Happy Reformation Day: A Lesson for the 21st Century

Today is "Reformation Day," the anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church at Wittenburg Cathedral in Germany, which occured on October 31st, 1517.

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was originally a law student at the University of Erfurt to become a lawyer, in accordance to his father's wishes. However, in 1505, he entered an Augustinian monastery. It was in 1517 that he came to blows with the Roman Catholic Church, after Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar, came to Germany to sell indulgences in order to raise funds for the building of St. Peter's Basillica in Rome. In protest, he nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenburg Cathedral, and in 1520, he was excommunicated via a papal bull from Pope Leo X.

He also realized that we, as Christians, are justified by faith alone in Christ alone. This contradicted Roman Catholic teachings on justification, which taught the we are justified by faith plus works.

It was in 1521, that Luther was called before the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V at the Diet of Worms, and upon being urged to recant, he made this famous speech, recreated here in this classic film.


After the Diet of Worms, Luther was protected by Duke Frederick the Wise, by being held at Wartburg Castle until 1522, during which time he translated the New Testament into German. In 1525, he married Katharina ("Katie") von Bora and the couple had six children: Johannes (John), Elisabeth, Magdalena, Martin, Paul and Margarete. He penned the Augsburg Confession at the request of Charles V in 1530, in the wake of the seige of Vienna. Luther died in the early mornng hours of February 18th, 1546.

This "Reformation Polka" celebrates the life of Luther.


Looking back, I praise God for His raising up people like Luther who called us to return to the Scriptures. In about a decade it'll the the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, and this summer was the 500th anniversary of the birthday of French theologian Jean Cauvin (John Calvin).

The Roman Catholic Church was an apostate church which had held people in bondage to false hopes and works-righteousness. Luther himself wrote of Catholic Church: "Since the papal church not only neglects the command of Christ but even compels the people to ignore it and to act against it, it is certain that it is not Christ’s church but the synagogue of Satan which prescribes sin and prohibits righteousness. It clearly and indisputably follows that it must be the abomination of Antichrist and the furious harlot of the devil." (What Luther Says, II: 1019)

"What kind of a church is the pope’s church? It is an uncertain, vacillating and tottering church. Indeed, it is a deceitful, lying church, doubting and unbelieving, without God’s Word. For the pope with his wrong keys teaches his church to doubt and to be uncertain. If it is a vacillating church, then it is not the church of faith, for the latter is founded upon a rock, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it (Matt.16:18). If it is not the church of faith, then it is not the Christian church, but it must be an unchristian, anti-Christian, and faithless church which destroys and ruins the real, holy, Christian church." (Luther’s Works, vol. 40, Church and Ministry II, The Keys, p.348)

Now, I say this not to bash Roman Catholics. However, like I said, I praise God for people like Luther who stood up to false teachings in the Roman Catholic Church. Today, I say that we also must confront false teachings that are running rampant. I find Luther's boldness to confront the heresies almost a call for us today, in the 21st century to stand up to false doctrine.

We have a lot of people such as the Emergents, liberal denominations like the United Methodists, the United Church of Christ and the Episcopalians who have clearly denied sound doctrine. Our duty, as Christians, are to procliam the truth found in Scripture and to urge them to repent of their sins. I remember hearing a quote from Charles Spurgeon who basically said that beleiving wrongly is just as sinful as doing wrongly.

We read this in 2 Peter: "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep." (2nd Peter 2:1-3)

Now, in American Christianity today, it seems like the most popular "pastors" are the false teachers, be they prosperity preachers like Joel Osteen or T.D. Jakes, Emergent gurus like Brian McLaren Shane Hipps and Rob Bell, or those who don't properly preach God's word, let alone mention sin, like, again, Joel Osteen, and folks like Robert Schuller, Rick Warren, and others.

Our duty, therefore, is to preach the true Gospel, which not only proclaims the wrath of God upon unrepentant sinners, and the fact that we're sinners who cannot be saved by our own works, but also the forgiveness of sins found in Jesus Christ. In fact, we read "Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret." (Ephesians 5:11-12)

I leave you with this video.