The Date of Christ's Return

[GHansen]

Stifel’s mathematical interests also led him to manipulate words in such a way that apocalyptic dates could be ascertained by applying various cabalistic processes to the letters of the alphabet contained in certain Bible passages. In 1532 [Michael] Stifel published his insights in Rechenbüchlein vom Endchrist: Apocalypsis in Apocalypsim (Booklet for calculating Christ’s return: An apocalypse within an apocalypse). In the fall of 1532, Luther made a clear statement about the nearness of the end of the world: Affairs could not continue to get any worse; a change was needed. Nevertheless, Luther refused to write a preface to Stifel’s booklet. In 1533 Luther had already condemned Stifel’s calculations as fanaticism. In the meantime Stifel had set eight o’clock in the morning of 19 October 1533 as the time of Christ’s return and had already given away his household goods. Luther sought to convince Stifel of the arbitrariness of his calculations but had little success: “In all my life no enemy has spoken so ill of me as he.” Stifel reviled him for being a “Pilate and Herod.” In a letter on 24 June, Luther sought to pacify Stifel by classifying the problem as an indifferent one. One had to reckon that Christ might return at any hour. Stifel’s passionate insistence on a specific time, however, gave rise to suspicions that the devil had bewitched him.

According to the account of Peter Weller, a resident of Luther’s house who had gone to Lochau to investigate, the people began streaming from great distances to Lochau days before the expected event. Stifel admonished them to repent and heard their confession. Early in the morning on 19 October, the predicted day, he conducted a communion service in the church, during which he preached once again on his prophecy, concluding with a tearful threefold, “He will come.” At nine o’clock in the morning, when nothing had yet happened, the people went home. Stifel was brought by officers of the elector to Wittenberg, not least to protect him from the disappointed crowds. The elector removed him as pastor in Lochau for causing great offense in the German empire. The derisive song, “Stifel Must Die,” was even recorded in the students’ songbook 

His [Luther's] confidence in Stifel was not shaken, and thus the episode did not become a great theological affair, particularly because Stifel displayed good sense. The elector, however, refused to reassign him immediately, which Luther advocated. Instead, Stifel was to live for a time in Luther’s house, with a drastically reduced income, and learn from him. At the beginning of 1535 he became the pastor in Holzdorf. After Luther’s death he began his apocalyptic speculations again and also became involved in other theological conflicts.

Selected from:

Brecht, M. (1999). Martin Luther: The Preservation of the Church, 1532–1546. (J. L. Schaaf, Trans.) (pp. 8-9). Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.

 

.