500 Years Later, Martin Luther's Legacy Lives On

Today marks the 500th anniversary of one of the most transformational and contentious days in all of Christendom. It’s the day that a lowly German monk, Martin Luther, nailed his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle Church, challenging many of the teachings of the Catholic Church and creating a schism in the church that would launch the Protestant Reformation, reverberating throughout the centuries.

To Catholics, the teachings of Luther were and are a heresy that challenged the power of the universal church, sowing confusion and disunity, leaving factions where there was once a unified body of Christ. To Protestants, it was a needed challenge to a Catholic hierarchy that had grown decadent and abused its power, corrupting the pure doctrines of Christ as revealed through Holy Scripture, growing wealthy and powerful by making its priestly class the sole conduit through which the will of God was revealed to mankind.

Martin Luther was an unlikely candidate to be the catalyst for such a monumental change. Born in 1483 in Eisleben, Germany, Luther was the son of a businessman who sent his son to law school so young Martin could return to assist in the family’s business endeavors. As the story goes, the boy Martin was one day trapped in a terrible storm and prayed that if God would spare him, he would dedicate his life to serving God by joining the priesthood. Martin kept his word and became a monk.

As Luther studied the Bible with deepening intensity, he struggled more and more to reconcile what he read there with the teachings of the Catholic Church. Especially egregious to him was the Catholic practice of issuing indulgences; essentially purchasing forgiveness for sins, whether one’s own or one’s already deceased relatives. It was the zealousness with which a local priest, Johann Tetzel, sold indulgences to the poor in exchange for promises of salvation of the souls of their families from purgatory that led Luther to write his 95 theses. He declared the supremacy of the Bible and expounded his views of salvation through grace alone.

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