MY SEARCH FOR THE CHURCH ON
THE ROCK
CHAPTER 2
THE LUTHERAN CHURCH
The
most unlikely people often lead profound changes in the course of history. This
is especially true when we look at a humble German priest named Martin Luther.
Martin Luther
Luther was born in Eisleben Germany in 1483. Even as a
young man he devoted his life to his church, becoming an Augustinian Monk in
1505. He was a respected scholar and educator at the University in Whittenberg
Germany, the Professor of Theology by 1508. This loyal Catholic would be the
last person you would imagine to start a movement to reform the Roman Catholic
Church. However as Luther studied the Scriptures he began to see that there
were many doctrines in his church that were not taught in God's Word. The one
that bothered him the most was the Catholic emphasis on salvation by works. The
belief that a priest could forgive sin (1268 AD) had developed into making
forgiveness conditional upon actions of contrition. In addition to saying a
number of "Hail Mary's" and "Our Father's" an amount of money must be paid to
the priest based on the severity of the sin. For example, a small lie would
cost so much but adultery, of course, would cost a lot more. Martin Luther was
deeply disturbed because he saw that his church had literally put a price tag
on going to heaven and was getting rich in the process.
In fact his church had put a monetary value on
everything from the cradle to the grave. When a baby was brought to the priest
to be christened, there was a fee. When the child was confirmed, there was a
fee. When you wanted to be married (it had to be in the church or else the
children were illegitimate), there was a fee. Every time you went to
confession, there was a fee. Then when you died there was a fee for your burial
mass and the right to be buried in a Catholic cemetery. No one would dare not
pay and risk eternal damnation of their loved one! If this was not bad enough
Martin Luther saw that even after death his church was charging for heaven.
First they adopted the doctrine of Purgatory (1439 AD). This was a place they
invented where souls would go after death that were not good enough to go to
heaven but not bad enough to go to hell. Why create such a doctrine? One reason
was the money. If such a place existed how would those souls ever get out? It
was simple. The family had to pay the priest for repeated, "masses for the
dead" in the hope that their loved one might someday go to heaven!
As much as this perversion of Biblical forgiveness
concerned Martin Luther I am not sure he would have risked his life to try to
change it. Keep in mind that during this time in history the Roman Catholic
Church had power over the lives of men as well as their souls. Everyone
suspected of heresy was arrested, tortured until they confessed and were then
burned at the stake. This was not only punishment but also a warning that
others should not be so foolish as to question the teachings of the Church. But
the sale of indulgences to pay for the construction of St. Peter's Cathedral in
Rome was more than Luther could bear.
John Tetzel
John Tetzel was a priest sent by Pope Leo X to sell "Indulgence Tickets" in Germany. He carried with him a box with cubbyholes
labeled with the different sins. Each sin had a price and when the money was
paid the sinner was given a paper that proved that he had been forgiven, even
if the sin had not yet been committed! There was also a paper for Purgatory and
John Tetzel would preach: "My children, the Holy
Father has set his love upon you.
He has placed his seal on these indulgences and wants you to know the
joy of your loved ones in Purgatory.
As your money hits the bottom of this box they will be released and go
straight to heaven! They will be
set free!" If you had been paying for 20
years to get your mother out of Purgatory this one time payment was a great
deal. Tetzel even had a little jingle he would sing, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from
Purgatory springs."
Now even the threat of death could not keep Luther silent. On October 31, 1517 he nailed to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Chapel the famous 95 Thesis. The introduction included these words: "the following will be discussed at Wittenberg ... debate with us orally ... " Martin Luther never intended to leave the Catholic Church much less to start a church of his own. These 95 propositions were subjects he felt proved that his church had left the teachings of the Word of God. He believed that through honest and sincere study of the Scriptures it would return to the truth. He was wrong. Pope Leo X issued a warrant for his arrest and then excommunicated him in 1521. His life was spared only by the protection of King Frederick the Wise of Saxony.
