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

E-mail: gracewm@flash.net

Website: http://www.graceworldmission.org

YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/graceworldmission

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/graceworldmission

Blog --Grace Notes-- http://gwmgracenotes.blogspot.com

Donate Online-- http://www.graceworldmission.org/contact_us.htm

  

"I am a Wycliffite and a Hussite." - Martin Luther

Video: John Wycliffe: Morning Star of the Reformation

Direct link: https://youtu.be/_i-37P2k3nw

We were ministering at a church in London last year, where we experienced a powerful move of the Holy Spirit. Many of the those who came to the meetings got blessed as the Holy Spirit poured out, empowered, healed, and filled those there.
 
We later on in the trip ministered at one of their sister churches in Paris. There was a lot of warfare and difficultly getting to this church in Paris, especially with a crazy parking fiasco, that had us under serious stress and warfare. 
 
The pastor said when we finally got into the building, albeit a bit late, “I believe the Lord will manifest His power as you minister!” That was an encouraging word after such a struggle and distraction.
 
It turned out that he nailed that! The Holy Spirit moved in radical power and some people were knocked backwards, almost looking like they were hit by a bomb blast as the Holy Spirit poured onto them when we prayed for them. We had a revival time as the Lord poured out His power at the service that day.

Sometimes God’s power is strongest when we were are at our weakest, being so ruffled from the parking mess I was quite distracted going in to the service, but surprised and rejoiced by the way the Lord moved! Hallelujah!
 
Well in between ministry, when things are a little calmer, we like to visit, when the opportunity arises, some of the places that tell something about some of the history of the area, especially when it involves something about Christian History, revivals of the past, or the Reformation.
 
We had a few unexpected surprises in that vein on the last trip. One of them was while we were going through London after that aforementioned ministry there, before heading off to France. 
 
We were in the area of the British Library and decided to pop in for a visit.  We’d been there before, but I have figured out over time and visits, that they tend to change their exhibitions of historical books and artifacts quite regularly.
 
As we walked up to the display cases, we were stoked to come upon one of the last remaining Wycliffe Bibles in the world. John Wycliffe is known as the Morning Star of the Reformation, meaning he was a forerunner to many of the things that Martin Luther took on later.
 
The Reformation 
 
When Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31^st, 1517, it turned out that it was the spark that initiated the Protestant Reformation.
 
The Pope’s response to Luther’s Theses was: “Who is this drunken German? I’ll have that heretic burned at the stake within two weeks!” Well, it didn’t really go the way the Pope said, even though popes had done just that with dissenters many times; the Word of God was on Luther’s side and he wouldn’t be so easily silenced.  Many were impacted by the truth Luther was bringing forth and turning back to biblically-based faith and supporting Luther.
 
As Luther’s confrontation of church abuses caught fire and spread, another tactic was tried by Rome: Have Luther debate the Catholic theologian Johann Eck. Known as a master debater, they figured Eck would bury Luther and make quick work of him. 
 
Luther was a Catholic priest himself, but through reading the Bible, his spiritual eyes had been opened to see that the Catholic Church had long since abandoned its roots and substituted a host of money-making schemes like indulgences (papers declaring forgiveness of sins when the proper donation was made which was no less than selling forgiveness) and the veneration of relics (bits of bone allegedly from Saints of the past). These relics, according to the Catholic Church, could confer time off purgatory when viewed along with the always demanded stipulated donation.
 
Rome didn’t realize the depth of insight, wisdom, and knowledge that Luther had garnered from studying the Word of God and they underestimated his ability.
 
Luther rose to the occasion in the debate with Eck and was an equal match in his command of Christian History and scriptural truth. Luther made it clear, citing early Church Councils, that it was none other than the Catholic Church itself, that had strayed from its original roots and teachings.
 
Eck came back with an accusation that Luther was a Wycliffite and a Hussite.
 
During a break in the debate, Luther searched the library to find out that both John Wycliffe and Jan Hus were leaders that had attempted to bring reform in previous centuries before him, but were condemned as heretics for seeking to turn the Catholic Church back to its foundations in the Word. 
 
Hus was burned at the stake, and while Wycliffe had escaped their clutches while alive, his bones were dug up after he died and were burned as well. The implication was clear: Luther better cool it or he could face the same fate. 
 
Instead of shrinking back in fear, Luther came back as the debate resumed and declared boldly: “I am a  Wycliffite and a Hussite!” In the end, the debate only served to elevate Luther’s status, the last thing they wanted.
 
Wycliffe and Hus
 
John Wycliffe and Jan Hus were forerunners of the Reformation.
 
