SPARE EVERYTHING BUT THE WORD:
DEREK W.H. THOMAS he Protestant Reformation would not have been possible without the sermon," the historian Harold Grimm wrote. Reflecting on the importance of sermons during the Reformation period, Grimm continued: "Regardless of how the reformers gained their new theological insights, they used the sermon to bring their doctrines directly to their followers in the vernacular and to apply those doctrines to the immediate and practical religious needs of the people.
Since the pulpit was one of the most important means of communicating information in the sixteenth century, the role of the sermon in making the Reformation a mass movement can scarcely be overestimated."
By any standard, Martin Luther had a high view of sermons and preaching.
"When the preacher speaks, God speaks," he once wrote.
2 Reflecting Swiss views expressed in the 1560s by Heinrich Bullinger and others in the Second 3 Luther had something to say to those who did not share this view of preaching: "So the pastor must be sure that God speaks through his mouth. Otherwise it is time for him to be quiet."
4 Elsewhere, Luther put it this way: "The apostles wrote very little, but they spoke a lot…. Notice: it says let their voices be heard, not let their books be read. The ministry of the New
Testament is not engraved on dead tablets of stone; rather it sounds in a living voice…. Through a living Word God accomplishes and fulfills his gospel."
Luther's high view of preaching must, of course, be set in the context of the Reformation as a movement of reform, or change—change both in the content and manner of preaching. In his massive seven-volume analysis of the history of preaching, Hughes Oliphant Old comments: "The classical Protestant
Reformation produced a distinct school of preaching. It was a preaching of reform, to be sure, but it was also a reform of preaching."
6 Old points out that the Reformation did not reintroduce preaching. The medieval church had a great deal of preaching, but "it was a bit like the churches in which it took place: flamboyant and gothic." Old summarizes, "What happened was that with the Reformation came a refocusing of preaching, a rethinking of its purpose and reevaluation of its relation to the worship of the Church."
Perhaps we do not think of Luther, first of all, as a preacher but as a stalwart teacher and defender of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. However, statistics concerning his lifelong preaching ministry reveal a very different perspective. Upon receiving his doctorate in 1512, Luther's life was that of an academic. He was professor of biblical studies at the University of Wittenberg.
As Garry Williams points out, "Luther was never a minister."
8 It is therefore somewhat surprising that Luther preached as much as he did.
From the moment Johann von Staupitz assigned him to preach in the monastery in 1511, Luther preached about four thousand sermons
(approximately 2,300 have survived) during the course of his life, most of them in the town church (Stadtkirche) in Wittenberg. Allowing for a two-year gap in preaching, Luther preached on average 120 sermons a year, or one sermon every three days. In 1528, he preached two hundred sermons. There were three preaching services in Wittenberg every Sunday, the first one starting at 5 a.m. In addition, there were sermons on weekdays and Saturdays. During the Passiontide of 1529, for example, Luther preached eighteen times in eleven days.
The Weimar edition of Luther's works, also known as the Weimarer Ausgabe, contains 122 volumes, of which twenty-two consist of Luther's sermons translated into English (and in some cases, Latin). They are not in German—the language in which Luther preached all his sermons. The process of recording the sermons (shorthand taken down by a variety of scribes) and the translation process means that some of the rhetoric and flow of the spoken word has been lost. The sermons may read much more formally than they were delivered. Something of the passion of their delivery is perhaps absent.
In addition to his own sermons, Luther was also realistic concerning the needs of churches without trained preachers of the caliber he desired. To make up for this, he wrote several books (postils) for other preachers to preach or even read—"expository sermonettes for clergy who could not write sermons of their own."
Reading these sermons (Luther's own and the postils) may convey entirely the wrong impression. The Reformers, generally, did not write out their sermons and read them. Luther entered the pulpit with a Konzept (a short outline containing the "heads" of the sermon) that elaborated on the lectionary text for the day. Since there was little by way of precedent, his students referred to it as 10 They were studied and thought out beforehand for sure, but their delivery was extemporary and immediate, spoken in the common vernacular. Unlike Calvin's Geneva, where one stenographer, Denis Raguenier, took down word-for-word what Calvin said in French (employing a shorthand system), Luther's sermons were taken down by several stenographers. The number of stenographers probably varied. The notes, partly in German and partly in Latin, were then collated and written up in Latin only later to be retranslated into German. Getting a feel for the flow of words is therefore a difficult task. But some things are very clear, not least of which is Luther's absolute commitment to the authority of Scripture.
Commitment to the Authority of Scripture The theological commitments that Luther grasped in the turbulent years between 1512 and 1517, and maintained steadfastly thereafter, included a commitment to the authority of Scripture. For Luther, this meant denying the role given to ecclesiastical tradition, papal pronouncements, canon law, and allegorical interpretations of Scripture.
11 This was, in effect, a commitment to the "literal" interpretation of Scripture. This meant interpreting Scripture according to the rules of literature—history as history, law as law, parable as parable, etc. Since all of Scripture is the Word of God—without contradiction, since Scripture is of divine origin—Luther viewed preaching as subject to Scripture's authority. What right, after all, did any human being have to declare to another that he must conform to this or that, apart from divine authority? The only justification to exercise such control over the consciences of men and women is a divine authority based on the nature of Scripture as the Word of God.
Luther would have agreed with the English Calvinist theologian-preacher William Perkins, who, a half-century after Luther's death, wrote in what might be the very first book on preaching, The Arte of Prophecying (1607): "The Word of God alone is to be preached, in its perfection, and inner consistency. Scripture is the exclusive subject of preaching, the only field in which the preacher is to labour."
The preacher's principal task, then, is to explain and apply the Scriptures.
Not all Scripture is equally clear, and Luther told his students that the exegete/ preacher should treat a difficult passage no differently than Moses did the rock in the desert, which he smote with his rod until water gushed out for his thirsty people.
Keeping Things Simple By far, the most extensive analysis of Luther's preaching is by Fred Meuser in his marvelous summary Luther the Preacher (1983). According to Meuser,
Luther was well liked as a preacher. He "spoke slowly but with great vigor and often had a moving effect upon the hearers."
14 Given what we know about his convictions, it would be hard to imagine that Luther's preaching was dull and devoid of rhetorical passion. It is equally hard to fathom, then, that Luther felt the need to chastise some who did not listen well, saying that some fell asleep and some even snored during the sermon, adding that they sometimes coughed whenever he preached on justification, only to wake up again whenever he told a story.
15 Times do not seem to have changed. All the more reason, then, for the Reformer to keep his sermons relatively simple and straightforward.
Those who have studied Luther's theological works find themselves in deep waters. Luther's theology is complex at best.
16 Concepts such as his theology of the cross (theologia crucis), the doctrine of consubstantiation, and the exact distinction between law and gospel (did Luther advance in his understanding of the so-called third use of the law, as some have suggested?) continue to occupy scholars of Luther to this day. Is it surprising, then, that Luther's preaching was essentially simple and plain? Not really. According to Hughes Oliphant Old,
Luther "made no attempt to be a great orator." Old expands, "[Luther] had none of the rhetorical culture that Basil, Chrysostom, or Augustine had. Luther was a popular preacher with a natural mastery of language. He taught preachers of the Reformation to preach in the language of the people."
17 Garry Williams cites a similar statement that Luther makes in his Table Talk:
In the pulpit we are to lay bare the breasts and nourish the people with milk…. Complicated thoughts and issues we should discuss in private with the eggheads [Klueglinge]. I don't think of Dr. Pomeraneus, Jonas, or Philip [Melanchthon] in my sermon. They know more about it than I do. So I don't preach to them. I just preach to Hansie and Betsy.
Although Luther had been schooled in classical rhetoric as part of the awakening of the Renaissance movement in late-medieval Europe, the Reformer seemed deliberately to avoid its more elaborate affectations, employing in its place a more conversational style.
19 He was, for example, particularly scornful of the use of Hebrew in the pulpit. Though able to converse in both Greek and Hebrew with the best of Renaissance scholarship—scholarship that had triumphed in returning to the sources for meaning (ad fontes)— Luther did not employ Greek and Hebrew terms in his sermons. Williams cites Luther's acerbic comment about Zwingli: "How I do hate people who lug in so many languages as Zwingli does; he spoke Greek and Hebrew in the pulpit at Marburg."
Despite these warnings, Luther was firmly committed to the study of the original languages and urged that all preachers have the same passion:
Though the faith and the Gospel may be proclaimed by simple preachers without the languages, such preaching is flat and tame, men grow at last wearied and disgusted and it falls to the ground. But when the preacher is versed in the languages, his discourse has freshness and force, the whole of Scripture is treated, and faith finds itself constantly renewed by a continual variety of words and works.
On another occasion, Luther is even stronger in urging the use of the original languages:
It is a sin and shame not to know our own book or to understand the speech and words of our God; it is a still greater sin and loss that we do not study languages, especially in these days when God is offering and giving us men and books and every facility and inducement to this study, and desires his Bible to be an open book. O how happy the dear fathers would have been if they had our opportunity to study the languages and come thus prepared to the Holy Scriptures! What great toil and effort it cost them to gather up a few crumbs, while we with half the labor—yes, almost without any labor at all—can acquire the whole loaf! O how their effort puts our indolence to shame.