95 Thesis
Most of these issues Luther wanted to debate concerned whether man was saved by faith thru the grace of God or by works imposed by a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. He took his stand on these passages in the Holy Scriptures:
"For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -
not by works, so that no one can boast."(1)
"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior
appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we have done, but
because of his mercy."(2)
These passages as well as many others in
the New Testament teach that there is nothing that man can do in order to earn
his salvation. There are not enough good works a man can perform nor is there
enough money in the entire world that he could give that would make him
deserving of the forgiveness of one sin. If it were not for God's love, mercy
and grace no man would have the hope of eternal life. Luther, however, was like
the driver who gets their tire on the shoulder of the road and then jerks the
wheel only to end up in the ditch on the other side. He took his opposition to
the Catholic teaching of salvation by works to the opposite extreme. The
doctrine he developed was: Salvation By Faith Only. To this day the Lutherans
hold Faith Only as one of their principle doctrines. The Augsburg Confession,
which is the official creed of the Lutheran Church, says:
"It is ordained of God that he who believes in Christ is
saved, freely receiving the remission of sins, without works, by faith alone."(3)
"We receive forgiveness of sins and
become righteous before God by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith, when
we believe ... "(4)
"Our works cannot reconcile God or merit forgiveness of
sins, grace, and justification, but that we obtain this only by faith when
we believe ... "(5)
While
the scriptures clearly teach that there is nothing we can do to earn our
salvation it is interesting to note that the phrase "by faith alone" is only
found one time in the Bible and includes an important word that Martin Luther
left out. "You see that a person is justified by what he does and not
by faith alone."(6) The Lutheran Church does believe that Christians must live Godly,
moral lives filled with good works; of this there is no doubt. However the
question is WHEN is an alien sinner forgiven and WHEN do they become children
of God? At the moment he believes or when he obeys God's other requirements? As
always I will let the Word of God speak for itself and to us:
"But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin,
but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered
you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness."(7)
"Being
then made free from sin," the Apostle
Paul wrote. When was the THEN? At the point of faith and faith alone? No it
was, he said, when "ye have obeyed." The
necessity of obedience to receive the forgiveness of sins it taught throughout
the Scriptures. Here are a few examples of the obedience God requires:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter
the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."(8)
"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all
creation. Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved."(9)
"Repent and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your
sins may be forgiven."(10)
"For it is with your heart that you believe and are
justified, and it is with your mouth that you
confess and are saved."(11)
"You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized
into Christ have clothed yourselves with
Christ."(12)
"And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized
and wash your sins away, calling on his
name."(13)
The
doctrine of "faith only" denies that man must obey any of the other conditions
laid down by the Heavenly Father for our redemption. If we are saved at the
point of faith then repenting of our sins becomes unnecessary. So is the
command that we confess our faith publicly. And what of baptism? In the
passages quoted above not only faith but also repentance, confession and
baptism are conditions that must be met before we are forgiven and
saved. These scriptures from the Word of God even say that it is baptism that washes away our sins
and puts us into Christ! Faith only will make one a Lutheran but an obedient
faith will make one a Christian.
In
the history of Christianity every attempt to reform a man-made church only
leads to the establishment of another one. While I have the greatest of respect
for the courage of Martin Luther in standing for what he believed to be right
he failed to find the church of the New Testament. Why? He was not looking for
it. So when I ask my friends what they are religiously and they say "Lutheran".
When I ask them why they believe what they do and they quote the Augsburg
Confession. When I ask them what I must do to be saved and they say, "only
believe" then I know they are not members of the church that Jesus built. Even
this early in my search I have found that God's children must proudly wear the
name "Christian", not the name of a mere man; use only His Word the Bible
as their guide, not a creed written by men, and obey everything He has
commanded because they accept Jesus as the only head of His church. I must
continue my search for the Church On The Rock.
FOOTNOTES
1. Ephesians 2: 8-9
2. Titus 3: 4-5
3. The Augsburg Confession (1530) Article VI "Of New Obedience"
4. The Augsburg Confession (1530) Article IV "Of Justification"
5. The Augsburg Confession (1530) Article XX "Of Good Works"
6. James 2: 24
7. Romans 6:17-18 (KLV)
8. Matthew 7: 21
9. Mark 16: 15-16
10. Acts 2: 38
11. Romans 10:10
12. Galatians 3: 26-27
13. Acts 22: 16
Larry A. McKee
"The Parson"