Church History – Page 4 – What Does This Mean?

Meet Frederick III, “the Wise,” Elector of Saxony

Encore Post: Frederick III grew up in the noble German household of Ernest, Elector of Saxony. His father gave him a fine classical education in the Humanist tradition. Frederick grew up to be a patron of German renaissance painters, especially Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger. He founded the University of Wittenberg and systematically built it up to become prominent. He was a pious and faithful Christian, a collector of relics, a supporter of the Augustinian observant movement in Saxony.

A skillful diplomat, he negotiated major reforms in the structure of the Holy Roman Empire, increasing the power and freedom of its electors, nobles and free cities. In 1518, he was the Imperial Vicar, second only to Emperor Maximilian I, who was approaching death. When the Emperor died in January of 1519, he was regent of the Empire. The Pope, the electors, princes and cities of the Empire preferred that Frederick be crowned the next emperor rather than young Charles V of the Hapsburg dynasty. Charles was already king of Spain, Austria, and Hungary, ruler of territories in the Netherlands, France and Italy. Becoming Emperor would make him the most powerful monarch in Europe.

Yet Frederick did not want to be Emperor. He negotiated with Charles to have the Empire repay its debts to Saxony and a number of other concessions in exchange for his vote and support. After Charles was elected Emperor, Frederick used his considerable political skills and influence to protect Luther and advance the Reformation. When he died in 1525, he was succeeded by his brother John, who was an ardent supporter of the reformation.

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The Great Cloud of Witnesses

Encore Posts: Once every four years, the world pauses to watch the Olympics. Among the most exciting of the sports contested are the foot races, where the fastest men and women to ever walk the earth run nearly as fast as each other, the winner crossing the finish line a few thousandths of a second ahead of the others. The crowds That pack the stands cheer them on. The loudest are coaches urging them on.

The Book of Hebrews uses is image to describe the assembly of the church triumpant — all of God’s holy ones — his saints — who have died and now live in God’s presence forever. They form a “great cloud of witnesses” cheering us on. (Hebrews 12:1-2) Also our coach, Jesus, stands at the finish line. We focus on him as we run our race because he endured the cross before us and for us. When we worship, we enter eternity and join them, the “whole company of heaven”, in praising God.

All Saints’ Day is an ancient celebration — begun in the Eighth Century (700s AD) It was intended celebrate all the Saints that did not have a special day assigned for them. Lutherans have kept this day a sort of Christian Memorial Day. We remember the Christians in our lives who have died and now rest with Christ, especially those who entered eternal life in the last year. It is a joyful day, more so than the day of their funeral, where grief is more intense. Most parishes read their names during worship. Some use other ways to remember — distributing flowers, lighting votive candles or other practices special to them.

Yet our celebration is not about the saints — even our loved ones. It is about Jesus, their Savior, who by his death has destroyed death and by his resurrection opened the kingdom to all believers. He is the author and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of God. It is because he is risen that they — and we — will rise on the last day. So, we dry the tears in our eyes, for he is risen! He is risen indeed! Allelujah!

Singing the Psalms with Isaac Watts

Encore Post: When Martin Luther wrote his hymns, one of his aims was to make singing accessible to everyday people. He wrote hymns that not only praised God but taught the faith. Many of his hymns paraphrased Scripture, especially Old Testament passages and pieces from the liturgy. Often he brought Jesus into Old Testament texts. Lutherans followed his lead, beginning a rich tradition of music and the arts that continue today. John Calvin and his followers took a different tack. Nothing was to be sung in worship, they believed, that was not a Psalm or a close translation.

Nearly two hundred year later, the young son of a Calvinist minister, Isaac Watts, could not stand how dull and unfeeling the singing of the Psalms were in their worship. When he complained to his father, the elder Watts said, “if you don’t like it, try to do better.” And he did. His hymns became very popular. His work inspired many other hymn writers so that he became known as the father of English hymnody.

Four Hundred and one years ago, Isaac Watts, then a leading Calvinist minister, set out to replace the Psalm singing that distressed him so with Psalm paraphrases, following similar principles as Luther used. He published a hymn book of paraphrases of nearly every Psalm he thought he could baptize. This book is titled: Psalms of David Imitated. These include some of the most beloved English hymns. You know some of them: nine of them are in Lutheran Service Book. They are:

705 – The man is ever blessed (Psalm 1)
832 – Jesus shall reign where’er the sun (Psalm 72:8–19)
867 – Let children hear the mighty deeds (stanzas 1–3, 5) (Psalm 78:1–8)
733 – O[ur] God, our help in ages past (Psalm 90:1–5)
387 – Joy to the world, the Lord is come (Psalm 98:4–9)
814 – O bless the Lord, my soul (Psalm 103:1–7)
816 – From all that dwell below the skies (stanzas 1–2) (Psalm 117)
903 – This is the day the Lord has made (Psalm 118:24–26)
707 – Oh, that the Lord would guide my ways (Psalm 119, selected verses)

When was Jesus Born?

