Last week my friend Izzy (Israel) called and asked if I was interested in watching Luther. This is a new movie that has just come out on DVD. He knew I was very interested and I told him so. That evening he brought me a rented copy. I found it to be very good and (for a movie) quite accurate.

Martin Luther has long been one of my heroes. I’ve read his book Bondage of the Will (De Servo Arbitrio), which was written as a reply to Erasmus of Rotterdam’s De Libero Arbitrio Diatribe Sive Collatio (Diatribe on Free-Will). I read this book many years ago and found it a delight.

In the introduction to Luther’s book he pays Erasmus some lofty complements for his “eloquence” and “genius,” in the Diatribe. Erasmus, who was one of the greatest and most prominent scholars of the day, certainly had both qualities that Luther readily attributes to him. Luther says this about Erasmus’ eloquence in the Diatribe. “I greatly feel for you for having defiled your most beautiful and ingenious language with such vile trash; ... that such unworthy stuff should be borne about in ornaments of eloquence so rare; which is as if rubbish, or dung, should he carried in vessels of gold and silver.” (Note: Dung is the polite translation.)

I’ve read other items of Luther. His 95 Theses is a must for anyone wanting to understand the issue of indulgences. This issue is the spark that ignited the Protestant Reformation.

Luther was very much a man of his times, and in that day men did not mince their words. Luther’s debating style (if it can be called that) was to always let his opponents have it with both barrels. Because of this the verbiage in his writings is, at times, quite colourful. He tended to push the envelope on matters, and often gave his opponents lots of ammunition to use against him.

This movie, Luther, is well made and is worth your time to watch. The facts presented are admitted on all sides. Luther lived in a time of great corruption in the church. The abuses he spoke out against where not new and Godly men had been trying to clean up these abuses long before Luther was ever born.

The time was ripe in 16th century Germany when Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the castle church door in Wittenberg. There was no turning back. Watch the movie and encourage others to do the same.

I also recommend the masterful biography of Martin Luther titled Here I Stand by Roland Bainton.

Coram Deo,
Kenith