"I Cannot and I Will Not Recant."

Robert Booth in the August 2017 edition of God's Missionary Standard wrote, "One of the many reasons that history intrigues me, is that it produces evidence upon evidence that God takes imperfect men and women, sometimes messy men and women, and he uses them to accomplish His will."

[Yeah, I'm one of those imperfect, messy people, too!

Jonathan took this picture last week in the mountains and aspen!] 

Booth went on, "Martin Luther is one of those imperfect, messy individuals that God used to fan the flames of reformation and revival across Germany and beyond. Luther was a man whom you either loved or hated. His contemporaries called him a renegade, bigamist, anti-semitic, and even insane. But in 1520 and 1521 Luther was the rage in Germany."

Booth tells how the pope issued an edict that began by saying, "Arise, O Lord, and judge Your cause. A wild boar has invaded Your vineyard," comparing Luther to "an unrestrained animal causing havoc." He writes that when Luther was asked to recant his writings,

[note that his disagreements with the church and papacy were in writing]

 his reply was, "Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason, for I do not trust either the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves, I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God.

I cannot and I will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise. Here I stand, may God help me, Amen." 

"These defiant words," Booth goes on, "became the Reformation battle cry." And "as Luther stood against the wrong and evil that was being taught, so must we stand against evil and wrong...

..." God still needs men and women to stand in the face of evil and say, 'some things are just not for sale.'" --Robert Booth

We may be accused of being insane, too, just like Luther, though in our day it would be called

mentally disturbed,

 emotionally imbalanced,

or having female problems,

just whatever needs to be said to dismiss us and make us look like an idiot for standing up and defending God's Word, such as His simple truths about marriage being between one man and one woman till death parts them (not till divorce parts them) and not compromising about it.

It's not our word; it is God's.

And therein did Luther stake his hope and faith, and I do mine as well.