The Unintended Reformation to World War I

“Christianity remained in the sixteenth century what it had always been — a shared way of life, not simply as an ideal but in practice, inescapably social because of Jesus’s central command: ‘Love one another as I have loved you’ (John 15:12). And the Bible was God’s word, his saving truth for human beings with implications for that life understood as a comprehensive whole, including politics and the right ordering of society. Preached to lay people of widely varying social locations and educational backgrounds in the early 1520s, ‘the Gospel’ ignited a firestorm of anti-clericalism in the towns and villages of the Holy Roman Empire and Switzerland.

“Christian women and men were only too familiar with the shortcomings of their omnipresent church whose clergy they were now told, had twisted scripture and concealed God’s truth from them. No wonder privileged priests were so self-serving and sinful! Sparked at least partly by such ideas, the German Peasants’ War of 1524- 1526 was the largest series of popular uprisings in Western Europe before the French Revolution, involving hundreds of thousands of ordinary villagers and small-town dwellers before it was forcibly suppressed.

“It simply was the Reformation in its most widespread, visibly manifest, earnest early form. Secular leaders drew the obvious conclusion: Biblical ideas could be dangerously subversive” (Brad S. Gregory, The Unintended Reformation, How a Religious Revolution Secularized So­ciety, Belknap Press of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2012, page 149).

Our Lord’s personal message to the sixth church, Philadelphia, is found in Revelation 3:7-13. It contains a promise that he will come quickly. The Philadelphia church immediately precedes the Lord’s long-awaited presence. The opening of the seal for the sixth church (Revelation 6:11-17) speaks to a special time where the cry will be “hide us” for all men, but especially those in authority:

Revelation 6:15, “And the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains” (RVIC).

FOUR ANGELS

The four angels may be identified with the (1) social, (2) political, (3) economic, (4) and religious elements of society.[1] The four specific elements are highlighted in The Battle of Armageddon and Daniel 7:2, 3. If these heaven-prepared angels are powerful enough to hold back the winds, we should not identify them with human messengers:

“And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God. One saying to the sixth angel that had the trumpet, ‘Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.’ And the four angels were loosed that had been prepared for the hour, and day, and month, and year, that they should kill the third part of men” (Revelation 9:13-15 (RVIC).

How is it that these heavenly authorized agencies are bound by anything? Especially, the great river Euphrates? For that answer we need to look back at the fifth church and then forward to the seventh church.

“DAY” IN THE REVELATION TEXT

The Sinaitic Codex, one of the oldest and most significant New Testament sources, omits “day” in Revelation 9:15. However, “day” is included in p⁴⁷, one of the Chester Beatty papyri, a witness even older than the Sinaitic. Hence, “day” should be considered part of the original text for Revelation 9:15 (see RVIC). Kittel notes “prepared” (G2090) has the sense of “expressing God’s whole creative action in every age and at every moment in nature and history.”[2] These four angels “that had been prepared” saw a world deeply troubled, but the actions of these angels were soon bound. It is the sixth church that points the way to the future, when these angels are loosed.

Using the “day for a year” formula — “The hour (1 month), and day (1 year), and month (30 years) and year (360 years)” add up to a period of 391 literal years and one month, assuming a symbolic “hour” is one month (i.e. 1/12 of a “day” cf. John 11:9).

This period begins with the first martyr’s blood of the Reformation on July 1, 1523 and the ensuing religious chaos. It continues through the Peasants’ War (summer 1524-1526) and its social, political, economic, as well as religious chaos. With the close of the Reformation (1667) we find both Catholics and now Protestants. Everyone in a church-state system. Under the sixth church the French Revolution and Napoleon (1789-1815) were to see the loosing of the four angels bound in the Euphrates. They are not to be “bound” again. While Napoleon was defeated, ideas for social, political, economic, and religious reform continued to be set forward during the 19th century along with further tremors of revolution.

