18 Sep 2010 Quick Trip To Worms

We slept in this morning because we only had a short 80 km to Worms. Gene wanted to see this place because it had a special significance in the life of Martin Luther. We watched the DVD "Luther" last night, and it was a wonderful informative movie on the struggles that Luther had with the doctrines of the Catholic church. The following is a short review of what took place here in Worms over 500 years ago.

Martin Luther was a Monk serving in Wittenburg, Germany. As he studied he found inconsistencies with the bible and what the Catholic Church was teaching. At that time, only the Pope could interpret the scriptures. After placing his 95 thesis for disagreement on the door of the Wittenberg Kirche in 1517, which sparked the Protestant Reformation, he was summoned by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V to Worms in 1521. There he was asked to recant or reaffirm his position on the books and Thesis he had written. The following was his answer. "Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures or evident reasons, I am bound by the scriptures abduced by me, and my conscience has been taken captive by the word of God, and I am neither able nor willing to recant, since it is neither safe nor right to act against conscience....... Here I stand, I can do no other, God help me Amen."

He was released to go home but he was declared to be a obstinate heritic and his writings were banned. It was a well known fact that he would be summoned back to receive his punishment which was to be burned at the stake. On the way home, he was seized by Prince Frederick who hid him in Wartburg castle. It was at this time that he translated the bible in German, the first time the people were able to read the scriptures for themselves. After he reappeared, the Emperor was so busy with other matters, he didn't give it much thought and so Luther was free to continue his writings.

I am sure that the Holy Ghost was with Martin Luther in his actions as it helped with the Reformation that eventually led to freedom of Religion, an environment in which the church could be restored. We went to the church which was attached to where Martin Luther was summoned, but the building is no longer there. In it's place is a huge statue of Luther along with other dignitaries of this city.

We walked around town and found a very nice museum that housed artifacts dug up from this area. The town of Worms is a nice small town and not many older buildings are left. I think the war did extensive damage here. We found a huge statue of five German soldiers that we thought was awesome. Sometimes we forget that a lot of lives were lost in Germany too. Worms is close to the Rhein River and we drove along that for some time. There seems to be a big Turkish population here because there were Turkish flags flying everywhere. I found a little stand that was making fresh crepes with Nutella and I had one. As we walked in the park we saw a father and daughter gathering Hazelnuts from the trees. They are falling everywhere now. It was so cute, she had her little basket to put them all in. Some were hidden in the grass and her dad was showing here where they were. Kind of like an Easter egg hunt. All in all it was a really calm day, not too much walking. Home at 16:00 hrs. Love to all in Vista.