Sunday, October 29, 2017 is Reformation Sunday. Reformation day is October 31 of each year. When we speak of the reformation and reformed churches, we have to look back 500 years to know what they mean.
Martin Luther was born in 1483, into the Holy Roman Empire which was not holy, nor Roman nor an empire, but the Catholic Church wanted to regain its political and international power that it seemed to enjoy at the end of the true Roman Empire so they made this title for their influence. Politics, power, influence and cash were on the mind of the Cardinals and the Pope at the time Luther was born.
The trigger point for Martin Luther was the practice of the Roman Catholic Church and the idea of purgatory. Purgatory does not exist, yet the Catholic teachers needed a way to explain what happened when people accept Christ then fall away and sin greatly. Around 1160 someone suggested the idea of Purgatory, a place where sinners pay for their own sin. It can take hundreds of years for some and tens of thousands of years for others to be tortured for their own sin. During the life of Luther, the Catholic Church said that if people paid money, which was called indulgences, they could reduce the time their relatives spent in purgatory. The Vatican raised enough to build Saint Peters Basilica and the Sistine Chapel.
Martin Luther thought that was wrong since he could not find any reference to purgatory in the Bible. He also believed that the cross was strong enough to cover all sins, past, present and future and that no self-atonement was necessary for the believer.
So on October 31, 1517, he nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church as an offer to debate these theological points. The Roman Catholic Church took it personally and persecuted Martin Luther, seeking to take his life at one point. The movement he started that day is called the Protestant Reformation. It is protestant because Luther protested certain practices of the Catholic Church. It is a reformation because he did not seek the destruction of the Catholic Church, just a correction or a reformation. Today, protestants still protest the baggage and weight the Catholic Church puts on their people. We also recognize that since they believe in the Bible as the inerrant Word of God and preach Christ, we have brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Catholic Church. It is possible to be saved and believe in sacraments and purgatory and such. It is not the best theology and it confuses and causes people to strive when they do not have to, so protestants revolted against those extra believes.
Martin Luther’s conclusion is that it is Scripture Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Christ Alone and Glory to God Alone and not all the extra stuff the Catholic Churches confuses people with. Martin Luther sought a simpler, purer theology that he believed, got back to the beliefs of the early church.
Martin Luther was born in 1483, into the Holy Roman Empire which was not holy, nor Roman nor an empire, but the Catholic Church wanted to regain its political and international power that it seemed to enjoy at the end of the true Roman Empire so they made this title for their influence. Politics, power, influence and cash were on the mind of the Cardinals and the Pope at the time Luther was born.
The trigger point for Martin Luther was the practice of the Roman Catholic Church and the idea of purgatory. Purgatory does not exist, yet the Catholic teachers needed a way to explain what happened when people accept Christ then fall away and sin greatly. Around 1160 someone suggested the idea of Purgatory, a place where sinners pay for their own sin. It can take hundreds of years for some and tens of thousands of years for others to be tortured for their own sin. During the life of Luther, the Catholic Church said that if people paid money, which was called indulgences, they could reduce the time their relatives spent in purgatory. The Vatican raised enough to build Saint Peters Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. Martin Luther thought that was wrong since he could not find any reference to purgatory in the Bible. He also believed that the cross was strong enough to cover all sins, past, present and future and that no self-atonement was necessary for the believer.
So on October 31, 1517, he nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church as an offer to debate these theological points. The Roman Catholic Church took it personally and persecuted Martin Luther, seeking to take his life at one point. The movement he started that day is called the Protestant Reformation. It is protestant because Luther protested certain practices of the Catholic Church. It is a reformation because he did not seek the destruction of the Catholic Church, just a correction or a reformation. Today, protestants still protest the baggage and weight the Catholic Church puts on their people. We also recognize that since they believe in the Bible as the inerrant Word of God and preach Christ, we have brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Catholic Church. It is possible to be saved and believe in sacraments and purgatory and such. It is not the best theology and it confuses and causes people to strive when they do not have to, so protestants revolted against those extra believes.
Martin Luther’s conclusion is that it is Scripture Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Christ Alone and Glory to God Alone and not all the extra stuff the Catholic Churches confuses people with. Martin Luther sought a simpler, purer theology that he believed, got back to the beliefs of the early church.
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