This is an essay I wrote for my History Day Project. I hope you enjoy it!
In the 16th Century, the church was forever changed. The Catholic Church had drifted far away from the truth and was teaching very heretical doctrine, contrary to the Bible, the inerrant Word of God. The sacraments were not being properly administered, and people were actually buying their way into heaven. The church had even been corrupted from its core, the clergy. Pope Leo X was leading this indoctrination in the church and was ready to excommunicate anyone who got in his way. The future of the Catholic Church was in no way looking good. However, despite all the false doctrine and corruption, there was a man named Martin Luther. Martin Luther was a law student, who after a close encounter with death and God, decided to become a priest. Luther bought into all the lies that were being fed to him for a while, but soon began to question some of the things taught by the church. He especially questioned the selling of indulgences. He wrote a document called the “95 Theses” and nailed it to the church door. His 95 Theses stated all the problems with the Catholic Doctrine, especially the selling of indulgences. He nailed it to the church door because that was a way of ensuring that everyone would see it. In doing this, Martin Luther started a revolution, received a reaction from the church clergy, and ultimately reformed the church, creating the greatest historical landmark of the Protestant Church.
Martin Luther, one of the most influential founding fathers of Protestantism, started a revolution of the Western Church. In fighting the catholic doctrine, he rebelled against the norm of the church, bravely standing up for the truth. No one had ever dared question the clergy, except for a few brave people like Desiderius Erasmus, John Hus, William Tyndale, and others. He started writing against the clergy and the catholic doctrine, and really collected a rather large following. Luther’s name was becoming widely known, and people everywhere were reading his writings. Word spread so quickly that even Rome was hearing of his objections. Pope Leo X was now aware that he was speaking out against indulgences and other falsities. Needless to say, Martin Luther had accumulated such a following, and word of his concerns had spread so significantly and quickly, that he really had started a revolution in the Western Church.
The revolution that Luther started now demanded for a reaction from two parties: the Catholic Church Hierarchy, and the common folk of the church. The hierarchy reacted very negatively. They expected Luther to give up and to recant all that he had written against the church’s doctrine, but when he refused to recant, the Catholic Church was very unhappy. They excommunicated Luther from the Catholic Church and on top of that, there were threats to kill him. Pope Leo X condemned Luther as a heretic and also condemned all of his literature. The sad truth is, Luther never wanted to leave the Catholic Church, but instead he wanted to purify it. He thought when he presented these problems to Pope Leo, he would take Luther’s side and stop the selling of indulgences. Sadly, that was not the case. They reacted in a way that Luther did not wish. However, the common people of the church reacted very positively. They were very much in agreement with Luther. Surprisingly, Luther’s revolution was highly followed and many people in the church were convinced of Luther’s writing and teaching against the Catholic Church. Essentially, Luther received a negative reaction from the clergy and a positive reaction from the common people of the church.
Martin Luther reformed the church. He did this by originally trying to fix the church, but when the church rejected his opinion, he began reforming the church to what he believed was the biblical view. He systematically went through changing and reforming the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Luther was an advocate of Augustinianism and his view of salvation. Luther was one of the earliest fathers of reformed theology. People like John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards would come after him and continue to contribute to the teachings of reformed theology, and even today, we have modern day reformers. Martin Luther taught the “Five Solas”. The Five Solas are: Sola scriptura (by scripture alone), Sola fide (by faith alone), Sola gratia (by grace alone), Solus Christus (by Christ alone), and Soli Deo Gloria (glory to God alone). These five solas summarized most of the basic truths advocated by Luther and the later reformers. The reformation of the protestant church brought us a clear teaching of some of the hardest doctrines and concepts uncovered in the scriptures. Another thing Luther did, was translate the Bible into German. This made it possible for everyone to read the Bible and not be forced to believe all that the church taught them, they could actually read scripture and interpret it themselves. This was one of the reasons so many people followed Luther. Originally, they believed whatever the Catholic clergy told them, but now they could read the Bible themselves and it became very clear that a lot of what they had been taught was false. So clearly the reformation really helped the common man of the church. Also, Luther reformed the teachings of the Catholic Church restoring the biblical standard of theology.
Therefore, Martin Luther started a revolution, received a reaction from the church clergy, and ultimately reformed the church, creating the greatest historical landmark of the Protestant Church. This reformation was absolutely necessary and helpful to the church. The Catholic Church had gotten to a point where they were extremely heretical and actually teaching paganism in some of areas of Christian theology, and it desperately needed to be stopped. Martin Luther, along with many others, reformed and restored the church to the biblical standard.