Peasant Revolt

The old order was powerless to stop the work of these angels, and even Russia was forced to end serfdom. During the 19th century, especially in the Americas, dozens of “Utopian” experiments for a new order of society were to be tried — all to fail in short order. With the start of World War I, August 1, 1914 the period of Revelation 9:15 covers exactly 391 literal years and one month. The activity under the sixth seal is followed directly by the vision of Revelation 7:1. Here “four angels on the four corners of the earth [are] holding the four winds of the earth.” Following the destructive work of World War I, the four angels stand in the four corners of the earth all parts of the earth’s established order — holding back the winds until an even more important work is done.

LUTHER OPENS THE REFORMATION

The preparation of the four angels goes back to the Reformation: “In Luther’s day, of course, all support of the people had been to the Roman Church — the only Babylon at the time. Because the Roman Church had complete control over the elements of society those elements, the four angels, could not function outside of the approval of the Papacy. There could be no social changes, no financial theories explored, no political freedoms, and no religious questioning. The four angels were, indeed, bound in the Euphrates. The people supported Rome and were fearful of giving support to anything not sanctioned by Rome.”[3]

What bound the angels was not their lack of heavenly power; it was the people’s lack of understanding. Yet, the work of these angels in the sixth church was a direct answer to the prayers of the saints for the blessings of godly society — this is the “voice from the horns (power) of the golden altar which is before God” (Revelation 9:13, 8:3, 4). Martin Luther nailing the 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg church (October 31, 1517) began the Reformation. Society would need much development before it was ready for real reform of all the four elements — the social, political, economic, and religious. The “bottomless pit” and “smoke” (Revelation 9:10) which Luther released led to “five months of torment” (5 months x 30 years/month = 150 years); a time of social, political, economic, and religious chaos for Europe. These “five months” close the fifth stage of the church and ran from October 31, 1517 to October 31, 1667.

DIET OF WORMS

From the start of the Reformation, the continuance of anti-Christ’s cruel, evil, time-tested program of executing dissenters was a failure. Luther departed from his home at Wittenberg for the Diet of Worms on April 2, 1521 stopping in route to preach. (“Diet” was the term for a formal assembly of the Holy Roman Empire where both church and civil authorities were present). The Diet started April 16 to address the charges of heresy against Luther. The inquisitor intensively questioned his beliefs, and Luther requested a day to consider his answers. The inspiring words that closed the interrogation stand as one of the most passionate statements of purpose, principle, and Christian conviction (April 18):

“Unless I am convicted by scripture and plain reason — I do not accept the authority of popes and councils for they have contradicted each other — my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, God help me. Amen.”

Holding only to the authority of scripture frustrated both clergy and civil authorities. Nevertheless, Luther was traveling with safe conduct papers and he was permitted to depart Worms by carriage Friday April 27, 1521. For the moment, Luther had slipped through the fingers of the church. Nearly a week later on his homeward travels, he visited and said farewell to his family, for he was certain he would die. Then back on the road, Luther was intercepted and taken captive by a band of five masked men who handled him roughly, threw a cloak over him, and spirited him away on horseback.

Search as they might, the authorities could find no clues to Luther’s abduction. However, the violent abduction was a clever ploy by Luther’s patron, Fredrick “the Wise” of Saxony, who had arranged for Luther’s safekeeping deep in the Thüringen woods at Wartburg, a hunting castle retreat. The church moved forward according to measured protocol and Emperor Charles V declared Luther an outlaw worthy of death May 25. During the 10 months he was hidden, Luther completed one his most enduring works, the translation of the Bible into German.

