Not Intended for Publishing

Here it is the eve of All Saint's Day. The day that Martin Luther posted his 95 thesis on the door of the Wittenberg Church.  This may not be widely know but it was posted for the leaders and members of the church.  When read by members of the community, certain ones from the Wittenberg community published the 95 statements and it was circulated throughout Germany.  Luther by no means took it to the German press himself and sought to get the attention of those attending the All Saint's memorial on that day.  

Reformed Sunday and the Idolatrization of the Saints

In Reformed churches tomorrow, Reformed Sunday will be observed, to commemorate the week that Martin Luther posted his 95 thesis on the door of Wittenberg Church. There is a lot to be said about this requested reforms that Luther and the position Martin Luther took but sometimes too often the man of Luther is idolatrized by Reformers and not enough is paid attention to what he was exactly addressing in regard to the corruption of bishops.  Reformed Sunday can be an great observance in respects to listing items of requests for transformation within churches and seminaries and to be honest much can still be reformed in respect to staying to true to the prima authority of the Scriptures within our assemblies .  But something needs to be said of the idolatrization of the saints in which Protestant themselves are not immune to.  It does not matter if a statue has been made to saints or not.  The true issue whether that there has been an idol set up in our hearts.  The apostle Paul did say to the Corinthians to imitate him in practice reflecting on the full lives of saints is important. But he also emphasized even also to not stray from the teachings of the apostles as well.  Luther definitely can be noted in recovering the apostle Paul’s teaching on justification in Romans but in short neglected an important passage concerning Jews and Israel in Romans 9-11.  Overall, Paul is the better person to imitate.

A Quote by John Calvin

The Jews are rotten and unbending, their stiffneckedness deserves that they be oppressed unendingly and without measure or end and that they die in their misery without the pity of anyone......John Calvin

Balthasar Hubmaier and the Anabaptists

Balthasar Hubmaier was also a contemporary of Martin Luther and one of the early Protestant Reformers that aligned himself with Anabaptist theology.  He was one of the Reformers that like Zwingli sought for the sole authority of the Scriptures to where he advocated a total revamped orthodoxy apart from Catholicism.   Martin Luther was an advocate for the authority of Scriptures but also believed that the Catholic church had strayed from it's pure beginnings.  As a result, Martin Luther did not call for a full departure of the Catholicism which explains as to why he posted his 95 thesis.  As a result, the Catholic church would excommuinate him and also placed a death warrant for him.


 In the beginning stages of the Reformation,  there were zealots like Karlstad and Thomas Muntzer  that advocated a physical resisting and overthrowing the magistrate authorities in order to set up a more biblical one. But others like Zwingli and Hubmaier instead advocated for a steady persisting unlearning process from Catholicism and convincing others to do so as well.  They sought to replace the traditions they grew up with for the pure undefiled teachings of the Scriptures without the use of physical force to existing authorities.


Hubmaier was different from the other Reformers in that he thought that the Scriptures could be use to challenge the existing authorities in how they went about their managed the cities and sought for a more biblical approach.  The primary dispute in this with him and others in the Anabaptist camp was their reluctance to take up the "civil" sword.  As Martin Luther was being protected and accepted by the Germany elites like Frederick the Wise and Phillip of Hess, he began to advise based on Romans 13, that the German authorities have the right to have the sword and to use it to deal with rebel uprisings.  As a result, the Anabaptist leadership began to distrust the leadership like Martin and a rift was developing between the Reformers. Luther would an inability to even remain unified with Zwingli concerning the Lord Supper.  This left the Swiss Reformers to work out issues of like that of infant baptism and the use of the "sword" with the Anabaptist leaders like Conrad Graebel and Balthazar Hubmaier.  The Anabaptist would continue to hold their perspective on believer's baptism over the acceptance of infant baptism the process toward unity was breaking down.  It  also did not help that the process of unity was being disrupted by the unruly zealots that associated with some in the Anabaptist camp.  With pressure by the magistrates to conform to civic expectations, teachings like that of Martin Luther, and the acts of the zealots, the Anabaptists would be generalized with the zealots as troublemakers. Even the great Baptist historian William Estep concludes that Anabaptists were being confused as rebel rousers along with those who followed men like Karlstad and Muntzer.


