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QUOTE: For in this case a prince and lord must remember that according to Romans 13 [:4] he is God’s minister and the servant of his wrath and that the sword has been given him to use against such people. If he does not fulfil the duties of his office by punishing some and protecting others, he commits as great a sin before God as when someone who has not been given the sword commits murder. If he is able to punish and does not do it—even though he would have had to kill someone or shed blood—he becomes guilty of all the murder and evil that these people commit. For by deliberately disregarding God’s command he permits such rascals to go about their wicked business, even though he was able to prevent it and it was his duty to do so. This is not a time to sleep. And there is no place for patience or mercy. This is the time of the sword, not the day of grace.
AUTHOR: Martin Luther (10
November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German professor of theology, composer, priest, former monk and a seminal figure
in the Protestant Reformation. Luther came to
reject several teachings and practices of the Late
Medieval Catholic Church. He strongly disputed the claim
that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He
proposed an academic discussion of the power and usefulness of indulgences
in his Ninety-Five Theses of 1517. His refusal
to retract all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X
in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet
of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication
by the Pope and
condemnation as an outlaw
by the Emperor.
Luther taught that salvation
and subsequently eternal life is not earned by good deeds but is received only
as a free gift of God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ as
redeemer from sin. His theology challenged the authority and
office of the Pope by teaching that the Bible is the only
source of divinely
revealed knowledge from God and opposed sacerdotalism
by considering all baptized Christians to be a holy
priesthood. Those who identify with these, and all of Luther's wider
teachings, are called Lutherans even though Luther insisted on Christian
or Evangelical as the only acceptable names for individuals who
professed Christ.
His
translation of the Bible into the vernacular
(instead of Latin)
made it more accessible, which had a tremendous impact on the church and German
culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the
art of translation, and influenced the writing of an English translation, the Tyndale
Bible. His hymns
influenced the development of singing in churches. His marriage to Katharina von Bora set a model for the practice
of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant clergy to
marry.
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