If you say the words "October 31st" to most people, what comes to their minds right away? Halloween! And again for most people, say the name "Martin Luther", and what comes to their minds? "Martin Luther King", the civil rights leader. That's especially true for church people: they know everything about King, and next to nothing about Martin Luther. And most churches today, (including Protestant churches!) will promote some aspect of Halloween for October 31st, but nothing about Martin Luther. The life and work of Luther needs a second look, and it needs it in a hurry.
On October 31st, 501 years ago (1517) an obscure monk, Martin Luther, nailed a manuscript of 95 statements (called "theses") to the door of Wittenberg Castle in Germany. He was responding to the claims of Johann Tetzel, another monk, who was raising money on behalf of Pope Lorenzo de'Medici.
"You should know," Tetzel said to the crowds, " ...that "whoever has confessed and is contrite and puts alms into the box, as his confessor counsels him, will have all of his sins forgiven ... so why are you standing about idly? Run, all of you, for the salvation of your souls ... Do you not hear the voices of your dead parents and others, screaming [from Purgatory] and saying 'Have pity on me ... we are suffering severe punishment and pain, from which you could rescue us!' " (1)
That was the state of Christianity before the Protestant Reformation, before Martin Luther.
His posting of his 95 theses on the castle door was in and of itself not a radical act at all. This was the public bulletin board of the day. And he never intended the whole nation to read what he posted. So he wrote it in Latin, to fellow-theologians like himself. As a good Roman Catholic, he simply wanted to debate theology with this misguided monk who he believed at the time was misrepresenting the Pope. But someone got a hold of the document and translated it into German, the language of the people. And then someone took the translation, and using a new invention called the printing press, made thousands of copies and passed them out all over the country.
Tetzel responded to Luther, knowing he had the eyes of the nation upon him, saying: "I have the authority of the Pope in this matter." (2) And Luther, still willing to contain this argument, sent a copy to Tetzel's superior, the Archbishop of Mainz. But the archbishop didn't respond to Luther directly. Instead, he sent the document on to the Pope. And that is how Luther, an obscure cloistered monk, became the most controversial man in Europe almost overnight.
So why was it that so many bishops, cardinals and kings sought to destroy this man? What did Luther believe that upset half the continent of Europe? He believed that eternal salvation is by Christ alone, through faith alone, by God's grace alone: which is standard teaching in historically Reformed churches today, but at one time all Europe was in an uproar over this: with armies on the march over this, and battles in the field fought ... over THIS!
The whole course of Luther's life flowed from a conversion experience he had in his monastery cell, an encounter with the Holy Spirit through the text of Romans 1:17: "The just shall live by faith." "Night and day ... " he wrote, " ... I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement 'The just shall live by his faith.' Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which , through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the 'justice of God' had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul's became to me a gate to heaven." (3)
The Roman Catholic Church, in ranging itself against the Reformation, insisted in the Council of Trent that justification before God was indeed by faith in Christ and through His grace, but not alone. Added to that faith and His grace were such things as the good works of the faithful, and the added merits of the departed saints; in essence, the kind of error that St. Paul had denounced in his Letter to the Galatians. Nevertheless, the Papacy condemned Luther as a heretic and sought to put him on trial, if only they could find him. But he escaped arrest and remained in seclusion in Wartburg castle for several months. And there he began what was arguably the greatest single contribution to the Protestant Reformation that any one man produced. We know it today as Luther's Bible.
Luther's Bible was the first Bible translation into German from the original languages, and not a translation from a translation. At the time, German was the major language of central Europe. Church-goers did not own Bibles, however, and had to have a parish priest tell them what the Bible said; of course in line with Catholic dogma.. Luther's Bible put the Scriptures into the hands of the laity. .So popular was this translation (due in part to the printing press), that it took the indecipherable Latin, understood only by priests and scholars, and made it intelligible. The translation caused a widespread change in popular Christian thought throughout Europe all by itself. As much as Luther's 95 Theses, his Bible and its dissemination made the Protestant Reformation "go viral."
End-notes:
1) The Reformation, Hans Hillebrand. From the original source: "Dokument zum Ablasstreit" by W. Kohler, 1517
2) Ibid.
