The beginning the Protestant Reformation is dated from October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther published his 95 Theses. The 500th anniversary of that event arrives October 31, 2017. The world has changed because of the Reformation, and this website is dedicated to commemorating the event and its legacy.The word “Protestant” is based on the root word “protest.” Luther protested Catholic practice, and as a result of widespread abuses by the Catholic Church, a chorus of others joined in to likewise protest against Rome.
To read the actual 95 Thesis click on this link below
https://www.christianreformation500years.info/95-theses.html
Between the New Testament era and the 1500s Roman Catholicism established a monopoly on Christianity in Western Europe. They abused their position. Many of the practices they used seem shocking today, even to Catholics. The celebration of Mass was performed in a language church members did not understand. The text of the Bible was unknown to parishioners. Governments were subject to the Pope. Most of the land was owned by the Catholic Church. Bishops lived with aristocratic privileges while peasants supported the Church under a feudal system that exploited their labor. Critics were tortured and executed.
For many of the common “Christians,” it was the traditions, icons, statuary, tapestries, and paintings that defined “Christianity” instead of the words of scripture. Today both Catholics and Protestants would regard the Catholic religion of the 1500s as completely alien to what now is regarded as “Christianity.”
The protests unleashed against Catholicism quickly spread throughout Europe. Protestantism succeeded because it was needed. Catholicism brought it upon itself by its failure to provide a genuine Christian experience for the common man. At the same time as Luther, Calvin, Knox, Zwingli, Simons, and others began to oppose Catholic abuses, there was an eager audience wishing to be freed from under Catholic domination.
The Roman Catholic Church was changed by the Protestant Reformation. They responded, beginning in 1545, with the Counter-Reformation. The Council of Trent convened in 25 sessions between 1545 and 1563 to address needed church reform. In addition to condemning Protestantism, the council clarified Roman Catholic doctrine, reformed church administration, abolished some abuses affecting the sale of indulgences, established more rigorous clergy education and residential rules, affirmed that the Catholic Church was the ultimate arbiter of the meaning of scripture, and explained the relationship of faith and works to counter Luther’s doctrine of salvation by faith alone. It also reaffirmed many practices the Reformers found offensive, including veneration of saints and relics, pilgrimages, indulgences, and veneration of the Virgin Mary. The Counter-Reformation lasted until the close of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648 and addressed reconfiguring the church’s structure, establishing religious orders as well as responding to spiritual movements and political reforms.
Between the Reformation outside Catholicism and the Counter-Reformation within, the Protestant movement reshaped Christianity. In turn, Christianity was revitalized and held far greater relevance to the lives of the common man. Whereas before mere superstition informed most “Christian” beliefs, afterwards Christians were expected to understand, even debate, the meaning of Christ’s teachings. Once the Protestant leaders translated and published the Bible in the language of the common man, an aloof and educated clergy lost their monopoly over access and the right to interpret scripture. Every soul was entitled and expected to read the Bible for themselves.
Society in Europe was transformed in the wake of the Protestant Reformation. The transformation spread to the New World, and North America was initially populated by fleeing Protestants. The government of the United States reflected Protestant values. The American political example, in turn, changed European rule. In time the entire world was influenced, directly or indirectly, by the changes that began with the Protestant Reformation.
The question remains, however, whether it is enough to protest and reform an apostate Christianity. Roger Williams concluded that reformation could never return Christianity to its original state. For that, a Restoration would be required. Once lost, only God could bring it again.
Many people agreed a Restoration was needed and several men have stepped forward to Restore the original Primitive Christian Church. Among them were Thomas and Alexander Campbell, father and son. Joseph Smith likewise claimed to have restored the original, including twelve apostles, seventies, bishops, priests, deacons, and teachers. Smith’s movement has splintered into more than 80 different sects, all of which have dramatically changed from what he began.
Today, Christianity is a fragmented, quarreling, and inconsistent patchwork of denominational sects, many of which claim that they alone offer the truest form of Christianity. There have been many Christian thinkers who longed to see Christianity drop its internal disputes and find common ground: C.S. Lewis, Billy Graham, Charles Russell, and many others have made attempts to help Christianity find common agreement.
