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Martin Luther and the Reformation
by Pastor Ronald Boelte
Martin Luther was born in Saxony, Germany. His parents had hoped that
he would become a lawyer so they would be taken care of in their old age.
Luther however, had a life- changing event in a lightning storm that
directed him to become a monk, a priest, a biblical scholar, and
eventually a reformer of a church.
His upbringing in the Roman Catholic Church shaped his beliefs and he
always had a strong desire for forgiveness through private and public
confession. Often though, his confessions nor the rigorous schedule of
study and prayer reduced Luther's anxiety about having done enough to
avoid God's divine punishment.
By command of his superior, Johann von Staupitz, Luther became a
Professor of the Bible at Wittenberg University. Through his study and
teaching of the Bible he became aware of a decisive insight in faith in
Christ. "The righteous will live by faith." (Habakkuk 2:4,
Romans 1:17) This insight was to open up the meanings of scripture and it
decisively changed the life of Luther, the Church, and the world.
Luther was totally against the sale of "indulgences" as a way
of putting a monetary value on the personal confession of sin. Luther
wanted to have a theological debate on this practice and he nailed 95
theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg on the Eve of All Saint's
Day, Oct. 31, 1517. The printers copied and distributed the theses all
over the area without Luther's knowledge and permission and within weeks
Luther was known everywhere as a voice of renewal in the church. The
"Lutheran" movement, nicknamed by his opponents, soon found
support all over Germany and abroad. Luther did not like the name and all
he really wanted to do was to retain his catholic traditions and church,
and to reform some of the distortions that had swept into the church over
the last 1500 years. Other Reformers such as Zwingli and Calvin wanted to
return to their imagined church of the 1st century and do away with the
ancient traditions and the music and art. These reformers converted
Luther's movement into a crusade that would eventually effect all the
political and social structures of the Western world. Even a war (Thirty
Year's War 1618-1648) could not stop the reformation movement. The map of
Europe was changed as large areas became Lutheran and Protestant
territories no longer ruled by the Roman Catholic Church.
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