German friar, priest and professor of theology (1483-1546)
Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.
MARTIN LUTHER
attributed, The Lutheran Witness, 1935
Oh! how great and glorious a thing it is to have before one the Word of God! With that we may at all times feel joyous and secure; we need never be in want of consolation, for we see before us, in all its brightness, the pure and right way.
MARTIN LUTHER
"Of God's Word", Table Talk
The fool will upset the whole science of astronomy, but as the Holy Scripture shows, it was the sun and not the earth which Joshua ordered to stand still.
MARTIN LUTHER
comment about Nicolaus Copernicus, Table Talk
Our preaching does not stop with the law. That would lead to wounding without binding up, striking down and not healing, killing and not making alive, driving down to hell and not bringing back up, humbling and not exalting. Therefore, we must also preach grace and the promise of forgiveness--this is the means by which faith is awakened and properly taught. Without this word of grace, the law, contrition, penitence, and everything else are done and taught in vain.
MARTIN LUTHER
The Freedom of a Christian
'Tis no small miracle how God has so long preserved and protected this book; for the devil and the world are sore foes to it.
MARTIN LUTHER
"Of God's Word", Table Talk
He who loses sight of the word of God, falls into despair; the voice of heaven no longer sustains him; he follows only the disorderly tendency of his heart.
MARTIN LUTHER
"Of God's Word", Table Talk
That the Bible is God's word and book I prove thus: All things that have been, and are, in the world, and the manner of their being, are described in the first book of Moses on the creation; even as God made and shaped the world, so does it stand to this day. Infinite potentates have raged against this book, and sought to destroy and uproot it--King Alexander the Great, the princes of Egypt and of Babylon, the monarchs of Persia, of Greece, and of Rome, the emperors Julius and Augustus--but they nothing prevailed; they are all gone and vanished, while the book remains, and will remain for ever and ever, perfect and entire, as it was declared at the first.
MARTIN LUTHER
"Of God's Word", Table Talk
The Mass is the greatest blasphemy of God, and the highest idolatry upon earth, an abomination the like of which has never been in Christendom since the time of the Apostles.
MARTIN LUTHER
Table Talk
To turn one's eyes away from Jesus means to turn them to the Law.
MARTIN LUTHER
Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians
Many have been deceived by outward appearances and have proceeded to write and teach about good works and how they justify without even mentioning faith.... Wearying themselves with many works, they never come to righteousness.
MARTIN LUTHER
The Freedom of a Christian
We must make a great difference between God's Word and the word of man. A man's word is a little sound, that flies into the air, and soon vanishes; but the Word of God is greater than heaven and earth, yea, greater than death and hell, for it forms part of the power of God, and endures everlastingly.
MARTIN LUTHER
"Of God's Word", Table Talk
They are trying to make me into a fixed star. I am an irregular planet.
MARTIN LUTHER
attributed, The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations
We refuse to have our conscience bound by any work or law, so that by doing this or that we should be righteous, or leaving this or that undone we should be damned.
MARTIN LUTHER
Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians
I never thought the world had been so wicked, when the Gospel began, as now I see it is; I rather hoped that every one would have leaped for joy to have found himself freed from the filth of the pope, from his lamentable molestations of poor troubled consciences, and that through Christ they would by faith obtain the celestial treasure they sought after before with such vast cost and labour, though in vain. And especially I thought the bishops and universities would with joy of heart have received the true doctrines, but I have been lamentably deceived. Moses and Jeremiah, too, complained they had been deceived.
MARTIN LUTHER
"Of God's Word", Table Talk
Christ ought to be preached with this goal in mind--that we might be moved to faith in him so that he is not just a distant historical figure but actually Christ for you and me.
MARTIN LUTHER
The Freedom of a Christian
The confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. If your faith and trust be right, then is your god also true; and, on the other hand, if your trust be false and wrong, then you have not the true God; for these two belong together faith and God. That now, I say, upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god.
MARTIN LUTHER
Large Catechism
Human reason is like a drunken man on horseback; set it up on one side, and it tumbles over on the other.
MARTIN LUTHER
attributed, Day's Collacon
A theologian should be thoroughly in possession of the basis and source of faith--that is to say, the Holy Scriptures. Armed with this knowledge it was that I confounded and silenced all my adversaries; for they seek not to fathom and understand the Scriptures; they run them over negligently and drowsily; they speak, they write, they teach, according to the suggestion of their heedless imaginations.
MARTIN LUTHER
"Of God's Word", Table Talk
A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing.
Our helper He amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing.
MARTIN LUTHER
Psalm. Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott
God indeed tempteth no man; but yet we ask, in this petition, that he would keep and preserve us, lest the devil, the world, and our own flesh delude and draw us away from the true faith, and throw us into superstition, distrust, despair, and other grievous sins and wickedness; and that, if we should be tempted therewith even to the highest degree, we still may conquer, and at last triumph over them.
MARTIN LUTHER
Luther's Catechism