Reformation Day

On this day, I wanted to say something profound. In preparation, I generally read something on, or about Martin Luther and if possible something that Luther wrote. What few people realize is that many people wanted a reformation but only one man acted and what he did was utterly amazing. He preached the Word. Why was Luther successful when many others before him had advocated reform?

Martin Luther had personally persuaded every member of the faculty at Wittenberg University that the sale of indulgences was wrong. Only then did Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

The 95 theses undermined the capital fund campaign of the Pope Leo X for St. Peter’s Basilica. “When the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.” The campaign was a success. Leo X was made a saint. Selling indulgences is the most blatant model of marketing salvation. It did not bother Tetzel and the Pope that the first claim that indulgences benefited souls in purgatory appeared only in 1476. It did not bother Tetzel and the Pope that the theories of indulgences, the temporal punishment for sin, and the Church’s treasury of merits had no basis in Scripture.

Many people were thinking about what they could do to cause a reformation. Words were never followed by action.

Only one person acted.

Copyrighted 2006