In church history there have been many influential leaders in Christianity who have turned the church and the world upside down. I will examine several key leaders and look at their life and influence.
Martin Luther
Luther is a major hero of mine. I find I relate to him in many ways. After a storm he felt compelled to become a priest. He found himself crushed by the weight of his own sin and found no solace in the legalism and tradition of his day. It is said he went to Rome and say a staircase that supposedly led to forgiveness. If you climbed all the steps on your knees and prayed the rosary all the way up you would be saved. As he climbed those steps, he found it all meaningless. It was not until he read Romans 1:17 that his life changed. "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith." He came to see the practice of indulgences as a gross distortion of Christianity, an exploitation of the people. He was so troubled that he nailed a 95 Thesis to the wall of the Wittenburg church. It was the nail pounding heard round the world. It started the protestant reformation. Luther was hunted and many times almost martyred for his faith. At one point he was summoned to account for charges of heresy. This was his response: "Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the scriptures, by clear reason, for I do not trust either in popes, or councils alone since it is well known they have often erred and contradicted themselves. I am bound by the scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and will not retract anything since it is neither save nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise. Here I stand." Luther struggled with depression. One day his wife wore black. When he asked her why she said that she was in mourning because God was dead. He responded that she should never say that. She said that he should stop living like he is. He wrote the hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." I relate to Luther because he is so flawed. He was a man who struggled with demons figuratively and literally. He was used by God not because he was so great but he realized that the only answer was faith.
John Wesley
Although I disagree with him on certain points theologically, I am a big fan of him personally. When George Whitfield was asked if he would see Wesley in heaven, he shocked everyone by saying that he would not. He explained that Wesley would be so far ahead of him. Wesley literally saved England from the brink of oblivion. John and Charles Wesley were the youngest in a family of nineteen. As a child, he was the last one saved from a fire. His mother referred to him as her little firebrand. After being trained as a minister in the church of England, he went to America to evangelize the Indians. The only problem was that he was unsaved. He was a failure and went home disillusioned. On the boat ride home, he met up with Moravian missionaries. One of them asked him if he knew that Jesus was his saviour. He replied that he knew Jesus was the Saviour of the world. He was again asked if he knew that Jesus was his saviour. He finally admitted that he didn't. One night he wandered into a club that was discussing Luther's commentary to Romans. It melted his heart and he was born again. Thus he broke with the church of England and decided to bring the word of God directly to the people. He said that he would cause a pow boy to know more about the Bible than a churchmen. He influenced statesmen, such as William Wilberforce, who ended slavery in England, and John Newton, a slave captain turned minister. He left England better than he found it.
Jim Elliot
You would think that after missionaries were killed by the tribes they came to witness to, it would end tribal ministry or slow it down. Just the opposite happened. The wives of those men killed, including Elizabeth Elliot, went to that tribe and they came to Christ. Jim Eliot and the others inspired a new generation of missionaries. Jim Elliot had many quotes that had been a blessing to many. They include "Soon this life will come to pass, only what's done for Christ will last." and "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." I think you can flip around his saying as well, "He is definitely a fool who gives up what he cannot afford to lose to gain what he cannot keep."
John MacArthur
The son of a pastor, he became pastor of Grace Community Church in Pasadena, California forty years ago. He is also president of the Master's College and Seminary. He is committed to a verse by verse expository preaching. He is a Calvinist, or as he calls himself, Reformed Theologian. In 1989, he saw a rise in professing Christians who failed to live the life. He wrote the controversial book, The Gospel According to Jesus to respond to this phenomena. The book teaches that true Christians will live a consistent life. If someone walks away and never returns, they are probably not saved. Many turned against him. My Alma Mada cancelled a conference speaking opportunity. MacArthur has been a blessing in my life. I have been enriched through his ministry. I enjoy his books and his MacArthur Bible Commentary.
John Piper
John Piper has been an encouragement to me. His book Desiring God is an all time favorite. Piper's biggest theme is that mankind's purpose in life is to enjoy God. He often quotes the Westminster confessional, which says, "The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever." He says that sin is seeking enjoyment from something other that God. Piper's books are sometimes redundant, but I love his overall theme.
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Hey Dan! I'm a regular lurker at your wife's blog. In her post on homeschooling, she spoke to your desire to homeschool to shield your children from the perceived anti-Israel stance of public schools. In this post, you show quite an affinity for Martin Luther.
ReplyDeleteHow do you reconcile your pro-Isreal stance with Luther's extensive anti-semitic writings? He was rather harsh in his views regarding the Jewish people. I've read his works in the original German (Von den Juden und Ihren Luegen, specifically) and they're rather violent.
Granted, the argument can be made that his writings come from a time when anti-semitism was rampant and yet that doesn't quite excuse his obvious hatred for the Jewish people.
At any rate, you do don't have to answer this question. It was just something that struck me as odd as I read through this post.
Hope you and yours have a Happy New Year!
I am a big supporter of Luther's theology and brave stance. Over the recent years, more information is coming out about his anti-semitism. Unfortunately as what happens with many people, they get caught up with the politics of their day. There was a lot of anti-semitism in his day. That does does not excuse him, but it does explain it. Many of the people I am a fan of have some skeletons in their closet. John Calvin unjustly executed Servitus. John MacArthur and Rob Bell have been the subject of many a controversy. John Wesley is an armenian, which I greaty disagree with. While Luther is hardly perfect, there are many things in his life worth emulating. When teaching on Luther, we will mention the good and bad things about this man.
ReplyDeleteWesley never broke from the Anglican church; he loved it. He said so numerous times, even when they persecuted him, that he felt that church had God's word more spot on than any other religion. The church broke from him b/c they didn't believe in what he was doing. He was frustrated that the Anglican church wouldn't send anyone to America so that believers could partake of the sacraments. B/c of that Wesley took matters into his own hands and ordained men himself. When the Anglican church was persecuting Wesley, his brother and Whitefield they did so by labeling them as "Methodist", a term Wesley himself came up with b/c he was looking for a METHOD in which to reach the masses while the Anglican church was waning in popularity. Methodism was never intended to be a church in and of itself. It simply happened over time b/c the Anglican church failed to do what was needed in America. Now it's one of the largest churches, if not the largest, in the world. And they let women preach (!!!), but that's a whole other story. I just wanted to be clear on the "who left who" side of things as my Methodist classes taught it quite differently from what you said.
ReplyDeleteYou said, "John Wesley is an armenian, which I greatly disagree with."
ReplyDeleteI wondered where on Earth you had heard that Wesley was born in Armenia, and what you had against that before I realized that you meant Arminian! :-)
Anyways, Treva's explanation on Wesley's relationship to the Anglican church is well-put; I was coming in to comment on the same thing.
i gues i did not make it clear that wesly did not want to create a new movement. most reformers do want to change the group not start a new one. luther was the same way. i did not make that clear. thnaks for poiting that out.
ReplyDelete