JPNToday, Mike took a day off from work (thank you very much),
and he proposed to go visit a town called Eisenach, where Martin Luther onced lived and translated the New Testament into German.
Eisenach was quite far away from Frankfurt, about three hours drive on the autobahn; it is located in the state of Thuringia (middle of Germany),
nearby the border that separated west and east Germany.
Along the way, we listened to a CD by John Piper (an American pastor), who, in his message, talked about the life of Martin Luther.
Before Martin Luther translated the bible in 1534, the bibile was only available in Latin
and could only be understood by a small number of people, such as the clergy.
Martin Luther reformed the church by preaching that one can only be saved throug faith and not by act (i.e. buying "indulgences"),
he translated the bible (which was regarded as blesphemy at the time) and spread the words of God throughout Germany.
He was a brave man.
Arrived at Eisenach at around 11:00.
There was a statue of Martin Luther in the city centre.
This was the main street.
We first visited the Lutherhaus, a house where Martin Luther used to live for several years in his youth.
The house is now a museum, with various displays explaining the life of Luther.
Eisenach is actually the birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach.
There was a statue of Bach infront of the Bachhaus.
The actual house where Bach was born was destroyed during the war, but they rebuilt it, which has now become a museum.
Just before we left the museum, they did a small concert with the old instruments used in the days when Bach was alive (I suppose!).
After lunch, we visited the Warburg castle, which was on top of the hill, overlooking the town.
We had to walk for quite a while to get to this place.
This castle was built during the 11th century, by Ludwig II, who was the ruler of Thuringia.
Between 1211 and 1228, St Elizabeth of Hungary used to live here and in the early
16t century, Martin Luther was sheltered in one of the rooms of the castle,
and here, he translated the New Testament into German.
Now, Wartburg is registered as the UNESCO world heritage site.
Good view from the castle.
This was the room where Luther translated the bible.
I later found out that there is still a stain on the wall from when Luther threw an ink bottle to the devil.
It took him less than a year to translate the New Testament (I think it was something like 9month?), so he must have worked really hard.
The Luther's translated version of the bibles are now widely used by many Christians in Germany.
We climbed the tower.
Before this visit to Wartburg, for me, Martin Luther was someone in the history text book.
But spending a whole day, following his footsteps,
he became more personal.
Martin Luther was a brave man, risking his life for what he belived is the truth.
He was an amazing man, there are many things to learn from him.
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