Jan Hus, who was from Bohemia (modern-day Czech Region) was also a Catholic priest who began to see the errors the Catholic Church had embraced and sought to bring reform. Hus was greatly influenced by Wycliffe’s writing and confronted the Pope’s claim that he was a mediator between God and man, which the Pope had made at the Fourth Lateran Council. This meant the Pope was above a normal person and equated himself with the savior. This was a gross contradiction of the Scriptures, which say emphatically that there is only one mediator between God and man: Jesus Christ!
 
Hus also said that it is Jesus Christ who is the head of the church and not the pope, which is of course what the New Testament Scriptures teach in Col. 1:18.  Hus was persecuted and burned at the stake in the year 1415 for his efforts to turn the church back to the Word of God. He actually made a prophecy right before he died: "You are now going to burn a goose, but in a century you will have a swan which you can neither roast nor boil." (Hus' name means goose in the Czech language.) This was fulfilled through Luther 100 years later. Luther has been pictured with a swan in some paintings to show the fulfillment of that prophecy.
 
John Wycliffe, is known as the Morning Star of the Reformation.
 
Wycliffe lived in the mid and latter 1300’s and attended Oxford University. He was a stalwart figure there and in the church. In fact, Oxford’s early reputation in scholarship owes much to Wycliffe. Over time, Wycliffe saw the way the Catholic Church had drifted away from the anchor of truth in the Scriptures during the Medieval Period. Its wealth and opulence had corrupted it, and it had replaced the Gospel with money-making rituals and superstitions like relics and indulgences and the cult of the saints.
 
This constant drift away from the truth seems endemic in humankind’s very existence. Paul the Apostle had to write, not too long after planting the Gospel in Galatia, quite strongly to the Galatians to deal with their similar drift away from the Gospel and confront their return to clinging to rituals and dead works. This is why the Book of Galatians was a centerpiece in reform and one Luther relied on quite heavily during the Reformation.
 
Much like Luther later, Wycliffe had become quite disturbed by these practices. While reading the Bible Wycliffe, much like other reformers including Luther, found no relics, indulgences, purgatory, saint worship, nor prayers to saints; no holy water, no processions or the like, through which the Catholic Church lavishly garnered lucrative donations. In fact, these were more aligned with pagan practices. Nor did he see that the Pope, nor priests, had the place to confer and issue forgiveness. Like Luther, he saw in the Bible that it was only faith in Christ which was taught as necessary for receiving forgiveness and salvation.
 
He thus felt that he should put the Bible into the hands of the people in their own language that they may see for themselves that it is faith in Christ that brings salvation and not all these rituals the church was using as replacements for the Gospel.
 
Like Martin Luther, and William Tyndale later, Wycliffe thus worked to translate the Scriptures into the vernacular language of the people: in his case the English of Great Britain, and make it accessible to all, not just priests and bishops. 
 
This was a high crime at that time, the Catholic Church at the Synod of Toulouse in 1229 officially forbade the laity to even possess a Bible—yes, as crazy as it sounds, having a Bible according to the Catholic Church was a crime—and they also opposed vernacular translations. They allowed only Latin as the permitted language for the Bible.
 
Latin was a long dead language that very, very, few could read and comprehend. It was obvious that keeping the Bible in Latin could keep the people in the dark regarding all the rituals the Church had used to replace the Gospel. 
 
Wycliffe saw the need for the Bible to be in the language of the people and worked to translate and distribute the Bible to the common person, who he felt could read and understand it and be blessed by it, regardless of the Catholic Church’s prohibitions.
 
He employed common people to help him as well in these endeavors, and in so doing was employing that New Testament practice that Luther highlighted later as well called: “The Priesthood of all Believers.”
 
Wycliffe managed to do all this in the last nine years of his life; God saved the best for last. Like Corey Ten Boon, he served God the most in his latter years, as it is never too late in God’s Kingdom.
 
Wycliffe made a valiant effort in his translating, but the Latin was all he had access to in order to translate the Bible into English. He and his helpers, called Lollards, who he sent out to preach and distribute Bibles, also helped copy the translations by hand, which was a very long, and painstakingly slow process.
 
Luther and Tyndale, roughly a century and a half later after Wycliffe, would have the advantage not only of the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg to make copies of the Bible they translated, but they also had access to a Greek text of the New Testament that had been recently assembled and published in their time by Desiderius Erasmus. Those advances greatly helped further their efforts and fanned the spread of the Reformation, which in turn spawned revivals in later times.
 
Wycliffe stands as a Morning Star of the Reformation, a forerunner in his effort to bring reform and make the Bible available in the language of the people. His efforts made a great contribution and helped lay a foundation for the later Reformation and subsequent revivals. 

