Time moves fast. Perspective is vital. Columbus discovered America the same year German theologian Martin Luther turned nine (1492). We remember Columbus, and should remember Luther. Columbus fathered America. Luther fathered the Protestant Reformation.
Why should this matter in 2026, 500 years after Luther spurred “The Peasants’ War,” pressured the Catholic Church to stop “selling indulgences” (money for forgiveness), got himself excommunicated, and began translating and printing the Bible for all to read?
Four reasons bring Luther to mind, although I am not Lutheran – at this 501st anniversary of the largest uprising in Europe before the American Revolution in 1776.
First, Martin Luther was deep, a thinker, filled with passion for truth. His life is a testament. Following his father’s wishes, he started at law, then learned philosophy, finally traded all that “reason” for “faith.”
He became a monk in 1505, was ordained a Catholic priest in 1507, but then started thinking again, courageously challenged the Pope’s money raising, which got him excommunicated.
His passion, in a phrase, was for understanding the Bible and helping others to do so, first with lectures on the Psalms, Hebrews, Romans, and Galatians, later publications like his famous “Ninety-five Theses.” He made the Bible readable and accessible.
While he later married, setting a precedent for Protestants (predated by Orthodox clergy), he urged focus on the Ten Commandments, spoke of “grace” and being “born again.”
Second, while Luther’s theology was complex – and not without prejudice – he stood at the crossroads of Catholicism and Protestantism, which in turn created a cascading effect, with more people learning about the Bible. He was a born missionary.
Just 250 years later, the same distance we are from our Revolution, the Founders took strength from their various faiths, mostly Protestant – Anglicans, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Deists, Unitarians, Quakers, Baptists, Methodists, and several Catholics.
Third, beyond being a passionate and courageous seeker of truth and believer, he was a teacher who conveyed complex concepts to the people and did so with resolve.
He had phrases that stuck and apply now. He used them to bring people around, make them think when thinking was out of style – as it is again.
His simple adages, metaphors, and distilled lessons caused pause. His nuggets included: “I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess” and “The devil, the originator of sorrowful anxieties and restless troubles, flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God…” He wrote many hymns, some still used today.
Elsewhere, he wrote: “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing” and “You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.”
He was instructive, but self-deprecating, “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times. I know not the way God leads me, but well do I know my Guide.”
He was self-critical, but confident. “The Gospel cannot be truly preached without offense and tumult,” and “True humility does not know that it is humble; if it did, it would be proud from the contemplation of so fine a virtue,” and “Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.”
Finally, he was funny. Like many leaders, he felt humor lifted the heart and brought it closer to faith, as it reflects the joy in faith. He wrote “You have as much laughter as you have faith” and “If the earth is fit for laughter, then surely heaven is filled with it; Heaven is the birthplace of laughter.”
Unusual for his time, he wrote: “If I am not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don’t want to go there” and “The Gospel is nothing less than laughter and joy,” adding “The heart overflows with gladness, and leaps and dances for the joy it has found in God; in this experience the Holy Spirit is active, and has taught us in the flash of a moment the deep secret of joy…You will have as much joy and laughter in life as you have faith in God.”
If this is a lot at the 250th anniversary of our Founders’ faith, and 500th of Martin Luther’s influence, ill winds blow. We are best when seeking truth, showing courage, acting on faith, teaching, and laughing. Time moves fast. Perspective…is vital.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
RBC, thank you for the article about Martin Luther. I was raised as a Lutheran while growing up but found it to be too much legalism in this denomination as well as other denominations.
Sadly, you failed to mention the downside of Martin Luther. He was very anti-Jewish. He highly persecuted the Jews of his time, either convert to Christianity or suffer the consequences. Adolf Hitler, unfortunately, found the works of Martin Luther and applied the same against the European Jews during World War II. History once again, is raising its ugly head as persecution of the Jews worldwide is advancing again.
As a Jew, I have mixed feelings about Luther, and Christianity itself.
The Christian scriptures say nice things about Jews as well as not-so-nice things.
A Christian can interpret the totality of the scriptures to accept Jews or reject them. It’s an individual choice.
I judge peoples’ attitudes towards me when I meet them, one at-a-time. I make no assumptions in advance, and hope they will give me the same courtesy.
I have a good relationship with the Christians I meet in my daily life (nearly everybody.)
Most people are open and fair-minded.
What a wonderful article, you are responsible for what you say, present that to all the lying deceiving “democrats” and see the reaction. How would they twist out of that undeniable truth.
Oh, I have to add one more thing. An arsonist burned down my home Catholic parish at St. Michael’s. The Lutheran Pastor down the street came down as the fire was raging and handed the keys to his Lutheran church that was just around the corner to the Catholic church Pastor and said, “We can work a schedule out.” Man, what an act of Christian charity! I attended Catholic Mass in a Lutheran church many times when I came home to visit before they rebuilt the Catholic Church. There wasn’t statuary or pictures but that was the Lutheran tradition. I thought that was so kind of that church and their members.
One of the best You’ve ever written Mr. Charles.
My wife of 46 years and I switched from Catholicism to Lutheranism 5 years ago. In those 5 years, we’ve enjoyed a deeper understanding of God, and especially Christ, than we did in 41 years as Catholics. I’m not disparaging the Catholic church. God’s house has many rooms with many doors. We just found one that’s been a more fulfilling experience. Like Martin Luther, we knew it when we got there.
Christianity a reality and not a religion. I thank God daily for my blessings and life. I love having the King James Bible so that I can spend at least a little time every day with the word. As Paul says that I would I do not and that I would not I do.
I’m Catholic and when I went to a Catholic college, I resented being forced into taking a couple of “religious” courses as I was a science jock trying to get into med school which I and several other classmates were able to do. In the theology course the Phd monk had said that Luther had touted the Catholic church was corrupt as heck with the “indulgence” thing and agreed with that in the Middle Ages. Back then, pay enough money to the corrupt Catholic Church and “All your sins would be forgiven forever”. Luther had justifiably had a “chitfit” over this and left the Augustinians over it and started Lutheran/Protestantism. I believe he was “excommunicated” from the Catholic church.
I’ve attended funerals in a Lutheran church and they don’t mind folks from other faiths attending the service. The churches are sparse with statues, pictures and such.
SO TRUE! Unusual for his time, he wrote: “If I am not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don’t want to go there” and “The Gospel is nothing less than laughter and joy,” adding “The heart overflows with gladness, and leaps and dances for the joy it has found in God; in this experience the Holy Spirit is active, and has taught us in the flash of a moment the deep secret of joy…You will have as much joy and laughter in life as you have faith in God.” As Walther Leagers, we learned and sang: “Good old Martin Luther! Sure made the Reformation GRAND! With his “5 and 90 Theses”, he tore the Pope to pieces! Sure glad that I’m a Lutheran! LCMS, not ELCA!