When Is Reformation Day and What Does It Remind Christians of Today?
Share
On November 10, 1483, a baby boy was born in Eisleben, Germany. God later used that young man to change the world! His name was Martin Luther.
In 1505, at the age of 21, Martin left law school and vowed to become a monk. In 1508, he began studying in Wittenberg, Germany and received his bachelor’s degree in Bible a year later. In 1510-11, Martin walked from Germany to Rome and saw first-hand the grandeur of St. Peter’s Cathedral.
It was that 1,600-mile roundtrip pilgrimage to Rome that stirred the true conflict in Martin’s heart.
The Issue with Indulgences
The Catholic Church in Europe when Martin was a young man, was selling documents, or letters, called indulgences which would supposedly pardon the sins of those in possession of them. You could even purchase indulgences for your relatives who were already dead, to shorten the time they had to spend paying for their sins in purgatory.
“One way a humble Christian could get ahead and earn indulgences was not only in paying money when an indulgence preacher came by but in traveling to a place exhibiting relics. One paid a small amount to view the relics, of course, but once one had viewed them, one was awarded an indulgence, and some of these indulgences could be quite significant. For example, here in Rome lay the fabled Crypt of Callixtus, which was said to hold the bones of forty popes and seventy-six thousand martyrs! If one journeyed through a certain one of these catacombs five times while Mass was being celebrated, one earned an indulgence allowing a single soul to be freed from purgatory. Considering it was believed that one might spend thousands or even millions of years suffering in purgatory, this was a bargain that would be nearly impossible to pass up. Still, who knew how this had all been calculated? On the other hand, who would have time to care? It was an endless buffet of eternal riches, a veritable groaning board of everlasting goodies, and anyone wasting time thinking about them and not taking advantage of them while one had the opportunity must be reckoned worse than a fool!” (Eric Metaxas, Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World).
In Rome, Martin saw with his own eyes the end result of all the money being made by the church and the sale of indulgences and the exhibition of relics. He also had read the Bible and never found any passage proving that one could purchase forgiveness with money. In fact, that went directly against what the Bible said about forgiveness and the pardon of sins. Forgiveness was only found through faith in Jesus Christ and the blood He shed on the cross when He paid for our sins with His life!
“…without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22).
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:23-25).
Following the pilgrimage to Rome, Martin returned to Wittenberg on foot where he spent the majority of the rest of his life. He went on to receive his doctorate in theology from the Wittenberg seminary. “In 1514, he was made the preacher in the Wittenberg City Church. He was already the vicar of the Wittenberg monastery, and in 1515 Staupitz promoted him to become the vicar-general of eleven monasteries, which he was obliged to oversee and visit” (Metaxas).
October 31, 1517 – The Start of the Reformation
Eleven days before his 34th birthday, on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther set into motion a series of events that began what we today refer to as the Protestant Reformation: a major reform of the “Christian” church that ultimately divided it into two major branches, the Catholics and the Protestants.
“On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther addressed an important letter to Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz, for . . . it was in Albrecht’s name that indulgences were being peddled far and wide, and Luther wanted to let the honorable archbishop know of it, lest the faithful under his care continue to be torn away from the faith. . . . The letter that Luther sent to Archbishop Albrecht included a copy of these Ninety-five Theses. The letter and the theses were first sent to Magdeburg and forwarded to Albrecht. He did not even open the letter until November 17, and when he did open it, he was not in any mood to take its contents very well. . . . Because he knew that it might be some time until he heard back from Albrecht, Luther also sent the theses to his friend Johannes Lang in Erfurt and some others. These were academic allies and friends he respected, and Luther doubtless thought sending the theses to them would help stir a debate and would lead toward dealing with the issues at hand more generally. The Nuremberg Humanist and printer Christopher Scheurl was impressed with what he read and thought that the theses should be reprinted, and without the fussy legality of needing to obtain copyright permissions, he simply printed them himself, right there in his own town of Nuremberg, instantly ensuring that they would have a dramatically wider reading. In this way, the horse snuck out of the barn, because once the theses were circulating, the whole controversy would take on a life of its own.” (Metaxas)
No one knows for sure if the 95 Theses were posted on the wooden door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg precisely on October 31, 1517, but that date indeed was the start of the storm about to hit the church, and the world. As a result, Reformation Day is commemorated each year on October 31st.
What Should Reformation Day Mean for Us Today?
The following are two take-aways for followers of Jesus today:
1. Forgiveness of sin is available only through faith in Jesus Christ
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all...” (1 Timothy 2:5-6).
2. If the Church (the body) does not align with the Word of God and Christ (the Head of the body), reform is necessary and good
“And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent” (Colossians 1:18).
“…Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. . . . the church submits to Christ…” (Ephesians 5:23-24).
For a great read on the historical account of Martin Luther and the Reformation, check out Eric Metaxas’ book.
“Peace if possible, truth at all costs.” – Martin Luther
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/ZU_09
Kristi Walker has been a missionary in Berlin, Germany for over 19 years working with CrossWay International Baptist Church. She is the author of three books: Disappointment: A Subtle Path Away from Christ, Convinced: Applying Biblical Principles to Life’s Choices, and Big Picture: 66 Books, 1 Message.