The Babylonian Captivity of the Church

Lesson 1
Introduction to Martin Luther

Welcome to this series in which we are going to study one of the theological
classics of the Protestant Church, Martin Luther’s writing, “The Babylonian
Captivity of the Church.” Perhaps you have never read any theology. Maybe
you are not really sure what theology is. If either of these are the case, this is
the perfect course to introduce you to Christian theology and help you
understand some of its importance. I hope that you will find reading and
studying Martin Luther’s classic work an endeavor that will both stimulate
your mind and nurture your faith.

So let me give you the lay of the land just briefly and then we will dive into
some details. The Protestant Reformation was started by Martin Luther
himself, in Germany, in October of the year 1517. That was just a little over
500 years ago. The Protestant Reformation was a reform movement in the
church. A group of people, these reformers, thought the church had gotten
off track in some important ways. They wanted to reform the church and
bring it back in line more toward scripture and the practices of the early
church. Their hopes of reforming the church were quickly dashed as many of
these reformers did not find a friendly ear in the church establishment. Many
of them were excommunicated and sadly some who could be apprehended
were put to death.

What resulted from all this was a new church movement that broke away
from the existing church. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say they were
forced out of the existing church. Either way, these reformers became known
as Protestants, because they were protesting against what they thought was
corrupt church practice. During the 16th century, the 1500’s in Europe, huge
numbers of people left the church of the day to join one of these Protestant
Churches. The church as it existed in the medieval world was a little more
accepting of kings and their authority, than these new reformers were. The
existing church was comfortable with the divine right of kings to rule and
do, pretty much as they pleased. The new upstart reformers had the idea that
kings were subject to the laws of God just like the common person was. For
this reason, because the kings didn’t want to be held to God’s laws like
everyone else, many of the political rulers did not like the new Protestant
movement and did whatever they could to stamp it out. This was not
primarily for theological reasons but political and self-interested ones.

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It would take several centuries for all this to sort itself out and a lot of blood
would be shed in the process. Today we are more comfortable than they
were in the 16th century with allowing different viewpoints to live alongside
one another, and thank goodness. But the early years of the Protestant
Reformation were difficult and fraught with danger. A great battle erupted
that was fought with words, with theological arguments, and, at times, with
swords. No one was at the forefront of this battle more than Martin Luther.
That he was kept secure in the realm of Germany from those who wished to
do him harm, allowed him freedom to write about this new way of
understanding the faith. Write he did and his works would become some of
the most influential and important in grounding this new movement in
scripture, common sense, and solid theological thinking.

In addition to all this, what made Luther important was that he was, quite a
character. He was loaded with personality. He was a master of language.
And he was up for a fight. These characteristics make the study of Martin
Luther engaging, interesting, and inspiring. Reading Martin Luther is one of
the great delights in studying Christian theology. Of all the works of
theology you can read, there is almost none as interesting as anything written
by Martin Luther.

In the year 1520, just three years after the start of the Reformation, Martin
Luther would be very productive. In this year he would publish an extended
letter to the German nobility defending the principles of the Reformation,
and outlining the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. In it he talk
about what the Reformation meant in a national sense and would argue the
right of people other than the pope to interpret scripture.

In the same year, Luther would write an extremely important booklet about
Christian Liberty. In this book, he developed the idea of justification by faith
and the idea that Christians were free from the law to serve God out of love
and not to have to earn their salvation.

Finally he would write the small book that we are going to study in this
series, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, an exposition of the
sacraments of the church. What made these writings so important is that
Luther was working out, the core Protestant doctrines that we so take for
granted today. He was working out the principles of justification by faith,
the priesthood of all believers, the authority of scripture, and the proper

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understanding of the sacraments. In this sense Luther was not only a creative
genius, but someone who had a clear understanding of the meaning of
scripture. Luther saw himself not as creating something new but, through a
common sense reading of scripture, recovering the great truths that the
church had lost. He would lay the foundation so solidly that others were able
to confidently build on it.

So with that introduction, I hope you have something of the picture of where
we are in history and why what we do in this course is going to be so
interesting. With all that as a beginning background, we need to spend a
little time on Martin Luther himself. Who was he and what exactly did he
do. Then before we leave this first lesson, we will talk together about how to
approach the material at which we will be looking in this series.

