Luther, being Luther, stood up to Cardinal Cajetan and would not recant. He refused to violate his conscience, knowing that his teachings were based solely on the Word of God. At the conclusion of Luther’s three-day audience with the papal legate, and before leaving Augsburg, he wrote two somewhat conciliatory letters to Cajetan explaining his position, but Luther never received a response from the fully irritated Cajetan. Luther also wrote an appeal to Pope Leo X, which he wanted Cardinal Cajetan to carry back to Rome, in which he accused the Cardinal of being biased. Luther asked one of his traveling partners, fellow monk Leonhard Beier, to hand deliver his appeal to Cajetan. Beier, having his wits about him, was petrified. He delegated the task to a notary, who chickened out as well, promptly sticking Luther’s appeal onto the Cathedral door, perhaps a medieval foreshadowing of the modern day Post-It. Not exactly a thorough demonstration of backbone. Don’t be that guy!
Like the simple instructions which the pope issued Cardinal Cajetan, our Lord issues us simple instructions as well:
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9).We need never be afraid, no matter whom or what confronts us. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
photo credit: katrinalopez
2 comments:
I stumbled here through a site called http://www.soundwitness.org/contact_us.html and was a little confused about what your intention is to people. Was there a reason the person seemed to have a particular point to nitpick with a memorial service at a kingdom hall, and while I have seen other sites like this when I looked up some information about people who come to the door, called Jehovah's Witnesses, and I looked up the things detailed on that page, and I guess it stood out to me the same information research I did just didn't make sense to me that you seem to be wanting to appear to be affiliated with Jehovah's Witnesses but everything on your site was written in a way that as I read, was like you were trying to look like you were trying to get people to read your words, but you had to frame everything with deceptive headings as if you might not have gotten me to read what was said without the pretense that you were friendly. I have been exposed to many religions that claim to be Christian, and while I find a lot of room for apologies, I can't say that the list, which currently has been whittled down a whole lot, but this site seems to have an agenda that is about a personal agenda having nothing to do with god's larger purpose that is not so small. You might want to just focus on what you have to offer instead of your pretense of making an apology for religions that you are apparently threatened by or you wouldn't feel the need out of the hundreds of thousands of churches and religions, but you singled out one which made you look small and petty. I don't know what your interest is or purpose, but I was really turned off by the way you have approached your message. Just an opinion from someone led to your site because you made it look like you knew something you didn't know.
Dear Anonymous, thanks for your comment. The Sound Witness site isn't affiliated with the Jehovah's Witnesses, it's a site dedicated to helping people get out of that organization, because it is a false religion. "Singling out" a religion is not small and petty, it's loving, in that we care for the Jehovah's Witnesses and want to help them. We don't do it just because we want to spend hundreds of hours picking on somebody. They don't preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ - they preach a gospel of works which will not save them. If you'd like to discuss it further feel free to email me.
Yours in Christ,
Scott Diekmann
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