Braman's Wanderings

Since it is October I have been thinking of an old hymn. So, since I am tired after a long day of work, I am just going to again share something I have written in the past. If you read the post carefully you can figure out when I wrote it 🙂

Many of you know the great hymn that starts “A mighty fortress is our God….”

You may even know that it was written by Martin Luther. However you may not know the inspiration for the hymn.

Here is a picture of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Notice the large tower. The church building was originally part of a large castle complex and this was one of the guard towers.

I took a picture of one of the interpretive signs that showed what the complex may have looked like. The church building was part of the Ascanian Duke’s fortress/castle/palace. It would have been a very secure place.

Here is a picture taken from the tower end. You may notice the wording on the band below the crown section. The wording is Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott which is the opening line in German of the hymn.

Here you can see the main doors of the church building. You can also see a smaller door to the right which is usually used to enter the building.

These doors are very important in Reformation History.

The doors are made of Bronze and were hung in 1858 on the 375th anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther.

The original wooden doors had been burnt in 1760 during the Pomeranian War.

It was on the original wooden doors that Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on October 31, 1517, which is 503 years ago today.

On the doors are inscribed the 95 Theses of Martin Luther in Latin.

The grave of Martin Luther, is also inside the church building. For more on this see my post: Martin Luther’s Grave

We need to remember that our God is a mighty fortress, especially in the troubled times we are living in.

Steven