Martin Luther and a Prophecy Fulfilled

Martin Luther, pictured with a swan,
which was meant to portray that
Luther had fulfilled the prophecy
made by Jan Hus a century before.

'You are now going to burn a goose, but in a century you will have a swan which you can neither roast nor boil.'

Jan Hus, the Bohemian Reformer whose name means goose in his language, made this prophecy before his death, when he was about to be burned at the stake. He had attempted to bring reform to the Catholic Church and paid the ultimate price.

Martin Luther saw in himself the fulfillment of Hus’s prophecy, especially after being condemned as a heretic and barely escaping death. After surviving the threat of being burned at the stake himself, Luther often had paintings of himself made standing by a swan to point it out. 

The Education of Travel

One of the blessings of traveling to other places, especially those where historical events took place, is getting fresh insights into familiar topics.

These insights and other blessings when ministering overseas outweigh some of the burdens of being on the road such as: sleeping in uncomfortable beds—man that lower back can get sore. That, and having to use public toilets, I'll spare the gory details.

Anyways, it is such a blessing when you run into fresh prophetic insight on a topic you’ve been studying for a long time and the Holy Spirit pours over you with a refreshing wave.

Insights in Unexpected Places

We were able to swing through Germany at the end of our recent three month long Euro-mission trip (will have a full report of the trip shortly.) 

We were in the former GDR—Communist East Germany—in the little town of Eisleben, where Luther was born and died and where the place still has streets called Karl-Marx-Straße.

In one of the little museums about Luther in that town there was a display of pictures towards the end of the exhibition of Luther posing with a swan by his side. The portraits told how Luther saw and believed that he had fulfilled the prophecy of Jan Hus. The Holy Spirit came upon me out of nowhere while taking it in and there was a moment of unexpected refreshing there. I was trying to hold it together while getting blasted in the middle of a museum!

Escaping Death by the Skin of His Teeth

Luther’s old friend and superior from his former Augustinian monastery Johann Staupitz had told Luther, “I don’t know what is in store for you if not being burned at the stake.”

Luther had been called to answer regarding his teaching at the Diet of Worms (an unusual name for a hearing that was like an inquest which would be held in the city of Worms, Germany). However, he knew going to it could probably result in his end and being burned at the stake like so many others who attempted reform of the Catholic Church’s wayward practices.

Many had attempted reforms of Catholicism but were met with severe persecution and even death: a few examples of persecuted reformers were Peter Waldo in France, JohnWycliffe in England, Jan Hus in Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic), WilliamTyndale of England.

The Diet of Worms

Luther was called before the Holy Roman Emperor—though neither Holy, nor Roman, but facts shouldn't get in the way of a pompous title. At the Diet, Luther was required to answer regarding his teachings, before the illustrious Charles the V hailing from Spain, the land of fanatical enforcers of Catholicism through the horrors of the Inquisition.

Charles the V and other cardinals demanded that Luther simply recant his teaching or face the consequences. Luther however, had been previously told that he would have an opportunity to explain his side and his journey to the truth he found in Scripture. Once he arrived however, he was told he must only recant or else, knowing probable death awaited him.

Luther, however, had come to Worms ready to pay the ultimate price for the truth he’d found in the Bible of God’s grace given through faith in Christ. Having wrestled through years of trying to find peace with God through dead Catholic rituals, he had finally come into the truth of Jesus’ love, mercy, and grace, through the Word of God.

He had come to a breaking point through ongoing confession of sins and endless dead ritualistic prayers and worship of relics (bones of dead saints that were venerated in Catholicism) along with so much constant fasting he ruined his health permanently. But it all served only to make him feel further from God. But then Staupitz, his superior, made a decision which was done only to rid the monastery of this troubled and troubling soul: Luther was sent away to study the Bible, something that was not, and still is not, the staple of the priesthood.

There in the Scriptures, Luther wrestled with Paul’s Letter to the Romans. He says, “Though I was an impeccable monk I was still a sinner with no confidence my effort could assuage a Holy God. Night and day I wrestled with Paul's letter in Romans until I saw the connection.” Dealing with the phrase “the just shall live by faith,” Luther finally saw that on the cross, Jesus “justified” sinners who look to Him in faith. He came to the revelation that Christ paid for sin; we don't have to pay for it ourselves! All we need to do is believe upon Jesus! When Luther finally understood this, the Holy Spirit opened the doors of the Kingdom of God and he was born again! (Luther's conversion)

Having found the truth and being set free, he was of no mind to turn away from it now though it cost him everything, including his very life. Luther and others like him who stood facing death for the faith are truly heroes of the faith though they may have had obvious flaws and made mistakes at times. 

