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Here I Stood: Worms

davidl5012

The year was 1998. My colleague, Dr. Bill Goree, and I took a large group of university students to Europe on a “Luther lands tour.” Bill taught church history in the theology department, and I taught many of the same church history courses in the context of our history, politics and philosophy department at Lipscomb University. Bill had made the trip before and was able to provide us with a suitable itinerary and also to lecture at the various locations based on his prior visits.


We came to Worms, the site of Martin Luther’s trial before the imperial diet in 1521. Luther published his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 which challenged the Catholic Church on the subject of the sale of indulgences, a papal dispensation that allowed for the forgiveness of sins in consideration of a donation to the papal treasury. Luther had recently had his Gates of Paradise experience as a result of seeing for the first time what Paul was saying in his comment in Romans 1:17 that the righteous shall live by faith. He noted that there was nothing in this text about penance, good works, confessions to a priest and subsequent absolving of sins; rather, he noted that Paul said in the gospel God’s (not man’s) righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written “the just (righteous) shall live by faith”. Luther concluded that the only way man could stand as righteous before the holy God was by faith in Jesus Christ, faith alone.


The publishing of the 95 Theses led to a meeting with Cardinal Cajetan in 1518, a presentation of his views at Heidelberg in the same year resulting in the conversion of Martin Bucer to the cause of the Reformation, a debate with Johann Tetzel at Leipzig in 1519, and his excommunication in 1520. The Holy Roman Emperor, the Hapsburg Charles V, wanted the matter settled, and he called an assembly (diet) of the German princes to meet at Worms in 1521. During this convocation Luther was asked if he would deny his writings, and his response was that he could not as his conscience was captive to the word of God, and to go against Holy Scripture was neither wise nor safe. In reporting the results of the diet, scholars added the expression, “Here I Stand, I can do no other; God help me, amen.” It is not known whether he actually added these closing words; certainly they provide a dramatic conclusion.


On our visit to Worms, Dr. Goree pointed out that although the meeting was held in the bishop’s hall, that building had been torn down, so we would be unable to pinpoint the exact spot where Luther stood in making his response. While Dr. Goree was talking, our bus driver was prowling around the area where the old hall had stood and interrupted to announce, “I found it!” He had uncovered a stone lying in the grass unnoticed by the rest of us. On the stone we read that this was the very place where Martin Luther had stood in 1517! It was quite a find. I stood where Luther stood when he supposedly said “Here I stand”!

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