The Power of the Word

It was soon noised through Wittenberg that Luther had returned and was to preach. The church was filled. With great wisdom and gentleness he instructed and reproved:HF 119.4

“The mass is a bad thing; God is opposed to it; it ought to be abolished. ... But let no one be torn from it by force. ... God's ... word must act, and not we. ... We have a right to speak: we have not the right to act. Let us preach; the rest belongs unto God. Were I to employ force, what should I gain? God lays hold upon the heart; and when the heart is taken, all is won... .”HF 119.5

“I will preach, discuss, and write; but I will constrain none, for faith is a voluntary act. ... I stood up against the pope, indulgences, and papists, but without violence or tumult. 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 popery, so that neither prince nor emperor has done it so much harm. And yet I did nothing; the word alone did all.”^6Idem. The Word of God broke the spell of fanatical excitement. The gospel brought back misguided people into the way of truth.HF 120.1

Several years later the fanaticism broke out with more terrible results. Said Luther: “To them the Holy Scriptures were but 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.”^{7Ibid., bk. 10, ch. 10.}HF 120.2

Thomas Münzer, the most active of the fanatics, was a man of considerable ability, but he had not learned true religion. “He was possessed with a desire of reforming the world, and forgot, as all enthusiasts do, that the reformation should begin with himself.”^{8Ibid., bk. 9, ch. 8.} He was unwilling to be second, even to Luther. He himself, he claimed, had been divinely commissioned to introduce the true reform: “He who possesses this spirit, possesses the true faith, although he should never see the Scriptures in his life.”^{9Ibid., bk. 10, ch. 10.}HF 120.3

The fanatical teachers gave themselves up to be governed by impressions, regarding every thought and impulse as the voice of God. Some even burned their Bibles. Münzer's doctrines were received by thousands. He soon declared that to obey princes was to attempt to serve both God and Belial.HF 120.4

Münzer's revolutionary teachings led the people to break away from all control. Terrible scenes of strife followed, and the fields of Germany were drenched with blood.HF 120.5