Quote of the Day

It is not imitation that makes sons. It is sonship that make imitators.

  

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

A mighty bulwark is our God

A doughty ward and weapon.

He helps us clear from every rod

By which we now are smitten.

Still our ancient foe

Girds him to strike a blow.

Might and guile his gear,

His armor striketh fear

 On earth is not his equal.

By our own strength is nothing won.

We court at once disaster.

There fights for us the Champion

 Whom God has named our Master.

Would you know his name?

Jesus Christ the same

Lord Sabaoth is he.

No other God can be.

The field is his to hold it.

And though the fiends on every hand

Were threatening to devour us,

We would not waver from our stand.

They cannot overpower us.

This world’s prince may rave.

However he behave,

He can do no ill.

God’s truth abideth still.

One little word shall fell him.

That word they never can dismay,

 However much they batter,

For God himself is in the fray

And nothing else can matter.

Then let them take our life,

Goods, honor, children, wife.

We will let all go.

They shall not conquer so,

 For God will win the battle

 

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

Peace if possible, truth at all costs.

  

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.  Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved to be steady…  (It) is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point (of attack).

 

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

What use is there, it may be asked, in learning Latin, Greek, and Hebrew?  We can read the Bible very well in German."  "Without languages, we could not have received the Gospel…Languages are the scabbard that contains the sword of the Spirit; they are the casket that guards the jewels; they are the vessel that holds the wine; and, as the Gospel says, they are the baskets in which the loaves and fishes are kept to feed the multitude.  If we neglect the languages, we shall not only eventually lose the Gospel, but be unable to write in Latin or in German.  No sooner did men cease to cultivate them than Christendom declined, even until it fell under the power of the pope.  But now that languages are again honored, they shed such light that all the world is astonished, and every one is forced to acknowledge that our Gospel is almost as pure as that of the apostles themselves.  In former times the holy Fathers were frequently mistaken, because they were ignorant of languages; and in our days there are some who, like the Waldenses, do not think the languages to be of any use; but although their doctrine be good, they have often erred in the real meaning of the sacred text; they are without arms against error, and I feel very much that there faith will not remain pure.

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

Our enemies threaten us with death, if they had as much wisdom as foolishness, they would, on the contrary, threaten us with life.  What an absurdity and insult to presume to threaten death to Christ and Christians, who are themselves lords and conquerors of death!......It is as if I would seek to frighten a man by saddling his horse and helping him to mount.  Do they not know that Christ is risen from the dead?  In their eyes HE is still lying in the sepulcher; nay more - in hell.  But we know that He lives……Many believe because of me, but those alone truly believe, who would continue faithful even should they hear (which God forbid!) that I had denied Jesus Christ.  True disciples believe not in Luther, but in Jesus Christ.  As for myself, I do not care about Luther.  Whether he is a saint or a knave, what matters it?  It is not he that I preach; but Christ.  If the devil hate him, let him do so!  But let Christ abide with us, and we shall abide also.

 

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

1521-1522

In Germany, the Wittenburgers had been infiltrated by so-called apostles, giving new revelation from God discounting the Bible.  And from among their own congregation, a professor named Carlstadt, though rejecting to some degree the false-prophets, was advocating the forced profession of 'Protestantism' or at least its practices(no mass, no statues…etc.), and so abusing the Catholics by destroying the statues of saints, abolishing the mass…etc. In March 1522 Luther has arrived from his exile in the Wartburg castle to speak in the pulpit in Wittenburg for the first time since his exile.  He has returned because he is concerned about what is happening with his congregation:

(the following excerpt is taken from D'aubigne's History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century)His language was simple, noble, yet full of strength and gentleness:  one might have supposed him to be a tender father returning to his children, inquiring into their conduct, and kindly telling them what report he had heard about them.  He candidly acknowledged the progress they had made in faith; and by this means prepared and captivated their minds.  He then continued in these words:  But we need something more than faith; we need charity… What does a mother do to her infant?  At first she

Gives it milk, then some very light food.  If she were to begin by giving it meat and wine, what would be the consequence?......So should we act towards our brethren…permit your brother to drink as long as yourself. 