One of Christianity’s greatest impediments to unity is the competing economic interests of the various denominations. Today there are preachers, bishops, elders, and ministers who claim that their version of Christianity is the only one that has the power to save, while all others teach false doctrine, are a cult, or are inspired of the Devil. This “dangling carrot” of salvation keeps congregants loyal to their churches’ authority and willing to financially support their professional clergy. In the 500th year of Protestantism the time has perhaps finally arrived when once again the common man can see through the conflicting claims and again protest against the denominational conflicts for what they are: competing economic structures. There is little difference between what motivated the Catholic abuses in the 1500s and the conflicts between denominations today. What Christianity needs is to practice more of what Christ taught and less of what the theological schools have overlaid in order to rebrand their version as “true.” Ministers should not be paid. Tithes and offerings should help the poor. If there were no financial incentive to advance denominational conflicts, they would die out.
The word “Protestant” is based on the root word “protest.” Luther protested Catholic practice, and as a result of widespread abuses by the Catholic Church, a chorus of others joined in to likewise protest against Rome.
Between the New Testament era and the 1500s Roman Catholicism established a monopoly on Christianity in Western Europe. They abused their position. Many of the practices they used seem shocking today, even to Catholics. The celebration of Mass was performed in a language church members did not understand. The text of the Bible was unknown to parishioners. Governments were subject to the Pope. Most of the land was owned by the Catholic Church. Bishops lived with aristocratic privileges while peasants supported the Church under a feudal system that exploited their labor. Critics were tortured and executed.
For many of the common “Christians,” it was the traditions, icons, statuary, tapestries, and paintings that defined “Christianity” instead of the words of scripture. Today both Catholics and Protestants would regard the Catholic religion of the 1500s as completely alien to what now is regarded as “Christianity.”
The protests unleashed against Catholicism quickly spread throughout Europe. Protestantism succeeded because it was needed. Catholicism brought it upon itself by its failure to provide a genuine Christian experience for the common man. At the same time as Luther, Calvin, Knox, Zwingli, Simons, and others began to oppose Catholic abuses, there was an eager audience wishing to be freed from under Catholic domination.
The Roman Catholic Church was changed by the Protestant Reformation. They responded, beginning in 1545, with the Counter-Reformation. The Council of Trent convened in 25 sessions between 1545 and 1563 to address needed church reform. In addition to condemning Protestantism, the council clarified Roman Catholic doctrine, reformed church administration, abolished some abuses affecting the sale of indulgences, established more rigorous clergy education and residential rules, affirmed that the Catholic Church was the ultimate arbiter of the meaning of scripture, and explained the relationship of faith and works to counter Luther’s doctrine of salvation by faith alone. It also reaffirmed many practices the Reformers found offensive, including veneration of saints and relics, pilgrimages, indulgences, and veneration of the Virgin Mary. The Counter-Reformation lasted until the close of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648 and addressed reconfiguring the church’s structure, establishing religious orders as well as responding to spiritual movements and political reforms.
Between the Reformation outside Catholicism and the Counter-Reformation within, the Protestant movement reshaped Christianity. In turn, Christianity was revitalized and held far greater relevance to the lives of the common man. Whereas before mere superstition informed most “Christian” beliefs, afterwards Christians were expected to understand, even debate, the meaning of Christ’s teachings. Once the Protestant leaders translated and published the Bible in the language of the common man, an aloof and educated clergy lost their monopoly over access and the right to interpret scripture. Every soul was entitled and expected to read the Bible for themselves.
Society in Europe was transformed in the wake of the Protestant Reformation. The transformation spread to the New World, and North America was initially populated by fleeing Protestants. The government of the United States reflected Protestant values. The American political example, in turn, changed European rule. In time the entire world was influenced, directly or indirectly, by the changes that began with the Protestant Reformation.
The question remains, however, whether it is enough to protest and reform an apostate Christianity. Roger Williams concluded that reformation could never return Christianity to its original state. For that, a Restoration would be required. Once lost, only God could bring it again.
Many people agreed a Restoration was needed and several men have stepped forward to Restore the original Primitive Christian Church. Among them were Thomas and Alexander Campbell, father and son. Joseph Smith likewise claimed to have restored the original, including twelve apostles, seventies, bishops, priests, deacons, and teachers. Smith’s movement has splintered into more than 80 different sects, all of which have dramatically changed from what he began.
Today, Christianity is a fragmented, quarreling, and inconsistent patchwork of denominational sects, many of which claim that they alone offer the truest form of Christianity. There have been many Christian thinkers who longed to see Christianity drop its internal disputes and find common ground: C.S. Lewis, Billy Graham, Charles Russell, and many others have made attempts to help Christianity find common agreement.