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Martin Luther was a monk. He did not intend to become a monk but made
an unexpected commitment one day. Luther was born in 1483 in a small
town in Germany. His father Hans was a merchant in the city. His mother
was a housewife. Luther’s father, Hans, was ambitious and wanted to help
his family rise economically in the world of their day. He had become a
miner to increase his family’s fortunes. Because Martin seemed to be bright,
his father thought a profession in law might be a possibility. Luther attended
the university and then, at his father’s suggestion, enrolled in law school.

Almost immediately however, Luther dropped out of the school. The study
of law simply didn’t interest him. This did not make his father happy at all
and Luther certainly could not have enjoyed the conversation in which he
told his father what he had done. He instead enrolled in a course of study
that included religion and philosophy. This was much more interesting to
Luther as it held hope for the possibility of answers to significant questions
about life, something the law did not.

A moment of crisis came for Luther in the summer of 1505, when he was 21
years old. He was coming back home from school when he found himself in
the midst of a July thunderstorm. A lightning bolt crashed down in the storm
so close to Luther that it seems to have almost hit him. It felt to him, as a
young sensitive man, who already had a troubled conscience, that it signaled
God’s displeasure. Luther made the only vow he could make under the
circumstances. He called out to St. Anne, the patron saint of miners, and

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pledged to God that he would become a monk. In a moment of terror, Luther
made a life’s commitment that would change the course of his life and of the
world as well.

What would cause this young man, Martin Luther to do such a rash thing?
We have to understand the world in which he lived. Luther’s world was one
in which the terrors of hell were regularly described in vivid and disturbing
images. And there was only one remedy to the problem of a guilty
conscience. It was the church. It was the sacraments and their saving
benefits, but it was particularly the monastery. The way of the monastery
was the only true way of salvation. It was the way of perfection that would
almost guarantee one’s salvation. The way was difficult, but not so difficult
as an eternity in hell. Luther made the commitment he thought had the
potential to ease the obvious anger of God against him, as seen in the
thunderbolt from heaven. He would give his life to God. That certainly
would make God happy. Within a couple of weeks, Luther entered an
Augustinian monastery. It seems pretty clear that he did not do so with any
real sense of joy, but a rather glum resignation. His father was clear about
the matter. Once again, he was furious. It was a waste of a perfectly good
education for which Luther’s father had paid.

Well, Luther would enter the monastery and proceed to becoming a monk.
Once he had made the commitment, he would make the best of it. So Luther
set about to be the best monk he could be. He did all the rituals and
exercises. He fasted and prayed. He even did some silly things, like spend
nights outside in the cold, as a way of disciplining his body. And one of the
things he was especially committed to was confession.

Confession was the sacrament that assured one of forgiveness. You

confessed to the priest, in Luther’s case, to his superior in the monastery.
The priest prescribed a certain act of penance. This act of penance sealed
one’s forgiveness. The problem was that Luther never really felt any better
after either the confession or the acts of penance. So one thing he tried was
more radical confession. Luther would spend hours in the confessional,
remembering every little thing he had done, and said, and thought. The only
problem was that, as soon as he left the confessional, he would remember
some sin he had not confessed, and want to go back to confess more. At one
point, his superior told him not to come back until he had committed some
really big sins. No more little picayune sins, please. Luther would later say

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of this time, “If any man could have gained heaven by monkery, I was that
man.”

There were a couple of important things that happened during this time. The
first was Luther’s first mass. This was an important moment in any young
priest’s development. They led the mass by themselves. They said the words
of institution in front of the congregation. What was particularly important
about this was that the mass was viewed as a reenactment of Christ’s
sacrifice on the cross. When the priest said the words of institution, the bread
was actually changed into the body of Christ. The blood was transformed
into the real blood of Christ. This had come to be called “transubstantiation.”
The rationale for this came from the great Thomas Aquinas. He had pointed
out that Aristotle made the distinction between the real substance of
something and its appearance. So in communion, the elements could look
like bread and wine, but be something else in reality. When the priest said
the sacred words a miracle took place and he was holding, not just bread, but
the actual body of the Lord himself. This made it an awesome and sacred
moment.

But for Luther, this was a terrifying moment. Who was he that he should
hold the body of Christ. As God had almost struck him dead with lightning
before, what was to say that God might not finish the act this time, Christ’s
body being held by such an unworthy sinner as himself. But Luther’s first
communion was a special day of celebration for everyone else. Luther’s
father had invited a number of his friends to come and watch his son
celebrate the mass. But when Luther got to the crucial part, he froze. He
couldn’t get himself to actually say the sacred words. He just stood there.
Finally a seasoned priest stepped in and finished the mass. It saved Luther
from the moment but embarrassed Luther and his father in front of their
family friends. All in all, it was a personal and social disaster.