Commenting on these statements of Luther, John Piper makes the following deduction:
Now that is a discouraging overstatement for many pastors who have lost their Greek and Hebrew. What I would say is that knowing the languages can make any devoted preacher a better preacher—more fresh, more faithful, more confident, more penetrating. But it is possible to preach faithfully without them—at least for a season…. The test of our faithfulness to the Word, if we cannot read the languages, is this: Do we have a large enough concern for the church of Christ to promote their preservation and widespread teaching and use in the churches? Or do we, out of self-protection, minimize their importance because to do otherwise stings too badly?
Luther's insistence upon simplicity of language is, in part at least, a byproduct of the free delivery of his sermons; his sermons were extemporaneous rather than read from a manuscript. This fact alone almost guarantees that the language employed is simpler, ensuring that if a complex thought is uttered, sufficient explanation is given to elucidate it, drawn from (among other things) eye contact with one's listeners that often reveals understanding or perplexity.
One puzzled look from a listener, or clear signs that no one is actually listening, will urge simplicity of language—repeating a thought in different language until the point is made clear.
Perhaps one way to get a grasp of Luther's sermonic style is to attempt an outline of one of his sermons. A sermon on Luke 21:25–36,
24 delivered on the lectionary text for the second Sunday of Advent, 1522, reveals the following outline:
I. The signs of the day of judgment 1. Although manifold and great, the world pays no attention to these signs 2. Whether some will recognize these signs when they come
1. The first class of these signs a. In the secular world, everything has reached its climax b. In spiritual things, everything has reached its climax, especially the abominations of the papacy
2. The second class of these signs a. The darkening of the sun b. The moon shall not give its light c. The fall of the stars d. The people on earth will be in distress and perplexity (further subdivided) e. The roaring of the sea (further subdivided) f. Men fainting for fear (further subdivided) g. The shaking of the powers of the heavens (further subdivided)
3. The third class of these signs II. The comfort Christians have when these signs appear A. How and why this comfort will be given to all true Christians
1. Why believers pray God for the coming of the day of judgment 2. What we are to think of those who fear before the day of judgment
3. The day of judgment will be welcome in the highest degree to believers, but to the godless it will be terrifying in the highest degree
4. What we are to answer those who fear the day of judgment, because they still have sin 5. Who are the best armed for the day of judgment
B. The nature of this comfort C. What moved Christ to impart this comfort D. How the visionary preachers withhold their comfort from poor souls
1. Few people pray the Lord's prayer aright 2. The right and the wrong use of the fear of the day of judgment In the printed form, the sermon was divided into sixty-eight numbered paragraphs for simplicity of reading. The outline looks cumbersome, but in fact the structure is entirely an expositional commentary on the text, similar in many respects to Calvin's preaching in Geneva. Like so many of Calvin's sermons,
Luther's sermons were rarely delivered with obvious transitions from one point to another or the annunciation of a typical three-point form. Indeed, the outline above is not present in any apparent way in the text of the sermon. The distinction of "points" is an editorial imposition on the sermon. This is, possibly, the genius of an outline. Too often, its props and supports, looking and sounding as much out of place as an unfinished building that reveals its steel girders and masonry pillars, artificially distort the flow and sense of directness of a sermon.
That such supports are necessary is all too clear. Sermons that have none do not go anywhere and achieve little. But perhaps, also, traditional sermons can be too dependent upon such devices. Three-point sermons with clever (but often artificial) alliteration, for example, can all too easily appeal to the architectural mind-set at the expense of the deeper level of the conscience and affections.
One central aspect of the Renaissance was a commitment to the study of the original text. To that end, the Renaissance commitment to ad fontes proved a marvelously providential encouragement for the Reformers to study the actual text of Scripture rather than engage in moral and ultimately legalistic outbursts.
Preaching the Bible on its own terms as the inerrant Word of God meant that the Reformers refused to engage in sermons that consisted simply in the opinions of learned men; rather, preaching became an exercise in declaring the meaning and application of Scripture. This was, for Luther, the glory of preaching, for thereby
God's Word was declared. The commitment to expository preaching—opening up what the text of Scripture says according to a series of hermeneutical rules, chiefly that Scripture is self-interpreting and cannot contradict itself—was a necessary corollary of their understanding of what the Bible is and what the If today's preacher, having succumbed to postmodernity's skepticism, can be caricatured as "one without authority," Luther as preacher signified the opposite. Today's preacher has all too often lost confidence in the authority of the Bible as the Word of God and is left with little to say and no authority for saying it apart from prejudice and personal conviction. Western society no longer recognizes the authority of a clergyman, or even the authority of a preacher. Still less does our society acknowledge the authority of Scripture. In a world of moral relativism, today's preacher questions the right of any individual to deliver a monological address that requires repentance and points the way to an exclusive Savior who alone can save. Luther knew no such restrictions. The freedom and conviction he knew as a preacher lay in an unquestioned commitment to the binding nature of Scripture's authority. Meuser cites Luther to this effect:
Some pastors and preachers are lazy and no good. They do not pray; they do not study; they do not read; they do not search the Scripture….
The call is: watch, study, attend to reading…. You cannot read too much in Scripture, what you read you cannot read too carefully, what you read carefully you cannot understand too well … what you understand well you cannot teach too well, what you teach well you cannot live too well…. Therefore dear…. pastors and preachers, pray, read, study, be diligent…. This evil, shameful time is no reason for being lazy, for sleeping, and snoring.
Expository preaching—allowing the text to govern the content and shape of the sermon—need not necessarily be a commitment to lectio continua preaching.
Luther did undertake the latter, preaching almost two hundred sermons on the gospel of John on Saturdays while the Wittenberg minister, Johannes
Bugenhagen of Pomerania (Dr. Pomeranus, as Luther called him), was away in Denmark. These are verse-by-verse expositions of the text of the gospel, sometimes taking only a few verses at a time.
However, Luther also preached catechetical and textual sermons, the former covering essential points of doctrine (particularly the Apostles' Creed) and the latter committed to the lectionary reading for the day at hand.
Catechetical preaching was reintroduced at the Reformation in keeping with a similar practice in the fourth century, largely as a way of instructing those who were about to make a solemn commitment of public profession before the church.
26 Luther's catechetical sermons of 1528, for example, are the first such series recorded for us from the Reformation period and include ten expositions on weekdays over a two-week period. These sermons provided the basis for Luther's Shorter and Larger Catechisms of 1529. The sermons included expositions of the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Apostles'
Creed and explanations of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Five sermons were devoted to the Ten Commandments while only one was given to the Apostles'
27 Given the (false) accusations of antinomianism sometimes made about Luther's understanding of the place of the moral law in the Christian life, this sermonic ratio seems to suggest the very opposite. The fact is, however, that these sermons were given in a very specific context and (perhaps of greater importance) not during the Sunday services, when it was deemed more appropriate to expound Scripture rather than heads of doctrine.
Discouragement in Preaching With the standards that Luther imposed upon preaching, his own as much as others', it is not surprising that he was prone to discouragement. In 1530, in particular, he was disconsolate because of what he deemed as insufficient response by the congregation. In 1528, he warned the congregation at the Castle
Church that he would stop preaching unless he saw more fruit of the gospel. In 1530, from January to September, Luther preached only three times, and two of those were at the express command of the prince. Employing some hyperbole, he declared that had he known in advance what a miserable calling preaching was, twenty-four horses would not have been enough to draw him into it. Preaching, he said, was hard work, "a rotten office, whose misery is such that a person would rather be a swineherd!"
28 In his New Year sermon in 1530, he complained bitterly of the congregation's selfishness. A short time later, he said he would rather preach to raving dogs than to them and that from then on, he would confine himself to the classroom. This gloomy Luther revived after a stay at Coburg and suddenly, without any apology or explanation, he resumed preaching in September 1530. The following year, he was back to his average of Luther believed that preaching was an essential part of his calling as a Reformer, and apart from this sense of calling, "I would not want to preach another sermon to the end of my days."
29 Despite misgivings he often felt and expressed about the effectiveness of preaching, Luther continued to preach. In the same sermon, Luther expressed himself this way:
God says, "You must do this regardless of the consequences to you, you must remain in your office." If you are in the ministry and see that you have rascals and knaves, fornicators and adulterers, and robbers in your parish, you must say, "Since this is my duty, I will point sins to peasants, burghers, and noblemen, and rebuke them for these without paying attention to their complaints when they say: 'Look here, you are defaming me!'" For if I held back, I would make myself guilty of your sin. And why should I go to hell for you? They might retort, "Well, I am not asking you to do this; I am not forcing you." Yes, this may be true…. If I see adultery or other sins in people and neglect to take the sinners to task, God will visit their sins on me…. Do you consider it a good evangelical sermon if I keep silence and let you do as you please?
Luther was a direct preacher, engaging in a battery of rhetorical questioning that engaged his listeners motivationally as much as they did cerebrally. But most of all, it was the gospel of Jesus Christ that engaged him and his sermons.
It is impossible to read his sermons today without hearing a man who loved Christ and understood the truth of the gospel and its relevance for his listeners.
He paved the way for the importance of preaching as a distinctive mark of the If we are to see another reformation in our own time, we will need to preach with the conviction and zeal of Martin Luther. We will need to trust the Bible by the power of the Holy Spirit to do what we cannot—awaken dead hearts and transform lives.
