The Power of the Word

The news soon spread through Wittenberg that Luther had returned and was to preach. The church was filled. With great wisdom and gentleness he instructed and reproved:LF 81.6

“The mass is a bad thing. God is opposed to it, and it ought to be abolished.... But we must not tear anyone from it by force.... God's ... word must act, and not we.... We have a right to speak; we do not have the right to act. Let us preach; the rest belongs to God. If I were to use force, what would I gain? God takes hold of the heart, and when He conquers it, all is won....LF 81.7

“I will preach, discuss, and write, but I will force none, for faith is a voluntary act.... I stood up against the pope, indulgences, and those who supported the papacy, but without violence or rioting. I put forward God's word; I preached and wrote—this was all I did. And yet while I was asleep, ... the word that I had preached overthrew the papal system, so that neither prince nor emperor has done it as much harm. And yet I did nothing. The word alone did it all.”^{6J. H. Merle D'Aubigné, History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, book 9, chapter 8.} The Word of God broke the spell of fanatical excitement. The gospel brought misguided people back into the way of truth.LF 82.1

Several years later the fanaticism broke out with more terrible results. Luther said: “To them the Holy Scriptures were no more than a dead letter, and they all began to cry, ‘The Spirit! the Spirit!’ But most assuredly I will not follow where their spirit leads them.”^{7J. H. Merle D'Aubigné, History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, book 10, chapter 10.}LF 82.2

Thomas Münzer, the most active of the fanatics, was a man with considerable ability, but he had not learned true religion. “He was possessed with a desire to reform the world, and forgot, as all fanatics do, that the reformation should begin with himself.”^{8J. H. Merle D'Aubigné, History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, book 9, chapter 8.} He was unwilling to be second, even to Luther. He claimed that God Himself had commissioned him to introduce the true reform: “He who possesses this spirit, possesses the true faith, even if he never sees the Scriptures in his life.”^{9J. H. Merle D'Aubigné, History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, book 10, chapter 10.}LF 82.3

The fanatical teachers allowed themselves to be governed by impressions, taking every thought and impulse as the voice of God. Some even burned their Bibles. Thousands of people received Münzer's doctrines. He soon declared that those who obeyed princes were trying to serve both God and Satan.LF 82.4

Münzer's revolutionary teachings led the people to break away from all control. Terrible scenes of conflict followed, and the fields of Germany were drenched with blood.LF 82.5