Starting May 19
When translating the New Testament into German, something that the Church of his day frowned upon, to say the least, Martin Luther struggled to include The Book of Revelation in his work. You see, he wasn’t the first, or the last, to find the book confusing and a little troubling. It may sound like a scandalous thought, but Dr. Luther was also trying to find a way to get the Word of God into the hands of ordinary, everyday Germans so they could read it themselves. Up to that point, one had to learn Latin, or the original languages the Bible was written in in order to read the Word for oneself without the aid of their local pastor.
“He describes the book as being “neither apostolic nor prophetic,” saying further that he “can in no way detect that the Holy Spirit produced it” (LW 35:398). After accusing the author of Revelation of being somewhat smug and rather puzzling, Luther confesses, “My spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book. For me this is reason enough not to think highly of it: Christ is neither taught nor known in it” (LW, 35:398-399).”
~Dr. Matthew Halstad
This was a quote from the first draft of the preface he wrote to the Book of Revelation. Fortunately, he had a change of heart and his published preface to his translation to the New Testament book of Revelation was more constructive. Be that as it may, it remains challenging work. To this day, Christians and popular writers often take some pretty deranged views of how to interpret the book. Often to the harm of others.
So please join us on Sundays at 9:00 am, starting May 19th. We will skip the few weeks I will be away other than that we will use this Summer to gain a new appreciation for this fascinating book and the hope that it contains for Christians. I hope that as we explore this book through the Summer, you see not a verbal ‘secret decoder ring” or a scary letter of doom and gloom, but that you come to see it for what it is: Hope and a declaration of victory for our Lord and Savior.
Pastor Mark
0 Comments