luther in no small measure deserves the credit. (2) 

At the turn of the millennium, Time, Life and other prominent publications listed Martin Luther and the Reformation in the top 3 of the 100 most important events in the last 1000 years, yet many believers today are unaware of the important impact of the Protestant Reformation.

Not only did the Reformation bring about “the reviving of the Christian consciousness of Europe,” as Roland Bainton points out, but it also set the foundation for the coming revivals that followed in its wake:

From Hernhutt in Germany, to the Great Awakening in the American Colonies, to John Wesley and the revivals in England, all these revivals, as well as others, were directly linked to, and in the end a product of, the Protestant Reformation.

But there is something more here than just a mere understanding of the historical impact: There is a remarkable story in the events and central figure used to initiate the Reformation. It is the story of one person’s wrestling to find peace with God until he finds that “amazing grace” that liberates the soul, as Luther experienced.

A Miner’s Son

Martin Luther had been a simple miner’s son, an unknown monk, a man without power or influence in the world, who would, in the end, stand up to the establishment in both church and state that had become inconceivably corrupt and in the course change the course of Western history.

Luther was a simple Catholic monk with nothing to back him, nothing but his faith in God and the revelation of God’s grace he’d come into. In spite of the overwhelming onslaught launched against him, he stood upon the faith and revelation of grace that had come over his life. That grace sustained him through all the trials and tribulations he’d face, as a fierce attack was unleashed against him for daring to question the unbiblical practices the Catholic church had embraced and instituted.

As historian Kenneth Scott Latourette and missiologist Ralph Winter point out, his was an experience like many in Christian history, a story of the minority, the one without backing, a man at the bottom, without worldly power, without means, without money or access to any, one who goes outside the establishment.

Like Moses before Pharaoh, with nothing more than simple faith in God, Luther stood up to the powers of his day when he was brought to defend himself before the Diet, in Worms, Germany, as the Holy Roman Emperor Charles the V sat listening in judgment of what he would have to say.

In that day and age, dispensing of alleged heretics, as Luther was accused of being, was no problem. The Inquisition was in full swing, having been birthed by Catholic fanatics in Spain and the inquisitors took strange pleasure in torturing and burning to death those that did not tow the line of Medieval Catholicism.

Knowing that he was facing probable death and torture, Luther would still not recant when pressed by the diet to do so but proclaimed: “My conscience is captive to the word of God.... I cannot and will not recant anything. Here I stand, so help me God.” A poignant and important moment in all history to be sure, yet a deeper story is underneath it all.

The Transformation: From Tame to Tiger

Luther never intended to stand up to anyone or anything in the beginning at all. In fact, Luther had actually been quite a tame soul.

After entering the monastery, he unquestioningly went along and devoutly followed all the prescribed rituals the Catholic Church laid out. From penance, to fastings, to long dead prayers, to confession of his sins before the priests, he did it all, willingly, hoping…hoping to find salvation and peace, yet none of it brought him close to God whatsoever. In fact he felt further from God now and was worse off than when he started with all these rituals.

He kept at it though, hoping to persevere and finally arrive at the peace with God he was supposed to find through all the prescribed Catholic Church rituals.

He began, however, to drive the other priests mad by his frequent confessions, obsessively confessing for hours at a time, trying to expunge every possible sin in his life he could think of—after all, this was what he was supposed to do according to Catholic teaching—and he felt he must find each and every sin and confess it.

His superior Staupitz, however, was getting annoyed and told him: “Why don’t you go out and commit some real sins and come back when you have something to actually confess.”

The Revelation of God’s Grace

He was then basically sent away to study the Scriptures to get him out of the priests’ hair. Thus, Luther began to read the Bible, which was a first for him; priests did not read the Bible. Most couldn’t anyways since very few knew Latin and it was the only language in which the Catholic Church allowed the Bible to be translated into. Such edicts of the church were enforced through pain of death.

Interestingly enough, even though he had been raised in the Catholic Church his whole life, Luther pointed out later that he hadn’t even seen a Bible until he was about twenty years old.

Nevertheless, Luther had been educated and studied law before joining the monastery, and Latin was the language of law. It was while reading the Scriptures that his eyes would be opened.

As Luther read the Scriptures he began to wrestle with Paul’s words in Romans and Galatians. The words, “the just shall live by faith” perplexed him until, like a ray of light shining down on him from heaven, the Holy Spirit revealed its meaning:

Christ had taken our sins upon Himself at the cross. He took upon Himself the punishment due each one of us. Now he offers, through belief in Him and His work, complete forgiveness to those who turn to Him in faith. He justifies by faith the sinner who believes upon Him, having died in the sinner’s stead.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, yet in His mercy He went to the cross for us.

Luther saw the connection: Jesus Christ paid the price man could not pay through his own works, or law-keeping, or attempts at goodness—all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God—one is justified freely only though through faith in Jesus Christ. (Romans 3:21-22)

However, it is by faith through grace alone that this free gift of eternal life is bestowed on each one who will accept it. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Christ died that we might be justified, that is, made right with God, through simple belief in the work He did for us.

Suddenly he was given that life-changing revelation that Jesus died for him. Here he had been trying all this time to pay for all his own sins through all kinds prescribed rituals, trying to justify himself through his works, when Jesus had already done the work for him on the cross. This revelation broke on him like a wave crashing onto the shore. He now understood it.

In his own words he describes his experience:

“I greatly longed to understand Paul’s epistles to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression ‘The justice of God.’ Because I took it to mean that justice where…God deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that though [I was] an impeccable monk, I still stood before God as a sinner, troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage Him. Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant.

Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement ‘the just shall live by faith.’

Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith.

Thereupon, I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning and whereas before the ‘justice of God’ had filled me with hate [and dread], now it became to me a gate to heaven.

If you have a true faith that Christ is your savior, then at once you have a gracious God, for faith leads you in and opens up God’s heart and will, that you should see pure grace and overflowing love. This it is to behold God in faith that you should look upon his fatherly, friendly heart…” (3)

Having come into the revelation of God’s grace and being liberated from the condemnation of the law and dead works, Luther’s heart was transformed.

He had come to know the love and grace of God and he would not back down on the knowledge of that truth so clearly laid out in the New Testament, even when push came to shove, even when the shoving came from the pope and the emperor.

He took his stand on God’s Word and the grace and truth it revealed to him. It changed history then and shall do so again!

Footnotes

(1) James M. Kittelson’s preface in Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career, quoting John Todd in Luther: A Life

(2) Yale scholar Roland H. Bainton, from the book Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther

(3) Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther by Roland H. Bainton.

Video: Martin Luther and the Reformation (Direct link: https://youtu.be/WDr66ITavlI)
Video: Martin Luther's Conversion (Direct link: https://youtu.be/AUncn84rr48)