Luther & Germany Today

Stephen Nichols (SN): We have a very special guest with us as we make our way through Luther’s life: Pastor Matthias Lohmann. Pastor Lohmann is president and founder of the German gospel partnership Evangelium21 and pastor of the Free Evangelical Church in Munich, Germany. Pastor Lohmann, welcome.

Matthias Lohmann (ML): Thank you. It’s a pleasure being with you.

SN: At the Ligonier conference in Wittenberg, you mentioned that you grew up in the Lutheran church and yet you were twenty-six years old before you first heard the gospel.

ML: That is true, sadly. I grew up as a member of the Lutheran state church. I was born into it, like most people in northern Germany where I grew up. I went through confirmation class at age thirteen or fourteen. So, I always believed in a God; I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Jesus, and I certainly had no understanding of being a sinner who was in need of salvation. So, I lived my life that way for the first twenty-five years, and then I met a family who were actually believers. I attempted to date someone who told me that that wouldn’t happen because she was a believer and she had a different understanding of how we should live our lives. That challenged me and caused me to ask questions, so I started reading the Bible purely out of intellectual interest. Intellectually, I kind of agreed with Christianity, but I didn’t want to change my life. It took about another year until God changed my heart. That was in January 1998, and I was twenty-six years old at that time.

SN: As you think about your service in the church and about Luther’s legacy for today, what is one point where you think Luther would be helpful, especially in the context of the church in Germany?

ML: I frequently say that there are two things that I think are crucial for us to rediscover : a sound Christology and a deep trust in the Bible. Biblical criticism has crept into even so-called Evangelicalism in Germany, much more than in the United States. We don’t trust in the ultimate authority of the Bible. We put ourselves on a level where we feel we need to judge the Bible and to determine what we should trust and what we shouldn’t trust, and what has authority and what doesn’t. And with that, we have taken away the power of the Bible. We don’t trust that the pure preaching of the Bible will change lives, so we add all kinds of other things.

SN: I can’t help but think that this absence of the Bible is exactly what we see in the Reformation—what the Reformation spoke to—this restoration of the Bible to the center of church life and to the center of the church. So, as you think about the church here in Germany, are you hopeful for the future?

ML: I’m very un-German in that I am actually very hopeful and optimistic always. I’m hopeful, first of all, because we have a great God who is committed to building His church. Second, I am hopeful because I see a young church generation being so discontent with lukewarm Christianity. And I think as Christianity is experiencing increasing pressure from the secular world, for young people that means some will leave the church but others will ask questions, such as, “Is that really all Christianity has to offer?” We are seeing this today. We are seeing young men who are eager to preach the Word. The ability for us to listen to sermons, to conference talks, even online, is a great help in raising up a new generation who have a greater confidence in the Bible and who see God’s Word as their ultimate authority.

SN: We appreciate your optimism, but far more, we appreciate your confidence in the gospel. Thank you, Pastor Matthias Lohmann.