Tag Archives: Martin Luther

The Protestant Reformation? What’s that?

Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms

Modern, American Christians are woefully ignorant of their Church history.  I should know – I’m one of them.  For example, I didn’t know until I was in college (or I don’t remember knowing) that October 31 is not merely Halloween, but far more importantly it is known as Reformation Day, commemorating the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of Wittenburg Castle on October 31, 1517, and sparked the Protestant Reformation.  I’d be curious to know, and maybe even disheartened, how many Protestant churches will meet on this day – Sunday – and not even mention this key moment in their history and heritage, but oddly enough will talk at length about Halloween.  (Incredibly, a few years ago I had a friend in a Baptist church tell me that he wasn’t a Protestant because he had never been a Catholic!)

Well, there are many resources on the web now where we can learn about Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, but there’s one in particular that I’ll point out.  At the 1996 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors John Piper gave a presentation on Martin Luther called Martin Luther: Lessons from His Life and Labor, and you can read his text and listen to his message by following that link.

(Regarding Halloween and Christianity, I wrote this post last year at about this same time.)

Is the Bible the Word of God? Part 2: Martin Luther on hearing from God in the Bible

Martin Luther had a lot to say about the Bible, and this quote is one example.  The term “Word” implies communication, and in this case we’re talking about the Word of (or from) God.  So how do we hear God’s Word to us?  Here’s Luther’s answer:

They . . . desire to know who he [God] is and not to regard what he says, while he desires them first to listen; then they will know who he is.  The rule is: Listen and allow the Word to make the beginning; then the knowing will nicely follow.  If, however, you do not listen, then you will never know anything.  For it is decreed: God will not be seen, known, or comprehended except through his Word alone.  Whatever, therefore, one undertakes for salvation apart from the Word is in vain.  God will not respond to that.  He will not have it.  He will not tolerate it any other way.  Therefore, let his Book, in which he speaks with you, be commended to you; for he did not cause it to be written for no purpose.  He did not want us to let it lie there in neglect, as if he were speaking with mice under the bench or with flies on the pulpit.  We are to read it, to think and speak about it, and to study it, certain that he himself (not an angel or a creature) is speaking with us in it.