…The abolition of the mass, say you, is in conformity with Scripture:  Agreed!  But what order, what decency have you observed? It behoved you to offer up fervent prayers to the Lord, and apply to the public authority; then might every man have acknowledged that the thing was of God.

The mass is a bad thing; God is opposed to it; it ought to be abolished; and I would that throughout the whole world it were replaced by the Supper of the Gospel.  But let no one be torn from it by force.  His Word must act, and not we.  And why so, will you ask?  Because I do not hold men's hearts in my hand, as the potter holds the clay.  We have a right to speak; we have not a the right to act.  Let us preach:  the rest belongs unto God.  Were I to employ force, what should I gain?  Grimace, formality, ape-ings, human ordinances, and hypocrisy…..But there would be no sincerity of heart, nor faith, nor charity.  Where these are wanting, all is wanting…

Our first object must be to win men's hearts; and for that purpose we must preach the Gospel.  To-day the Word will fall in one heart, to-morrow in another, and it will operate in such a manner that each one will withdraw from the mass and abandon it.  God does more by his Word alone than you and I and all the world by our united strength.  God lays hold upon the heart; and when the heart is taken, all is won.

I do not say this for the restoration of the mass.  Since it is down, in God's name there let it lie!  But should you have gone to work as you did?  Paul, arriving one day in the powerful city of Athens, found there alters raised to false gods.  He went from one to the other, and observed them without touching one.  But he walked peaceably to the middle of the market-place, and declared to the people that all their gods were idols.  His language took possession of their hearts, and the idols fell without Paul's having touched them. 

I will preach, discuss, and write; but I will constrain none, for faith is a voluntary act.  See what I have done!  I stood up against the pope, indulgences, and papists, but without violence or tumult.  I put forward God's Word;  I preached and wrote - this was all I did.  And yet while I was asleep, or seated familiarly at table with Amsdorff and Melancthon…the Word that I had preached overthrew popery, so that neither prince nor emperor has done it so much harm.  And yet I did nothing:  the Word alone did all.  If I had wished to appeal to force, the whole of Germany would perhaps have been deluged with blood.  But what would have been the result?  Ruin and desolation both to body and soul.  I therefore kept quiet, and left the Word to run through the world alone.  Do you know what the devil thinks when he sees men resort to violence to propagate the Gospel through the world?  Seated with folded arms behind the fire of hell, Satan says, with malignant looks and frightful grin:  'Ah!  How wise these madmen are to play my game!'  But when he sees the Word running and contending alone on the field of battle, then he is troubled, and his knees knock together; he shudders and faints with fear.

Quote of the Day

Then what is a pure heart? In what does it consist? The answer can be given quickly, and you do not have to climb up to heaven or run to a monastery for it and establish it with your own ideas. You should be on your guard against any ideas that you call your own, as if they were just so much mud and filth. And you should realize that when a monk in the monastery is sitting in deepest contemplation, excluding the world from his heart altogether, and thinking about the Lord God the way he himself paints and imagines Him, he is actually sitting—if you will pardon the expression—in the dung, not up to his knees but up to his ears. For he is proceeding on his own ideas without the Word of God; and that is sheer deception and delusion, as Scripture testifies everywhere.

What is meant by a “pure heart” is this: one that is watching and pondering what God says and replacing its own ideas with the Word of God. This alone is pure before God, yes, purity itself, which purifies everything that it includes and touches. Therefore, though a common laborer, a shoemaker, or a blacksmith may be dirty and sooty or may smell because he is covered with dirt and pitch, still he may sit at home and think: “My God has made me a man. He has given me my house, wife, and child and has commanded me to love them and to support them with my work.” Note that he is pondering the Word of God in his heart; and though he stinks outwardly, inwardly he is pure incense before God. But if he attains the highest purity so that he also takes hold of the Gospel and believes in Christ—without this, that purity is impossible—then he is pure completely, inwardly in his heart toward God and outwardly toward everything under him on earth.