Reformationsgeschichte, 49 (1958), 50.
2. WA, 51:517. Cited by Fred W. Meuser, "Luther as Preacher of the Word of God," in McKim, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther, 136. See also Meuser's definitive volume Luther the 3. See chapter 1 of the Second Helvetic Confession's statement, "The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God." Scholars have made much of this insistence that preaching is the Word of God.
Heiko Oberman views it in connection with the Eucharistic "real presence" in Luther's view of the supper, and David Steinmetz viewed preaching as Luther's "third sacrament." See Heiko A. Oberman,
"The Preaching of the Word of God in the Reformation," Harvard Divinity Bulletin 25 (October 1960): 16; David C. Steinmetz, Luther in Context, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic,
4. Bruno Jordan, "Die Auferstehung Christi von den Toten in Luthers Osterpredigten," Luther:
Mitteilungen der Luthergesellschaft 1995:13. Cited by Meuser, Luther the Preacher, 12.
5. WA, 5:537, as quoted in Arthur Skevington Wood, Captive to the Word: Martin Luther, Doctor of Sacred Scripture (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1969), 90.
6. Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, Vol. 4: The Age of the Reformation (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2002), 1.
8. Garry J. Williams, Silent Witnesses: Lessons on Theology, Life, and the Church from Christians of the Past (Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth, 2013), 190. See especially the chapter "Preaching the Word: Martin Luther (1483–1546)," 189–203.
9. "Martin Luther," in The Collected Shorter Writings of J.I. Packer, Vol. 4: Honouring the People of God (Carlisle, Pa.: Paternoster, 1999), 12. See also The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther.
10. Richard Lischer, preface to Faith and Freedom: An Invitation to the Writings of Martin Luther, eds. John F. Thornton and Susan B. Varenne (New York: Random House, 2002), xxiv.
11. Gary Williams somewhat controversially draws positive attention to Luther's christological reading of Psalm 69, suggesting that it should give us pause to consider what he thinks of as the overemphasis given to grammatical-historical exegesis, or the plain reading of Scripture in our time.
Williams, Silent Witnesses, 190f.
12. William Perkins, The Art of Prophesying (Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth, 1996), 9.
13. Oberman, Luther: Man between God and the Devil, 224.
14. Meuser, "Luther as Preacher of the Word of God," 144.
16. For Crisp summaries of Luther's central thought, see Carl R. Trueman, Luther's Legacy:
Salvation and English Reformers 1525–1556 (Oxford, England: Clarendon, 1994), 54–80; Steven Paulson, Luther for Armchair Theologians (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 2004); Markus
Wriedt, "Luther's Theology," trans. Katarina Gustavs, in McKim, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther, 86–119.
17. Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures, 4:5–6.
18. WABr, 3:3421. Cited by Meuser, "Luther as Preacher of the Word of God," 144–45. A slightly different rendition of this quotation is cited by Williams, Silent Witnesses, 194.
19. Old suggests that he avoided Aristotle and even Augustine in favor of Quintilian. The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures, 6.
20. Williams, Silent Witnesses, 195.
21. Hugh T. Kerr, A Compend of Luther's Theology (Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger, 2010), 148.
22. Meuser, Luther the Preacher, 43.
23. John Piper, The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God's Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2006), 99.
24. The sermon can be viewed online at http://www.martinluthersermons.com/sermons2.html.
25. WABr, 53, 218. Cited by Meuser, "Luther as Preacher of the Word of God," 141.
26. What we tend to call "communicant membership" today.
27. Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures, 18–19.
28. Cited by Meuser in "Luther the Preacher of the Word of God," 146.
29. In the thirty-second sermon on John, preached September 7, 1538. WA, 22:372.
OF THE PASTOR-THEOLOGIAN R.C. SPROUL ugustine… Anselm… Athanasius… Martin Luther… John Calvin… Jonathan Edwards. These are some of the titans, the veritable giants of church history. Each had his own personality, his own emphasis, his own vocation. They differed in personality, style, and even in points of doctrine. Yet there is one point of similarity that they shared. They were all scholars and pastors. All were world-class academicians who, at the same time, served the church as pastors.
There is no disgrace in being a full-time scholar working exclusively in the academy. Such labor can be an enormous benefit to the church. Sound research adds vital knowledge to our understanding of Scripture and the things of God.
For most scholars, however, it is an either/or situation. Either we keep exclusively to the ivory tower or we devote our labors full time to the pastoral work of the church. Rare are those who can be both scholars and pastors.
As a young seminary student, I pondered the ghastly situation of the church in the United States. The influence of liberalism had an iron grip on the mainline churches. It seemed a hopeless task to see any recovery from this malaise. As I studied the writings and the work of the great teachers mentioned above, I saw a pattern emerge, especially from the ministries of Luther, Calvin, and Edwards. I saw that these men were "battlefield theologians." They not only engaged with their scholar-opponents as Luther versus Rome and Erasmus of Rotterdam, or Calvin versus Pigius et al., or Edwards versus the Unitarian and Arminian opponents of his day, but they all took their case to the people. In this regard, they were following in the footsteps of the two greatest theologians who ever walked the earth: the Apostle Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
This I saw as a strategy that God in His providence has used over the ages to nurture, protect, and defend His church. It was the strategy I longed to adopt as my own. John Piper has said that it is necessary for the Christian not only to believe the truth, but to defend the truth, and finally to contend for the truth. For Paul, the battlefield started in the public square and then extended to the ends of the earth.
When we recall the issues that developed into the greatest theological conflict in the history of Christendom, the debates that culminated in the sixteenth century, we see that initially these matters grew out of a profoundly pastoral concern. To be sure, the Ninety-Five Theses posted on the church door at Wittenberg were penned in Latin as a request for theological discussion among the faculty members of the university. But what provoked Luther to request such a discussion? Simply put, it was pastoral concern.
Luther had received word of the indulgences that were being sold by Johann Tetzel, who was laboring both for Rome and for the interests of the Fugger banking clan. Tetzel's traveling indulgence show had the markings of a circus and drew thousands of people. Flush with commissions and bonuses, Tetzel claimed that he had saved more souls through indulgences than St. Peter had through the gospel.
Tetzel's work was carried on outside of Wittenberg. The sale of indulgences became so popular that throngs of people from Wittenberg (including many from Luther's own congregation) joined the multitude that crossed the Elbe River to avail themselves of the newly available indulgences. Impenitent members of his congregation boldly displayed their letters of indulgence to their neighbors and even to their pastor.
This travesty of false forgiveness forced Luther not only to question the matter of indulgences but the whole salvific system of the church, including the treasury of merit itself. Hence, the Ninety-Five Theses were intended for a handful of scholars. Students, however, without Luther's knowledge or permission, took it upon themselves to translate the theses into German, and they distributed them to every city and hamlet in Germany within two weeks. The Reformation was now afoot.
One of the deepest ongoing concerns Luther had as a pastor was to liberate his congregation from the chains of superstition. As people began to leave the Roman Catholic system, they did not expunge from their lives all of their former convictions. This was particularly evident with respect to relics.
The town of Wittenberg boasted one of the largest reliquaries in Germany, amassed by Luther's protector, Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony. Frederick had spent a fortune to gather precious relics from around the world in the hopes that it would make Wittenberg a mecca for Christian pilgrims, thus enhancing the town as a spiritual and commercial center in Germany. From 1509 to 1518,
Frederick's collection of relics had grown to 17,443 pieces with an indulgence value of 127,799 years and 116 days' release from purgatory.
Luther risked the wrath of Frederick by challenging the validity of the use of relics. In the last sermon Luther preached before he died, he stressed the impotence of relics in contrast to the potency of the gospel:
After all, there is preaching every day, often many times every day, so that we grow weary of it…. Alright, go ahead, dear brother, if you don't want God to speak to you every day at home and in your parish church, then be wise and look for something else: in Trier is our Lord God's coat, in Aachen are Joseph's pants and our blessed Lady's chemise; go there and squander your money, buy indulgences and the pope's secondhand junk.
Luther wanted his flock to be fed by the gospel, not the pope's second-hand junk.
As a pastor, Luther was concerned to minister to the souls of his people. He ministered to their grief in this world. He understood the pain of the loss of loved ones as his own soul was wounded by the death of his young daughter. He bore the physical pains of a host of maladies in his own body and thus exuded empathy for the physical suffering of others.
But Luther's chief pastoral concern was that his people would know Christ and His gospel. To this end, Luther carried on a profoundly deep practice of intercessory prayer. He said:
Open your eyes and look into your life and the life of all Christians, particularly the spiritual estate, and you will find that faith, hope, love … are languishing…. Then you will see that there is need to pray throughout the world, every hour, without ceasing, with tears of blood.
Luther's pastoral heart is seen not only in his prayers but most notably in his preaching. He was a doctor of the church, a professor, and an academic. In his role as a professor, his primary task was to teach. There is a clear difference between teaching and preaching. The teacher instructs; he imparts information to his students. But a theologian/preacher can never sever the two roles of teacher and preacher. The great teacher/preachers of history never taught as mere isolated spectators of the past. They combined exhortation with instruction— inspiration with education. In a word, at times their teaching turned to preaching.
