True Source of Faith

The following program is sponsored by evangelical life ministries.

Welcome to engaging truth, the manifestation of God's word and the lives of people around us. Join us each week. As we explore the impact of his message of spiritual renewal from the lesson of forgiveness forged in the crucible of divorce, to the message of salvation learned by an executioner from a condemned killer to the gift of freedom found in the rescue of victims of human trafficking. This is God's truth in action,

And welcome to another addition of engaging truth. I'm your host pastor John Kane from the oldest town in Texas NADOs would like to, uh, welcome a special today. Dr. Eric Herman is professor of historical theology at Concordia seminary in St. Louis Missouri. He's also the Dean of theological research and publication director of the center for reformation research and director of Concordia theology, a publication out of Concordia St. Louis. Welcome to the program Dr.

Herman. Oh, thank you. It's great to be here.

So as a person who knows history, and, uh, this month, we're looking at, uh, reformation history and Martin Luther a little bit, and his involvement in, uh, in kicking off the, the Protestant reformation that changed Western Europe changed the history of the Western world. Many of our listeners know Martin Luther as perhaps the monk who, uh, split the Catholic church with, uh, nailing the 95 thesis about indulgences to the, uh, to church door, the castle church door in Whittenburg Germany. Um, it's obviously more complicated than just that one event. How would you characterize what Martin Luther did?

Well, that's, that's a good question. Uh, I mean, you're absolutely right. It's, it's a more complicated event and, um, it's of course not just Luther changing the entire world, uh, 500 years ago, but he's certainly is a central figure. I would say that the, what Luther is up to, um, at this time is, um, reforming the church's. Uh, well, it's, it's, he's starting a movement of, of reforming the church's pastoral care and reforming the church is preaching. Um, and he, he does this, uh, as someone that's deeply indebted to the church, someone who doesn't want to destroy it, but actually wants to, uh, renew it. And he does this through a, a renewed articulation and appreciation of the gospel. Um, that the way of speaking about the gospel for Luther was that God had reconciled the fallen world to himself, through his son. Jesus. So, um, I would say that the reformation and Luther's interest in it is laser focused on this, uh, way of talking about God and making sure that that is clear in preaching and pastoral care throughout the church.

There's a lot of people calling for reform in Luther's day, and there's a lot of things going wrong in the church. And I think if you read the news today, you see that the church still struggles with a lot of things that it could use reform over. Um, but Luther was convinced that the, the only way really to reform the church was to bring the word of God, uh, as it was articulated in the scriptures and the, and the good news of Jesus into the center of its life. And so, um, almost everything he did was focused on bringing that word as, as clear as possible, uh, into Christian life.

So Luther touched on a lot of different areas. He touched on, uh, public education, uh, changes in society, changes in church life. What, what do you think that Luther himself would've regarded as his most important effort?

Well, what Luther you're right Luther, uh, impacted a lot of different areas. Some that were intentional, um, some that, uh, were incidental or unintentionally, he didn't know that, uh, the world would be changed in the way that it was. Um, but I think Luther's with Luther's goal as trying to bring the word of God to as many people as possible. I would, uh, I would suggest that probably for Luther the most important achievement was his translation, uh, of the Bible into the common language of the people and, and his people in those days in, in German. Um, so it's, uh, it's, I think pretty well known that Luther's one of his great achievements was doing this was being able to take a, a Bible that had been largely read in Latin throughout the middle ages, even after Latin had stopped being kind of a common language and, um, and made not only a translation of, of German, but a remarkable translation of German.

Eric, it seems like, uh, in, in hindsight it seems like, uh, Luther with so many of these events, uh, it was almost as if he was lining up dominoes and when one fell, they all fell, uh, looking at his translation of the Bible, which was, it predated the king James version by the better part of a century. Um, what was it that Luther had to do to organize and to consolidate the German language? And, and why did it have such an impact on so many others?

Well, the Luther's German, uh, Bible had, uh, an impact not just on the life of the church, but actually on the, on the literary and linguistic culture of Germany. Uh, it, it unified, uh, the language and helped standardize it, uh, to this day. If you go to Germany, you can hear there's a lot of different dialects. I know in America we have dialects Southern and, uh, Northern and, uh, uh, but, uh, in Germany it's actually quite diverse and there was Luther was living on the cusp of the printing press. So, uh, there wasn't a lot of opportunity for the, the language to be standardized. And so, um, Luther's translation and, and Luther did this in a remarkable way. He actually spent quite a bit of time in the marketplace listening, uh, to how people commonly express themselves and tried as best as he could, um, to translate, uh, the, the new Testament and the, the language of the prophets and the language of the evangelists into authentic common German speech.