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

Truth is mightier than eloquence.  The victory remains with him who lisps out the truth, and not with him who puts forth a lie in flowing language.

 

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

Faith is not what some people think it is. Their human dream is a delusion. Because they observe that faith is not followed by good works or a better life, they fall into error, even though they speak and hear much about faith. “Faith is not enough,” they say, “You must do good works, you must be pious to be saved.” They think that, when you hear the gospel, you start working, creating by your own strength a thankful heart which says, “I believe.” That is what they think true faith is. But, because this is a human idea, a dream, the heart never learns anything from it, so it does nothing and reform doesn’t come from this `faith,’ either.
Instead, faith is God’s work in us, that changes us and gives new birth from God. (John 1:13). It kills the Old Adam and makes us completely different people. It changes our hearts, our spirits, our thoughts and all our powers. It brings the Holy Spirit with it. Yes, it is a living, creative, active and powerful thing, this faith. Faith cannot help doing good works constantly. It doesn’t stop to ask if good works ought to be done, but before anyone asks, it already has done them and continues to do them without ceasing. Anyone who does not do good works in this manner is an unbeliever. He stumbles around and looks for faith and good works, even though he does not know what faith or good works are. Yet he gossips and chatters about faith and good works with many words.
Faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God’s grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace. Thus, it is just as impossible to separate faith and works as it is to separate heat and light from fire! Therefore, watch out for your own false ideas and guard against good-for-nothing gossips, who think they’re smart enough to define faith and works, but really are the greatest of fools. Ask God to work faith in you, or you will remain forever without faith, no matter what you wish, say or can do.

 

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

When the Reformation came, the providence of God raised Martin Luther to restore the gospel of pure, costly grace.  Luther passed through the cloister; he was a monk, and all of this was part of the divine plan.  Luther had left all to follow Christ on the path of absolute obedience.  He had renounced the world in order to live the Christian life.  He had learnt obedience to Christ and to his Church, because only he who is obedient can believe.  The call to the cloister demanded of Luther the complete surrender of his life.  But God shattered all his hopes.  He showed him through the Scriptures that the following of Christ is not the achievement or merit of a select few, but the divine command to all Christians without distinction.  Monasticism had transformed the humble work of discipleship into the meritorious activity of the saints, and the self-renunciation of discipleship into the flagrant spiritual self-assertion of the 'religious.'  The world had crept into the very heart of the monastic life, and was once more making havoc.  The monk's attempt to flee from the world turned out to be a subtle form of love for the world. …once more he must leave his nets and follow.   The first time was when he entered the monastery, when he had left everything behind except his pious self.  This time even that was taken from him.  He obeyed  the call, not through any merit of his own, but simply through the grace of God.  Luther did not hear the word:  'Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as your are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness.'  No, Luther had to leave the cloister and go back to the world, not because the world in itself was good and holy, but because even the cloister was only a part of the world.
Luther's return from the cloister to the world was the worst blow the world had suffered since the days of early Christianity.  The renunciation he made when he became a monk was child's play compared with that which he had to make when he returned to the world.  Now came the frontal assault.  The only way to follow Jesus was by living in the world.  Hitherto the Christian life had been the achievement of a few choice spirits under the exceptionally favorable conditions of monasticism; now it is a duty laid on every Christian living in the world.  The commandment of Jesus must be accorded perfect obedience in one's daily vocation of life.    The conflict between the life of the Christian and the life of the world was then thrown into the sharpest possible relief.  It was a hand-to - hand conflict between the Christian and the world.
It is a fatal misunderstanding of Luther's action to suppose that his rediscovery of the gospel of pure grace offered a general dispensation from obedience to the command of Jesus, or that it was the great discovery of the Reformation that God's forgiving grace automatically conferred upon the world both righteousness and holiness.  On the contrary, for Luther the Christian's worldly calling is sanctified only in so far as that calling registers the final, radical protest against the world.  Only in so far as the Christian's secular calling is exercised in the following of Jesus does it receive from the gospel new sanction and justification.  It was not the justification of sin, but the justification of the sinner that drove Luther from the cloister back into the world. The grace he had received was costly grace.  It was grace, for it was like water on parched ground, comfort in tribulation, freedom from the bondage of a self-chosen way, and forgiveness of all his sins.  And it was costly, for, so far from dispensing him from good works, it meant that he must take the call to discipleship more seriously than ever before.  It was grace because it cost so much, and it cost so much because it was grace.  That was the secret of the gospel of the Reformation - the justification of the sinner.