Encore Post: In the Western world, the way we number our years is based on the year Jesus was thought to be born. The years before that time are called B.C. — Before Christ. ( Non-Christians, especially scholars call it B.C.E. — Before the Common Era). Years after that date are called A.D. — Anno Domini — the Year of Our Lord, (Non-Christians call it C.E. — the Common Era). The system was devised by monk Dionysius Exiguus In 525 AD to depart from the system developed by pagan emperors and last revised by the great persecutor of Christians — Diocletian. It supplanted a system based on the year of the reign consuls, emperors or kings.

The problem: most historians believe that Herod the Great died in 4 BC. The tyrant was very much alive when Jesus was born. Using other clues from the Evangelist Luke’s dating of events in the life of Jesus, Dr. Paul L. Maier, scholar of ancient history and Lutheran apologist, believes Jesus was born in 5 BC. Not too far off given Dionysius Had no tools of modern historical research.

Jesus’ actual birthday is not known. Jews of first century AD did not celebrate their birthdays. The big celebration was a male’s circumcision eight days after birth. In fact, Christians did not celebrate the birth of Christ until the 4th Century, after Christianity became the official religion of Rome. The date was selected in relation to the Resurrection, which was celebrated from the very start of the faith.

In the ancient world, a perfect human being was thought to die on the day of his conception. So the church reasoned the incarnation happened on the Spring Equinox, the day when daylight and night are the same length — 12 hours. In Ancient times, that was March 25. In the same way, a perfect human being was thought to remain in his mother’s womb exactly nine months. So, they reasoned he would be born on the shortest day of the year — December 25th.

The church made much of the date. The pagans celebrated the day of the unconquerable Sun, worshiping it as a god. From that day on, it seemed to grow ever stronger. So the church celebrated a service — a Mass– of Christ on that day to displace it. From that date grew the seasons of Advent and Christmas in the church calendar.

Grace Alone and Scripture alone at Leipzig

It really was not about indulgences. The Ninety-Five Theses were a spark that ignited a debate about the place of the Pope and other church authorities. Luther’s opponents noticed the Reformer had challenged their authority when he criticized the abuse of indulgences. Luther had given German princes the excuse they needed to forbid the sale of forgiveness. Luther pleased Renaissance thinkers, who lived by the motto Ad Fontes (to the source) and put the allies of the papacy on the defensive. That is why the attack on an obscure monk consumed all of Europe and why Johann Eck led the charge.

Eck challenged Luther’s friend Andreas Karlstadt to a disputation about free will and grace. He did this hoping the Reformer would join the debate. His goal was to get the Reformer to admit he was attacking the Pope and his power. Duke George “the Beard” of Saxony offered to host the disputation in Leipzig. He pressured the University of Leipzig into organize the event. On 27 June 1519, the disputation opened with a mass at St. Thomas Church (where two centuries later Johann Sebastian Bach would be a Church musician and composer) The event itself was held in the great hall of Duke George’s castle.

Karlstadt and Eck began the debate by discussing the role of free will and grace in the salvation of sinners. Karlstadt argued that a sinner had nothing to contribute to his own salvation, but was completely dependent on the grace of God. He defended this doctrine on the basis of the Scriptures. Eck responded that the Pope and Church tradition taught that grace was necessary, but there was something in a person that worked with it to save him. Karlstadt countered that Scripture is the final word on such matters. The Wittenberg professor was a good scholar, but Eck was a brilliant debater and had set the table for Luther to enter the discussion.

Luther and Eck covered a wide range of topics. In the end, the debate turned on the authority of the Pope and Church Councils. Eck accused Luther of promoting the teachings of Jan Hus, who was condemned as a heretic by the Council of Constance one hundred years earlier. Hus was burned at the stake when the Holy Roman Emperor at the time went back on his promise to Hus of safe conduct. It was a powerful slander. With that, Eck labeled Luther and his followers Lutheran, implying they followed Luther and not Christ. This forced Luther to admit that both Popes and Councils could make mistakes and that there was some truth to the charge.

Later Eck would admit that Luther had proved twelve of his thirteen theses. The last one, and in his eyes, the most important, Eck believed he had won. The result was to make clear the brake between the teachings of Luther, and the Scriptures, and the Pope. There would be no turning back. It was only a matter of time before the church would excommunicate Luther.

