I think that Luther was a well meaning man of faith, but he greatly feared hell, so much so that he ended up, slowly at first, modifying the teachings of the Church to suit himself and make himself more comfortable. In the end, he deceived himself and many others.
And I must stress, that even at the end of his life, I believe he was a man of faith and a true follower of Christ, however deeply in error he may have been.
Sorry George, I don’t. I think his inspiration came from a secret place.
It was in the cold winter of 1518- 1519 when Luther found his fiduciary faith of sola fides. It has been described by many outside the Church as the single most edifying concept in modern Christianity. And it all took place in the Tower of the Monastery. It seems there was single epiphany that sits in the forefront of modern history leading to the renting of the church. As ironic as this epiphany will turn out to be, it will eventually flush Christian insight into a new era where a man who saw himself as the NEW PHROPHIT JOHN. Repent, Repent is the cry bringing fourth tangible results. Not the battle cry but the tangible results are what seem odoriferous to Catholics. The epiphany came after hours of sitting in anguish; a special illumination came to Luther from God, so he thought as he grunted his studies, and consumed with his mission. This is a long ago told but forgotten story, until…In the wrings of Luther himself we can trace the time, the city, and the location of his epiphany. I’ve said many times, God has an ironic sense of humor, sometimes plain and simple, sometimes, if we remember Job, somewhat morbid.
It seems that Martin Luther was moved with the knowledge that there was absolute assurance of salvation by what we’ve come to know as ‘faith alone’. Not, that the grace of faith is salvific but it provides assurance, not just the type of assurance of a confidant faith, but assurance of, so to speak, ‘grasping the ring’ of salvation. “Faith without the works which Luther had now come to detest, and attack “self-righteousness,” as in the Commentary on Romans “sola fides…quoe non nititur operibus illis [orationibus et praepartoriis”]“ ( Grisar, 1913, Luther I, p 378) One presumption made runs through man like goose fodder; is explained by Luther *“the law, even as explained in the New Testament, which renders assurance of salvation possible only after the fulfillment of demands impossible to the natural man, is, it is true, necessary as a negative preparation for faith no to be regarded as the expression of the relationship desired by God between Himself and man. “ * Here we find the dump his Luther error. The gospels and epistles of the New Testament demand a ‘full’ relationship in which man is very capable of giving and is expressed daily in the virtues of marriage. Luther says that God merely reveals the law for ‘educational’ purposes.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Who was Martin Luther? Warren H. Carroll tells us, “There is no lack of evidence to answer that question. He left an enormous corpus of writings,” He also left us an enormous corpus. Politically sensitive, he was rather round and tall for his day, with a booming voice. He spent many hours saddled to the table, if it could hold him, drinking. “Contemporaries noted especially the brilliance of the black eyes deep-set in his beefy face, which could glow with inspiration or burn with anger, dominating and attracting his followers and cowing his adversaries…while, on the other hand, some remarks made by his opponents on the uncanny effect of his magic glance will be mentioned later.” (Grisar, Luther, I, 279); like one possessed by the spirit, or vapors. Some of Luther’s students described him as “mysterious and obscure” (Ibid). But, such a man would undoubtedly have gastrointestinal issues but it seemed that Luther’s vapors where produced in fires of the belly.
Luther, in the winter months of 1518 – 1519 took to moving his place of study from his cold and dank chambers to his “secret chamber.” “From where he could hear, the croaking of the ravens and magpies about the towers in front of his windows sounded like the voices which spoke in the depths of his soul” (Ibid., VII, p. 79). It’s here that he discovers ‘faith alone;’ it’s here that he discovers his ‘Evangel’ - what ever that was. In his own, probably slurred, words from around the kitchen table, he is constantly heard to talk of his “secret places.”
It’s in the Tower of the monastery, his study, Luther’s Chamber where he first contemplated among the voices in a mist of mind we are struck by the confusion:
“The passage, Romans 1., The Justice of God is revealed in the Gospel, had, till then, been an obstacle to me. For I hated the words ‘justice of God’, which according to the use and custom of all teachers I had been taught to interpret in the philosophical sense, namely, as referring to the formal and active justice by which God is just and punishes the sinners and the unjust. Although I was a blameless monk, I felt myself as a sinner before God, suffered great trouble of conscience and was unable to look with confidence on God as propitiated by my satisfaction, therefore I did not love, but on the contrary, hated, the just God Who punishes sinners ; I was angry with Him with furious murmuring, and said : The unhappy sinners and those who owing to original sin are for all eternity rejected are already sufficiently oppressed by every kind of misfortune owing to the Ten Commandments, and as though this were not enough God wills [according to Rom. 1.] by means of the gospel to heap pain on pain, and threatens us with His Justice and His Anger even in the gospel.”
“For the justice of God is revealed therein, from faith unto faith, as it is written: The just man lives by faith.” Romans 1:17
Continued;