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Quote of the Day

I can pretty clearly distinguish, between skill and malice, and I set no high value on a malice so unskillful.  To burn books is so easy a matter that even children can do it; much more, then, the Holly Father and his doctors.  It would be well for them to show greater ability than that which is required to burn books......Besides, let them destroy my works!  I desire nothing better; for all my wish has been to lead souls to the Bible, so that they might afterwards neglect my writings....If we had a knowledge of Scripture what need would there be of any books of mine?....

 

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

 "I can pretty clearly distinguish, between skill and malice, and I set no high value on a malice so unskillful.  To burn books is so easy a matter that even children can do it; much more, then, the Holly Father and his doctors.  It would be well for them to show greater ability than that which is required to burn books......Besides, let them destroy my works!  I desire nothing better; for all my wish has been to lead souls to the Bible, so that they might afterwards neglect my writings....If we had a knowledge of Scripture what need would there be of any books of mine?...."

 

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

I am accused of rejecting the holy doctors of the Church.  I do not reject them; but, since all these doctors endeavor to prove their writings by Holy Scripture, Scripture must be clearer and surer than they are.  Who would think of proving an obscure passage by one that was obscurer still?  Thus, the necessity obliges me to have recourse to the Bible, as all the doctors have done, and to call upon it to pronounce upon their writings; for the Bible alone is lord and master.

 

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

The first thing I ask is that people should not make use of my name, and should not call themselves Lutherans but Christians. What is Luther? The teaching is not mine. Nor was I crucified for anyone...How did I, poor stinking bag of maggots that I am, come to the point where people call the children of Christ by my evil name?

 

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

God doesn’t love us because of our worth, we are of worth because God loves us.

 

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

We Lutherans have gathered like eagles round the carcase of cheap grace, and there we have drunk of the poison which has killed the life of following Christ.  It is true, of course, that we have paid the doctrine of pure grace divine honors unparalleled in Christendom, in fact we have exalted that doctrine to the position of God himself.   Everywhere Luther's formula has been repeated, but its truth perverted into self-deception.  So long as our Church holds the correct doctrine of justification, there is no doubt whatever that she is a justified Church!  So they said, thinking that we must vindicate our Lutheran heritage by making this grace available on the cheapest and easiest terms.  To be 'Lutheran' must mean that we leave the following of Christ to legalists, Calvinists, and enthusiasts - and all this for the sake of grace.  We justified the world, and condemned as heretics those who tried to follow Christ.  The result was that a nation became Christian and Lutheran, but at the cost of true discipleship.  The price it was called upon to pay was all too cheap.   Cheap grace had won the day.

