Luther’s Separation From Rome
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are many. I am sure of this, that the word of God is with me, and that
it is not with them.”—Ibid., b. 6, ch. 10.
Yet it was not without a terrible struggle with himself that Luther
decided upon a final separation from the church. It was about this time
that he wrote: “I feel more and more every day how difficult it is to
lay aside the scruples which one has imbibed in childhood. Oh, how
much pain it has caused me, though I had the Scriptures on my side,
to justify it to myself that I should dare to make a stand alone against
the pope, and hold him forth as antichrist! What have the tribulations
of my heart not been! How many times have I not asked myself with
bitterness that question which was so frequent on the lips of the papists:
‘Art thou alone wise? Can everyone else be mistaken? How will it be,
if, after all, it is thyself who art wrong, and who art involving in thy
error so many souls, who will then be eternally damned?’ ‘Twas so I
fought with myself and with Satan, till Christ, by His own infallible
word, fortified my heart against these doubts.”—Martyn, pages 372,
373.
The pope had threatened Luther with excommunication if he did
not recant, and the threat was now fulfilled. A new bull appeared,
declaring the Reformer’s final separation from the Roman Church,
denouncing him as accursed of Heaven, and including in the same
condemnation all who should receive his doctrines. The great contest
had been fully entered upon.
Opposition is the lot of all whom God employs to present truths
specially applicable to their time. There was a present truth in the
days of Luther,—a truth at that time of special importance; there is a
present truth for the church today. He who does all things according to
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the counsel of His will has been pleased to place men under various
circumstances and to enjoin upon them duties peculiar to the times
in which they live and the conditions under which they are placed. If
they would prize the light given them, broader views of truth would
be opened before them. But truth is no more desired by the majority
today than it was by the papists who opposed Luther. There is the
same disposition to accept the theories and traditions of men instead
of the word of God as in former ages. Those who present the truth
for this time should not expect to be received with greater favor than
were earlier reformers. The great controversy between truth and error,