I suppose there is hardly a person in America who does not know the date of Halloween. What most people don't know, even millions of Bible believing Christians, is that October 31 has an infinitely more important significance than the medieval sorcery connected with the eve of the Roman Catholic Church's invention of All Saints' Day. On this day 490 years ago, October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany, and so launched the Protestant Reformation-though at that time launching a Reformation was not at all in Luther's mind.

Martin Luther was the son of a miner. As a young man he was educated to become a lawyer, for his father reckoned that his brilliant son could make a lot of money in that profession and so support his poverty-stricken parents. Luther was brilliant enough and was making good progress in his studies when he began to suffer deep anxiety about the state of his soul. He felt the awful burden of his sin and so to expiate his guilt and make himself a true Christian he abandoned the study of law and entered a monastery. He enrolled as a monk and gained ordination as a priest. He set about his work with rare zeal but found that all the praying and fasting and self-flagellation he performed did nothing to allay his sense of guilt. An old monk bade him look to the wounds of Jesus and the head of his order, who had learned a lot of the evangelical faith but had never the stature to become a Reformer, introduced him to the idea of receiving God's pardon freely, without the merit of his own works, simply by faith in Christ.

This was difficult for Luther. He struggled to overcome his bitterness against God. He hated the phrase that Paul used, "the righteousness of God," which he felt condemned him utterly, for how could a God of righteousness accept so vile a sinner? Then he learned the truth of Romans 1:17, "The just shall live by faith" and began to realize that Paul's beloved phrase "the righteousness of God" in Romans referred to the righteousness that God in grace and love has freely provided for believers in Christ. So Luther entered into the joy of a free justification.Luther was appointed professor of theology at the newly created University of Wittenberg and ministered in the local church. His lectures and sermons had a profound influence. When the Pope and the Archbishop of Maintz sent a priest, John Tetzel, to sell indulgences Luther rose up in righteous anger. Tetzel was betraying the gospel and peddling lies. So the German monk wrote out 95 propositions for debate among the learned aimed at exposing the true nature of Tetzel's evil trade. Instead his Latin text was copied, translated into German and printed. Soon it was known all over Europe. A hundred years earlier Rome had murdered John Hus, a Bohemian priest who had come into the knowledge of evangelical truth through the writings of England's John Wyclif. Hus was known as the Bohemian goose and it is said that in a dream the Elector Frederick, Luther's prince and benefactor, saw a monk write with a goose-feather quill that reached all the way to Rome and toppled the Pope's tiara. Luther was that monk and he certainly did take up Hus's quill and wrote such powerful truth that he did knock over the pope's tiara. Today, on Reformation Day we salute the memory of the great German Reformer. Because of his courageous stand we enjoy the heritage of Bible Protestantism. Thank God for Martin Luther, The Monk Who Shook the World.

 

For additional readings on the above referenced subject, please read the following articles by Dr. J. Vernon McGee: