We are in the 16^th Century, and we are going to be talking about Martin Luther, John Calvin, Zwingli and some others who are familiar names in the Protestant Reformation. We began with the Lord’s church, which was established in AD 33; it went into apostasy; the Roman Catholic church grew out of that apostasy. And, of course, as we have discussed several times, there has always been a remnant of the Lord’s church—those who were faithful. But then, growing out of the Roman Catholic church, we’re going to see the beginning of the rise of various denominations.

We are up to the period of Martin Luther. We have talked about several things that occurred in the latter stages of the 15^th Century to bring about the Reformation Movement. We said that, perhaps, the thing that really was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” was the practice of the Catholic church in selling indulgences, and we shared with you some information about that Dominican monk, who was in Germany, and who was selling these indulgences and making all kinds of claims about the things that he could do and the things that he could sell. You remember, one of the little anecdotes that we told about him was that there was a fella who wanted to know if he could buy an indulgence for the future. And Tetzel said, “Why, of course, you can buy an indulgence for the future.” And so, he sold the man an indulgence for some future sin that he might commit. And then the fella met Tetzel on the highway a little while later and beat him up and said, “Well, that’s the future sin I was going to commit. So, I already have forgiveness for that.” Well, that’s kind of funny, of course, but it was this practice, this extreme practice, the exaggerated claims, and so on, that were being made that really brought Luther to the point where, on October 31^st in the year 1517, he posted his famous “Ninety-Five Theses” on the door of the Catholic church in Wittenberg, Germany.

Martin Luther

Luther indeed is one of the best-known, most well-known, of the Reformers. He is historically seen as being one of the great leaders of the Reformation. While there were many—and we’ll talk about a few of them—Luther occupies a vaunted position in the Reformation Movement.

He was born in Eisleben, Germany, on November 10, 1483. He was born to a typical, hard-working peasant-type family. After his education, he attended university at Erfurt, Germany, and he earned a Master of Arts Degree there in 1505, and he turned, then, to a study of law. But, within a short period of time, he became discouraged and uninterested in law, and he decided to enter a monastery. Upon entering the monastery, he pledged himself to be an Augustinian monk.

Now, it was clear that Luther was searching for something. He was searching to have some assurance in his mind that he was acceptable to God. Well, his ordination as a priest two years later in 1507, along with his prayer and fasting and even the mortification of his body still did not bring him the assurance that he sought.

He was sent on a trip to Rome on business for his particular order. But while in Rome, he witnessed there even more corruption, and more things that caused him distress about the Catholic church, and about this assurance, this personal assurance, that he was looking for himself. He was eventually assigned to teach Theology at the University of Wittenberg. And as he was teaching theology, the light sort of began to come on for him. His studies and his lectures, particularly surrounding the book of Romans and Galatians led him to catch a new meaning for what Paul had to say, Romans 1, verse 17, where he says, “The just shall live by faith.” Luther began to realize that man cannot be saved by good works, but that a man must trust in God, that he must seek justification from God by faith.

Well, armed with this new information—I was going to say “this new revelation,” but it was not a “new” revelation, just perhaps “new” to Luther—he was convinced, then, that he needed to oppose the things that the Catholic church was doing, particularly in the selling of these indulgences, which suggested in and of themselves that man could, by the things that he did, earn salvation. Well, it was just as Luther was coming to this conclusion that this monk, this Dominican monk, Tetzel, who we had talked about, appeared in Germany, selling his indulgences and making his exaggerated claims. We know the result of that—the posting of the “Ninety-Five Theses.”

But actually, the Ninety-five Theses, which Luther posted to the door of the Catholic church there in Wittenberg, were actually propositions for discussion or debate, challenging this whole system of indulgence and other things that the Catholic church was doing at that time. This was a challenge that Calvin was leveling—ninety-five points of dispute that he had with the Roman Catholic church having to do with the organization of the Catholic church, the doctrine, and so on, none the least of which was this practice of indulgences. When the word of these Theses reached Rome, the pope dismissed them simply as a debate, a discussion, a little wrangling among some of the monks up in Germany. But, the Theses were printed, and they became widely distributed and soon became a matter, not just of discussion among some monks, but became public knowledge and a point of discussion among many, even among “lay” people [in Catholic or denominational terms, a person not of the clergy—the laity].

Well, by this time the pope became concerned about the situation, and he demanded that Luther come to Rome to answer charges of heresy. Fortunately for Luther, he had the support of one called Elector Frederick of Saxony. Now, an “Elector” was a German prince who was appointed by the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. And so, Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony exercised his power, and he was powerful enough to keep the pope from harming Luther in any way.

By the force of circumstances and by the nature of his opposition, Luther was gradually led to even more critical examination and more critical comment concerning the Roman church. In 1520, he issued five tracts that stated his position and brought the Roman church under thorough indictment. As a result, the pope issued a “bull.” You remember what a “bull” is—we talked about this a few weeks ago. A “bull” is an official pronouncement from the pope. This bull condemned Luther, condemned his teachings and demanded that he recant all of what he said, all of the criticism that he had made of the Roman Catholic church. The threat was that he would be excommunicated from the church.

Well, Luther would not bow to this demand. He would not bow to the pope’s bull, this official decree, this official pronouncement. As a matter of fact, he showed his contempt for the pope and for his official pronouncement by burning it publicly in December of 1520.