Shocking But Little-Known Facts About Martin Luther As we remember Reformation Day (October 31st), here are 3 shocking facts about the father of the Reformation — Martin Luther. 1. Luther detested the word “church” as a translation for ekklesia. Of all the great teachers of Christianity, Martin Luther perceived most clearly the difference between the Ecclesia of the New Testament and the institutional church, and reacted most sharply against the quid pro quo which would identify them. Therefore he refused to tolerate the mere word ‘church’: he called it an obscure ambiguous term. In his translation of the Bible, he rendered ecclesia by ‘congregation.’ . . . He realized that the New Testament ecclesia is just not an ‘it,’ ‘a thing,’ an ‘institution,’ but rather a unity of persons, a people, a communion. . . . Strong as was Luther’s aversion to the word ‘church,’ the facts of history prove stronger. The linguistic usage of both the Reformation and the post-Reformation era had to come to terms with the so powerfully developed idea of the church, and consequently all the confusion dependent upon the use of this ‘obscure ambiguous’ word penetrated Reformation theology. It was impossible to put the clock back one millennium and a half. The conception ‘church’ remained irrevocably moulded by this historical process of 1500 years.” Emil Brunner, The Misunderstanding of the Church (London: Lutterworth Press, 1952), 15–16. 2. Luther hated the Anabaptist practice of every-member functioning in the church as envisioned in 1 Corinthians 12-14. Tragically, Luther and the other Reformers violently denounced the Anabaptists for practicing every-member functioning in the church. The Anabaptists believed it was every Christian’s right to stand up and speak in a meeting. It was not solely the domain of the clergy. Luther was so opposed to this practice that he said it came from “the pit of hell” and those who were guilty of it should be put to death. The Anabaptists both believed and practiced Paul’s injunction in 1 Corinthians 14:26, 30-31 that every believer has the right to function at any time in a church meeting. In Luther’s day, this practice was known as the Sitzrecht—“the sitter’s right” Peter Hoover, Secret of the Strength, 58–59. Luther announced that “the Sitzrecht was from the pit of hell” and was a “perversion of public order . . . undermining respect for authority.” Within 20 years, over 116 laws were passed in German lands throughout Europe making this “Anabaptist heresy” a capital offense Peter Hoover, Secret of the Strength, 59, 198. Further, Luther felt that if the whole church publicly administered the Lord’s Supper it would be a “deplorable confusion.” To Luther’s mind, one person must take on this task—the pastor. Paul Althaus, The Theology of Martin Luther (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966), 323. 3. Luther didn’t use the word “priest” to refer to the new clergy of the Reformation, but the ministry was essentially the same. Luther did not like using the word priest to define the new Protestant ministers. He wrote, “We neither can nor ought to give the name priest to those who are in charge of the Word and sacrament among the people. The reason they have been called priests is either because of the custom of the heathen people or as a vestige of the Jewish nation. The result is greatly injurious to the church.” So he too adopted the terms preacher, minister, and pastor to refer to this office. Luther, “Concerning the Ministry,” Luther’s Works, 35, 40. However, not much changed between the Catholic priest and the Protestant pastor. During the Reformation, the “priest” was transformed into the “preacher,” “the minister,” and finally “the pastor.” Many have rightly argued that the Protestant pastor is nothing more than a slightly reformed Catholic priest. (They are speaking of the office and not the individual.) Catholic priests had seven duties at the time of the Reformation: preaching; the sacraments; prayers for the flock; a disciplined, godly life; church rites; supporting the poor; and visiting the sick. The Protestant pastor takes upon himself all of these responsibilities—plus he sometimes blesses civic events. The famed poet John Milton summed it up by saying, “New presbyter is but old priest writ large.”
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 14:22:19 +0000
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