"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." Revelation 14: 6, 7
Many people believe the first verse to be about Martin Luther. There is no doubt about it - he accomplished many things in his lifetime. The church needed a reformation. The Catholic church was the "original" (so to speak) Christian church, and was actually established by the Roman emperor Constantine who was so taken by the Gospel that he converted. The problem was that he was so zealous, he forced people to convert to Christianity; I think that this is where the problem began - the nonreligious people began bringing their "customs" into the church, which then turned into false practices and beliefs.
Martin Luther is recognized by almost all denominations of Christians. Apparently, John Huss, who had first started to protest against the church, said as he was burned on stake, "You are now burning a goose ["huss" meaning "goose"], but there will come a swan, which you will not be able to kill." On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther sparked the reformation of the Christian church by posting his 95 Theses protesting the wicked practices that had seeped into the church on the church door in Wittenberg. After finally finding the verse stating that justification is obtained by faith, not by works, his dissatisfaction with the church had hit downhill at a high rate of speed (the Catholic church teaches that all works and deeds are the gateway to heaven; protestant churches teach that faith [which will then manifest itself in works and deeds] is the way to heaven).
The Catholic church, of course, did not like the bad publicity it was getting and tried all sorts of ways to rid Luther of his ideas. Some church leaders ordered him to be arrested; he participated in debates where people would pretend to diligently (and slowly) look at his ideas, but then say he was wrong; in the final straw, he was brought to the emperor - Charles V - to renounce his thoughts. He had prepared for this and written the long statement, the Augsburg Confession, in which he closes it with the famous words, "My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen!" From then on, he was declared an outlaw, in which anyone could kill him without being punished.
Thankfully, Luther had several protectors, including the prince of Germany (Frederick the Wise). On his way home from the emperor's meeting, Luther was "falsely" kidnapped and taken to a castle for protection. While there, Luther translated the New Testament into German so that people could understand and wrote much more. A year later, the church was considerably weakened and Luther began a more public life. He did a lot of preaching, publishing (one book described it as "Luther made good use of the newly-invented printing press), and "counselling." He also married a former runaway nun - Katharina von Bora - and had 6 children, although I believe 2 or so died in infancy. My mother often told me that he only slept 3-4 hours per night. He worked too hard though and was often sick. At the age of 63, he passed away from an illness.
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| All those books on the top two shelves are Luther's writings (in German).
Luther's writings are, among others: the translation of the Bible into German, the Large and Small catechisms, many tracts, and many hymns (along with the well-known, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God") - to which he often wrote the music, as well. On top of all that, he preached 180 sermons in a short time span, and spent time travelling where he was needed.
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