500 Years of the Reformation (What Do You Know About Luther?)

Tomorrow we celebrate the beginning of the Reformation when Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the Wittenberg church door.  He was baptized when he was one day old on the feast day of St. Martin of Tours (d. 397 AD) and so was named Martin.

St. Martin actually met Caesar Julian (Julian the Apostate) while in the Roman army.   Martin refused to fight and told the emperor "I am the soldier of Christ: it is not lawful for me to fight."  He was charged with cowardice and jailed, but later was released.  Where did this happen?  In Worms, Germany‼  Truly, the Lord is in control of history (Is. 46:10).  Another Martin opposed authority boldly with gospel truth in Worms.

The Renaissance, printing and nationalism all helped make way for the Reformation.   The end of the Little Ice Age helped spread Luther's views to Northern Europe.

Luther's wife Katie had an interesting way of getting her point across:

She was solicitous of her husband and guarded his times of prayer and study, nursed his infirmities, mothered his students, cheered him in dejection, and worried about him when he travelled. They helped each other focus on God, despite life’s troubles. One day, when Luther was depressed, Katie put on a black dress. Luther asked her: “Are you going to a funeral?” “No,” she responded, “but since you act as though God is dead, I wanted to join you in the mourning!”

Erwin Lutzer wrote Rescuing the Gospel: The Story and Significance of the Reformation and says this in the book (p. xiv):

Here is an audio piece by Max McLean where her describes the Diet of Worms and performs Luther's "Here I Stand" speech.  Truth for Life (Alistair Begg) has put out a great booklet on the 5 Solas of the Reformation:

1. Sola Scriptura: by Scripture alone

2. Solus Christus: by Christ alone

3. Sola Gratia: by grace alone

4. Sola Fide: by faith alone

5. Soli Deo Gloria: glory to God alone

What are some of the consequences of the Reformation?  The Pilgrims and Puritans came to America in search of freedom for their faith.  Methodists John Wesley and George Whitefield (d. 1770) had a tremendous impact on the spiritual health of our nation.  Thus, 1517 let to 1776 and the Constitution.  In 1904, the German sociologist Max Weber wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism arguing that hard work and saving your money has a Reformed heritage.

A number of academics have made the argument that the Reformation gave impetus to modern science.  Reijer Hooykaas, who wrote Religion and the Rise of Modern Science, said this:

Modern science arose when the consequences of the biblical conceptionof reality were fully accepted.  In the 16th and 17th centuries science wasled out of the blind alley into which it had got through the philosophy ofAntiquity and the Middle Ages.  New horizons were opened.  The pictureof the world as an organism was replaced by that of the world as amechanism.  It is not generated but made; it is not self-supporting, but itneeds maintenance.

Speaking of science, what did the reformers think of the age of the earth?  Luther held that this planet was around six millennia old.  Hugh Latimer (d. 1555) was martyred by fire for his Reformed faith along with Nicholas Ridley.  Latimer famously told Ridley “we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England as I trust shall never be put out.”  Latimer said that "all learned men" accepted a young earth of around 6,000 years. [1]  John Calvin said that "... the duration of the world, now declining to its ultimate end, has not yet attained six thousand years." [2]

Be sure to get your copy of YES - Young EarthScience today.  It protests against Old Earth Fallacies (OEF) and contends for a youthful world from history, philosophy and science.

Reformation Resources (Books):

The Anatomy of a Hybrid by Leonard Verduin (Church-State issues)

The Torch of the Testimony by John W. Kennedy (Bible-believers through history)

The Anabaptist Story by William Roscoe Estep

Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World by Eric Metaxas 

Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther - Roland Baintan

Reformation Resources (Videos):

Martin Luther - Heretic (BBC)

Martin Luther (1953)

A Man Named Luther

Luther - the Life and Legacy of the GermanReformer

Notes:

1)  quoted in “A Brief Overview of the Exegesis of Genesis 1-11: Luther to Lyell” by David Hall in Coming to Grips with Genesis ed. by Terry Mortenson and Thane Ury (Master Books, Green Forest, AR, 2008), p. 55.

2)  quoted in "Luther, Calvin and Wesley on the Genesis of Natural Evil" by Thane Ury in Coming to Grips with Genesis ed. by Terry Mortenson and Thane Ury (Master Books, Green Forest, AR, 2008), p. 406.