In like manner, the scholar/pastor mixes teaching with his preaching.
Luther mirrored this method in his preaching. He was concerned to inform his congregation as well as to exhort it. He insisted that his messages should be clear and simple enough that the unlearned could understand them. He said:
Infinite and unutterable is the majesty of the Word of God…. These words of God are not words of Plato or Aristotle, but God himself is speaking. And those preachers are the most suitable who very simply and plainly, without any airs or subtlety, teach the common people and youth, just as Christ taught the people with homespun parables.
The gospel, the gospel… all for the gospel. This is the love, the task, the vocation of all who wear the robes of the theologian and all who wear the gowns of the preacher. Luther was equally comfortable attired in either.
1. Ernest G. Schwiebert, Luther and His Times: The Reformation from a New Perspective (St. Louis:
Concordia, 1950), 309..
2. E. Gordon Rupp, Luther's Progress to the Diet of Worms (New York: Harper & Row, 1964), 52.
4. What Luther Says, 1084.
THE NINETY-FIVE THESES Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under the oversight of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, &
Lecturer on these subjects at Wittenberg.
Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us, may do so by letter.
In the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1. When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said "Repent," he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance.
2. This word repentance cannot be understood to mean the sacrament of penance, or the act of confession and satisfaction administered by the priests.
3. Yet it does not mean inward repentance only, as there is no inward repentance that does not manifest itself outwardly through various mortifications of the flesh.
4. The penalty of sin, therefore, continues so long as hatred of self, or true inward repentance, continues, and it continues until our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
5. The pope does not intend to remit, and cannot remit, any penalties except those that he has imposed either by his own authority or by the authority of the canons.
6. The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring that it has been remitted by God and by assenting to God's work of remission. To be sure, however, the pope may grant remission in cases reserved to his judgment. If his right to grant remission in such cases was disregarded, the guilt would remain entirely unforgiven.
7. God remits guilt to no one whom he does not at the same time humble in all things and also bring him into subjection to his vicar, the priest.
8. The penitential canons are imposed only on the living, and according to them nothing should be imposed on the dying.
9. Therefore the Holy Spirit through the pope is kind to us, because in his decrees he always makes exception of the article of death and of necessity.
10. Ignorant and wicked are the acts of those priests who, in the case of the dying, reserve canonical penances for purgatory.
11. This changing of the canonical penalty to the penalty of purgatory is quite evidently one of the tares that were sown while the bishops slept.
12. In former times the canonical penalties were imposed not after but before absolution, as tests of true contrition.
13. The dying are freed by death from all penalties. They are already dead to canonical laws and have a right to be released from them.
14. The imperfect spiritual health, or the imperfect love, of the dying person necessarily brings with it great fear; and the smaller the love, the greater is the fear.
15. This fear and horror is sufficient in itself alone, to say nothing of other things, to constitute the penalty of purgatory, since it is very near to the horror of despair.
16. Hell, purgatory, and heaven seem to differ as do despair, near despair, and the assurance of safety.
17. Concerning souls in purgatory, it seems necessary that horror should grow less and love increase.
18. It seems unproved, either by reason or Scripture, that they are outside the state of merit, that is, of increasing love.
19. Again, it seems unproved that souls in purgatory, or at least that all of them, are certain or assured of their own blessedness, though we may be quite certain of it.
20. Therefore by "full remission of all penalties" the pope means not actually "of all," but only of those penalties imposed by himself.
21. Therefore those preachers of indulgences are in error, who say that by the pope's indulgences a man is freed from every penalty and is saved.
22. In fact, the pope remits no penalty for the souls in purgatory that, according to the canons, they would have had to pay in this life.
23. If it is at all possible to grant to anyone the remission of all penalties whatsoever, it is certain that this remission can be granted only to the most perfect, that is, to the very few.
24. Therefore, the greater part of the people are necessarily deceived by that indiscriminate and high-sounding promise of release from penalty.
25. The power that the pope has in a general way over purgatory is just like the power that any bishop or curate has in a particular way over his own diocese or parish.
26. The pope does well when he grants remission to souls in purgatory, not by the power of the keys, which in this case he does not possess, but by way of intercession.
27. They preach man-made doctrines who say that so soon as the coin jingles into the money-box, the soul flies out of purgatory.
28. It is certain that when the coin jingles into the money-box, greed and avarice can be increased, but the result of the intercession of the church is in the power of God alone.
29. Who knows whether all the souls in purgatory wish to be bought out of it, as in the legend of Sts. Severinus and Paschal?
30. No one is sure that his own contrition is sincere, much less that he can attain full remission.
31. As the man who is truly repentant is rare, so rare also is the man who truly buys indulgences. Indeed, such men are most rare.
32. They will be condemned eternally, together with their teachers, who believe themselves sure of their salvation because they have letters of pardon.
33. Men must be on their guard against those who say that the pope's pardons are that inestimable gift of God by which man is reconciled to him;
34. For these graces of pardon concern only the penalties of sacramental satisfaction, and these are appointed by man.
35. They preach no Christian doctrine who teach that contrition is not necessary in those who intend to buy souls out of purgatory or to buy confessional privileges.
36. Every truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without letters of pardon.
37. Every true Christian, whether living or dead, has part in all the benefits of Christ and the church; and this is granted to him by God, even without letters of pardon.
38. Nevertheless, the remission and participation in the benefits of the church, which are granted by the pope, are in no way to be despised, for they are, as I have said, the declaration of divine remission.
39. It is very difficult, even for the most educated theologians, at one and the same time to commend to the people the abundance of pardons and also the need of true contrition.
40. True contrition seeks and loves penalties, but liberal pardons only relax penalties and cause them to be hated, or at least they give a reason for hating them.
41. Papal indulgences are to be preached with caution, so that the people may not falsely think of them as preferable to other good works of love.
42. Christians are to be taught that the pope does not intend the buying of pardons to be compared in any way to works of mercy.
43. Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better work than buying pardons;
44. Because love grows by works of love, man becomes better by doing works of love. By buying pardons, however, man does not grow better, only more free from penalty.
45. Christians are to be taught that he who sees a man in need and passes him by and gives his money for pardons instead, purchases not the indulgences of the pope, but the indignation of God.
46. Christians are to be taught that unless they have more money than they need, they are bound to reserve what is necessary for their own families, and by no means to squander it on pardons.
47. Christians are to be taught that the buying of pardons is a matter of free will, not of commandment.
48. Christians are to be taught that the pope, in granting pardons, needs and therefore desires their devout prayer for him more than their money.
49. Christians are to be taught that the pope's pardons are useful so long as they do not put their trust in them; but altogether harmful if they lose their fear of God because of them.
50. Christians are to be taught that if the pope knew the exactions of the indulgence preachers, he would rather that St. Peter's church should go to ashes than that it should be built up with the skin, flesh, and bones of his sheep.
51. Christians are to be taught that it would be the pope's wish, as it is his duty, to give of his own money to many of those from whom certain hawkers of pardons cajole money, even though the church of St. Peter might have to be sold.
52. The assurance of salvation by letters of pardon is vain, even though the indulgence commissary or the pope himself were to stake his soul upon it.
53. They are enemies of Christ and the pope who bid the Word of God to be silent in some churches in order that pardons may be preached in others.
54. Injury is done to the Word of God when, in the same sermon, an equal or a longer time is spent on pardons than on the Word.
55. It must be the pope's intention that if pardons, which are a very small thing, are celebrated with one bell, single processions, and ceremonies, then the gospel, which is the very greatest thing, should be preached with a hundred bells, a hundred processions, and a hundred ceremonies.
56. The treasures of the church, out of which the pope grants indulgences, are not sufficiently named or known among the people of Christ.
57. That they are not temporal treasures is certainly evident, for many vendors do not pour out such treasures so easily, but only gather them.
58. Nor are they the merits of Christ and the saints, for even without the pope, these always work grace for the inner man, and the cross, death, and hell for the outward man.
59. St. Laurence said that the treasures of the church were the church's poor, but he spoke according to the usage of the word in his own time.
60. Without being rash we say that the keys of the church, given by Christ's merit, are that treasure; 61. For it is clear that the power of the pope is in itself sufficient for the remission of penalties and of cases reserved for his jurisdiction.
62. The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.
63. But this treasure is naturally most odious, for it makes the first to be last.
64. On the other hand, the treasure of indulgences is naturally most acceptable, for it makes the last to be first.
65. Therefore the treasures of the gospel are nets with which they would formerly fish for men of riches.
66. The treasures of the indulgences are nets with which they now fish for the riches of men.
67. The indulgences that the preachers cry as the "greatest graces" are known to be truly such, insofar as they promote gain.
68. In truth, however, they are the absolute smallest graces compared with the grace of God and the piety of the cross.
69. Bishops and curates are bound to admit the commissaries of papal pardons with all reverence.
70. But still more are they bound to strain all their eyes and attend with all their ears, lest these men preach their own dreams instead of the pope's commission.
71. Let him who speaks against the truth of papal pardons be anathema and accursed!
72. But let him who guards against the lust and license of the pardonpreachers be blessed!
73. The pope justly thunders against those who, by any means, contrive harm to the traffic of pardons.
74. But much more does he intend to thunder against those who use the pretext of pardons to contrive injury to holy love and truth.