LUTHER RETURNS FROM HIDING

During Luther’s absence, and with his blessing, the young Philipp Melanchthon had taken over the work of reform. Ultimately, he was not able to control the more radical elements within Wittenberg. Luther’s colleague at the university, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, began to preach a radical program of iconoclasm that saw mobs destroying images at the local churches. Karlstadt cast away his academic vestments, worked as a farmhand, and began to teach a symbolic view of the Lord’s Supper. Sadly, throughout his life, Luther retained the Catholic view on the doctrine of the Mass, despite the progress towards the symbolic understanding of the Lord’s supper by most of the leading reformers such as Ulrich Zwingli of Switzerland. Now a group of men appeared in the city called the “Zwickau Prophets.” This group claimed to be directly inspired by the Holy Spirit, and falsely claimed the ability to reveal God’s will apart from Scripture. Because events had gotten so far out of hand, Luther believed that it was essential to come out of hiding to restore order. Despite great personal danger, Luther returned to Wittenberg on March 7, 1522.[4]

 FIRST MARTYRS

One year later in Holland; two young monks named Esch, and Voes embraced the Reformation and stood up against the inquisitors. They were to perish in the flames as the first martyrs of the Reformation (July 1, 1523). With a shudder, the great Catholic humanist Erasmus von Rotterdam, a native of Holland, was to lament, “The executions have begun — at last.”[5] But, to the amazement of all, the executions stopped nothing, they only added more zeal to the Reformation. Each assault on the truth furthered the resolve and conviction of the reformers. This date, July 1, 1523 marks the start of the 391 years and 1 month (Revelation 9:15).

PEASANTS’ WAR 1524-1526

With the opening of the Reformation, general opinion held that a change would not come from reform by the leadership. The initiative needed to rest with the people themselves — with the classes specially oppressed by existing conditions, political, economic, and ecclesiastical. These, and similar ideas, were now everywhere taken up and elaborated upon in a more radical sense. People were ready to listen. The whole structure of middle age society, economic, social, political, and religious, focused on the community. This was now breaking down everywhere. For centuries the community reported in hierarchical order to the Holy Roman Emperor and the Church as represented by the papal chair.

Our brethren in the Anabaptist movement preached that church and state should be separate. Today, historians recognize these Anabaptist pleas for church and state separation as one of the most significant consequences of the Reformation.[6] However, reformers in Germany, the Swiss cantons, Geneva, Scotland, and elsewhere remained in bed with the civil powers for their survival. The Anabaptists were persecuted by Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and the Catholics. Indeed, with the Reformation, the autonomy of the individual in all spheres of life was beginning to affirm itself.[7],[8] Peasants in western and southern Germany — then held in serfdom — invoked divine law to demand agrarian rights and freedom from oppression by nobles and landlords.

Anabaptist Dirk Willems saves his pursuer and is martyred (1569).

At first, Luther was very supportive of the peasants’ resistance to the nobility. Luther’s pamphlet, Authority and How Far it Should Be Obeyed (1523):

“They (princes) are mostly the greatest fools or the greatest rogues on earth; therefore must we at all times expect from them the worst, and little good…The common man begets understanding, and the plague of the princes works powerfully among the people and the common man. He will not, he cannot, he purposes not, longer to suffer your tyranny and oppression. Dear princes and lords, know ye what to do, for God will no longer endure it? The world is no more as of old time, when ye hunted and drove the people as your quarry.”[9]

Spurred to action at Luther’s urging, the peasants withheld tithe offerings to support the Holy Roman Empire’s fight against yet another Turkish invasion. Luther wrote that the Turks were ten times wiser and more godly than German princes.[10]

By late May 1524, the withholding of taxes had become a crisis — funds were needed to fight the Turks. Added to this, astrology and superstition still held great control over the people. Now it was held that the stars indicated a Noachic deluge for the summer of 1524.[11] This was based on an alleged combination of sixteen conjunctures in the sign of Aquarius. So seriously was the prophesy believed that extensive preparations were made to survive the approaching catastrophe. Many, however, explained the presage as indicating a social inundation — the leveling of social distinctions by the “common man.” Portents were alleged to have appeared; reports circulated of strange monsters being born. Illustrated broadsheets and pamphlets were in circulation. The title page of one portrayed pope, emperor, cardinals and prince-prelates trembling before the approach of a band of peasants armed with the implements of husbandry and led on by the planet Saturn. Saturn was linked to ancient pagan belief in a return to “the Golden Age” of peace when all men were equal. All these things testified to the excited state of the public mind and the direction in which popular thought was turned. Here, were the stirrings of the Euphrates by the four angels. Soon entreaties by authorities became threats. Violence from both nobility and peasants erupted in July 1524.[12]

