31
October 1517 A.D. Luther
Nails It! 95 Warrior Theses
Graves,
Dan. “Luther Posted 95 Theses.” Christianity.com.
Jul 2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1501-1600/luther-posted-95-theses-11629921.html. Accessed 5 Jun 2014.
As a young man in Germany at the
beginning of the sixteenth century, Luther was studying law at the university.
One day he was caught in a storm and was almost killed by lightening. He cried
out to St. Anne and promised God he would become a monk. In 1505, Luther
entered the Augustinian monastery, and in 1507 became a priest. His monastic
leaders sent him to Rome in 1510, but Luther was disenchanted with the
ritualism and dead faith he found in the papal city. There was nothing in Rome
to mend his despairing spirit or settle his restless soul. He seemed so cut off
from God, and nowhere could he find a cure for his malady.
Martin Luther was bright, and
his superiors soon had him teaching theology in the university. In 1515, he
began teaching Paul's epistle to the Romans. Slowly, Paul's words in Romans
began to break through the gloom of Luther's soul. Luther wrote
My
situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner
troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage
him. Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of
God and the statement 'the just shall live by 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 through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new
meaning...This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven.
The more Luther's eyes were
opened by his study of Romans, the more he saw the corruption of the church in
his day. The glorious truth of justification by faith alone had become buried
under a mound of greed, corruption, and false teaching. Most galling was the
practice of indulgences -- the certificates the church provided, for a fee,
supposedly to shorten one's stay in Purgatory. The pope was encouraging the
sale of indulgences. He planned to use the money to help pay for the building
of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Johann Tetzel was one of the
indulgence sellers in Luther's vicinity. He used little advertising jingles to
encourage people to buy his wares: "As soon as the coin in the coffer
rings, the soul from purgatory springs." Once Luther realized the
sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice alone for our sins, he found such practices
revolting. The more he studied the Scriptures, the more he saw the need of
showing the church how it had strayed from the truth.
So, on this day, October 31, 1517, he posted a list
of 95 propositions on the church door in Wittenberg. In his day, this was the
means of inviting scholars to debate important issues. No one took up Luther's
challenge to debate at that time, but once news of his proposals became known,
many began to discuss the issue Luther raised that salvation was by faith in Christ's work alone. Luther apparently at first
expected the pope to agree with his position, since it was based on Scripture;
but in 1520, the Pope issued a decree condemning Luther's views. Luther
publicly burned the papal decree. With that act, he also burned his bridges
behind him.
Bibliography:
2. Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand. New York: Mentor, 1950.
3. Durant, Will. The Reformation. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1957.
4. Köstlin, Julius. Life of Luther. New York, C. Scribner's
sons, 1884.
5. Wells, Amos R. A Treasure of Hymns; Brief biographies of 120 leading
hymn- writers and Their best hymns. Boston: W. A. Wilde company,
1945.
6. Various encyclopedia articles.
Last updated July,
2007.
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