Church History - Martin Luther
I would be very surprised if any of my readers had never heard of Martin Luther. He is the person who first started the Lutheran denomination. Martin Luther discovered that salvation was not accomplished by the good things that we do, but rather, salvation is a gift from God. It is free, at least to us. In one sense it is free, but in another sense it isn't. It is the free gift that will cost us everything! It is never earned or worked for, nor is it deserved. Martin Luther specialized in this truth.
In Martin Luther's day, people did not have ready access to the Bible. Bibles were not printed and distributed yet, but because of what Luther did, that became a possibility later on.
Martin Luther was able to read the Bible and saw what it said. When he realized that the Bible teaches that man is not saved by good works, he was stirred, for the church in his day did not teach that. The church taught people to buy slips of paper called 'indulgences' which would help assure them a place in heaven. Luther was irate about this and wrote a paper, which he nailed onto the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany. This of course cause no small stir! The pope did not like this and had Luther put on trial in a city called 'Worms' (how would you like to live in that city?). Luther took a stand for the truth and did not back down. Soon after this, a movement called the 'Reformation' began and spread throughout Germany and then through other parts of Europe. The name of the paper that Luther wrote and nailed onto the door of the church in Wittenberg was called the 95 Theses.
Fact: Did you know that October 31st is Reformation Day? The first one happened in 1517.
Taken from the Church History ABCs.
Martin Luther gave birth to the incredibilities, exaggerations, distortions, contradictions, inconsistencies, that make his writings an inextricable web to untangle and for three hundred years have supplied uncritical historiography with the cock-and-bull fables which unfortunately have been accepted on their face value. The dire results of the Reformation caused him "unspeakable solicitude and grief". The sober contemplation of the incurable inner wounds of the new Church, the ceaseless quarrels of the preachers, the galling despotism of the temporal rulers, the growing contempt for the clergy, the servility to the princes, made him fairly writhe in anguish. Above all the disintegration of moral and social life, the epidemic ravages of vice and immorality, and that in the very cradle of the Reformation, even in his very household, nearly drove him frantic.
ReplyDeleteMartin Luther was a source of mortification to Christians, a shock to the sensibilities of every honest man, and has since kept his apologists busy at vain attempts at vindication for his horrific sins against God The Father, and to Jesus Christ and his church.