“Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox” (Prov. 14:4).
Martin Luther, (1483-1546), irreversibly changed Christendom when he faced off with an empire at the little town of Worms. Germany. This single event so stirs us that, five centuries later, parents honor his daring by naming their sons Martin Luther. That Martin left his mark is obvious. More biographies and studies have been written about him than any other figure since the apostles of Christ. Though we wince at some of his contributions, and renounce others, still we thank God for the stand he took.
Martin Luther was born in Eiselben, Germany, the oldest son of an industrious miner. This pugnacious peasant went on to become the catylist for the Protestant Reformation, and its most forceful and visible leader. He gave the Bible to the commoner, put worship in the language of the people, and reintroduced congregational singing.
As a university student, Luther was shaken after being almost killed by lightning. Knowing he was unprepared for eternity, he determined to be prepared, entering a monastery of the Augustinian Order in Erfurt in 1505. There he delved into the Bible, but also became a thorough Augustinian. Augustine’s heavy emphasis on predestination, to the point of fatalism, is seen throughout Luther’s writings.
He was widely read for a man of his day, and after being consecrated a priest in 1507, was asked to teach theology at the university level. In 1510, the Augustinian Order sent him as a delegate to Rome. There he was disillusioned and shocked by the corrupt papal court. Disenchanted with the erroneous dogmas in Catholism, from 1512 until his death he used his teaching position at the University of Wittenberg to propound his convictions. As a man with a message, he often forcefully preaching from the Psalms, Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews. While the common people heard him gladly, new light was dawning in his own turbulent soul. The Bible gave him the comfort that his strenuous monasticism could not give, and he was discovering the truth of justification by faith as opposed to Rome’s doctrine of work-righteousness.
By 1517, the three great Reformation principles were emerging: 1) justification by faith alone; 2) every believer a priest with access to God; 3) the Bible is authoritative for all doctrine and practice.
On October 31, 1517, he pounded his Ninety-five Theses to the church door at Wittenberg as a challenge to debate the abuses of indulgences and other Catholic doctrines. This event riled the Roman Church, reaching even the papal court. Events then moved rapidly. While Rome postured itself to squelch his growing influence, his views only became more crisp. In 1518, Pope Leo X summoned Luther to appear at Rome (which invitation Luther refused). In 1519, he formally debated John Eck. In 1520, he publicly burned the papal bull issued against him. In the year 1521 he was excommunicated, and at Worms broke from Rome. From this point on, he turned his attention to the masses crowding to him.
After the initial tumult, Luther did not slack. He translated the Bible into German, affecting the language of the German people permanently. It did for the German what the King James Version did for English. He was not free from prejudice in his translation. In Romans 5:1, Luther translated the verse: “Therefore being justified by faith alone . . .” even though the greek does not require the inclusion of the word “alone.” When a Roman Catholic challenged Luther about introducing the word “alone” in that passage, Luther responded in his all too characteristic way, “It is so because Martin Luther says it is so.”
Luther wrote and/or collaborated on two catechisms, the Augsburg Confession, the Augsburg Apology, and the Schmalkald Articles. These writings had a wide effect, but the real credit for spreading Luther’s doctrines goes to John Calvin of Geneva. Calvin, a generation younger than Luther, was not the charging bull that Luther was. Luther was a preacher, Calvin was the systematic teacher. Despite differences, Calvin was truly a disciple of Luther. His contribution to the reformation was to systematize Luther’s doctrines and to promulgate them across Europe. Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion was to Luther what C. I. Scofield’s study Bible was to J. N. Darby and dispensationalism.
In 1525, Katharina von Bora became Mrs. Martin Luther. She had been a nun for eight years. Learning Reformation doctrines, and finding monastic life insufferably miserable, she fled the convent in 1523. Luther said he married to please his father, to tease the pope, and to vex the devil. Katharina and Martin’s congenial home welcomed three sons and three daughters.
Turning orthodoxy into doxology, his musical bent put a tune to the truth. He composed hymns so that we hear people sing his “A Mighty Fortress is our God” in a hundred tongues.
By 1546, Luther’s health had visibly failed. After mediating a political dispute, he experienced chest pains and died the next morning. He was sixty-three years old. His widow “Katie” remained in Wittenberg, meagerly supported by the Danish king, Christian III. She died in an accident as she was travelling with her children to Torgau to escape the plague at Wittenberg.