75. To consider the papal pardons so great that they could absolve a man even if he had committed an impossible sin and violated the Mother of 76. We say, on the contrary, that the papal pardons are not able to remove the very least of venial sins, so far as its guilt is concerned.
77. It is said that even St. Peter, if he were now pope, could not bestow greater graces. This is blasphemy against St. Peter and against the pope.
78. We say, on the contrary, that even the present pope, and any pope at all, has greater graces at his disposal: namely, the gospel, powers, gifts of healing, etc., as it is written in 1 Corinthians 12.
79. To say that the cross emblazoned with the papal arms, which is set up by the preachers of indulgences, is of equal worth with the cross of Christ, is blasphemy.
80. Bishops, curates, and theologians who allow such talk to be spread among the people will have to account for this.
81. This unbridled preaching of pardons makes it difficult, even for learned men, to rescue the reverence due to the pope from slander, or even from the shrewd questions of the laity.
82. Such questions as the following: "Why does the pope not empty purgatory, for the sake of holy love and for the sake of desperate souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a church? The former reasons would be most just, while the latter is most trivial."
83. Or: "Why are funeral and anniversary masses for the dead continued, and why does he not return or permit the withdrawal of the endowments founded on their behalf, since it is wrong to pray for the redeemed?"
84. Or: "What is this new piety of God and the pope, that for money they allow a man who is impious and their enemy to buy out of purgatory the pious soul of a friend of God, and do not rather, because of that pious and beloved soul's own need, free it for pure love's sake?"
85. Or: "Why are the penitential canons, long since in actual fact and through disuse abrogated and dead, now satisfied by the granting of indulgences, as though they were still alive and in force?"
86. Or: "Why does not the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the riches of the richest, build this one basilica of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the money of poor believers?"
87. Or: "What does the pope remit, and what participation in the benefits of the church does he grant, to those who, by perfect contrition, have a right to full remission and participation?"
88. Or: "What greater blessing could come to the church than if the pope were to do a hundred times a day what he now does once, and bestow on every believer these remissions and participation?"
89. Or finally: "Since the pope, by his pardons, seeks the salvation of souls rather than money, why does he suspend the indulgences and pardons granted prior to now, since these have equal efficacy?"
90. To repress these convincing arguments of the laity by force alone, and not to resolve them by giving reasonable answers, is to expose the church and the pope to the ridicule of their enemies, and to leave
Christians unsatisfied.
91. If, therefore, pardons were preached according to the spirit and mind of the pope, all these doubts would be readily resolved. Indeed, they would not exist.
92. Away, then, with all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, "Peace, peace," and there is no peace.
93. Blessed be all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, "Cross, cross," and there is no cross!
94. Christians are to be exhorted to be diligent in following Christ, their Head, through penalties, death, and hell; 95. And thus be confident of entering into heaven through many tribulations, rather than through the false assurance of peace.
1. This text is taken from Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses, ed. Stephen J. Nichols (Phillipsburg, Annotated Luther, The. 5 vols. Minneapolis: Fortress.
Vol. 1: The Roots of Reform. Edited by Timothy J. Wengert. 2015.
Vol. 2: Word and Faith. Edited by Kirsi I. Stjerna. 2015.
Vol. 3: Church and Sacraments. Edited by Paul W. Robinson. 2016.
Vol. 4: Pastoral Writings. Edited by Mary Jane Haemig. 2016.
Vol. 5: Christian Life in the World. Edited by Hans J. Hillerbrand.
Bondage of the Will, The. Translated by J.I. Packer and O.R. Johnson. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2012.
Luther's Works, 55 vols. Edited by Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehman.
Philadelphia: Muhlenberg and Fortress; St. Louis: Concordia, 1955–.
Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings. Edited by Timothy F. Lull.
Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989.
Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings. Edited by John Dillenberger. New Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. Edited by Stephen J. Nichols. Phillipsburg,
Simple Way to Pray, A. Translated by Matthew C. Harrison. St. Louis:
Three Treatises. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1970.
Biography and Analysis Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. New York: Meridian, 1977. Dowley, Tim. Atlas of the European Reformations. Minneapolis:
Godfrey, W. Robert. Reformation Sketches: Insights into Luther, Calvin, and the Confessions. Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R, 2003.
Hendrix, Scott H. Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2015.
Lawson, Steven J. The Heroic Boldness of Martin Luther. Orlando, Fla.:
Reformation Trust, 2013.
Lohse, Bernhard. Martin Luther's Theology: Its Historical and Systematic Development. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2011.
Nichols, Stephen J. Martin Luther: A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought.
Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2002.
Oberman, Heiko A. Luther: Man between God and the Devil. New York:
Pettegree, Andrew. Brand Luther: How an Unheralded Monk Turned His Small Town into a Center of Publishing, Made Himself the Most Famous Man in Europe—and Started the Protestant Reformation. New York: Penguin, 2015.
Maier, Paul L. Martin Luther: A Man Who Changed the World. St. Louis:
Nichols, Stephen J., and Ned Bustard, Reformation ABCs: The People, Places, and Things of the Reformation—from A to Z. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway.
Sproul, R.C. The Barber Who Wanted to Pray. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2011.
Dr. Joel R. Beeke is president of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Mich., pastor of Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation in Grand Rapids, and editorial director of Reformation Heritage Books. He is also editor of Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth and vice president of the Dutch
Reformed Translation Society. He has authored, coauthored, or edited numerous books, including A Puritan Theology (with Mark Jones), Parenting by God's
Promises, and The Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible.
Dr. David B. Calhoun is professor emeritus of church history at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis. He previously taught at Covenant College and Columbia International University, served as principal of Jamaica Bible
College, and was overseas director of Ministries in Action. He is author of The Glory of the Lord Risen upon It, Our Southern Zion, and a two-volume history of Dr. Aaron Clay Denlinger is department chair in Latin at Arma Dei Academy in Highlands Ranch, Colo., adjunct professor of church history at Westminster
Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, and a research fellow for the Puritan Studies Program of the University of the Free State, South Africa. He formerly served as a teaching fellow in church history at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. He is the editor of Reformed Orthodoxy in Scotland: Essays on Scottish Theology 1560–1775.
Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson is Chancellor's Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary and a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow. He previously served as senior minister of First Presbyterian Church in Columbia,
S.C., and as minister at the historic St. George's–Tron Church in Glasgow, Scotland. A popular speaker and teacher, he is author of numerous books, including The Whole Christ, In Christ Alone, The Holy Spirit, and The Sermon on the Mount.
Dr. W. Robert Godfrey is chairman of Ligonier Ministries, a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow, and president emeritus and professor emeritus of church history at Westminster Seminary California. He is a minister in the United Reformed Churches in North America. He is author of several books, including An Unexpected Journey, Reformation Sketches, God's Pattern of Creation, and John Calvin: Pilgrim and Pastor.
Dr. Michael S. Horton is J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California. He is editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation magazine and host of the popular radio show The White
Horse Inn. He also serves as associate pastor of Christ United Reformed Church in Santee, Calif. He is author of many books, including The Christian Faith,
Pilgrim Theology, Covenant and Salvation, Christless Christianity, and Core Christianity, and he has contributed to numerous other books, journals, and magazines.
Dr. Steven J. Lawson is founder and president of OnePassion Ministries. He is also professor of preaching and dean of the doctor of ministry program at The Master's Seminary, executive editor of Expositor magazine, and a Ligonier
Ministries teaching fellow. He previously served as senior pastor of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Mobile, Ala. He is author of several books, including The Passionate Preaching of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Kind of Preaching God Blesses, and Foundations of Grace.
Dr. Sean Michael Lucas is senior minister of Independent Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tenn., and Chancellor's Professor of Church History at Reformed
Theological Seminary. He has written or edited several books, including For a Continuing Church, God's Grand Design: The Theological Vision of Jonathan
Edwards, On Being Presbyterian, and What Is Grace? He is also coeditor of the American Reformed Biographies Series.
Dr. John MacArthur is pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., president of The Master's University and Seminary, and featured teacher on the radio program Grace to You. He has written numerous books, including The Gospel according to Jesus, Charismatic Chaos, Faith Works, and Ashamed of the Gospel. He is also editor of the MacArthur Study Bible, which is available in multiple English translations and has been translated into numerous other languages.
Dr. Scott M. Manetsch is professor of church history at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill. He previously served as assistant professor of religion at Northwestern College (Iowa). He is author of Calvin's Company of Pastors and editor of the Reformation Commentary on Scripture, and he is ordained in the Reformed Church in America.
Dr. Stephen J. Nichols is president of Reformation Bible College in Sanford, Fla., chief academic officer of Ligonier Ministries, and a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow. He previously served as research professor of Christianity and culture at Lancaster Bible College. He is author of several books, including For Us and for Our Salvation, Jesus Made in America, and Heaven on Earth:
Capturing Jonathan Edwards's Vision of Living in Between, and he is coeditor of the Theologians on the Christian Life series.
Dr. R.C. Sproul was founder of Ligonier Ministries, founding pastor of Saint Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Fla., first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. His radio program, Renewing Your
Mind, is still broadcast daily on hundreds of radio stations around the world and can also be heard online. He was author of more than one hundred books, including The Holiness of God, Chosen by God, and Everyone's a Theologian.