With their reluctance to the "civil" sword and convictions to their beliefs, Anabaptists pretty much wanted to be left alone to themselves and would settle in various places in Northern Europe.  The  connected their faith identity to those in Hebrews 11 as "those longing for a better country - a heavenly one."  As the issue of how to deal with heretics arose,  the magistrates in Northern Europe were accepting to ideas made in Geneva concerning how to how deal with the teaching of heretics that could damn citizen.   The issue was that the death penalty could be applied because that if such teachings would lead to souls being damned then the death penalty could be justified physically.  As a result, the magistrates in various provinces would apply such tactics on the Anabaptists.

Columbus and His Influences

 25 years prior to Martin Luther's post on the door of Wittenberg, Columbus would discover the new world.  What is interesting in reading about the Inquisition in Spain is that Jews in Spain would find the that new world made it possible for them to leave the oppression in Spain and settle in the New World away from the persecution.  This originally was how the Jews migrate to the New World and eventually settle in places like Argentina.  From some of Columbus's writings, there is evident that his own crew even comprised of some Jews. 

The Influence of the Printing Press and Johann Gutenberg.

If one to consider one of the biggest influences in the Reformation, it was the printing press.  Johann Gutenberg developed the printing press by the end of the 1400's and in its development the printing press began to developed and refined over the decades to come.  By the time of Martin Luther's 95 thesis was nailed to the door of the Whittenberg church, the printing press was able to print out pamphlets quite nicely.  By mid 1500's books were also able to be made to be smaller and more portable.  With the advent of translating the Bible into other languages at the same time, the printing press may be one most overlooked influences in contribution of the Reformation.

Let the Lion Roar!

In hearing about this movie and understanding the about how the Hebraic influence of the faith has been challenged over the centuries, even within churches, this movie aims to recover the Hebraic influences of the faith and how anti-Semitism has developed over the ages. A must see!

Luther's Prayer to St. Ann

Not too many know this but during the thunderstorm in which he swore to God about becoming a monk, that Luther also prays a prayer to St. Ann, mother of Mary to deliver him from the thunderstorm.  Luther does change his approach about the prayers to saints later and it is addressed in his 95 thesis. He states that the saints do not intercede before Jesus but rather we can go directly to him in prayer. 

Luther's Struggle with Rebellion

If you study Martin Luther's writings long enough, you will understand his distaste for rebellion.  In fact the reason why he flips on supporting the Peasant's  revolt is that he begins to see it as an act of rebellion toward the state of Germany.  That act begins to shape Luther's theology toward a more Augustine approach. Luther saw himself as a reformer not a rebel and noted that rebellion was not to be condoned.  Most of the flips and flops in Luther's theology and ideas do show a resistance to actions of rebellion, but it led to him accepting the German state as having God granted authority, a Constantine/Augustinian idea.  It may have been a reason why later he writes to noblemen on how to deal with Jews in his frustration in failing to convert the ones living in Germany.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Another contemporary of Martin Luther was Niccolo Machiavelli  who lived during the same period.  I bring up Niccolo because much of his writings affected the politics of the kings of Europe much like Martin Luther's writings did. In fact I do believe that part of the Reformation owes some credit to the pragmatism of Niccolo.  One thing that is interesting that some may not know about Machiavelli was familiarity of the Scripture and that he comments a section of The Prince on the leadership of Moses and the strategies he used.  He actually has an admiration for Moses.  Too often the wisdom of  Niccolo is seen as wicked with his “the ends justifies the means” perspective but in observation the writing is structured to give kings advice on maintaining sensible rule while dealing with political adversaries.  As Kings would break off from the ruling influence of the papacy, such advice was more considered and would shape the politics of Europe and the Western World from that point on.

31 things you may not have known about Reformation Period and Martin Luther

It is the first of October and thought I would post 31 days about things that possibly was not known about the Reformation and Martin Luther.


The first that may have simple been not known was that Ulrich Zwingli was a Reformer and a contemporary of Luther.  In one sermon, he actually connected the Eucharist to the Passover. Phillip of Hesse, a prince in Germany, hoped that Zwingli and Luther could work together to unite the direction of the Reformation.  The one area that Luther and Zwingli could not get pass was in dealing with the doctrine over the Lord Supper. Luther wanted to keep it literal and Zwingli wanted to treated as a symbolic representation of Christ's Body. This was an impasse that was never resolved by them.