FaithMarks for April 27: Martin Luther's Diet of Worms

I am bound by the Scriptures... I can do no other. God help me. Amen."

Just days after Martin Luther’s bold stand at the Diet of Worms, the Holy Roman Empire made its move.

Today in 1521, the Edict of Worms officially branded Luther an outlaw and a heretic. After Luther refused to recant his writings before Emperor Charles V, he was promised safe conduct home...

But on April 27, the empire struck back!

The edict ordered Luther’s books to be burned and called for his arrest if found. He could be killed with no legal consequences.

The Edict of Worms declared: "We forbid anyone from this time forward to dare, either by words or by deeds, to receive, defend, sustain, or favor the said Martin Luther.”

He was now a man without legal protection. But God wasn’t done with Luther. On his journey home, his allies staged a "kidnapping" to hide him at Wartburg Castle. There, Luther translated the New Testament into German, making Scripture more accessible to the common person than ever before.

The empire wanted to silence him. Instead, the Reformation roared even louder. The Gospel spread, the Bible went viral, and a new era in church history began.

All this followed his refusal to back down at Worms—and the Edict that tried to erase him. Luther stood firm on Sola Scriptura—Scripture alone as the final authority. That conviction cost him everything…Yet it changed the world.

On April 27, 1521, the empire tried to outlaw Luther, but the Word of God was already on the move.

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” — Isaiah 40:8 (ESV)