A thousand years ago you and I were nothing, and yet the church was preserved at that time without us. He who is called “who was” and “yesterday” had to accomplish this. Even during our lifetime we are not the church’s guardians. It is not preserved by us, for we are unable to drive off the devil in the persons of the pope, the sects, and evil men. If it were up to us, the church would perish before our very eyes, and we together with it (as we experience daily). For it is another Man who obviously preserves both the church and us. He does this so plainly that we could touch and feel it, if we did not want to believe it. We must leave this to him who is called “who is” and “today.” Likewise we will contribute nothing toward the preservation of the church after our death. He who is called “who is to come” and “forever” will accomplish it. What we are now saying about ourselves in this respect, our ancestors also had to say, as is borne out by the psalms and the Scriptures. And our descendants will make the same discovery, prompting them to join us and the entire church in singing Psalm 124: “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say,” etc.  (Luther’s Works, v.47, p.118)

Picture:  Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from  Das Newe Testament Deuotzsch.  The image is from Martin Luther’s (1483-1546) September Testament. The image is based on Revelation chapter 6:1-8.  After the first four seals are opened, four horsemen roam the earth bringing great calamity. They are shown carrying a bow, a sword, scales, and a pitchfork. Woodcut designed by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), a close friend of Luther.  http://pitts.emory.edu/

I can see there in the distance how the devil is puffing out his cheeks so vigorously that he is turning all red as he prepares to blow and rage. But our Lord Christ from the beginning (even when he was in the flesh) struck these puffed cheeks with his fist, so that they emitted nothing but the devil’s stinking wind. He still does this today and will ever continue to do so. For Christ does not lie when he declares, “I am with you always, to the close of the age” [Matt. 28:20], and when he assures us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church [Matt. 16:18]. At the same time we are enjoined to remain awake and to do our part in preserving the light. We read, “Be watchful,” for the devil is called a “roaring lion” who “prowls around, seeking some one to devour” [I Pet. 5:8], and this he did not only in the days of the apostles when St. Peter uttered these words; he does so to the end of time. Let us be guided by this. God help us as he helped our forefathers, and as he will help our heirs, to the honor and glory of his divine name forever. For after all, we are not the ones who can preserve the church, nor were our forefathers able to do so. Nor will our successors have this power. No, it was, is, and will be he who says, “I am with you always, to the close of the age.” As it says in Hebrews 13 [:8], “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever,” and in Revelation 1 [:8], “He who is and who was and who is to come.” This is his name and no one else’s; nor may anyone else be called by that name.  (Luther’s Works, v.47, p.117-118)

Picture:  Beasts of the Earth and Sea from  Das Newe Testament Deuotzsch.  The image is from Martin Luther’s (1483-1546) September Testament. The image is based on Revelation chapter 13. All the people of earth, whose names are not in the book of life, worship the seven-headed beast emerging from the sea, as another beast emerges from the earth. Woodcut designed by Lucas Cranach, the Elder (1472-1553), a close friend of Martin Luther.  http://pitts.emory.edu/

And even if I were to live another hundred years and should succeed by the grace of God not only in allaying the past and present storms and rabbles but also all future ones, I realize that this would still not procure peace for our descendants so long as the devil lives and rules. Therefore I am also praying for a gracious hour of death; I care no more for this life.  I exhort you, our posterity, to pray and to pursue the word of God with diligence. Keep God’s poor candle burning. Be warned and be on the alert, watching lest at any hour the devil try to break a pane or window or fling open a door or tear the roof off in order to extinguish the light; for he will not die before the Last Day. You and I have to die, but after our death he still remains the same as he always has been, unable to desist from his raging. (Luther’s Works, v.47, p.117)

Picture: Fifth Trumpet from  Das Newe Testament Deuotzsch.