The other important event was when Luther traveled to Rome on monastery
business. He was chosen by his fellow monks for the assignment and walked
800 miles on foot to Rome. He was excited to go. Rome was the home of the
pope himself and the glory of the church. Surely in Rome, he would find
some of the answers the longed for. There he would find people with a true
hunger for God and answers about God. It would be an experience that
would renew and strengthen his confused faith.

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What he found there however was just the opposite. He found indifference
and spiritual apathy. He also observed the opulence of the papacy and the
wealth that surrounded it. The church seemed to be living in luxury and
enjoying every moment of it, while the poor of the city lived in squalor
around it. All in all, it was a major disappointment for this young and sincere
monk. It caused Luther to question whether or not anything the church had
taught was really true.

Luther’s superior was a wise and able churchman. He saw potential in

Luther and instructed him to seek his doctorate in theology. Luther resisted.
The process was rigorous and Luther didn’t like the prospects. When Luther
suggested that this path might be the death of him, his supervisor, Johann
Staupitz, replied that, if that happened, it would be okay. “God had plenty of
work for clever men in heaven.” When Luther received his doctorate, in the
year 1512, at the age of 28, Staupitz assigned him to teach theology and the
Bible in a new university that was being formed in the German town of
Wittenburg. Luther began to teach and lecture on the Bible. It was the year
1512. Luther was the chair of theology at the new university. Luther would
begin by lecturing on the book of Psalms, Galatians, and the book of
Romans.

What would happen over the next 5 years was that Martin Luther, through
studying and lecturing on the Bible, would begin to see things he had not
seen. He would, in fact, begin to see things that he believed were not being
taught and were perhaps not understood by the church, or not understood
correctly. In all his study and lecturing, he still had this burning question,
“How can a sinful person be made right with God?” The answer of the
church was through effort. Work hard at being good and God will be
gracious. But how much was enough? Luther was a monk. He had given his
life to God and yet he recognized how sinful he was. He didn’t really feel
much different than when he started. If he, as a monk, did not feel forgiven,
how can anyone really be reconciled to God?

But God was at work in Luther. God was slowing helping him come to
understand the Bible. And it was, in fact, his lecturing on the Bible that
would bring him to his moment of clarity. Luther was beginning his lectures
on the book of Romans when he came in chapter 1, to the great theme
statement of the book found in verses 16 and 17. Luther noticed something
in the way verse 17 was written, in the Greek original. The verse says, “The
righteousness of God is revealed by faith, to faith, as it is written, ‘The

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righteous by faith, will live.” What Luther noticed was that, in the Greek, the
phrase, “by faith,” stood between the words “righteous” and “will live.” This
meant that it could modify either one. That is, the sense of the sentence
could be that those who are righteous by faith would live. It could also mean
that those who were righteous would live by faith. In his 5th century Latin
Vulgate translation, Jerome had chosen the first possible meaning. Those
who were righteous by faith would live. This had become the basis for the
church view that salvation came because of the righteousness we received
from God. We became “righteous by faith” and it was this righteousness that
resulted in our salvation. The problem was that this was, in essence, a works
based righteousness. Though you received it by grace, it was your
righteousness that saved you.

Luther came to realize however, that the second possible translation might
be the right one. It was not that you were made righteous through faith, but
that you were viewed as righteous because of your faith. Luther thought the
better way to translate the verse was that not that those who were “righteous
by faith would live” that that those who were “righteous” would live “by
faith.” It was this realization that opened the floodgates for Luther. It
dawned on him that righteousness was not a work we did. It was a gift we
received. We received it because Christ had been made our righteousness.
He death absolved us of our sins. What it took to be viewed as righteous by
God was faith in Christ and his work. By faith, God imputed righteousness
to us. This took the pressure off of us. It left the sinner forgiven and eternally
grateful to a merciful God.

As Luther looked through the other parts of the Bible, he saw this insight
confirmed. Throughout the Bible, this promise was affirmed. It was our faith
that saved us. It was a gift from God. The attitude of the believer should not
be one of anxiety or fear before an angry God, but rather the love and
devotion of a child whom the father loves. This meant we served God, not in
fear, as the church taught, but in gratitude and love. This key opened the
door for Luther and he suddenly understood the Bible, the faith, and the
nature of the gospel in a completely new way. And it filled him with a joy,
gratitude, and wonder that he had never felt.