Uh, and it was such an, a successful endeavor that, um, that it actually helped unify the German language. It became the new standard. It helped shape modern, uh, German language. Uh, so I mean, apart from what it had done for the church, it, it was, um, considered one of the great literary achievements of Western hi history. And one of the most influential works that shape modern, modern German thought. Um, but that also extends to, uh, to the English Bible. Uh, so many of the early English translations were, uh, deeply indebted to Luther William Tindale. The, one of the first translators of the Bible into English in the 16th century studied his translation carefully. He took Luther's approach to the text and he often translated verbatim, uh, Luther's own, uh, introductions his own preface of the Bible. And that became, uh, the precursor to the king James version, which of course is the most famous one, but all English, uh, translations, uh, that are in that tradition, uh, are really get their, uh, get their orientation and are indebted to Luther's first work. So

Describe what it was like before Luther's translation, in terms of, uh, reading the Bible

Before Luther translated the Bible. It wasn't the only German translation or only Bible in the vernacular, but it certainly wasn't the one that the church sanctioned or used. Um, the Bible was, uh, was, uh, used in Latin and it was used largely in, uh, church services. Uh, so, uh, the service was in Latin and, uh, it was used really for academics. It was not, um, it was not, uh, encouraged for people to read it because the assumption was that they would misunderstand it anyway. Um, it was a 10 that was used by clergy and monks almost exclusively. Now, Luther was a monk, uh, and he spent his days as a monk, uh, reading and praying the scriptures. And though he, uh, eventually left the monastery because there was, uh, also difficulties in being a monk. One of the benefits of it, uh, that he never forgot, uh, or got rid of was the importance of daily reading the Bible and praying the scriptures.

And so, um, he saw that as the, the catalyst for reform to, if we can bring that word, uh, into people's language and into their daily use, um, the church will be changed. Uh, people will hold on to Christ more clearly. Um, and so, uh, now one of the difficulties of course, is that people are, uh, a large percentage of the population at that time. It's still illiterate. And so you can't just translate the Bible. You've gotta actually also, um, help them understand how to read it, and you've gotta start schools so that they can learn to read. And all of those things, like you said, like dominoes lead from one thing to another to create this kind of enormous educational Bible reading movement really, uh, that, uh, continues to this day.

So you mentioned reading, you also mentioned praying the scriptures. Could you give us a brief, uh, description of that?

Oh, that might be, that might sound weird, I suppose, praying the scriptures. Um, but especially there are some books, you know, the Bible isn't, uh, um, a monolithic set of, uh, texts. There's a lot of different styles and genres of literature in the Bible, whether it's letters or gospels or narrative history accounts, but there's also poetry and prayers. And, uh, the Psalms were a, um, were our collection of prayers that the church had been using for a long time. And Luther there used them, uh, extensively as a monk, but he wanted to, one of the first things he translated even before he translated the new Testament in its fullness was to translate, uh, portions of the Psalms in German for people just to help teach them, uh, teach them how to pray. Um, remember I said that the reform for Luther was a, was a reform of pastoral care and a reform of preaching and especially the pastoral care side, if you can give people prayers, um, that, uh, help them think about God, rightly about themselves, rightly to know when to flee for mercy in times of need. Um, that's gonna be an enormous, uh, effort in, in reforming pastoral care. Uh, and so he did, he wrote, he wrote a beautiful preface to his translation of the Psalms, encouraging people to read it as, um, not just the lives of the saints, but as the prayers of the saints. Uh, and that, that would connect them not only to Christ, but to one another, because they'd be praying the prayers that all of God's people have been praying for centuries.

You know, Martin Luther wore a lot of hats in addition to being a monk and a translator. He was, uh, the administrative head over a number of, uh, Roman Catholic chapter houses. He was, uh, a professor like yours, uh, but he was also a local pastor in Whittenburg Germany. And I've, I've used about the fact, I've wondered about the fact if the reformation would not have happened at all, if Luther hadn't been a pastor and concerned about the very soul of the people under his keeping, what do you think about that?

I, I think that is a central aspect for the reformation that it's animated by pastoral concerns. Um, I think sometimes people think fights over theology are just, um, oh, it just by theoretical academics. And we certainly have those fights throughout history, things that seem to be more in house, uh, conflicts. Um, but Luther, uh, as, as a great as a theologian, he was, and as a deep insight into theology as an academic, as he was, um, really saw that the whole purpose of it, the whole reason for doing it was not to make some great trenchant point in a debate in a classroom, but finally, um, to console someone on their deathbed, who's afraid, afraid that maybe their past transgressions, their brokenness of their life, um, will follow them all the way through the grade that God would have abandoned them. And, um, if, if you understand the scriptures, clearly, if you, uh, if you do theology, rightly it really is aimed at comforting people who are afraid. People who feel like they, um, that God is, is, is absent from their life. And it's, uh, oriented again towards pro to them that, that God is present, that he's there for them. And that nowhere clearly, can you see him then in the suffering of his son,

Martin Luther, uh, had a very well known progression as he, uh, got deeper and deeper into the Bible. And, uh, I I'd say his own fears were, uh, put away by the, the good news of the gospel, the sweetness of the gospel that Jesus has earned our complete salvation for us. And that was so important to me that he, it was so important to him that he wanted to share it, uh, with, with everyone. What would you say to, to people right now asking if we could use a little rough information?