One of Christianity’s greatest impediments to unity is the competing economic interests of the various denominations. Today there are preachers, bishops, elders, and ministers who claim that their version of Christianity is the only one that has the power to save, while all others teach false doctrine, are a cult, or are inspired of the Devil. This “dangling carrot” of salvation keeps congregants loyal to their churches’ authority and willing to financially support their professional clergy. In the 500th year of Protestantism the time has perhaps finally arrived when once again the common man can see through the conflicting claims and again protest against the denominational conflicts for what they are: competing economic structures. There is little difference between what motivated the Catholic abuses in the 1500s and the conflicts between denominations today. What Christianity needs is to practice more of what Christ taught and less of what the theological schools have overlaid in order to rebrand their version as “true.” Ministers should not be paid. Tithes and offerings should help the poor. If there were no financial incentive to advance denominational conflicts, they would die out.
Good News: God’s Righteousness
In 1509, Luther’s beloved superior and counselor and friend, Johannes von Staupitz, allowed Luther to begin teaching the Bible. Three years later, on October 19, 1512, at the age of 28, Luther received his doctor’s degree in theology, and von Staupitz turned over to him the chair in biblical theology at the University of Wittenberg, which Luther held the rest of his life.
As Luther set to work reading, studying, and teaching Scripture from the original languages, his troubled conscience seethed beneath the surface — especially as he confronted the phrase “the righteousness of God” in Romans 1:16–17. To Luther, “the righteousness of God” could only mean one thing: God’s righteous punishment of sinners. The phrase was not “gospel” to him; it was a death sentence.
But then, in the work of a moment, all Luther’s hatred for the righteousness of God turned to love. He remembers,
At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’” . . . And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which [the] merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.”
He concludes, “Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.”
Fearful Monk
On July 2, 1505, on the way home from law school, Luther was caught in a thunderstorm and was hurled to the ground by lightning. He cried out, “Help me, St. Anne! I will become a monk.” Fifteen days later, to his father’s dismay, Luther left his legal studies and kept his vow.
He knocked at the gate of the Augustinian hermits in Erfurt and asked the prior to accept him into the order. At 21, he became an Augustinian monk. At his first Mass two years later, Luther was so overwhelmed at the thought of God’s majesty that he almost ran away. The prior persuaded him to continue.
But this incident of fear and trembling would not be an isolated one in Luther’s life. Luther himself would later remember of these years, “Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. I could not believe that he was placated by my satisfaction” (Selections, 12).
Luther would not be married for another twenty years — to Katharina von Bora on June 13, 1525 — which means he lived with sexual temptations as a single man till he was 42. But “in the monastery,” he said, “I did not think about women, money, or possessions; instead my heart trembled and fidgeted about whether God would bestow his grace on me.” His all-consuming longing was to know the happiness of God’s favor. “If I could believe that God was not angry with me,” he said, “I would stand on my head for joy.”
Luther was not the pastor of the town church in Wittenberg, but he did share the preaching with his pastor friend, Johannes Bugenhagen. The record bears witness to how utterly devoted he was to the preaching of Scripture. For example, in 1522 he preached 117 sermons, the next year 137 sermons. In 1528, he preached almost 200 times, and from 1529 we have 121 sermons. So the average in those four years was one sermon every two-and-a-half days.
Here is the link to Martin’s sermons:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/luther/sermons.i.html
In conclusion,
Luther said with resounding forcefulness in 1545, the year before he died, “Let the man who would hear God speak, read Holy Scripture.” Here alone, in the pages of the Bible, God speaks with final authority. Here alone, decisive authority rests. From here alone, the gift of God’s righteousness comes to hell-bound sinners.
He lived what he urged. He wrote in 1533, “For a number of years I have now annually read through the Bible twice. If the Bible were a large, mighty tree and all its words were little branches, I have tapped at all the branches, eager to know what was there and what it had to offer” (What Luther Says, Vol. 1, 83). Oberman says Luther kept to that practice for at least ten years (Luther, 173). The Bible had come to mean more to Luther than all the fathers and commentators.
Here Luther stood, and here we stand. Not on the pronouncements of popes, or the decisions of councils, or the winds of popular opinion, but on “that word above all earthly powers” — the living and abiding word of God.
Credits:
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/here-he-stood
https://www.christianreformation500years.info/history.html
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/luther/sermons.i.html
CFL