Martin Luther in Nepali || मार्टिन लुथर || The Father of the Reformation ||
Vložit
- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- Today we are looking to that person who is known as the father of the reformation.
Martin Luther was a religious reformer who lived in the 16th century. Luther was born on 10 November 1483 in the German town of Eisleben. (In those days Germany was not a single country but was a federation of states called the Holy Roman Empire). His father was Hans Luther, a copper smelter. His mother was called Magretta. Hans Luther wanted his son to become a lawyer. Martin went to the University of Erfurt in 1501 and he received an MA in 1505.
on the 2nd of June in 1505, Luther was on his way back to school from his parent’s home when he was caught in a violent thunderstorm. The storm grew more intense and Luther became afraid for his life.
Suddenly, a lightning bolt struck near him, throwing him violently to the ground. Luther cried: “Help me, St. Anne! I will become a monk!”
Luther’s life was spared, and he decided to become a monk, despite his father's wishes. Martin Luther became an Augustinian monk in Erfurt. He was ordained a priest in 1507 and in 1512 he became a doctor of theology.
As a monk, Luther sought earnestly to find acceptance from God. Like others in his day, Luther believed the Catholic Church’s teaching on how people are to be saved: not by God’s grace alone, but by God’s grace enabling you to do the work necessary to earn your own salvation. But Luther had no confidence in his ability to remain in a state of Grace. He was terrified of God’s wrath and was wracked with uncertainty about his ability to earn God’s favour through his works. What could he do to try and ease his troubled conscience? Well, work harder it seemed.
Meanwhile in 1510 Luther went on a trip to Rome. He was shocked by the lack of piety he found there. Luther also had a strong sense of his own sinfulness. He studied the Bible diligently and he came to disagree with some of the teachings of the Catholic Church. Luther believed that salvation is obtained by faith only. It cannot be earned by good works. Then in October 1517, Martin Luther wrote 95 theses. He objected to the sale of indulgences (documents written by the Church releasing individuals from punishment from their sins. Indulgences could be bought by the living on behalf of the dead who were believed to be in purgatory). Copies of the 95 theses by Luther were distributed across Germany and then across Europe.
In 1519 and 1520 Martin Luther wrote several works, The Address To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, On the Freedom of a Christian, and On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church. He denied there were seven sacraments as taught by the Catholic Church. Luther said there were only two, baptism and the Lord's supper. Luther also believed in the priesthood of all believers. Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church in January 1521. But Luther was undaunted. Then in April 1521, he was called to appear before a secular assembly called the Diet of Worms. Luther refused to change his views saying: 'Unless I am convicted by scripture and reason - I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God'. In May 1521 the Diet declared Luther an outlaw and a heretic and banned his writings. However, Martin Luther was protected by powerful friends and he hid in Wartburg Castle where he continued to write.
His Later Life
In 1522 Luther returned to Wittenberg In 1524 the German peasants rose in revolt. Luther condemned the rebellion and it was crushed in 1525. Also in 1525, Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora. The couple had 6 children. The same year, 1525 Luther published his great work, The Bondage of the Will. Afterward, Luther continued to write. He translated the Bible into German (it was published in 1534). at this time Scripture was only available in Latin. Whether you were English, or German, or French, or Spanish, your Bible was in Latin - The Latin Vulgate, the Bible that Jerome had produced in A.D. 380. But the people couldn’t speak Latin, and the clergy were not well trained in Latin. Reading and studying Scripture was something reserved only for the academics and the elite. Luther also wrote hymns.
In his later years Luther became strongly anti-Semitic. At first, he hoped the Jews would be converted to Christianity by his preaching. When that did not happen he turned against them. In 1543 Luther published a book called On The Jews And Their Lies. It was very anti-Semitic.
Martin Luther, whose heart was held captive by the Word of God and who was used by God to usher in the Protestant Reformation, died on February 18, 1546 in Eisleben - the city of his birth. When he died, over half a million copies of the “Luther Bible” were in circulation, and his works and writings had began the Reformation.
His remarkable
“I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word: otherwise I did nothing…the Word did it all.”