The image is from Martin Luther’s (1483-1546) September Testament. The image is based on Revelation chapter 9. The angel blows a trumpet causing a star to fall from heaving, opening the pit and allowing locusts with crowns to prey upon the earth. Woodcut designed by Lucas Cranach, the Elder (1472-1553), a close friend of Martin Luther.  http://pitts.emory.edu/

I say all this, dear friends, as a faithful warning. In this case you should stop calling yourselves Christians and stop claiming that you have the Christian law on your side. For no matter how right you are, it is not right for a Christian to appeal to law, or to fight, but rather to suffer wrong and endure evil; and there is no other way (I Corinthians 6 [:1–8]). You yourselves confess in the preface to your articles that “all who believe in Christ become loving, peaceful, patient, and agreeable.”  Your actions, however, reveal nothing but impatience, aggression, anger, and violence. Thus you contradict your own words. You want to be known as patient people, you who will endure neither injustice nor evil, but will endure only what is just and good. That is a fine kind of patience! Any rascal can practice it! It does not take a Christian to do that! So again I say, however good and just your cause may be, nevertheless, because you would defend yourselves and are unwilling to suffer either violence or injustice, you may do anything that God does not prevent. However, leave the name Christian out of it. Leave the name Christian out, I say, and do not use it to cover up your impatient, disorderly, un-Christian undertaking.  I shall not let you have that name, but so long as there is a heartbeat in my body, I shall do all I can, through speaking and writing, to take that name away from you. You will not succeed, or will succeed only in ruining your bodies and souls.  (Luther’s Works, v.46, p.31-32)

Picture: Mark  from  Das Newe Testament Deuotzsch.

Mark writes his gospel with his attribute the lion nearby. Woodcut designed by Lucas Cranach, the Elder (1472-1553), a close friend of Martin Luther.  http://pitts.emory.edu

This, you see, is the way we teach concerning suffering, and you should also accustom yourself to distinguish carefully between the suffering of Christ and all other suffering and know that his is a heavenly suffering and ours is worldly, that his suffering accomplishes everything, while ours does nothing except that we become conformed to Christ, and that therefore the suffering of Christ is the suffering of a lord, whereas ours is the suffering of a servant. And those who teach otherwise know neither what Christ’s suffering nor our suffering is. Why? Because reason cannot do otherwise; it likes to put on a display with its suffering, as with all other works, so that it may gain some merit. That’s why we must learn to distinguish. We have said enough for this time concerning the example of the Passion and our suffering. God grant that we may understand and learn it aright. Amen. (Luther’s Works, v.51, p.198-199)

Picture: Table of Contents from  Das Newe Testament Deuotzsch.

The table of contents from Martin Luther’s (1483-1546) September Testament published in September of 1522. The New Testament in German was Luther’s crowning achievement which opened the Bible to laypeople. The table of contests had four books of the Bible at the bottom (Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation) without numbers showing Luther’s preference for the other books.  http://pitts.emory.edu/

Since we know then that it is God’s good pleasure that we should suffer, and that God’s glory is manifested in our suffering, better than in any other way, and since we are the kind of people who cannot hold on to the Word and our faith without suffering, and moreover since we have the noble, previous promise that the cross which God sends to us is not a bad thing, but rather an utterly precious and noble holy thing, why should we not be bold to suffer? As for those who will not suffer, let them go and be cavaliers; we preach this only to the devout who want to be Christians, the others wouldn’t carry it out anyhow. After all, we have so many assurances and promises that he will not allow us to stick in our suffering but will help us out of it, even though all men should doubt it. Therefore, even though it hurts, so be it, you have to go through some suffering anyhow; things cannot always go smoothly. It is just as well, nay, a thousand times better, to have suffered for the sake of Christ, who promised us comfort and help in suffering, than to suffer and despair and perish without comfort and help for the sake of the devil. (Luther’s Works, v.51, p.208)

Picture:  Woman and Dragon from  Das Newe Testament Deuotzsch.

The image is from Martin Luther’s (1483-1546) September Testament. The image is based on Revelation chapter 12. The woman’s baby is saved from the beast upon his birth and the dragon is defeated by angels. Woodcut designed by Lucas Cranach, the Elder (1472-1553).  http://pitts.emory.edu/