But do we also realize that this cheap grace has turned back upon us like a boomerang?  The price we are having to pay to-day in the shape of the collapse of the organized Church is only the inevitable consequence of our policy of making grace available to all at too low a cost.  We gave away the word and sacraments wholesale, we baptized, confirmed, and absolved a whole nation unasked and without condition.  Our humanitarian sentiment made us give that which was holy to the scornful and unbelieving.  We poured forth unending streams of grace.  But the call to follow Jesus in the narrow way was hardly ever heard.  Where were those truths which impelled the early Church to institute the catechumenate, which enabled a strict watch to be kept over the frontier between the Church and the world, and afforded adequate protection for costly grace?  What had happened to all those warnings of Luther's against preaching the gospel in such a manner as to make men rest secure in their ungodly living?  Was there ever a more terrible or disastrous instance of the Christianizing the world than this?  What are those three thousand Saxons put to death by Charlemagne compared with the millions of spiritual corpses in the country to-day?  

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Quote of the Day

…there is a fact that we must never forget; namely that the Reformers are not our masters:  "One is our Master, even Christ."  Luther held opinions which would shock the feelings of Episcopalians, of Baptists, or Presbyterians, or of all together…  The writings of Luther do not make part of the Bible; and he declares himself that he does not wish men to believe in him, but only in Christ.  We must understand the vast difference between the most eminent doctors - Augustine, Wickliffe, Luther, Calvin, Crammer - and the word of God.

 

Jean Henri Merle D'aubigne

Quote of the Day

Part of one of Martin Luther's letters to Philip Melanchthon from June 27, 1530(Melanchthon was at the Diet of Augsburg):

Grace and peace in Christ — in Christ, I say, not in the world. Amen. I shall write again, dear Philip, about the apology you make for your silence. This courier has come unexpectedly and suddenly from Wittenberg and is going to leave at once for Nuremberg, so I must wait to write more fully for another post.

Those great cares by which you say you are consumed I vehemently hate ; they rule your heart not on account of the greatness of the cause but by reason of the greatness of your unbelief. John Huss and

many others have waged harder battles than we do. If our cause is great, its author and champion is great also, for it is not ours. Why are you therefore always tormenting yourself ? If our cause is false, let us recant ; if it is true, why should we make him a liar who commands us to be of untroubled heart ? Cast your burden on the Lord, he says. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him with a broken heart. Does he speak in vain or to beasts ? I, too, am quite often smitten, but not all the time. It is not your theology which makes you anxious, but your philosophy, the same which has been gnawing at your friend Camerarius. What good can you do by your vain anxiety ? What can the devil do more than slay us ? What after that ? I beg you, so pugnacious in all else, fight against yourself, your own worst enemy, who furnish Satan with arms against yourself. Christ died once for sinners, and will not die again for truth and justice, but will live and reign. If he be true, what fear is there for the truth ? .... I pray for you earnestly and am deeply pained that you keep sucking up cares like a leech and thus rendering my prayers vain. Christ knows whether it is stupidity or bravery, but I am not much disturbed, rather of better courage than I had hoped. God who is able to raise the dead is also able to uphold a falling cause, or to raise a fallen one and make it strong. If we are not worthy instruments to accomplish his purpose, he will find others. If we are not strengthened by his promises, to whom else in all the world can they pertain ? But saying more would be pouring water into the sea.

I forwarded your letters to Wittenberg, both that written before and that written after the arrival of the Emperor. For at home they are also troubled at your silence, as you will learn from Bugenhagen's letter, though the fault of their not hearing from you is not, as Jonas says, the messenger's, but yours, and yours alone. May Christ comfort, strengthen, and teach you by his spirit. Amen. If I hear that things are going badly or that the cause is in danger, I shall hardly be able to restrain myself from flying to Augsburg, to see what the Bible calls the terrible teeth of Satan roundabout. I shall write again soon ; in the mean time give my greetings to all my friends.

Quote of the Day

The writings of all the holy fathers should be read only for a time, in order that through them we may be led to the Holy Scriptures.  As it is, however, we read them only to be absorbed in them and never come to the Scriptures. We are like men who study the signposts and never travel the road. The dear fathers wished by their writing, to lead us to the Scriptures, but we so use them as to be led away from the Scriptures, though the Scriptures alone are our vineyard in which we ought to work and toil.

Martin Luther