Today is not just Halloween. October 31^st is a significant day on the church calendar since it’s considered the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a German Augustinian monk, posted his Ninety-five Theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany. At the time, he was a young professor of moral theology at the university in Wittenberg and had been teaching New Testament doctrine. He discovered that the apostle Paul taught that salvation does not come through good works but only through faith in Christ alone (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-9). This revolutionized his thinking.

Luther had no intentions of leaving the Roman Catholic Church or starting a new religious order. He simply wanted to academically discuss the 95 statements and questions that arose as he studied Scripture and compared the teachings of the Catholic Church with the Bible. He especially emphasized the Bible as the sole authority for doctrine and conduct and taught against the Church’s practice of papal indulgences. Within four years he was labeled a heretic.

The Protestant Reformation, which emphasized the five solas, is an outgrowth of his studies. The Ninety-five Theses were written in Latin, but his teachings were translated into German and spread because of the development of the printing press. Luther had also been instrumental in translating the Bible into German which was also printed, so people were reading the Scriptures for themselves. 

          The five solas are five Latin statements that developed from this conflict and which became the core beliefs of the Protestant Reformation.

• Sola gratia: Salvation is a gift from God, not human merit 
• Sola fide: Salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone 
• Sola Christus: Salvation is in Christ alone 
• Sola Scriptura: The Bible is the only authority for Christians in faith, doctrine, and practice 
• Sola Deo gloria: Salvation is a work of God for His glory 

In 1521, Luther refused to recant his teachings at the Diet of Worms, an imperial council of the Church and was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Since the Church required celibacy for their priests, Luther was not married when he was a professor in Wittenberg. Four years later after his excommunication, he helped Katharina von Bora escape from her nunnery. They married and had six children. Luther said, “There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.”

As Luther’s teachings spread, other reformers joined the movement. John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli taught in Switzerland and John Knox ministered in Scotland. They taught the importance of individual salvation, which was through God’s grace and accomplished at the death and resurrection of Christ. They emphasized that papal declarations were not as significant as Scripture and that a person could not buy eternal life through giving money to the Church. Through Luther and those who followed his teachings, Europe was changed, the authority of the Church declined, the Bible was translated into various languages, literacy flourished, and the ideas of individual freedoms rose to prominence.

In writing about Luther, Aaron Armstrong, who also produced a film on Luther, reported that despite the man’s great influence and esteem, he was far from perfect. He noted that Luther was belligerent, divisive, had a temper, and became angry quickly. Others report that he was harsh with his wife and children.

In his later years, Luther, much to peoples’ shock, turned against the Jews and advocated the burning of their homes, schools, and synagogues. His writings on marriage also did not reflect his earlier sentiments. He seemed to indicate that marriage was only to escape the sin of adultery. Armstrong sums up his article on Luther by saying, [Luther was] “a normal, frail, fallen, sinful human being who was used extraordinarily by a gracious God.

As Armstrong notes, Luther was “a giant” in world history and was greatly used by God to change the trajectory of a major portion of the Christian Church. But, as all of us, he was flawed. Everyone on earth is a frail and sinful human being, but through faith in Christ (sola fide), we can have God’s gift of eternal life and be used by Him to help others find the saving faith in Christ alone.