Tomorrow is October 31st and for many of us, we celebrate Halloween. In previous posts I’ve shared spooky-themed artwork to celebrate the fun tradition, but the date is even more significant if you are a Christian like us.
On October 31st in 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the All Saint’s Church in Wittenberg, Germany, not in an act of defiance, but inviting the church leaders into a debate. If you know a little about church history then you probably recognize the name, Martin Luther, who, with this document, became known for starting the Protestant Reformation.
During his lifetime, Luther witnessed the Church participating in actions that he felt were not in line with Biblical principles. Foremost, was the granting of indulgences. In order to understand why Luther opposed this, we need a better understanding of indulgences.
The Church taught, and Roman Catholics still teach, that the guilt of sin is forgiven by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but the punishment of sin is not. Pope Paul VI wrote in the 1960s, “An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven.”
The Roman Catholic Church believes that the pope has the authority to forgive temporal punishment. According to Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed., “An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins.”
Therefore, indulgences are granted to reduce the punishment of sins, sometimes as an act of charity and other times with a written document signed by the pope or Church representative. Because money is usually donated to the church in exchange for an indulgence, it gives the appearance of forgiveness of sins being bought. (Mystery of History volume III by Linda Lacour Hobar)
Luther’s 95 theses pointed to what he deemed a misuse of power by the Church over people. Bringing to light how Luther believed the actions of the Church were in conflict with the teachings of the Bible, led to more and more people speaking up, resulting in an effort to reform the Church, thus the Protestant Reformation.
When the church refused to change its course, many followed Luther on his quest to live a life in accordance with Scripture and left the Church. His group became known as Lutherans.
In honor of this important date, I am sharing a printable of Martin Luther’s 95 theses. I think it is a worthwhile read. His was originally written in Latin, but this is the translation. The file link is below the image; click to save to your computer. If you would like to print it, please note that the size is 11x17. Thanks for reading!
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