The Protestant Reformation

When we travel to Germany we'll see some sites associated with the Protestant Reformation. So I thought it might be good to talk a little about the Protestant Reformation.

Luther's Desk in the Wartburg Castle

The Church from it's inception through around the year 1000 was one universal body. In the year 1054 tensions between the west half centered in Rome and the east half centered in Constantinople rose to such a level that the Church finally split into those two segments. The Roman Catholic (west half) and the Eastern Orthodox (east half) churches are still the remnant of that split (along with further divisions in those two bodies.)

During the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance practices in the Roman Catholic Church took on, to some, bizarre and non-biblical aspects. A catholic priest named Martin Luther decided that most of what was happening was wrong and he came up with 95 points of disagreement with the Catholic Church. Legend has it that he nailed these 95 theses (points of disagreement) to the door of the cathedral in Wittenberg in 1517. History records this as the beginning of the protest movement against the Roman Church and thus we call it the beginnings of the Protestant Church (a church movement from which we descend).

Among other things Luther was committed to the idea of sola fide – by faith alone. While the church began to “teach” that you could earn your salvation through certain acts, Luther said we only receive salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Church services along with the Bible were solely in Latin and Luther further thought that people should be able to read the bible and worship in their own language (in his case German!)

Cathedral Door in Wittenberg

Luther got into quite a lot of trouble for his 95 theses as well as his work to translate the Bible into German. This trouble lead to a couple of “trials” and warrants for his arrest. He spent time in exile hiding from the Pope and his men so as to avoid capture and execution. During our visit to the Wartburg Castle we will see the room Luther stayed in and the desk where he did much of the work translating the Vulgate (Latin Bible) into German. We will also see the home in stayed in while as student from 1498-1501.

Tomorrow I will talk a little bit about Jean Calvin another reformer!