BELFAST RB BOOKLET 2020 - Flipbook - Page 23
Ci t y of Belf ast Grand Bl ack Chapt er - Dem onst rat i on Bookl et 2020
MARTIN LUTHER
.. THE MONK WHO SHOOK THE WORLD
At 3am, on the morning of Thursday February 18th, 1546 the Reformist
Martin Luther was lying on his death-bed at Eisleben in Saxony
Germany; his original birth village, where he came into the world on
10th November 1483. Eisleben is approximately one hundred and
twelve kilometres from Wittenberg where Luther nailed his 95
Theses to the church door on October 31st, 1517. Yet in spite of his
deathly sufferings on that fateful morn, Luther managed to recite the
words from Saint John's Gospel, Chapter 3, Verse 16, which he had
always described as the Bible of Miniature; then along with his close
friend and colleague Justus Jonas, he offered a prayer and confessed his sins.
Standing at his bedside Jonas stooped low over the dying Luther and whispered .. 'Reverend
father, wilt thou stand by Christ and the Doctrines thou hast preached.' Then gasping
slowly and with his last breath, Luther quietly replied .. 'Yes'.
Regarded as the Father of the Reformation, Martin Luther was 62 years of age,
when he finally passed over to his Saviour to be rested in heavenly glory.
Earlier in 1511 as a young monk, Luther was troubled through reading a Latin Bible and the
thought of the righteousness of God; so in his eagerness to understand it he turned to the
Epistle to the Romans. Within another of his many writings he then recorded these words .. 'I
sought day and night to make out the meaning of Paul and at last I came to apprehend it
thus. Through the Gospel is revealed the righteousness which availeth with God; a
righteousness by which God in His mercy and compassion justifieth us; as it is written,
the just shall live by faith alone and straight away I felt as if were born anew.'
As such, Luther prepared his first journey to Rome that same year and
his later experience on the 'Holy Staircase' (left). Reputedly these were
the twenty-eight steps that our Lord Christ Jesus had to ascend on the
way to His 'trial' with Pontius Pilate before His final crucifixion.
Afterwards, during the fourth century, the marble steps were removed
and transported from Jerusalem to be installed in Rome, where papal
tradition decreed that all visitors to the private chapel of the early popes,
(situated at the top of the stairs), had to climb all the way up to the top,
but so doing, on their knees.
In order to win an indulgence from penance for up to a thousand years,
Luther himself was on his knees, making his way up the staircase when
the words of the Scriptures suddenly came into his mind .. 'the just shall
live by faith alone' .. whereby he quickly rose to his feet and desisted from this act of piety.
After a month's stay in Rome his eyes were also opened to the infidelity and immorality of the
priesthood that Luther later wrote .. 'I would not have missed being in Rome for any amount
of money; had I not seen it with my own eyes I would not have believed it. Neither God,
nor man, nor sin, nor shame is regarded; if there is a hell, then Rome is built over it.'
'Feelings come and feelings go
And feelings are deceiving
My warrant is the Word of God
Naught else is worth believing.
Though all my heart should feel condemned
For want of some sweet token
There is One greater than my heart
Whose Word cannot be broken.
I'll trust in God's unchanging Word
'Til soul and body sever
For, though all things shall pass away,
His word shall stand forever!'
IN MEMORY OF THE FALLEN - 21 - AND THE FUTURE OF THE LIVING