XIV. Shortages of Luther’s Ministry
A. Retaining Roman Catholic Practices
There were shortages with Luther’s ministry and with those who followed him. It is unfortunate that Luther retained many of the practices of Rome, including baptismal regeneration, infant baptism, and forms of worship. The changes in the so-called Sunday service, according to one author, left intact the essential structure of the Latin mass. It merely became a German mass:
A Swiss visitor in 1536, accustomed to simpler services felt that the Lutherans had retained many elements of popery such as genuflections, vestments, veering to the altar or the audience, lectern and pulpit on opposite sides. Even the elevation of the elements was retained until 1542. [21]
B. Insufficient Emphasis on the Inward Working of Christ
In The Orthodoxy of the Church,Watchman Nee compares the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 with the 1900 years of church history and shows that the church in Sardis (Rev. 3:1-6) depicts the reformed churches which resulted from Luther’s work. He makes an important observation in reference to Revelation 3:2, “…for I have found none of your works completed before My God”:
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The Lord is a Lord of completion; so He requires completion.
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The Lord does not say that the work of Luther was not good; rather, He says it was not complete. It was good, but not good enough. In the eyes of the Lord, He has not found anything complete – everything was a beginning without an end. The Lord is a Lord of completion; so He requires completion. [22]
Luther recovered mainly objective matters, but almost entirely ignored the subjective working of Christ within the believer. There was very little emphasis on Christian living. Jones writes:
Luther himself was always impressed with the lack of real, intense, personal religion which resulted from the Reformation movement, and he often bewailed this lack. He said once to Schwenckfeld in this early period, “Dear Caspar, genuine Christians are none too common. I wish I could see two together in a place!” But with all his titanic power to shake the old Church, Luther was not able to sift away the accumulated chaff of the ages and to seize upon the inward living kernel of Christ's Gospel…. [23]
C. Neglect of the Oneness
Later Luther strongly opposed Schwenckfeld, who realized the deficiencies of the Reformation and what was needed to complete or to perfect it:
Even as early as 1524, in An Admonition to all the Brethren of Silesia, [Schwenckfeld] called attention to the superficiality of the change which was taking place in men’s lives as a result of the Reformation – “the lack of inward grasp” as he calls it – and to the externality of the new Reform, the tendency to stop at “[elementary] promises of salvation.” He gives a searching examination to the central principles of Luther’s teachings and approves of them all, but at the same time he points out that little will be gained if they be adopted only as intellectual statements and formulated views. He pleads for a faith in Christ and an appreciation of Him that shall “reach the deep regions of the spirit,” renew the heart, and produce a new man in the believer. [24]
It would have been good if a closer bond of fellowship had developed between Luther and Schwenckfeld. Schwenckfeld was an excellent balance to Luther and a perfect complement to his teachings. Without Schwenckfeld, there was a lack in the matters concerning the subjective experience of Christ. Schwenckfeld sought fellowship with Luther. He sent a messenger to Luther in hope of brotherly fellowship. Luther’s curt response was:
“The stupid fool, possessed by the devil, understands nothing. He does not know what he is babbling. But if he won’t stop his drivel, let him at least not bother me with the booklets which the devil spues out of him.” At the ministerial Council of Protestant States in 1556 Schwenckfeld was denounced in the most vituperous language of the period, and the civil authorities were urged to proceed against him as a dangerous heretic. [25]
Due to Luther’s rejection and the Lutherans’ persecution of him, Schwenckfeld went into voluntary exile, never to return to his native Silesia. For the next thirty years, he wandered about without a permanent dwelling place. Concerning this period he wrote:
If I had wanted a good place on earth, if I had cared more for temporal than for eternal things, and if I would have deserted my Christ, then I might have stayed in my fatherland and in my own house, and I might have had the powerful of this world for my friends. [26]
It is unfortunate that he became estranged from Luther.
D. Lack of Separation between the Church and the World
Another deficiency in Luther’s work of reform was the lack of separation between the Church and the world. Luther maintained the territorial nature of the church under the Roman Catholic system, which eventually led to the formation of state churches. These included many unbelievers, even among the clergy, thus undermining the proper basis of membership in the church, which is faith in Jesus Christ. As a consequence of the union of the Church and the state, the sword was sometimes used on behalf of the church. Some writers believe that Luther saw the true nature and practice of the church according to God’s desire but abandoned this, refusing to consider seriously the New Testament teachings on the Church.
Concerning the problem of state churches Watchman Nee says:
However, here a problem arises: Protestantism did not give us a proper church. As a result, wherever the doctrine of justification by faith and the open Bible went, a state church was established. The Lutheran sect became the state church in many countries. Later, in England, the Anglican Church came into being, which is also a state church. Beginning with Rome, the nature of the church was changed. By the time of justification by faith and the return of the open Bible, the Protestant churches…still followed the example of Rome and did not return to the church in the beginning. During the Reformation the problem of the church was not solved. Luther did not reform the church. Luther himself said that we should not think “justification by faith” is enough; there are many more things to be changed. Yet the people in the Protestant churches stopped right there. Luther did not stop, but they stopped and said that it was good enough. Although they went back to the faith of the beginning, the church herself remained unchanged. Formerly, there was the international church of Rome; now it is the state church of England or the state church of Germany – that is all.
Brothers, do you see? The Reformation did not bring the church back to the condition in the beginning; it only caused the world church to become the state churches. [27]
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