If you ask most Christians the question, “what is October 31st?” they would probably answer “halloween.” The church in America, in the last few years, has taken advantage of the calendar and promoted events like “Fall Festivals” to provide an alternative to the traditional “trick or treating scenario.
But October 31st is a far more important date in history than Halloween. It was on this date in the year 1517 that a young Doctor of Theology by the name of Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany and sparked the Protestant Reformation.
Martin Luther was born on November 10, 1483, in the little town of Eisleben. His father, who was of free peasant stock, had migrated from the ancestral home some distance from Eisleben. He gained wealth from the copper mines of that area in which he had an interest and became a man of considerable wealth. Although he owned shares in six copper mines and two smelters by 1511, times were still difficult for the family when Luther was born. Luther was raised under the strict discipline of those times. His peasant parents, particularly his pious but superstitious mother, inculcated many of the superstitions of their class in him. Some of these terrors haunted him as he struggled so long in seeking salvation for his soul.
His father wished him to study law, but in 1505 Luther became frightened during a severe thunderstorm on the road near Stotternheim and promised Saint Anne that he would become a monk if he were spared. About two weeks later he entered a monastery of the Augustinian order at Erfurt.
In the monastery Luther was almost fanatical about pursuing holiness. To find peace with God, Luther zealously confessed every sin he could think of. He would confess every day, sometimes up to six hours a day. In popular medieval thought, for every sin to be forgiven, there had to be confession. Luther had been taught that the moment the priest whispered in the confessional “I now absolve thee,” all of his sins were forgiven. But Luther was never certain that he had been fully forgiven. Always present was the fear: have I confessed every sin? Then came a discovery even more startling and distressing to Luther-there are sins which people do that are not even known to them. But how could these be confessed if they were not known? Luther re-doubled his efforts and threw himself into all-night vigils, great bouts of fasting-all to find forgiveness and peace with God.
As he once said: “I was indeed a pious monk and kept the rules of my order so strictly that I can say: If ever a monk gained heaven through monkery, it should have been I. All my monastic brethren who knew me will testify to this. I would have martyred myself to death with fasting, praying, reading, and other good works had I remained a monk much longer.”
Luther was finally transferred to Wittenberg in 1511. Here, during the next year, he became a professor of Bible and received his doctor of theology degree. He held the position of lecturer in biblical theology until his death. At this time he was also given the office in the tower where he came to a realization of justification by faith alone.
It was in this university that he and a loyal band of fellow professors and students accepted the faith that was to spread over Germany. Luther began to lecture in the vernacular on the books of the Bible, and in order to do so intelligently he began to study the original languages of the Bible. He gradually developed the idea that only in the Bible could true authority be found. From 1513 to 1515 he lectured on the Psalms, from 1515 to 1517 on Romans, and, later, on Galatians and Hebrews.
Between 1515 and 1519, while preparing these lectures, he found the peace of soul that he had not been able to find in rites, acts of asceticism, or in the famous German Theology of the mystics, which he published in German in 1516. A reading of Romans 1:17 convinced him that only faith in Christ could make one just before God. From that time on, Sola fide, or justification by faith, sola scriptura, the idea that the Scriptures are the only authority for sinful people in seeking salvation, and sola sacerdos, the priesthood of believers, became the main points in his theological system.
In 1517 a man by the name of Johann Tetzel began his sale of indulgences at Juterbock near Wittenberg. The indulgences were being sold by Pope Leo X to help pay for the building of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. Tetzel claimed that repentance was not necessary for the buyer of an indulgence and that the indulgence gave complete forgiveness of all sin.
On October 31, 1517. Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. In them he condemned the abuses of the indulgence system and challenged all comers to a debate on the matter.
A reading of the Ninety-five Theses’ will reveal that Luther was merely criticizing abuses of the indulgence system. However, during the years between 1518 and 1521 he was forced to accept the idea of separation from the Roman system as the only way to get a reform that would involve a return to the ideal of the church revealed in the Scriptures.
There have been few men in the history of the Christian church as bold and courageous as Martin Luther. While I would disagree with him at some points of his theology, it would be profitable for all believers to read about his life and to read his books. As Christians we owe him a huge debt of gratitude.
#1 by Jon at November 10th, 2009
This is a great piece of history. I never knew much about him.