He was recognized throughout the world for his articulate defense of the inerrancy of Scripture and the need for God's people to stand with conviction upon His Word
Dr. Derek W.H. Thomas is senior minister of First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, S.C., and Chancellor's Professor of Systematic and Pastoral Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary. He is also a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow. He previously served at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Miss. He is author of many books, including How the Gospel Brings Us All the Way
Home, Calvin's Teaching on Job, Let's Study Galatians, and Praying the Dr. Gene Edward Veith is provost emeritus and professor emeritus of literature at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va. He previously served as provost at Patrick Henry College, culture editor at World magazine, and as professor of English at Concordia University Wisconsin. He is author of more than twenty books, including God at Work, Christianity and Literature, and Reading between the Lines.
Dr. Guy Prentiss Waters is James M. Baird Jr. Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Miss. He is also ordained as a teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. He previously taught at Duke Divinity School and Belhaven University. He is author of several books, including What's in the Bible, A Christian's Pocket Guide to Justification, How
Jesus Runs the Church, and Acts.
Dr. Terry Yount serves as organist of Saint Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Fla., and as dean of Saint Andrew's Conservatory of Music. He earned his doctor of musical arts from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester,
N.Y. He has published reviews, editorial pieces, and articles for and about church music for World magazine, Reformation Today, The Hymn, The American Organist, and Tabletalk.
1. Ferdinand Pauwels, Martin Luther's 95 Theses, 1872. Oil on canvas, 85 x 72 cm. Image courtesy akgimages.
2. Anton von Werner, Luther before the Reichstag in Worms, 1877. Oil on canvas, 66 x 125 cm.
Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany. Image courtesy Art Resource.
3. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther as an Augustinian Monk, 1523. Oil on vellum on panel, 43.6 x 29.8 cm. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, Germany. Image courtesy Bridgeman Images.
4. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther, 1526. Oil on panel. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden.
Image courtesy Bridgeman Images.
5. Gustav Adolph Spangenberg, Martin Luther Translating the Bible, 1870. Oil on canvas. Nationalgalerie, Staatlich Museen, Berlin. Image courtesy Art Resource.
6. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Luther as Professor, 1529. Oil on panel. Schlossmuseum, Weimar, Germany.
Image courtesy Bridgeman Images.
SUBJECT INDEX abandonment, 82 A Brief Instruction on What to Look for and Expect in the Gospels (Luther), accuracy, 197, 199, 200, 201
Acta Augstana (Luther), 128 active, 27-29 Act of Supremacy, 232 Adam, 79, 208-211 ad fontes, 25-26, 271, 274 adiaphora, 242-244, 250, 264 admiration, 214
Admonition to Peace (Luther), 44 adultery, 80, 82 Adversus Jovinianum (Jerome), 76 aesthetic appeal, 200, 201 affection, 85 affections, 274 affliction, 51
Against Hanswurst (Luther), 64, 65 Against the Antinomians (Luther), 129 Against the Heavenly Prophets (Luther), 112 Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants (Luther), 45
Against the Papacy at Rome, Founded by the Devil (Luther), 65 Agricola, Johannes, 129, 153, 238 Albert of Magdeburg, 27 Aleander, Jerome, 37 alienation, 31 alien righteousness, 128-129
Allard, Carel, 213-214, 234 allegory, 106-107, 206, 208, 269 allein, 199 alliteration, 200, 274 "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" (Luther), 47-48, 154, 259
Amsdorf, Nicolaus von, 215, 218, 244, 246 Anabaptists, 63, 114, 119, 164, 169, 250 analogy, 206 anarchy, 101 ancient languages, 194-201, 215
Andreae, Jakob, 230, 249 Anfechtungen, 17, 30, 258n15 anger, 64, 265 Anne (mother of Mary), 16, 17 annoyances, 91 An Open Letter on the Harsh Book against the Peasants (Luther), 45
Antichrist, 121 anti-clericalism, 219 antinomianism, 129, 165, 174-176, 238-239, 276 anti-Semitism, 1 anxiety, 17, 30 Apology of the Augsburg Confession (Melanchthon), 241
Apostles' Creed, 89, 276 Appeal for Prayer against the Turks (Luther), 65-66 architecture, 264 Aristotle, 25, 217 arithmetic, 255
Arte of Prophecying (Perkins), 269 artificial music, 255 arts, 255, 258, 261, 264 asceticism, 84, 165 A Simple Way to Pray (Luther), 61
Assertion of the Seven Sacraments (Henry VIII), 231 assurance, 147, 157-158 astronomy, 255 Athanasius, 29 atonement, 153
Augsburg Confession, 51, 57, 120, 217, 218, 221, 229, 235-236, 239, Augsburg Interim, 221, 243, 244, 246 Augustine, 18, 20, 21, 26, 30-31, 43, 104, 146, 255, 257
Aurogallus, Matthew, 195, 197 authority, 93 of the church, 119-120 in marriage, 82-84 of parents, 86 of Scripture, 202-203, 269-270, 275
Bach, Johann Sebastian, 201, 253, 261-263 Bainton, Roland, 24, 54, 58 baptism, 156-157, 168, 172, 225, 276 bar form, 259-260
Barnes, Robert, 71-72, 231 Battle of Frankenhausen, 45 Battles, Ford Lewis, 131n37 Bavinck, Herman, 127n15 Begbie, Jeremy, 255-256
Beskendorf, Peter, 61 Beyer, Christian, 240 Beza, Theodore, 213, 230 Bible. See Scripture biblical languages, 194-201, 215, 271-272 biblical offices, 173
Book of Common Prayer, 233 Book of Concord, 57, 250-251 Bora, Katharina von, 45-46, 75, 77-78. See also Luther, Katharina (wife)
Brecht, Martin, 53, 54, 59n33, 75, 77, 100 brotherhoods, 239 Bucer, Martin, 27, 63, 65, 213, 219-221, 233, 248, 251 Bugenhagen, Johannes, 59, 62, 215-216, 276
Bullinger, Heinrich, 65, 213, 222, 226-227, 251, 266 busyness, 91 Buxtehude, Dietrich, 261 Cajetan, Thomas, 27 calling, 61, 178-190, 277
Calvin, John, 27, 110, 111, 119, 124, 145n11, 147, 170n25, 179, 189190, 213, 248, 250, 251, 257 Cambridge University, 221 canonicity, 108-109
Capito, Wolfgang, 219 catechetical preaching, 276 catechism, 89, 120, 265 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 142 Catherine of Aragon, 231-232 celibacy, 77, 78, 80-81, 84, 91, 183 charity, 125
Charles V, 36, 37, 38, 50, 56, 240, 242-243 Chemnitz, Martin, 249 children, 56, 85-92 Christendom, 66, 79, 112, 120, 280
Christian life, 157, 158, 185-189, 239 Christoph, Duke of Württemberg, 249 church, 170-176, 181 authority of, 119-120 marks of, 71 spiritual nature of, 63
Chytraeus, David, 249 Cicero, 236 circumcision, 137, 138 civil government, 182, 225 clarity, of Scripture, 104-105, 120, 203-204
Clark, R. Scott, 124n3, 129 classical quadrivium, 255 Cochlaeus, Johann, 201 Collegium Biblicum, 198 Colloquy of Ratisbon, 229
Comfort for Women Who Have Had a Miscarriage (Luther), 61-62 commandments, 205 commentaries, 202, 220 common grace, 119 "common order of Christian love", 181, 182 community singing, 258 companionship, 84 compromise, 244 condemnation, 150 condign merit, 125, 149 confession, 188 confessionalization, 239-241
Confessions (Augustine), 30-31 Confutation, 240-241 congregational singing, 253 congruent merit, 149 conscience, 28, 38, 165, 166, 238, 274 consensus, 120, 226
Consensus Tigurinus, 227, 229 Constance, 219 consubstantiation, 50, 270 controversy, 124-125, 214, 242-244 conversion, 27, 245, 249-250 cooperation, 144, 145, 149, 218
Council of Constance, 101, 104 Council of Florence, 76 Council of Trent, 102, 233, 243 councils, 171 Cranmer, Thomas, 221, 232-234 credentials, 117, 193