Meet Andreas Karlstadt

Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt (known as Karlstadt) was a professor of theology at Wittenberg when Martin Luther arrived at the university. Born in the village of Karlstadt not far from Frankfort on the Main River. He attended the University of Erfurt at the same time Luther was studying for a law degree. From there he studied at Cologne and Wittenberg, was ordained a priest and served at the Elector‘s Castle Church. After becoming a Doctor of Theology, he briefly studied canon law in Rome.

In any other time or place, Karlstadt would have been a significant figure. He was learned, insightful and committed to what he believed. Yet he lived in the shadow of a genius who changed the world and ended up more of footnote in the history of the Reformation. Like St. Peter, he lived life governed by his heart, with all the subtlety of a loaded freight train. At the beginning of the Reformation, he was a loyal friend and ally of Luther’s, one of the first to be convinced of the truth of the Reformer’s insights. When Martin Luther received his Doctor of Theology degree, it was Karlstadt who conferred it.

In 1517, he lectured on Saint Augustine’s book, On the Spirit and the Letter, a work on Law and Gospel. When Johann Eck’s criticisms of the Ninety-Five theses were published, Karlstadt waded into the debate to defend his friend and his university. In May 1518, Karlstadt published his book Apologeticae conclusiones, which directly challenged Eck. He argued that man could not of his own free will do anything to earn God’s grace, but only receive it as a gift. He insisted, as did Luther, that Scripture is the final authority in matters of theology.

Johann Eck responded in August 1518 with theses on the relationship between grace, free will, penance and indulgences. He challenged Karlstadt to debate them. In the following months, he added theses, that on the surface appeared to attack the professor, but were really aimed at Martin Luther. Luther, who had been trying to bring the two together felt betrayed and entered the war of words.

Unlike the Ninety-Five theses, which were never publicly debated, the theses flying back and forth between Eck, Karlstadt and Luther were explored in the Leipzig Disputation, five hundred years ago today. This conference made it clear to everyone, including Martin Luther, that the reformers would accept no authority but the Holy Scriptures in faith and the teachings of the church — not even the pope or church councils. The breach between Rome and Wittenberg was not able to be closed.

Meet Johann Eck

Johann Maier von Eck (known as Eck) was born the son of a judge in the little town of Eck, a Swabian village between Stuttgart and Augsburg. A child prodigy like Philip Melanchthon, he enrolled at Heidelberg University at age eleven and earned his Doctor of Theology degree by age twenty-four from the University of Freiburg. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1508. In 1510, he moved to the university at Ingolstadt where he earned a second doctoral degree and joined the faculty.

Eck quickly became a leading figure in the German Humanist movement. As a true Renaissance man, in wrote works in many fields, especially philosophy and theology. One of his major works, called Chrysopassus explored the doctrine of predestination. He argued that God predestined people because he could see in advance the sins and good works they would perform. He and Martin Luther struck up a friendship over their shared interest in reforming university education based upon the insights of the Renaissance. He earned a reputation as a skilled debater, not exactly known for his subtlety — just like Luther.

When the Indulgence Controversy broke out, the Bishop of Eichstätt requested Eck’s opinion on the 95 Theses. He wrote what were more or less footnotes on them. Someone leaked this private opinion to the printers and soon the criticisms were published with the title Obelisks. Luther soon fired off a response entitled Asterisks. The friendship came to an end as Eck assumed the role of Luther’s chief and most skilled opponent.

Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt (known as Karlstadt), a colleague of Luther at Wittenberg, rose to the reformer’s defense. Soon Eck and Karlstadt agreed to meet in a disputation (a debate). Under the sponsorship of George “The Beard,” Duke of Saxony, cousin of Luther’s prince, the conference convened five hundred years ago tomorrow in Leipzig. It became know as the Leipzig Disputation and was the event that set in motion Luther’s excommunication.

Martin Luther, St. Paul and Righteousness

We think of Martin Luther as a great reformer, a writer and a pastor. And he was all of these things. But his call was as a professor. His first lectures were on the Psalms, Romans, Galatians and Hebrews. To do these well, he spent many hours reading commentaries and the writings of the Church Fathers and the scholars of the Middle Ages. Once in awhile, he found himself not quite understanding a passage or a word. He spent months trying to understand some words. When he finally came to understand repentance, he described his excitement as if it unlocked all of Scripture for him.

Over Five Hundred years ago, as he was preparing to lecture on Romans, the great scholar, Erasmus of Rotterdam, published a Greek New Testament (1516) with Erasmus’ own Latin translation with it. It was then he came up against Romans 1:17: ” ‘For in it [the Gospel] the righteousness (δικαιοσύνη) of God is revealed from faith for faith” Everything he read said this righteousness was the quality of God that moves him to condemn sinners. He just couldn’t understand how that was good news.