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What Luther began to realize was that this understanding of salvation was
significantly different than what the church had been teaching. And while to

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an outsider, the differences might seem subtle, Luther realized that the
differences made a world of difference. It was the distinction between our
having to measure up to an impossible task, being good enough for God, and
being the recipients of great grace through Christ. The one made a person
afraid of an angry and judgmental God. The other created a humble and
grateful spirit full of love. It was clearly the latter that was better and what
God wanted from people. As Luther read the Bible, he found not only this,
but other ideas becoming clear.

Some of the things that had been troubling Luther about the church also
came clear, such as the problems created by the church’s wealth, the matter
of biblical authority, and the nature of both church and sacrament. The more
Luther read and studied and taught, the more convinced he became in his
own mind.

The crucial point came in Luther’s story when the pope authorized the
selling of indulgencies throughout the region of Germany. Pope Leo X,
needed funds. Construction on rebuilding St Peter’s church in Rome had
stalled. It was a great and grand project. It would make for a fitting setting
for the headquarters of the church of Christ and his vicar, the pope. It was
part of the pope’s overall project of transforming the city of Rome. But the
rebuilding of St. Peter’s couldn’t happen without money and there wasn’t
enough for the work. So the pope authorized the granting of indulgences for
an act of service to Christ, in terms of a monetary donation for rebuilding
Christ’s church in Rome. The person in charge of the project in Germany
was Johann Tetzel.

Tetzel was particularly unscrupulous. He had no compunction about using

the most blatantly self-serving methods for raising money. He came through
the region and began to offer forgiveness for people and their deceased
loved ones in return for a contribution to the church. Luther’s indignation
was raised when some of his people were persuaded to give their hard
earned money for an indulgence, or promise of forgiveness. Tetzel promised,
“When the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.” Luther
could hardly contain himself.

So on the eve of All Saints Day, October 31, in the year 1517, Martin Luther
posted 95 questions for discussion, theses, on the church door in his town of
Wittenburg, Germany. The church door was the town bulletin board and so
that is where Luther posted them. These were 95 questions for discussion.

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They were written in Latin and aimed at the religious community. Luther
wanted to talk about a number of issues and explore them biblically and
theologically. Luther hoped he would get some academic response. He
didn’t. He did get another response however. It was from his students and
the merchants in the town.

Exactly what happened at this point is a little unclear. The end result would
be that copies of Luther’s theses would end up everywhere. In 10 days they
could be found in Spain. Within three weeks, they were all over Europe. We
think of this time as one in which little travel took place but that was not
exactly the case. Merchants traveled extensively. Apparently what happened
was that Luther’s enterprising students copied down his theses and sent them
with whoever was traveling back to their home lands. These travelers took
the documents to the printers who printed and distributed them. The printing
press had just been invented. Materials could be printed. All printers needed
was subject matter people were willing to buy. In Luther’s 95 Theses, they
had a gold mine. Like hotcakes they came off the presses and soon they were
everywhere. Luther had unintentionally become a best selling author.

These theses were an attack, primarily, on the selling of indulgences and a

number of what Luther thought erroneous ideas about their meaning. We are
not sure whether Luther realized how explosively controversial his
statements would be. It seems that Luther thought that the pope might agree
to the logic and biblical wisdom of what he had said. At first the pope was
not particularly concerned. He had lots of issues to attend to and one
disgruntled monk in Germany wasn’t a particular concern.

But Luther’s points of disagreement would not go away and eventually the
pope sought to have him brought to Rome for a conversation which would
have probably turned into a heresy trial. As it would turn out, Luther would
have a protector, who would keep him safe against the forces of the church.
Frederick was the king of the German region. Pope Leo needed Frederick as
it turned out, for political purposes, so he needed to keep good relations with
him. Frederick wanted to keep Luther on German soil and the pope agreed.
The pope sent Cardinal Cajetan to the town of Augsburg to inquire of
Luther. He wasn’t to enter into debate, only ask whether or not he would
recant. This was the summer of 1518.