Cromwell, Thomas, 233 crusade, 20-21 crypto-Calvinists, 230, 236, 248 culture, 182 Damian, 79-80 darkness, 15 da Vinci, Leonardo, 23 day of judgment, 68, 125, 138 death, 70-71, 87 debauchery, 18-19
De Bono Conjugali (Augustine), 76 December Testament, 201-202 De Institutione Musica (Boethius), 255 del Sarto, Andrea, 23 depression, 46, 47, 54, 70 des Prez, Josquin, 254, 264 devil. See Satan dietary laws, 138
Diet of Augsburg, 50, 68, 155n44, 217 Diet of Nuremberg, 39, 40 Dietrich, Viet, 155n44 discipleship, 92 discipline, 89-90, 173 discouragement, 46, 72, 276-277 disillusionment, 19 division, 214 divorce, 82 doctrine, 61, 120, 143, 276 double grace, 133 drunkenness, 60
Dunn, James D.G., 137n55 Eastern Orthodox Church, 121 ecclesia sancta catholica, 171 Ecclesiastical Ordinances (Calvin), 228
Eck, Johann, 29, 35, 37, 100, 101, 200, 223, 237, 240 economy, 182 ecumenical councils, 171 ecumenical creeds, 120 Edwards, Jonathan, 279, 280
Edwards, Mark U., 53, 64, 65 Eisleben, 13-14, 15-16 emotions, 256, 262 Emser, Jerome, 200 emulation, 214 enemies, 3, 63 English theologians, 231-234
Enlightenment, 2, 116 enthusiasm, 105, 112, 114-115, 116, 117, 119, 256 Epitome, 249 equality, 83 Erasmus, Desiderius, 2, 3, 22, 24, 38, 41-42, 63, 64, 65, 101-102,
107, 116, 120, 144n7, 146, 148, 150, 197, 203, 204, 223, 224 Erfurt, 16-18 eschatology, 206 Eucharist, 16 evangelicalism, 117 evangelism, 188
Eve, 79, 208-211 ex cathedra, 102-103 excommunication, 121 exegesis, 105-110, 201-211, 215 expository preaching, 274-276
Exsurge Domine (Leo X), 30, 35 extemporaneous sermons, 272 facere quod in se est, 144, 145, 147 faith, 4, 28, 128, 139, 207 as alone, 150-151 and baptism, 168 and law, 238-239 and love, 185 fall, 208-211 false forgiveness, 280-281 family life, 85-92 fanatics, 113-114, 226
Farel, William, 228 fast days, 239 fatherhood, 182 feast days, 239 Ferdinand, 112, 240 fides caritate formata, 136, 145, 151n30 fides informis, 145 folklore, 2 forgiveness, 155, 166-167, 280-281 formed faith, 136
Formula of Concord, 230, 248-251 Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, 22, 23, 30, 36, 46-47, 55, 57, 65, 99, Freedom of the Will (Erasmus), 41, 101, 104-105, 148 free will, 42-44, 104, 203, 245-246, 249-250
Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 219 French humanism, 227 friendship, 84 Gaffin, Richard B., 131n36, 134 Geistliche Gesangbuch, 259 general revelation, 119 generosity, 88
Genevan Catechism, 228 Genevan theologians, 227-230 geometry, 255 George, Duke of Saxony, 55, 200 German Bible, 8, 39, 55, 58, 194-201
German language, 101, 194, 196, 197-198, 260 German Mass, 259 glory, 26, 156 Gnesio-Lutherans, 218, 236, 244, 249 God character of, 104, 155 image of, 258 love of, 183 promises of, 161-162, 205, 211 providence of, 180-182, 280 righteousness of, 28, 99, 146 sovereignty of, 147-148 will of, 162-163 goodness, 158 good works, 88, 127, 129, 151, 165, 179, 182-185, 239 gospel, 28-29, 121, 155, 163-167, 205, 216, 217, 270, 282
Gospel of James, 16 grace, 158, 258n15 cooperation with, 144, 145, 149, 218 as "full", 21 as prevenient, 246 Greek New Testament, 24, 38, 107
Gregorian chants, 259 Gregory the Great, 120-121 Grenz, Stanley, 118-119 Grigny, Nicolas De, 261 Gritsch, Eric W., 64, 67 guilt, 141, 152
Guttenberg, Johannes, 97 Hamilton, Patrick, 46 Heidelberg Disputation, 219 Henry VIII, 71-72, 231-232 heresy, 115, 155, 226 hermits, 184 heroic method, 268
Hesshus, Tilemann, 230 holiness, 176, 181, 182 Holy Roman Empire, 36, 38, 196, 215 Holy Spirit illumination of, 110 indwelling of, 239 internal testimony of, 113 power of, 111 regeneration of, 245, 249-250 renewal of, 129 and sanctification, 175 work of, 246-247 homo incurvatus in se, 144, 147 honor, 86-87 hospitality, 88 household, 181, 182 housekeeping, 81, 88 humana, 255 humanism, 197, 216, 219, 223, 224, 227 humanities, 255 human will, 43-44, 217 humor, 22
Hus, Jan, 29, 36, 101, 213 hymns, 47-48, 62, 112, 264 Icones (Beza), 230 idealism, 219 identity, 138 idolatry, 224 illness, 3, 54, 69-70, 73, 195 illumination, 110
Illyricus, Matthias Flacius, 218 image of God, 258 immorality, 60, 77 impatience, 1 incurvatus in se, 144 individualism, 116-117 indulgences, 20-21, 23, 24, 142-144, 280 infant baptism, 225 infused righteousness, 134
Innocent II (Pope), 76 Institutes of the Christian Religion (Calvin), 110, 131, 137, 145n11, 170n25, 189, 228 institutions, 164, 177 instrumentalis, 255 instrumental music, 253 intercessory prayer, 282 interpretation, of Scripture, 105-110, 201-211 intimacy, 85 invisible church, 63 inward experience, 113, 118, 163, 170, 224, 262
Japan Bach Collegium, 263 Jesus Christ as a gift, 207 as alone, 151-153 centrality of, 108-110 death of, 139 natures of, 224, 250 on the Old Testament, 204-205 promises of, 161-162 righteousness of, 128-129, 134 union with, 132-137, 151-153, 156-157 work of, 162-163
John Frederick of Saxony, 45, 240, 241, 242 Jonas, Justus, 14, 59, 74, 215 Jones, Brandon, 189 joy, 85, 157-158, 257 Judaism, 137 judgment, 68, 125, 138, 150, 208-209
Julius II (Pope), 18, 22 Junker Jorg, 16, 38 justification, 35, 42, 109, 111, 123-140, 237 Karlstadt, Andreas Bodenstein von, 29, 98, 100, 101, 112-113, 226 kindness, 90
Kittelson, James M., 64 Korner, Christopher, 249 language, 272 Large Catechism, 49, 62, 161, 170n25, 276 Latin Vulgate, 97, 107, 144, 196-197, 210 law, 109, 129-130, 147n19, 153, 155, 163-167, 174, 205, 206, 217,
Lazareth, William, 75 lectio continua, 275-276 Lectures on Genesis (Luther), 59 Leipzig Disputation, 100, 223, 237 Leipzig Interim, 218, 243
Leo X (Pope), 22-23, 30, 35, 231 Leupold, Ulrich, 85 liberalism, 279 Liberal Protestantism, 116 Lindsay, Thomas, 36 literalism, 34, 50, 59, 106-108, 206, 269
Loci Communes (Melanchthon), 217, 236, 237, 245, 246, 249 Loci Theologici (Chemnitz), 249 "Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Thy Word" (Luther), 112
Lord's Prayer, 89, 276 Lord's Supper, 49-50, 169-170, 172-173, 217-218, 222, 224-227, 229, 247-248, 276 love, 84, 92-93, 145, 183, 185
Luder, Hans (father), 15 Luder, Margarethe (mother), 15 Lufft, Hans, 195 lust, 80 Lutheranism, 129, 147, 215, 221, 224, 253, 262
Luther, Elizabeth (daughter), 86, 195 Luther, Hans (son), 47, 56, 85, 195 Luther, Katharina (wife), 45-46, 47, 55-56, 59, 65, 70, 73, 85, 88,
Luther, Magdalene (daughter), 70-71, 86, 91 Luther, Margaret (daughter), 56, 86 Luther, Martin as biblical scholar, 193-212 death of, 14, 73-74 flaws of, 1-4 and justification, 125-130 on music, 252-265 as preacher, 266-278
Luther, Martin Jr., 86 Machiavelli, Niccolo, 23 manducatio indignorum, 220, 227, 229 manna, 180-181 manuscript, 272 Marburg Colloquy, 50, 155n44, 220, 226, 228, 248 marriage, 55-56, 75-85, 185, 186-187 as a sacrament, 76 authority in, 82-84 dangers of, 81-82 health of, 84-85 martyrdom, 71-72, 186
Mass, 223, 225, 244, 259 McLoughlin, William, 117 means of grace, 119 Meistersingers, 254, 259 melancholy, 1 Melanchthon, Philip, 1, 47, 48, 50-51, 57, 62, 64, 65, 87, 91, 104,
120, 194, 195, 197, 213, 216-218, 222, 235-241, 243-248 Mendelssohn, Felix, 262-263 mental illness, 3 mercy, 158 merit, 125, 281
Meuser, Fred, 270, 275 Michelangelo, 23 miscarriage, 90 misogyny, 79 monasticism, 16-18, 181, 184, 188, 190, 194, 239, 254
Mortiz, Duke of Saxony, 242, 243 motherhood, 182 Muller, Richard, 133 mundana, 255 Müntzer, Thomas, 101, 113-114 Musculus, Andreas, 249
Musculus, Wolfgang, 214, 221-222, 228 music, 41, 47-48, 62, 112 mysticism, 118 natural music, 255 neighbors, 183-185 New Perspective on Paul, 125, 137-139, 150-51n27
New Testament, 58, 108, 194-195, 204, 231 Ninety-Five Theses, 8, 24-25, 100, 124, 143-144, 160 nonessential matters, 243-244 novelty, 103, 120, 176 obedience, 183, 187
