Five hundred years ago Martin Luther nailed his “95 Theses” on the church door in Wittenberg, marking a pivotal event in the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. The focal point of the Reformation was the Bible being made available to the common man. Luther and others sought to translate and distribute the Bible because they believed it was much more than just a religious or moral book. To them it was divine. Following are a few articles on the work of Luther and the importance of the Bible in transforming men and nations.
Martin Luther and Reformation Day
The focal point of the Protestant Reformation was the Bible being translated and made available in the common languages of the people. People began to read the Bible, and when they did these things happened: 1) Individuals were transformed; 2) The Church began to be changed, putting off corruption; 3) The state was gradually reformed. The fruit of the Reformation was revival of individuals, restoration of the church, and reformation of all society.
God uses individuals to change nations and the course of history. Some of those people God used in the Protestant Reformation included Martin Luther, John Calvin, William Tyndale, and John Knox.
God used a flawed, rough, and at times harsh man to launch a gigantic revolution. Martin Luther stood up against the whole force of the religious establishment. “His profound experience of forgiveness in Christ gave him the courage to stand alone against the entire weight of established and entrenched religious deception and blow it to the winds.”
Evidence of Biblical Inspiration
When we read the Bible we are confronted with a claim that requires a response: that is, that this book is the Word of God, the Word of the Almighty One who created and sustains all things. In the Bible God reveals and declares Who He is and how we are to live. We can reject the claim or believe it, but to ignore it is foolish. If it is what it cla
ims to be, the Word of God, then our adherence to its requirements is essential for life, here on the earth and in the eternal hereafter.
Can we know that the claims of the Bible are true? Is there any evidence of its divinity and infallibility? The answer is a resounding YES! One of the numerous arguments for Biblical inspiration is the Bible’s social influence.
The Bible has changed world history. No book has had such a positive impact on society. Wherever the Bible has gone and taken root and grown, it has changed cultures and nations. There are myriad examples, from the advance of Biblical Christianity in the first few centuries, to the transformation of Ireland and Western Europe via Patrick and his Biblical training schools, to the central role of the Bible in the birth and development of America.
The Importance of the Bible
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BIBLE SOCIETY IN BOSTON, MAY 28, 1849.
By Robert C. Winthrop, Speaker of the House of Representatives
Editor’s Introduction
President Andrew Jackson said on June 8, 1845, that “the Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests.” Early Americans would almost universally agree that the religious, social, educational, and political life of America was primarily shaped by the Bible.
Our states were colonized by people who desired to freely worship the God of the Bible; our schools were begun so that everyone would be able to read and understand the Bible for themselves; our universities were founded to train ministers who were knowledgeable of the Scriptures; our laws and constitutions were written based on Biblical ideas; and our founding fathers overwhelmingly had a Biblical worldview.
Most Americans today have not been taught this important truth, even though many still recognize it. Even Newsweek magazine, on December 26, 1982, acknowledged that: “Now historians are discovering that the Bible, perhaps even more than the Constitution is our Founding document.” It used to be common knowledge that America’s Biblical foundation produced America’s freedom, justice, and prosperity. In recent generations America has been shifting from a Biblical foundation to a humanistic foundation, where the God of the Bible is being replaced by man as god. The result has been the decay of society and loss of liberty. Noah Webster wrote:
The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.
For the good of America we must once again restore the Bible to the central role it played in shaping this nation. To do this we must first understand that role. Our founding fathers believed America’s liberty and prosperity was a result of the fruit of our foundation upon Biblical principles. They started scores of Bible Societies because they saw the transmission of the Bible as the only way to maintain liberty. The following address was delivered to one of those Bible Societies by Robert C. Winthrop, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1847-1849. Our civil leaders today must understand what our past civil leaders knew, that there would be no America, the land of the free, without the Bible.
Read Winthrop’s Address
This address contains these excellent words of Speaker Winthrop:
“Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible, or by the bayonet.”
