Heavenly Springs

Holding Fast The Doctrines of Grace

Philip Melanchthon on the Death of Martin Luther

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When Martin Luther died his close friend, and leader of the Protestant Reformation, Philip Melanchthon, delivered a powerful eulogy.  In his tribute, Melanchthon addresses Luther’s well-known brashness and harshness of tone.  Indeed, it was no secret that Luther, for all his education, wasn’t one for refinement. In fact, his wife, Katharina, often chided him as being “too raw”. But during a time when preaching the Gospel could mean having your tongue cut out, it seems to me Luther was just the man for the hour.

Here’s Melanchthon giving glory to God alone for the life of a man who, for all his problems, was key to preserving a Gospel of grace for generations to come.

“Some by no means evil-minded persons, however, express a suspicion that Luther manifested too much asperity. I will not affirm the reverse, but only quote the language of Erasmus, “God has sent in this latter age a violent physician on account of the magnitude of the existing disorders,” fulfilling by such a dispensation the divine message to Jeremiah, “Behold I have put My words in thy mouth. See I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out and pull down, and to destroy and throw down, to build and to plant.” Nor does God govern His church according to the counsels of men, nor choose to employ instruments like theirs to promote His purposes. But it is usual for inferior minds to dislike those of a more ardent character.”

Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. – Psalms 115:3 (NIV)

Online Source:  On the Death of Luther by Philip Melanchthon

Click here to read some of the things that Luther actually said!

Max McLean Narrates Martin Luther’s Here I Stand: The Speech That Launched The Protestant Reformation

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This makes me happy!

On April 18, 1521, in the city of Worms, Germany, Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk was called to defend himself before Charles the Fifth, the Holy Roman Emperor. The speech he delivered that day, “Here I Stand”, marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, a critical turning point in both church and world history.

Listen as Max McLean narrates the events leading up to the “Diet of Worms”: Martin Luther’s prayer the night before; his stirring defense; the church’s rebuttal; and finally, Luther’s most passionate response.

A New Reformation

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The Spread of the Protestant Reformation by Franz von Wagner

“If we are convinced that the Protestant Reformation was the greatest recovery of the gospel since the time of the apostles and that it left us with a treasure whose riches await rediscovery by a new generation, then surely a new reformation represent a goal for us.

It is not that we want to simply replay the Reformation, but that we want to recover and confess the faith as the Reformers did in their time. It is the same message, but it is we now who must step up to the plate. We are not only confessional (that is, bound to believe, preach, and teach that which our confessions set forth), but confessing.

It is not merely a commitment to a past fidelity, although it is that, but it is also our confession in this time and place. Our world, surrounded by new fears and false hopes, requires a new confession–not new in its message, but fresh in its delivery.” (Michael Horton) [1]

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“We need, again, Luthers, Calvins, Bunyans, Whitfields—men fit to mark eras—whose names breathe terror in our enemies’ ears. We have dire need of such! Where are they? From where will they come to us? We cannot tell in what farmhouse or village smithy, or schoolhouse such men may be, but our Lord has them in store. They are the gifts of Jesus Christ to the Church and will come in due time.

He has power to give us back, again, a golden age of preachers, a time as fertile of great Divines and mighty ministers as was the Puritan age which many of us account to have been the golden age of theology! He can send, again, the men of studious heart to search the Word and bring forth its treasures! The men of wisdom and experience rightly to divide it! The golden-mouthed speakers who, either as sons of thunder or sons of consolation, shall deliver the message of the Lord which the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven. When the Redeemer ascended on high He received gifts for men and those gifts were men fit to accomplish the edification of the Church, such as evangelists, pastors and teachers. These He is still able to bestow upon His people! It is their duty to pray for them, and when they come, to receive them with gratitude.

Let us believe in the power of Jesus to give us valiant men, and men of renown, and we little know how soon He will supply them!” [2]

[1] Here We Stand: A Call From Confessing Evangelicals for a Modern Day Reformation edited by James Montgomery Boice and Benjamin E. Sasse, P&R Publishing Company, 2004, page 103.

[2] Charles Spurgeon, Sermon #1200, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, The Power of the Risen Saviour, October 25, 1874.

Reformation Begins With Preaching God’s Word!

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“In January 1519 something shocking happened at the Great Minster in Zurich. Everyone in the city was talking about it. One man said he was so excited he felt as if someone had grabbed him by his hair and lifted him out of his pew.

What was the cause of all this commotion? Simply this: Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531), the new pastor of the church, was preaching the Word of God. At the first service in January he opened his Bible to Matthew 1 and began to preach from the Scriptures. At the next service he picked up where he left off in the Gospel of Matthew and kept preaching. He did the same thing at the third service and thereafter, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book, right through the New Testament.

Then Zwingli started preaching through the Old Testament. Amazing! Unheard of! Soon men, women, and children came from all over Zurich to hear the minister explain the Bible in words they could understand.

Zwingli’s systematic Bible exposition was the beginning of the Reformation in Switzerland. To this day there is an inscription over the portal of that church that reads, “The Reformation of Huldrych Zwingli began here on January 1, 1519.” Reformation begins with preaching God’s Word!”

Ryken, P. G. (2001). Jeremiah and Lamentations: From sorrow to hope. Preaching the Word (118–119). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.