Oberman, Heiko A., 54n3, 59, 74, 153n38, 267n3 Oecolampadius, Johannes, 63, 213 offices, 173 oikonomia, 182 Old, Hughes Oliphant, 267, 270
Old Testament, 58, 108, 195, 204-205 On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church (Luther), 30, 34, 76, 143, 215-216 On the Bondage of the Will (Luther), 42, 65, 101, 105, 147-148, 244-245
On the Councils and the Church (Luther), 62-63, 71, 161, 171 On the Freedom of a Christian (Luther), 30, 35, 151, 152, 185, 205
On the Jews and Their Lies (Luther), 66-67 opposition, 169 ordinary, 189 ordinary meaning, 106-108 ordo salutis, 144-145, 147 organ, 264
Origen, 104, 106 original languages, 194-201, 215, 271-272 original sin, 20, 28, 91, 126-127, 245 orthodoxy, 262 Osiander, Andreas, 133-134, 232 outline, 273-274 outward, 163, 170, 224
Ozment, Steven, 125-126 Pachelbel, Johann, 261 pacifism, 114 Packer, J.I., 42 pain, 80 painting, 255, 264 papacy, 18, 21, 29, 33-34 papal infallibility, 103n9 parents, 86 passive, 27-29, 245
Paul, 26, 28, 137-139, 183, 186, 199 Paul III (Pope), 112 peace, 162 Peasants' War, 44-45, 113-114 Pelikan, Jaroslav, 63 penance, 20, 24, 144
Perkins, William, 213, 269 persecution, 71 perseverance, 52, 69 pessimism, 68 Pfeffinger, Johann, 246 Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, 50, 242
Philippists, 218, 236, 241, 244, 249, 250 Philo, 106 philosophy, 217, 237 pietism, 262 piety, 89, 111, 117, 119, 224 pilgrimage, 177, 239
Piper, John, 272, 280 plagiarism, 200 Platonism, 224 poetry, 255, 264 polemical works, 1, 33-36, 63-67, 202, 220, 242 politics, 67-68 polyphony, 265 popular songs, 254 postmodernism, 275 poverty, 183 prayer, 282 preaching, 40-41, 59-61, 119, 164, 177, 193-194, 215, 266-278, 282 predestination, 127, 217, 245 presumption, 125 prevenient grace, 246 pride, 265 priesthood of all believers, 34, 101, 187 promises, of God, 161-162, 205, 211
Protestants, 169, 214, 240 providence, 180-182, 280 pure holiness, 182 Puritans, 190 quadrivium, 255 Raguenier, Denis, 269
Raphael, 23 readability, 201 rebellion, 44-45, 262 recantation, 234 reconciliation, 31 redemption, 210 Reformation, 10, 138, 179, 267 regeneration, 131, 133 relativism, 275 relics, 22, 23, 177, 281
Renaissance, 271, 274 repentance, 24, 131, 238-239 resurrection, 210 Reuchlin, Johannes, 236 Rhau, Georg, 252, 253, 256 rhyme, 200 righteousness, 28, 99, 127-129, 139, 146 rituals, 184
Roman Catholic Church, 121, 169, 250 on indulgences, 142 on priesthood, 187 superstitions of, 2 on translation, 199 on vernacular Bibles, 196
Roof, Wade Clark, 118 rosaries, 239 sacramentarian controversy, 247-248, 250 sacraments, 34, 167-170, 225, 247-248 sacrifice, 186, 187
Sadoleto, Jacob, 229 salvation, 14, 20, 42, 138, 143, 144-145 sanctification Calvin on, 131-133 family life as, 85 growth in, 179 and Holy Spirit, 174 vs. justification, 127, 135, 140
Sanctus, 259 sarcasm, 22 Satan, 2, 69, 78, 80, 81, 153-155, 208-211 scala sancta, 19 scatology, 1 Schaff, Philip, 33, 46, 48, 49
Scheidt, Samuel, 260 schism, 103, 120 Schlaginhaufen, John, 156 Schmalkaldic League, 241 Schmalkaldic War, 92, 218 Schütz, Heinrich, 260
Schwabach Articles, 240 Schwenckfeld, Caspar, 65, 226 Scripture, 172 authority of, 202-203, 269-270, 275 clarity of, 104-105, 120, 203-204 interpretation of, 105-110, 201-211 nature of, 104 preaching of, 110-116 sufficiency of, 105 translation of, 8, 38-39, 55, 58, 116, 194-201
Second Diet of Speyer, 240 Second Great Awakening, 117 Second Helvetic Confession, 227, 267 Second Kappel War, 226 secularism, 190 self-awareness, 33 self-deception, 125 self-denial, 186 self-fulfillment, 186-187 selfishness, 277 self-righteousness, 166
Selnecker, Nikolas, 230, 249 semi-Pelagianism, 41, 101, 149, 246 Senfl, Ludwig, 254 sensuous music, 257 sensus literalis, 106-108 sentimentalism, 262
September Testament, 195, 201 sermons, 40-41, 59-61, 177, 193-194, 202, 268-278 service, 184-185 sexuality, 75-85 shame, 80
Short Confession of the Holy Sacrament (Luther), 226 sickness, 46-47, 69-70, 73 simplicity, 260, 270-274 sin, 152, 208 Sixty-Seven Articles, 223 skepticism, 275
Smalcald Articles, 57, 63, 126, 241 Small Catechism, 49, 62, 89, 183, 188, 276 sobriety, 256 society, 182 sola fide, 36, 100, 118, 150-151, 217 sola gratia, 217 sola Scriptura, 26, 38, 100, 101-105, 118, 216
Solid Declaration, 249 soli Deo gloria, 100 solus Christus, 100, 151-153 songbook, 41 sorcery, 2 southern German theologians, 218-222 sovereignty, of God, 147-148
Spalatin, George, 2 special revelation, 119 spiritual warfare, 69 stained glass, 264 state, 181 Statute of Six Articles, 233
Staupitz, Johann von, 18, 98, 99, 147, 268 Steinmetz, David, 267n3 stenographers, 269 St Matthew Passion (Bach), 201, 262-263
Strasbourg, 219-220 submission, 82-84 suffering, 69-72, 121-122, 174-176, 186 sufficiency, of Scripture, 105 Suleiman the Magnificent, 112 simul iustus et peccator, 156 supererogation, 21 superstition, 2, 167, 257, 281
Symphoniae Iucundae (Rhau), 252 synergistic controversy, 244-247 Table Talk, 3-4, 46, 59, 98, 115, 156, 271 Tauler, John, 156 teaching, 282 temptation, 91
Ten Commandments, 86, 89, 173, 174, 175, 183, 188 tentatio, 51 Tetzel, Johann, 23, 27, 142, 280 That No One Should Live for Himself but Others (Bucer), 219 theology of glory, 26, 156 theology of the cross, 156, 157, 270 third use of the law, 166, 228, 239
Thomas Aquinas, 106, 219 Torgau Articles, 240 total depravity, 130, 147 To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (Luther), 30, 34, 57, 68
Tower Experience, 126 translation, 8, 38-39, 55, 58, 116, 194-201 transubstantiation, 34, 49-50, 243 Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (Melanchthon), 104 trials, 51 tropological meaning, 206
Twenty-Eight Theses, 25-27 Tyndale, William, 39, 231 ubiquity, 218, 227, 229 unformed faith, 145 union with Christ, 132-137, 151-153, 156-157 unity, 120, 222
Univeristy of Tübingen, 249 University of Heidelberg, 219 University of Leipzig, 246 University of Wittenberg, 59, 99, 215, 236-237, 249, 267-268 van der Walt, B.J., 76
Vatja, Vilmos, 187 verbum externum, 111 Vermigli, Peter Martyr, 233 victory, 210-211 Vivaldi, 261 vocation, 178-190 Vulgate, 97, 107, 144, 196-197, 210
Warfield, B.B., 20, 42 Wartburg Castle, 7-8 way of salvation, 144-145 Weimarer Ausgabe, 268 Wengert, Timothy, 238 Westphal, Joachim, 229, 230, 248
Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague (Luther), 47 White Horse Tavern, 231, 232 Williams, Garry, 268, 271 Wingren, Gustaf, 92, 179n1, 183
Wittenberg, 7-8, 13, 20-25 Wittenberg Concord, 218, 220, 222, 226, 248 Wittenberg theologians, 214-218 Wolsey, Thomas, 3, 231, 232 women, 59, 76-77, 78-79
Scripture working-class, 258 world, 178-179 Worms, 30-31, 36-38 worship, 173-174 Wycliffe, John, 196, 213 xenophobia, 1 Zurich theologians, 222-227
Zwickau prophets, 101 Zwinglianism, 221, 250 Zwingli, Huldrych, 50, 63, 213, 218, 220, 222-226, 232-233, 251, © 2016 by R.C. Sproul and Stephen J. Nichols
Published by Reformation Trust Publishing a division of Ligonier Ministries 421 Ligonier Court, Sanford, FL 32771 Printed in York, Pennsylvania
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Sproul, R. C. (Robert Charles), 1939-2017, editor.
Title: The legacy of Luther / edited by R.C. Sproul and Stephen J. Nichols; foreword by John MacArthur.
Description: Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016013456 | ISBN 9781567697100 Subjects: LCSH: Luther, Martin, 1483-1546.
Classification: LCC BR333.3.L44 2016 | DDC 284.1092--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016013456 This digital document has been produced by Nord Compo.