Let’s do a series of about 5 posts on Christian history and facts and then zoom into other areas, shall we? It’s important because 1 Peter 3:15 says “Be ready at all times when you are questioned about the hope which is in you, TO GIVE AN ANSWER in the fear of the Lord and without pride..”. So to get the ball rolling, let’s start with the question:
‘Where did the bible come from after pieces of the writing were discovered in Greek and Hebrew?’
Answer: MARTIN LUTHER.
Not the black ‘I-have-a-dream‘ Luther. This Luther was the first to rebel against the Catholic Church and the papacy long long ago, and gained himself the description ‘A demon in human form’, of course given to him by a fervid Roman Catholic. The story is told that as he was returning to school one day, a lightening bolt struck near him. Dude was scared, so he screamed “Help me St. Anne, I’ll become a monk!”.
And he lived! So he became a monk. Luther was very probably a fellow melancholic [details in another blog post here]. He struggled to find peace with God because the closer He got to God, the more imperfect he felt. And a melancholic needs to feel deserving of his/her salvation. So Luther did long hours of fasting and prayer, pilgrimages, even flagellations (whipping himself as punishment for sin). But peace was still very far for Luther.
He began teaching theology in 1508 in the midst of this struggle. This is where he began to search scripture, and eventually found the doctrine of FAITH and GRACE– doctrines that were missing in Roman teaching at the time which more or less taught that you needed to live right and do penance and whatnots to inherit eternal life. When Luther would read Romans 1:17, “the righteous shall live by faith”, it would more so confirm his need to flagellate himself, because by his self-righteous nature and the teaching of the church at the time, he would interpret that scripture to mean one ought to be righteous to prove he had faith.
The reformation began when Luther finally understood that salvation was a GIFT received by faith and trust in God’s promise and work on the cross, and that one was only made righteous BY FAITH.
If hopefully I haven’t bored you already and you’re still reading, his bit in Christian history is that
HE WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO TRANSLATE THE BIBLE. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
He translated the bible into German and made copies available to local folk (which was by then a blasphemy to the Roman Church). He travelled the world after being declared an outlaw by the empire just so he could listen to their languages and translate the bible into that language for the consumption of the local folk! He assisted WILLIAM TYNDALE in translating the New Testament into English in 1525. Now we have them on phones and tabs!
Eventually Luther found peace with God, comparing himself to Apostle Paul in the Galatians. He escaped martyrdom and died a natural death.
And when he finally realized he didn’t have to listen to the accuser anymore, he would say to people:
“Tell the devil he may kiss my ass” 😂😂
Guess whose he’s still kissing? Yup!
★ RAD ★ 😉