Cardinal Cajetan was a religious scholar, particularly on the work of Thomas

Aquinas. As the three-day discussion moved along, Cajetan could not avoid

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debate with Luther. When Cajetan instructed Luther to recant, Luther simply
asked the cardinal to show him, from scripture, where he was wrong. When
the cardinal referred to statements by Aquinas, past popes, and church
councils, Luther admitted that he didn’t not take any of them as authoritative
over scripture. All of them could make errors, Luther said, and pointed out
historical instances in which they had done so.

Well, Frederick had promised Luther safe passage there and back. Luther
left unharmed but also unwilling to recant. The battle was now staged.
Frederick would end up protecting Luther his entire life. It would be the
thing that allowed this emerging reformation not to be nipped in its bud.

As we have said, in the year 1520, Luther was tremendously productive in

terms of his writings. He continued to develop his theological positions. He
grew bolder in his statements. He wrote against the abuses of the church on a
variety of fronts, often in response to those who criticized his ideas in
writing. And the publishers loved him. Everything he wrote was a best
seller. Though Luther got nothing from his writings, the publishers did and
spread his writings everything.

There were several things that made Luther an able spokesperson for this
moment. One was his theological insights. He saw things that others did not
see and saw them clearly. Because he was a person of great learning, being a
doctor of theology, the highest academic credential of his day, he had all the
tools and training to enter into these theological debates. In addition, he was
not only highly educated, much more than many of his opponents, but also
brilliant. One of Luther’s great gifts was his ability to think clearly when it
came to matters of theology and biblical interpretation. He was also able to
get to the heart of the matter. Someone once asked him, “Martin, why do
you always put things so controversially?” The answer was that he tried to
put his finger on the crux of the matter and most often did so. He understood
that the issues at stake were crucially important theological ones and he was
able to point out the biblical and theological errors in doctrine with incisive
clarity.

A second reason Luther was so widely read during this period of time was
that his writing is colorful. Quite colorful. In the very first section of his
writing, for example, Luther says that he is going to pass over some points,
and here I quote from Luther, “lest I smother you with the filth of this vile-
smelling sewer.” (p 19) Quite an image! As just one example, he said to one

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of his adversaries at one point, “I suggest you ought to blow your nose, just
a bit. It will make your head lighter and your brain clearer.” We might be
surprised to find such language coming from a “man of the cloth.” But this
was how they wrote in those days. Luther’s original readers would not have
found his writing off color or out of the ordinary; it was somewhat how
things were written in those days. And Luther was a master of sarcasm,
irony, and for lack of a better word, “snark.” But I think you may find this
one of the truly funny and delightful aspects of reading Luther.

Luther was a master of language. As one historian put it, he had an almost
“Shakespearean” ability with language. Luther would later say that you had
to talk to the devil in sometimes vulgar language in order to show your
disdain. He also came to believe that the leaders of the church were doing
great harm to the people of God. For that reason, he needed to make his
theological points with striking and even strident clarity. Much was at stake,
the very faithfulness of the church and the souls of those under its case. And
we would have to say as readers that Luther’s use of language is one of the
things that makes reading him so delightful. Luther’s wit and humor were
certainly one of the things that made him so popular in his day. I hope that
you will discover that actually reading Luther is one of the rare treats of you
intellectual and spiritual experience. You will get a sense, for yourself, what
made him great and just the right person to be at the arrow’s point in the
Protestant Reformation.

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There is much more to say about Martin Luther’s life and the development
of the Protestant Reformation but this brings us up to the year 1520. If you
want to read about Martin Luther, the classic biography about him is written
by historian Roland Bainton. It is delightful and very accessible, even if you
have never read much church history. I would recommend it.

In this series we are going to examine one of Martin Luther’s classic

writings of 1520, “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church.” I will be using
an annotated study edition of it, published by Fortress Press. It is a
wonderful edition with study notes to help you understand references you
otherwise might not. You can learn from this study without actually reading
Luther’s work but I am going to encourage you to read this treatise if you are
able. For one thing, it is short. The entire work is only just over one hundred
pages in the version we are using. This series lasts eight lessons with this

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being the first. So it means that you don’t have that many pages to read
every lesson to keep up. If you read Luther’s work, you will be very glad
you did and it will not take an immense amount of effort to do so, if you are
up for the attempt.

In the next lesson, we cover pages 13 – 30 in the Fortress Press annotated

edition, reading through the section where Luther mentions the first captivity
of the church, which is withholding the cup. If you are up for the adventure,
see if you can read through these pages. In the next lesson, we dive into
Martin Luther’s classic exposition of the sacraments, beginning with the
Lord’s Supper.

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