The Man Who Stood Against Rome

"It vexes me that we must read and learn such shameless, gross, crazy lies in the canon law, and must even hold them for Christian doctrine, when they are devilish lies."

This quote by Martin Luther was made in a proposition to the rulers of Germany in An Open Letter to The Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning the Reform of the Christian Estate, 1520.

Yes that is right the year was 1520, and it was around 1529-33 that 100 thousand Germans were killed by the Papal Roman soldiers because of Luther 's so called heresy. Luther translated the Greek Bible to Latin then to German so that any one could read the New Testament. This was such an affront to the Catholic leaders that they ordered every Bible burned and anyone who owned one to be arrested.

Why such a stir over a Bible in one's native tongue? Well the most obvious reason is that if one could read the Bible one might understand that most of the teachings that Rome was selling as God's Word were nothing but lies.

Luther made his mark with his scolding of Rome concerning the selling of indulgences. An indulgence was a donation that was made to get time off of ones sentence in Purgatory. It could be used for an Aunt or Uncle, Mother or Father etc. Luther was particularly disgusted with this practice and based much of his famous Thesis on eliminating this practice. There is a saying that I was reminded of when I was recently watching a movie about Luther called "Luther" I highly recommend the film to you.

"As the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs". This reduces it to what it really was, a sham to rob the people of their money.

Today we are faced with many lies about what the scriptures say, and only because we can all read the Bible the lies are more subtle and seemingly more harmless. Lies are lies nevertheless and we must be on guard to keep fast the Word in our hearts and let no man beguile us of our reward.

God bless you all and keep your hearts forever in His matchless Word.