"Here I stand" Martin Luther before the Diet of Worms
(Pic Bryan Marleaux, Wittenberg, Germany) 

Luther said before the journey to appear before the Diet: “I’ll enter Worms though there be as many devils there [awaiting me] as tiles on the roof.” Once he was before them, Luther rose to the occasion and literally took his stand when he declared the now famous words: “What I’ve written is merely based on Scripture…to go against Scripture and conscience is neither right nor safe, I cannot and will not recant! Here I stand so help me God!”

Luther threw his arms up in the air in the gesture of a victorious knight to the hisses of the Spaniards and the cheers of the Germans, and then marched out of the hall.

Escaping Death

There was a delay in moving against Luther. Frederick the Wise, the Elector of Saxony (Luther’s region), wanted to know if Luther had actually done anything wrong and if not why should he be condemned. With insufficient evidence to satisfy him, Frederick withdrew from the panel examining and deciding on his case, along with another individual who did the same, although a rump of the council went ahead and voted for Luther to be condemned as a heretic.

Frederick the Wise, who stepped up to protect Luther.
(Pic Bryan Marleaux, Eisleben, Germany)

However, during the night, the sign of the Bundschuh had been placed on the door of the Hall at the Diet. This stirred great unrest with the Diet as it was the sign of the peasant workers’ shoe—it signified the peasants’ revolt. The German peasants were ready to rise up in a revolt with riots if Luther was taken into custody. The German public was beginning to rally to Luther's side. As a result, the Diet was thrown into a panic and decided to delay their apprehending of Luther, even though he was now condemned as a notorious heretic. Instead, they would let him return to Wittenberg and apprehend him later when things were calmer.

On his return, however, while passing through the forest, a party of riders came upon him with much shouting and cursing and took Luther, kidnapping him and whisking him away. They rode circuitously all through the night, making sure there were no followers, finally reigning up at an ancient, seemingly abandoned, castle.

At the entrance to the Warburg Castle where Martin
Luther was hiding out for almost a year. During that time he
translated the New Testament into the German Language.
(pic Patrick Marleaux outside Eisenach, Germany)

Frederick the Wise had secretly arranged for Luther to be kidnapped and hidden in the ancient Wartburg Castle in the outskirts of Eisenach. Frederick had become convinced that Luther was guilty of nothing more than returning to the Bible and the teachings of the Early Church. Luther, after all, was in line with the earlier church teachings of Augustine, Tertullian, Aquinas, and many others on many points. His teaching lined up as well with the Church's very own Council of Ephesus in 431 (one of the seven key councils of the Early Church) that had condemned Pelagianism: The concept that man could earn salvation by his good works or rituals or that man could be sinless in and of himself (“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:8.)

Frederick knew Luther would probably never make it home if he didn't intervene. Fanatical, Inquisition-driven, Catholic assassins, would surely be out to get him and and do away with him like they did other reformers!

Thus Frederick, as well as many others, realized that it was the Catholic Church that had departed from its roots in following after errant doctrines, ones it had itself once condemned! Luther was merely returning to the truth of Scripture and early church teaching like in the very first Church Council found in Acts 15:9-11 where Peter and Paul both affirm, “It is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we are saved…”

Luther was holed up in the Wartburg for almost a year. In that time he translated the New Testament into the German language so that all could have access to the Scriptures.

The Catholic Church had forbidden the Bible to even be read or possessed by the common person and forbade it to be in any language other than Latin. If you're going to be condemned as a heretic, you might as well go all the way! Luther went all the way and made a translation of the New Testament from the original Greek that is still used to this very day.

His Bible translation into common German gave access to the Scriptures and changed society in spreading literacy.

Inside the Lutherstube at the Warburg,
the room where Martin Luther translated
the New Testament into German.
(pic Bryan Marleaux outside Eisenach, Germany)

Thank God Frederick showed himself to be truly “wise” by extending a hand to help and protect Luther, and in doing so, he helped to change history! Little did he know in the moment when he stepped up to help a fellow believer, who had stepped out for the truth, that he was actually being used by God to fulfill a prophecy, the very prophecy Jan Hus had made a century ago right befor his death.

Because of Frederick’s intervention, Luther the swan, was never cooked. News of Luther's bravery at the Diet spread and the general German public rallied around to support him while he was hidden in the Wartburg, and the time for being able to apprehend him had passed by the time he returned to Wittenberg almost a year later.

You never know what prophecy you might be fulfilling when you step up to help someone who is serving the Lord, or when you step out to serve God yourself!

To learn more, check out these video playlists on our YouTube channel:

• Reformation Series
• Martin Luther