Anfechtung: The Assaults of the Soul

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. PSALM 42:11

There is a German word that runs all through Luther’s life and writing, and it has no single English equivalent. Anfechtung means, roughly, an assault or attack; it is often translated temptation, trial or spiritual struggle. But for Luther it meant something deeper than being tempted to sin. It meant the experience of feeling abandoned by God, accused by the law, terrified by death and judgement, and unable to find comfort anywhere. It was the darkness he had known as a young friar, and it did not leave him when he discovered the gospel. It came back again and again, sometimes for weeks together, until the end of his life.

A man acquainted with darkness

Luther was not a serene saint who had risen above struggle. At the Wartburg in 1521 he was ill, sleepless and assailed by doubts about whether he had done right to divide the church. In 1527 he suffered a collapse, with fainting and a terrible sense of God’s absence, and wrote to friends asking for their prayers. In that same year plague came to Wittenberg; the university moved away, but Luther stayed with his pregnant wife to care for the sick. He knew what it was to believe the gospel with his mind while his heart felt only accusation.

LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me? PSALM 88:14

Strikingly, he came to believe that these assaults were not signs that his faith had failed, but part of how God makes a Christian. In a preface he wrote in 1539 to his German writings, he said that three things make a theologian: prayer, meditation on the Word, and Anfechtung. It is trial, he said, that teaches us not only to know and understand but to experience how true, how sweet, how mighty and how comforting God’s Word is. Without it, the Christian knows the gospel only as words.

Feeling and faith

The heart of Luther’s counsel in times of spiritual darkness was to distinguish between feeling and faith. His Easter sermon on the resurrection deals with a question every troubled Christian asks: if Christ has conquered sin and death, why do I still feel them in me? Luther answers:

“I have often said before that feeling and faith are two different things.”

He goes on to explain that faith clings to the Word even when feeling contradicts it. We must, he says, accept only the Word and write it into our hearts, even when it seems as if our sins were not taken from us. Feelings rise and fall like waves on the sea; the Word stands like the shore. The waves, he says, strive against us as though they would destroy us, but in the end they must grow weary and fall back.

Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. MARK 9:24

Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God. ISAIAH 50:10

Peace in the storm

Luther’s Pentecost sermon offers another comfort. The peace Christ gives, he says, is not the peace the world gives. The world thinks peace is the removal of trouble. Christ often leaves the trouble where it is. Instead, Luther says, “he changes the heart, removing it from the affliction, not the affliction from the heart.”

He adds that the Holy Spirit’s work in us is never finished in this life, and that we must not conclude He has abandoned us because we still feel fear. The Spirit’s office, he says, continues as long as we live, “in such manner that sorrow is ever mingled with peace.” Indeed, he adds, if there were no sorrow, the Spirit could not comfort us.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. JOHN 14:27

Christ in the darkness

Above all, Luther pointed the tempted to Christ, who Himself cried out on the cross that God had forsaken Him. Our darkness is not a place Christ has never been. He entered the deepest abandonment so that no believer would ever be truly abandoned. When we feel forsaken, we are in His company, and He has passed through to the resurrection.

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? MATTHEW 27:46

Practical counsel

Luther’s letters to troubled friends are full of practical wisdom. He told the melancholy not to be alone, for the devil loves solitude; to seek good company, talk, music, even a joke; to eat and drink and rest; not to argue with the tempter about their sins, but to point him to Christ. He urged them to sing, to recite the Creed, and to lean on the prayers of others. To one young man, a tutor in his household troubled by gloomy thoughts, he wrote urging him to drive the devil away with cheerfulness and company rather than to brood.

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. 2 CORINTHIANS 4:8–9

A caution

It must be said that Luther saw the devil’s hand in almost all such darkness, and not every modern reader will follow him there. Some of what he suffered may well have been illness of body or mind, which today would be treated by a physician. A Christian who suffers from depression should not be told that it is simply a spiritual attack, to be fought only with prayer and Scripture; medical help is also a gift of God, and Luther, who took medicine for his many ailments, would not have despised it. Some of his practical advice, especially about drinking to lift the spirits, should not be followed literally.

But his central insight remains precious. The Christian who walks in darkness is not thereby shown to be no Christian. Luther walked there too. The way through is not to trust our feelings but to trust the Word, to cling to Christ, and to wait for the morning.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. If you are in a season of spiritual darkness, tell someone you trust this week. Do not bear it alone.

2. Write out Luther’s words, “feeling and faith are two different things,” and beneath them a promise of God to hold on to when feelings fail.

3. Pray Psalm 42 or Psalm 88 aloud, letting the psalmist give words to what you feel.

4. If your low mood is long or deep, see a doctor as well as a pastor. Receive both as God’s help.

5. Think of a friend who is struggling. Visit, write, or simply sit with them, and bring them good company.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You cried out that You were forsaken, so that I would never truly be forsaken.

When I feel nothing but accusation and darkness, hold me to Your Word, which stands when my feelings fall.

Change my heart in the midst of affliction, and give me the peace the world cannot give.

Send me friends to share my burden, and let me be such a friend to others, until the morning comes. Amen.