3) Luther's Works, Volume 34
If you say the words "October 31st" to most people, what comes to their minds right away? Halloween! And again for most people, say the name "Martin Luther", and what comes to their minds? "Martin Luther King", the civil rights leader. That's especially true for church people: they know everything about King, and next to nothing about Martin Luther. And most churches today, (including Protestant churches!) will promote some aspect of Halloween for October 31st, but nothing about Martin Luther. The life and work of Luther needs a second look, and it needs it in a hurry.
On October 31st, 501 years ago (1517) an obscure monk, Martin Luther, nailed a manuscript of 95 statements (called "theses") to the door of Wittenberg Castle in Germany. He was responding to the claims of Johann Tetzel, another monk, who was raising money on behalf of Pope Lorenzo de'Medici.
"You should know," Tetzel said to the crowds, " ...that "whoever has confessed and is contrite and puts alms into the box, as his confessor counsels him, will have all of his sins forgiven ... so why are you standing about idly? Run, all of you, for the salvation of your souls ... Do you not hear the voices of your dead parents and others, screaming [from Purgatory] and saying 'Have pity on me ... we are suffering severe punishment and pain, from which you could rescue us!' " (1)
That was the state of Christianity before the Protestant Reformation, before Martin Luther.
His posting of his 95 theses on the castle door was in and of itself not a radical act at all. This was the public bulletin board of the day. And he never intended the whole nation to read what he posted. So he wrote it in Latin, to fellow-theologians like himself. As a good Roman Catholic, he simply wanted to debate theology with this misguided monk who he believed at the time was misrepresenting the Pope. But someone got a hold of the document and translated it into German, the language of the people. And then someone took the translation, and using a new invention called the printing press, made thousands of copies and passed them out all over the country.
Tetzel responded to Luther, knowing he had the eyes of the nation upon him, saying: "I have the authority of the Pope in this matter." (2) And Luther, still willing to contain this argument, sent a copy to Tetzel's superior, the Archbishop of Mainz. But the archbishop didn't respond to Luther directly. Instead, he sent the document on to the Pope. And that is how Luther, an obscure cloistered monk, became the most controversial man in Europe almost overnight.
So why was it that so many bishops, cardinals and kings sought to destroy this man? What did Luther believe that upset half the continent of Europe? He believed that eternal salvation is by Christ alone, through faith alone, by God's grace alone: which is standard teaching in historically Reformed churches today, but at one time all Europe was in an uproar over this: with armies on the march over this, and battles in the field fought ... over THIS!
The whole course of Luther's life flowed from a conversion experience he had in his monastery cell, an encounter with the Holy Spirit through the text of Romans 1:17: "The just shall live by faith." "Night and day ... " he wrote, " ... I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement 'The just shall live by his faith.' Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which , through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the 'justice of God' had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul's became to me a gate to heaven." (3)
The Roman Catholic Church, in ranging itself against the Reformation, insisted in the Council of Trent that justification before God was indeed by faith in Christ and through His grace, but not alone. Added to that faith and His grace were such things as the good works of the faithful, and the added merits of the departed saints; in essence, the kind of error that St. Paul had denounced in his Letter to the Galatians. Nevertheless, the Papacy condemned Luther as a heretic and sought to put him on trial, if only they could find him. But he escaped arrest and remained in seclusion in Wartburg castle for several months. And there he began what was arguably the greatest single contribution to the Protestant Reformation that any one man produced. We know it today as Luther's Bible.
Luther's Bible was the first Bible translation into German from the original languages, and not a translation from a translation. At the time, German was the major language of central Europe. Church-goers did not own Bibles, however, and had to have a parish priest tell them what the Bible said; of course in line with Catholic dogma.. Luther's Bible put the Scriptures into the hands of the laity. .So popular was this translation (due in part to the printing press), that it took the indecipherable Latin, understood only by priests and scholars, and made it intelligible. The translation caused a widespread change in popular Christian thought throughout Europe all by itself. As much as Luther's 95 Theses, his Bible and its dissemination made the Protestant Reformation "go viral."
End-notes:
1) The Reformation, Hans Hillebrand. From the original source: "Dokument zum Ablasstreit" by W. Kohler, 1517
2) Ibid.
3) Luther's Works, Volume 34