Lessons learned from Martin Luther

If you are the praying type, get praying – right after reading this post.

Martin Luther “rediscovered” much for the church – including the new covenant that Jesus made as prophesied by the OT/Jeremiah. We know that. But what has been on my mind for months is that after Martin left the scene to begin translating the bible into then-modern Germanic, riots tore up the country, because people latched onto his teaching that idols and idolatry is evil and wrong. So people tore up stained glass windows and went in a violent rage against their past. When someone elerted Martin to this, he proclaimed these violence to be the work of the devil, and promptly the ruling elite saw their chance and they violently wiped out the people. By the end of the 1500’s apparently there was no active religious behaviour in Germany.

Why is this relevant to today? Because in Greece we have a 7 day riot occuring and it’s spreading to other countries in Europe.

• How police shooting of a teenage boy rallied the ‘€700 generation’
• Riots in Greece Spark Protests Across Europe

We absolutely must pray and intercede for healing in these countries, otherwise we could be faced with a greater problem. The riots mustn’t go too far and the reaction to them mustn’t go too far either, by further suppressing the concerns that are being displayed. Here are two posts describing the events from the viewpoint of the people:

• ‘We were full of anger and sorrow’ – Natalia Bersi, aged 20, one of the student leaders behind the protests sweeping Greece, here gives a day-by-day account of the turmoil that has shaken the country over the past week.
• In Athens, middle-class rioters are buying rocks. This chaos isn’t over – Helena Smith has reported from Greece for two decades, but had never seen anything like the riots that swept the country last week. Here she tries to make sense of an eruption of anger
• ‘The anarchists are misunderstood’ – Trainee lawyer Anna Giabanidis has met the anarchists responsible for some of the violence and explains their perspective on events.

I don’t live there, I don’t have any opinion on right or wrong. Please do what you do and pray for a calm expression of feelings, and pray for wisdom in leadership to adjust. If you wish, pray along these lines: Isaiah 61 – the inauguration of Jesus Christ.

UPDATE: Greece calm after 8 days of riots by angry youths

UPDATE 28 Dec 2011: How Luther went viral

IT IS a familiar-sounding tale: after decades of simmering discontent a new form of media gives opponents of an authoritarian regime a way to express their views, register their solidarity and co-ordinate their actions. The protesters’ message spreads virally through social networks, making it impossible to suppress and highlighting the extent of public support for revolution. The combination of improved publishing technology and social networks is a catalyst for social change where previous efforts had failed.

The start of the Reformation is usually dated to Luther’s nailing of his “95 Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences” to the church door in Wittenberg on October 31st 1517. The “95 Theses” were propositions written in Latin that he wished to discuss, in the academic custom of the day, in an open debate at the university. Luther, then an obscure theologian and minister, was outraged by the behaviour