11-7-22<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Revolutions come and revolutions go. Thomas Jefferson noted \u2013 and implicitly advocated \u2013 that political and social revolutions need happen every generation, and their Trees of Liberty be watered by the blood of patriots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was an extreme prescription, but his was an era of extreme distress; of discontents, panaceas, and actions in the New World, in France and other boiling pots across Europe. Oftentimes revolutions are followed by counter-revolutions, as in France but mercifully not in the United States; and those counter-revolutions often are as bloody as the initial revolts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When historians look back in the \u201ccome and go\u201d mode a cynicism may be inferred; or a discounting of the issues and import of violent revolts. But in truth we must avoid such attitudes, not the least because we might become inured to the legitimate urgency of imminent revolts in our own day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are two main reasons we tend to dismiss the earthquake-aspects of earlier revolutions. One, the passage of time dilutes the details of history-bending events: we tend to classify them in the same way we record floods and plagues and migrations. More important, the changes wrought by revolutions, good and bad, settle into the reality of subsequent eras. Old complaints seem less legitimate when revolutions succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When revolutions succeed in varying degrees, when the contending forces do battle and either claim victory or lick their wounds, revolutions routinely are reclassified by history as Revolts. Another truth about history\u2019s revolutions and revolts is that they never occur spontaneously, nor without a host of factors long fermenting and brewing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what we call these days \u201cperfect storms\u201d summon the inevitable flash-points. Such was the case in Martin Luther\u2019s time (as we recently marked Reformation Sunday, the anniversary of his nailing 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Church)\u2026 and is the case today. Let us be aware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
+ + +<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people think that the Protestant Reformation began when the monk Martin Luther, upset with the corruption of the Papacy and the heretical selling of indulgences (in effect, paying a priest to elevate the dead into Heaven) aimed his challenges at the entire structure of the Church. And that Germany, and much of Europe, spontaneously erupted in flames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact it was no such thing, and Luther meant no such thing\u2026 but, given time, it was close to what happened. Theological opposition to Roman (Catholic) authoritarianism was at least 200 years old when Luther acted. Rebellion \u2013 sometimes as innocent as wanting the Bible to be translated into the language of their people \u2013 stamped out clerics like John Wycliffe in England. Jan Hus in Bohemia, and William Tyndale in England. By \u201cstamped out\u201d I mean excommunicated. But so rabid was the hatred of the Catholic Church that Wycliffe\u2019s body was exhumed and burned; Hus was merely burned alive; and Tyndale was strangled to death and then burned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As often happens in revolutions, those sorts of flames of immolation result in firing up further rebellion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So Luther had the examples before him: of ecclesiastical dilemmas, an intransigent establishment, and examples of protest \u2013 and martyrdom. But those Theses he announced were meant as a call to debate. An agenda for meetings. Topics for discussion. Posting such notices was one of the traditional purposes of that church door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, Luther courted disaster by alleging (with increasing fervor) the sins of the papacy (popes and their edicts and their mistresses and such), and the corruption of the Bible (man-made rules that supplanted Scripture). The Vatican and the Holy Roman Emperor dug in their heels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, the eye of Perfect Storm settled over the city of Worms in Germany, on the occasion of a Diet (an assembly of religious and secular leaders). Luther was detained; called before it; and, with his many books and sermons spread on a table before him, was ordered to denounce and renounce all he had written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Perfect Storm? With the Trees of religious liberty, freedom of thought, and the rights of citizens and Christian individuals watered by the blood of martyrs, Luther\u2019s defense was a thunderclap, a nexus of history:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since your most serene majesty and your highnesses require of me a simple, clear, and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it is clear that they have fallen into error and even into inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons\u2026 I neither can not nor will not retract anything; for it cannot be either safe nor honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Luther assumed he would be tortured and burned to death. In Washington\u2019s Museum of the Bible is a letter he wrote the night before his defense, calmly commending his soul to God and discussing the disposition of his worldly belongings. But instead, that Perfect Storm swept him away, \u201ckidnapped\u201d by friendly princes, hidden for a time (during which he translated the Bible \u2013 horrors! \u2013 into the everyday language of the German people), and finally emerging as the putative leader of many things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those things, across the landscape of Western Civilization, included personal relationships with Jesus; access to Scripture; literacy; the respect for individual liberty; political empowerment; the Enlightenment. Assisted by the invention of printing and a political revolt of princes against the Holy Roman Empire, Protestantism (Protest-antism) spread. To some things Luther disagreed, or would have. He chose to reestablish, not tear down. The Modern Age began with the Reformation, and Luther rejected Modernism. In fact he characterized Reason as the enemy of Faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet \u2013 contrary to many of history\u2019s evolutionary moments \u2013 his Reforms, the Reform-ation, had truly revolutionary effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n + + +<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I referred to \u201ctoday\u201d above. How is our time like Luther\u2019s?<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are at an inflection-point in history. Viewed large, there has been a conflict brewing \u2013 across many \u201chot\u201d and \u201ccold\u201d battlefields \u2013 between the Individual and the Establishment. Since the Reformation and then the American Revolution, it has been the Individual on one side, and the power of the State on the other. The State has taken many forms: the Church; \u201croyalty\u201d; finance capitalism (as opposed to Free Enterprise); dictators; Communism behind many masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMacro,\u201d the Individual has fought and survived by the devices of Republican Democracy in civic life\u2026 through the Free Market in social life\u2026 through fundamental Christianity (whose center of gravity increasing moves south of the Equator). And the oppressive Establishment has with relentless acuity and insidious subterfuge waged war upon us through seductive appeals to sinfulness and selfishness\u2026 through attacks on traditional values and standards\u2026 through arguments in favor of secularism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMicro\u201d? The great storms and tides of history are mirrored in the lives of each of us individuals. The sanctity of our families and the protection of our children are the battlegrounds of today \u2013 they are not separate, but essential to, the preservation of our Republic. Our culture turns more rotten by the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No battlefield \u2013 no squall of that storm \u2013 is too little or too local. Martin Luther, after all, when he made that history-bending defense, still saw himself as a lonely monk wanting to register some complaints, hoping that the Establishment might mend its ways. He had little realization that he stood atop a volcano, much less called down that Perfect Storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our own \u201cassemblies,\u201d even with few people watching (except angels of Heaven and God Himself, remember) we must see clearly\u2026 decide to fight\u2026 act with integrity\u2026 and embrace truth. + + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n I never fail to weep at the power of Luther\u2019s words in his \u201cBattle Hymn of the Reformation\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still \u2013<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n His Kingdom is forever!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Click Video Clip:<\/strong> A Mighty Fortress<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n + + + <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n An award-winning movie about the life of Martin Luther:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Martin Luther | Full Movie | Niall MacGinnis<\/a><\/strong> |<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n 11-7-22 Revolutions come and revolutions go. Thomas Jefferson noted \u2013 and implicitly advocated \u2013 that political and social revolutions need happen every generation, and their Trees of Liberty be watered by the blood of patriots. It was an extreme prescription, but his was an era of extreme distress; of discontents, panaceas, and actions in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,53,2816],"tags":[3637,900,1566,1567,898,2850,80,3638],"class_list":["post-6534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-faith","category-persecution","tag-catholic-corruption","tag-indulgences","tag-jan-hus","tag-john-wycliffe","tag-martin-luther","tag-papacy","tag-reformation","tag-william-tyndale"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1bRYz-1Ho","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6534"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6553,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6534\/revisions\/6553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Here we stand. We can do no other. So help us, God. Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"