THE TWELVE ARTICLES

By February 1525, the redress sought by the peasants was distilled to Twelve Articles, which were printed and widely circulated. They address social, political, economic, and religious grievances — the four angels:

While their tone is conciliatory, mob violence was ruling the countryside. The first of the Twelve Articles was a demand that each village could elect their own pastors, citing 1 Timothy 3.[13] Clearly, things had gone well beyond the withholding of tithes.

 

Influence of the Twelve Articles	Social	Political	Economic	Religious
(1) The power to choose and elect a pastor shall lie with the whole community (1 Timothy 3)	•			•
(2) Peasant will furnish the just tithe of corn, but only to God’s servants (Hebrews, Psalms 109)	•			•
(3) We have been held as Serfs … we are free, and we will be free (Ecclesiastes 6, 1 Peter 2)	•	•
(4) Hunting rights “to capture ground game, fowls, or fish in flowing water”	•	•	•
(5) The woods, be they possessed by spiritual or temporal lords … [these woods] shall fall again to the whole community	•	•	•
(6) That we be not so heavily burdened with … services which are heaped up from day to day and daily increased	•	•	•
(7) The Peasant shall enjoy and use land in peace, and undisturbed. But when the lord has need of the peasant’s service, the peasant shall be willing and obedient … for a befitting price	•	•	•
(8) Just, independent assessment of the tax value of a peasant’s land	•	•	•
(9) Judicial punishment according to ancient written law, and according to the thing transgressed, and not according to respect of persons (Isaiah 10, Ephesians 6, Luke 3, Jeremiah 16)	•	•
(10) Return of common lands to the community (in some cases “community lands” had been taken by lords)	•	•	•
(11) Total abolition of “death-due” tax which impoverished widows (Deuteronomy 13, Matthew 8, Isaiah 10:23)	•	•	•
(12) If one or more of the Articles here are not according to the Word of God, we will, where the same articles are proved against the Word of God, withdraw them				•

 

“STAB, SMITE, SLAY”

In early 1525 churches were desecrated by peasant mobs. Catholic writers such as Emser circulated tracts holding Luther responsible for inciting mobs against the peace. The message set forth to the nobility was — Behold! The ungodly fruits of Protestantism.[14] Now Luther’s Protestantism itself was in crisis.

Luther now condemned the peasant violence. Writing in Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants (May 1525) Luther found the Twelve Articles “unjust” and urged the nobility’s military forces marshaled to suppress the revolt to show no mercy whatsoever. He instructed the knights to “Stab, smite, slay whoever can. If you die in doing it, well for you! A more blessed death can never be yours … [as this killing] pleases God; this I know.”[15]

By the time the military restored order in 1526, there were an estimated 100,000 German commoners slain. Proportionate to the population of Germany today, this would equate to over a million victims. Nor did matters end there. It is important to understand the price paid by the German peasants for their failed rebellion not only in terms of lives lost, but also of the deeper impoverishment of the survivors who were forced to pay heavy reparations for the costs of the revolt. The four angels were prepared, but still bound in the Euphrates.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

“And I saw when he had opened the sixth seal, and there came a great earthquake” (Revelation 6:12, RVIC).

Great earthquakes symbolize revolutions. During the sixth church, the sixth seal was opened. What followed was the French Revolution. The first major tremor of this “great earthquake” was the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris, France (July 14, 1789). The Bastille was a hated the symbol of tyranny. Over the next quarter century, the repressed hatred for the nobility and clergy by France’s underclass brought a violent and bloody end to the ruling classes — at least temporarily. The French people’s ability to muster an army that could defeat the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire and even carry military conquest as far as Moscow further struck terror into hearts of Europe’s monarchies. The miry clay and iron mix of the ten toes was soon to be crushed, to undergo the process of being ground to powder, and to be dispersed by the winds (Daniel 2:42,43). World War I marked the end of the Gentile Times.

