Luther's postion on spiritual gifts?

[dms1972]

It occurred to me that the Lutheran Hymn : A Mighty Fortress has these lines in the last verse:

That word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them, abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours,
thru him who with us sideth.

Did Luther then believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit for today?

Could one believe in the gifts being for today, while signs and wonders are not? Thus somewhat distinguishing spiritual gifts from signs and wonders. The gifts being for the building up of the Body of Christ?

 

[CodyFaith]

See #78 of his 95 Theses:
95 Theses

"78. We say, on the contrary, that even the present pope, and any pope at all, has greater graces at his disposal; to wit, the Gospel, powers, gifts of healing, etc., as it is written in I. Corinthians xii."

While I admittingly don't know too much about Luther or specifics in his theology, and while this part of the text was just adressing the Pope, I don't doubt he believed the gifts to be alive and well for the entire church. It seems from the wording he may have held a sort of hierarchical form of gifts within the church... perhaps the greater the rank the greater and more profound the gifts... but this is just my quick speculation without study or deep thought.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

It occurred to me that the Lutheran Hymn : A Mighty Fortress has these lines in the last verse:

That word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them, abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours,
thru him who with us sideth.

Did Luther then believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit for today?

Could one believe in the gifts being for today, while signs and wonders are not? Thus somewhat distinguishing spiritual gifts from signs and wonders. The gifts being for the building up of the Body of Christ?

I did a study of the life of Martin Luther as part of my M.Div degree a few years ago. There is no doubt that there were demons cast out and people healed under his ministry. Whether he spoke in tongues or not is debatable. He never said one way or the other.

 

[dms1972]

Would a distinction between spiritual gifts and signs and wonders be valid? (its just my own thinking) Spiritual gifts being less dramatic operations of the Holy Spirit?

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Would a distinction between spiritual gifts and signs and wonders be valid? (its just my own thinking) Spiritual gifts being less dramatic operations of the Holy Spirit?

Spiritual gifts are for the building up of the Church (not the organisation but the believers in it). Signs and wonders are to validate the preaching of the Gospel to the unconverted.

 

[FireDragon76]

You can't impose 20th century religious categories on a man that lived in the 16th century.

I have a book translated from Swedish called Theology of the Heart (by Bengt Hoffman) , it is about the spiritual or mystical aspects of Luther's theology. It might help to answer your questions.

Lutherans believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Does that mean we speak in tongues? Not usually, no. I think we are less opposed to it, than just recognizing it is not our thing and not generally part of our spirituality. There are some charismatic Lutheran congregations, and our parent denominations were part of the Charismatic revival, but charismatic Lutherans are a minority overall and many of them left our denomination decades ago for independent churches.

You are more likely to find Charismatic Lutherans now days in Africa, such as Madagascar, Ethiopia, and Tanzania.

 

[ViaCrucis]

The gifts mentioned in the hymn are the gifts of God in the Gospel, not charismata. That said Lutheranism is neither charismatic nor cessationist according to the modern definitions. Lutheran spirituality is, however very skeptical of subjective experiences as we instead look toward God's objective gifts and promises (Word and Sacrament). It's not that the Spirit can't or doesn't work in special ways, only that these are not the basis of our faith and walk with Christ; we know where and how the Spirit operates, in His Church through the preaching of the Word, and the holy Sacraments; so these are out sure and solid things, not interior, esoteric, subjective things.