Wittenburg

Today, some of us went to Wittenburg. It was really nice. Wittenburg is much more like the typical German village. Berlin is kind of like the New York of Germany, lots of diversity and a unique culture to it's self. We got to Wittenburg a little after noon and looked at some of the sites. It was kind of cool to see some of the places. The first place we saw was the house where Luther burned his excommunication papers. The town really places up Martin Luther. They have Luther Beer, Luther signs, Luther food. It's a little annoying but in a country so secular, it's nice to see them embrace some of their religious past. The town has little maps all around it with spots where Luther did something or lived. We saw his house. Originally it was an abbey for monks, which he was, before it became his family's home. After lunch, we went to the first Protestant church where Luther preached. It was a really beautiful and moving place. The entire building was made of stone so it was really nice and cool inside. The ceilings were huge arched vaults with ornate decorations on them. The pulpit was very ornate and decorative. It was not just a normal podium, but it had a spiral staircase that was connected to the wall before it branched out and became the pulpit. At the very back, Luther's 95 Theses were written in German. Where the original door that he nailed the original copy to was is a bronzed cast of his 95 Theses in German. We spent half an hour or so in the church itself praying, looking around, taking pictures before we climbed up the tower which overlooks the whole town. The climb up to the belltower was really long and hard. It was a very narrow spiral staircase that went up about four stories. Once we reached the top, we could see for miles and miles. Wittenburg is kind of out in the middle of nowhere, about 45 minutes away from Berlin. We could see the town, all the streets, and the fields surrounding Wittenburg. I could even see the wind turbines a couple of miles out from the town.

I actually read a few of Luther's Theses today. I always knew that Luther didn't want to break away from the church, just reform it but I don't think I realized how much he just wanted to change the salvation through works message. On our way there I read a little bit of his thrid treaty on freedom, and he was very adamant that it is salvation through grace alone, our works only reflect the change in spirit. Without him, the majority of our denominations would not exist. We may still have a salvation by works mindset and many people may never know that what matters is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I hope to read more of his writings, along with some from John Wessley and Oswald Chambers.