Martin Luther: a Man for His Time

Raised by devoted Lutheran parents, my siblings and I attended Lutheran churches in Illinois and Arizona and even attended Lutheran church schools. So, it was natural for me as a writer to write a book about Martin Luther. But I didn't. Instead, I found the best, most meaningful passages about Luther I could find and compile and edit them in a single book.Beginning in my teenage years, I read everything I could about Martin Luther. As an adolescent, I read so much about Luther that, in...
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Raised by devoted Lutheran parents, my siblings and I attended Lutheran churches in Illinois and Arizona and even attended Lutheran church schools. So, it was natural for me as a writer to write a book about Martin Luther. But I didn't. Instead, I found the best, most meaningful passages about Luther I could find and compile and edit them in a single book.Beginning in my teenage years, I read everything I could about Martin Luther. As an adolescent, I read so much about Luther that, in my mind's eye, I put him on a pedestal-the greatest of the great reformers of the Christian church. As time went on, I talked with pastors and church leaders and asked questions about our practices as Lutherans. For instance, why didn't we follow Luther as he intended that we follow "the Bible and the Bible only" when it came to our church practices?As a dedicated young Lutheran man, I became somewhat disillusioned that, after nearly 500 years since the Great Reformation, many Lutherans wanted to make non-Biblical allowances, or even turn back toward Catholicism instead of completing the reformation as Luther intended. The more I read about the man on my pedestal, I realized how far the church I loved had strayed from his teachings and Bible truth. I was certain he was turning over in his grave 500 years later.The end result of my search for a significant and reasonably succinct book about Martin Luther turned out to be-not a book, but several chapters of another book written about 150 years ago and a few other passages. What I decided to do was to take chapters about Luther and the reformation from that book--entitled "The Great Controversy" by E. G. White--and, along with some artwork of Luther, make it available to everyone.This book is an adaptation of those chapters. Since the book was written to appeal to 19th century readers, I made minor changes in grammar to make it more readable for 21st century readers. For instance, many 19th century writers wrote very long sentences and used semicolons to continue a similar thought in the same sentence. In most cases, I used a period in place of a semicolon and began a new sentence. In effect, it shortened the sentence, but did not change the idea behind the sentence or paragraph.Similarly, I also attempted to find a natural point at which a long chapter could be chopped into two or more chapters. Again, this was an attempt to make the book (and chapters) more readable for modern readers. Even within the chapters, I used subtitles (my own, but keeping the intent as much as possible) to make the content of the book flow for the reader. This compiler and editor assumes full responsibility for the accuracy of the E. G. White text reproduced in this book.It is the prayer of this writer that all who read this volume about Martin Luther will be blessed and inspired to discover more of what Luther intended for his followers and what he himself believed-that the Word of God is the all-sufficient rule of faith and practice. May God bless you in your continued search to serve Him who was made flesh and is full of grace and truth.Sincerely,S.R. Morris