Hmm. Yeah, I think that, uh, uh, Luther, first of all, as you noted, saw, um, this message as something that was first applicable to him, um, and, uh, you know, we right now we're living in it, as they say in the news again and again, uncertain times, right? I mean, it has sort of an interesting 18 months and people are filled with anxiety and uncertainty and, um, illness and death looms, large in our horizon. In fact, it seems to fill all of our news feeds. And, um, how do you break out of that cycle? How do you live with a certain sense of purpose and hope, uh, when the horizon seems so bleak and, um, but for, for Luther, uh, that's not unusual. It's not unusual that on the one hand, the word seems to promise God's, uh, presence and he, his goodness and his care for his people.

And on the other hand, what we seem to experience is the opposite and what, uh, the, the silence of God. So the answer of course is to, is to, is to let the word be louder, um, to be clearer, uh, to be a place where people, uh, actually, uh, be leave those words more than the news cycles that they hear, that the grayness and the bleakness, uh, of our world is just not true. That because Jesus rose, again from the dead, our world does have a future. And it's one in which God is in charge.

Our pastor in Washington, DC talks about, uh, Greg Seltz talks about the, uh, secularization of hope. And I think that's what you're talking about with the news feeds that are, are pushing fear and confusion, and, uh, what, what God offers us through, um, through the very Bible that Luther translated and so many others have now translated into English. Uh, we've got a, uh, uh, something that's a little countercultural. We, we have hope that's from out of this world. So, uh, do you have, uh, some, some resource places on the web that might point our listeners to,

Uh, sure. I think, uh, I can kind of point to our, our own website, first of all, Concordia theology.org. It's where a lot of, uh, my colleagues, uh, try to provide resources, whether it's Bible studies or, or, um, uh, guides or reading the scriptures or various blog thoughts on, uh, on how the, on how the, uh, the gospel intersects with our culture, a variety of resources in our own church body that try to make that clear. Um, our LCMS Lutheran church, Missouri Senate also has an enormous set of resources that are again, sort of lay focused, uh, on this, not trying to answer every question, um, but trying to make clear, uh, precisely the hope, um, that, uh, all of humanity has if they attend to what God has done in his son.

And if you'd like information on going with us on that tour, going back to Whittenburg, uh, please just, uh, contact me through the website, Elm houston.org. Now back to our guest, Eric, it's good to talk about Martin Luther because he, he faced a, a serious, serious pandemic with, uh, the Bana plague, um, far greater than what we're experiencing with COVID. And so death was just such a reality, uh, in, in the lives of, of all of his people. And he, um, pointed people's eyes to this, uh, the one source of hope, uh, that is through Jesus. D can you give our listeners who, uh, who are probably, uh, searching for hungry for hope? Can you give us, uh, some words of encouragement?

Well, uh, I think, uh, Luther would agree with this particular point. There's a passage, the book of ecclesia ASEs that said, God put eternity in man's heart, and yet he's, uh, always thriving, uh, to see that realized. And, uh, doesn't recognize the goodness of what God has placed in his life right now. And, um, Luther living in a time, like you said, uh, where there's a, uh, enormous upheaval, uh, plague. There's, uh, there's a big peasants for revolt, so they, all of societies being turned on it on its head. Um, and, uh, and Luther could still say, if you just look at things, if you just with the eyes of faith, look at the world, God is in charge of much more, uh, than the devil. Um, in other words, um, from moment to moment from day to day, the world exhibits, actually the goodness and care of God, and we are just sort of blind and deaf to it, uh, because we are so turned in on ourselves.

Um, and so anxious, uh, about a future that's actually firmly held in God's hand. Um, so I think the word of encouragement is that that God, uh, has carved out his future for us. And that it's a, it's a good and generous one because of the resurrection of his son, um, that we actually can receive good things now that we can actually, uh, look at our lives and be grateful for them as, as they are, uh, rather than ringing our hands. Uh, I think we, the uncertainty and anxiety that we have is, uh, trying to make our own way forward rather than, uh, being receivers. As Luther said, we are all beggars at the end of the day. Uh, and that's actually good news, uh, because our benefactor is our generous God. We've

Been talking with, uh, professor Eric Herman, Eric. I wanted to thank you for spending some time with us and our listeners today and drawing some of these lines of correlation and a common experience between Luther's time and the reformation and what our listeners are may be going through right now. There's a lot of encouragement to be had in God's word. And that encouragement is for each of us to know that Jesus has fully paid for your sins for everyone who has Jesus as their savior. Again, pastor Herman, thank you for your time and to our listeners. Join us again real soon for another addition of engaging truth.

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