ARCHDUKE FERDINAND OF AUSTRIA — A COINCIDENCE?

There also is a curiosity that seems not to be an accident. The call for organized military action against the peasants was issued by Archduke Ferdinand of Austria in September 1524. “Crush the rising and compel them to unconditional submission,” the Archduke writes to George Truchsess, Count of Waldburg, the chief commander of the forces of the Swabian League. Then the Archduke hypocritically urges, that Truchsess should “amicably treat with the peasants till he had collected his military forces together.” The curiosity occurs when this period closes. The spark that ignited World War I was the assassination of a later Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on June 28, 1914.

SUMMARY

The Reformers died for religious freedom; the social, political, economic and religious reforms. This was the “preparation” of the four angels but they remained “bound” in the Euphrates. The French Revolution (1789) was the “great earthquake” for which the Reformation and then the Peasants’ War fought. The revolution in France was to illustrate the coming greater earthquake that would mark the end of the Times of the Gentiles (August 1, 1914). After this the four angels are no longer bound in the Euphrates. We see them “holding back the four winds until the saints are sealed in their foreheads.”

— Br. Richard Doctor

 

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[1] The Revelation Notebook, New Albany-Louisville Ecclesia, 2010, page 125.

[2] Kittel, Gerhard, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (translated by G. W. Bromley), Wm. B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1964, Volume 2, page 705.

[3] New Albany, op. cit., page 126

[4] Smith, Preserved, The Life and Letters of Martin Luther, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1914, page 147. Available from Google Books.

[5] D’Aubigne, J.H.M., History of the Reformation, Baker, Grand Rapids, MI, (1846 edition, reprinted 1976), page 362.

[6] Naphy, William G., The Protestant Reformation, BBC Books, Random House, 2007, pages 47-49.

[7] Bax, E. Belfort, The Peasants’ War in Germany 1525-­1526, MacMillan, New York, 1899, pages 18, 19. Available from Google Books, the link to this book provided by Bro. Jeff Mezera is greatly appreciated.

[8] Grimm, Harold J., Social Forces in the German Reformation, Church History, (31:1), Cambridge University Press, March 1962, pages 3-13. www.jstor.org/stable/3163356. In 1500 about half of the population of Augsburg, Germany owned no property and three percent were beggars, while one fifth of the population of Hamburg, Germany lived in extreme poverty. It was among these lower classes that the distinction between rich and poor was most advanced and that preachers of radical religious and social reform gained many followers who were willing to use violence in achieving their goals.

[9] Bax, op. cit., page 29

[10] Bax, op. cit., page 30

[11] Bax, op. cit., page 59

[12] Sea, Thomas F., Predatory Protectors? Conflict and Cooperation in the Suppression of the German Peasants’ Revolt of 1525, The Sixteenth Century Journal, (39:1), Spring 2008, pages 89-111. www.jstor.org/stable/20478753

[13] Bax, op. cit., page 63

[14] Edwards, Jr., Mark U., “Lutherschmähung?” Catholics on Luther’s Responsibility for the Peasants’ War, The Catholic Historical Review, (76:3) Catholic University of America Press (July 1990), pages 461-480. www.jstor.org/stable/25023340; citing Hieronymus Emser, Auff Luthers grewel wider die heiligen Stillmess (On Luther’s “gravel” [road fill of no consequence] against the holy peaceableness), Dresden, 1525.

[15] Pelz, William A., A People’s History of Modern Europe — “The Other Reformation”: Martin Luther, Religious Dogma and the Common People, Pluto Press, 2016, page 24, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1c2crfj.6

 

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