His friends urged him to lecture on the Psalms again, so he began teaching the book in March and April of 1519 — five hundred years ago. While he was working on his lectures in his tower study, he couldn’t get Romans 1 off of his mind. Then his eyes fell on the context: “The just shall live by his faith.” All of a sudden, it occured to him that the righteousness of God is not the holy nature of God, but it is God’s gift of righteousness that Christians receive by faith as a free gift for the sake of Jesus’ death and resurrection. It was as if God had opened the gate of heaven for him. God’s righteousness is a gift God gives by his grace.

Luther has a way to go before he fully understood theology they way Lutherans do today. Yet God had revealed to him the central teaching of the faith. He would never forget his tower experience.

Friedrich Wyneken’s Far-Flung Parish

Wyneken did not remain idle while he waited for a dismissal from missionary service. He began his ministry in Fort Wayne and Adams County, preached to a small settlement near Auburn, Indiana, on the Cedar Creek, along what was to become the Lima Pike Road. On the third of December, he set out for the Elkhart area, but found his horse too lame to make the journey. He Spent Advent and Christmas in the Fort Wayne area.

Wyneken made a northern journey just after the first of the year. His horse went lame again and be left along the way. The missionary completed the journey to Benton on foot. There he baptized nine and formed a congregation. He continued on to Goshen, where he baptized a
child and stayed overnight. Although he became ill in Goshen, Wyneken continued on to Elkhart, where he was expected. There he was able to preach, conduct a confessional service, commune eighteen and baptize six. His illness worsened and forced the missionary to remain in bed two
days. Since he promised to preach to a small settlement ten miles from Wolf Lake, Wyneken had to turn back for Fort Wayne.

Upon his return, Wyneken found a letter relieving him of his position as a missionary of the Pennsylvania Ministerium. During the eventful period from September 10th to the end of his commission on January 11th, he organized three congregations, preached fifty-eight times, baptized sixty-eight children and two adults, confirmed one, communed one hundred and eighty, married one couple and buried one person. He collected contributions totaling $16.50.

Settling down to serve two parishes in Northeast Indiana did not stop Wyneken, full of zeal, from preaching, teaching and organizing congregations whenever he had the time. When time permitted, he would answer requests to visit other settlements on weekdays and preach in them.

The circuit rider felt he could not organize these stations into congregations because most they lacked either the sufficient catechesis or piety and because he simply could not properly care for them. It broke his heart to have to ignore the many pleas to come and prepare children for confirmation and to meet many desperate needs. He could see whole villages sinking back into paganism. On his longer trips, sometimes four to six weeks from home, Wyneken had to depart settlement after settlement, sick with the knowledge that not even a survey missionary would minister in these places for the next few years
He could only promise to return from time to time and tell them of his many letters to Germany, begging for help.

Friedrich Wyneken Returns to Fort Wayne

Friedrich Wyneken continued to travel north along the Michigan Road. At Logansport, he turned east on the Wabash-Erie Canal, passing through Peru and Huntington, He returned to Fort Wayne on the 16th of November 1838 and preached at that place on the 18th of November. After a six week journey, traversing the northern third of Indiana and a portion of South Central Michigan, Wyneken found a letter from the Executive Committee of the Mission Society awaiting him at Fort Wayne.

The epistle gave the missionary permission to accept the call of Jesse Hoover’s congregations, but only on the condition that he remain a missionary as well. His recent experiences made it quite evident that no one man could do justice to both calls. He dashed off a letter to Executive Committee, giving a brief report of his labors and requesting resident pastors for Lima, for the Elkhart area, for Bremen on the Yellow River and the Lafayette region. None were available.

Wyneken suggested that perhaps preachers might be found at the fall meeting of the Pennsylvania Ministerium or in the meeting of the General Synod. He recommended that such men also be able to work in English. In this epistle, Wyneken also asked to be released from their service as a missionary. He suggested that his former shipmate, C. Wolf, be called to succeed him as survey missionary. He included a promise to visit settlements within a sixty mile radius of Fort Wayne, as time and obligations permitted. Wolf declined the call and another candidate, Emmanuel Frey, was prevented from serving by illness.

Wyneken did not remain idle while he waited for a dismissal from missionary service. He began his ministry in Fort Wayne and Adams County, preached to a small settlement near Auburn, Indiana, on the Cedar Creek, along what was to become the Lima Pike Road. On the third of December, he set out for the Elkhart area, but found his horse too lame to make the journey. So he spent Advent and Christmas in the Fort Wayne area.