Fun Facts About Reformation Day and Martin Luther

Happy Reformation Day! October 31 is a day for Christians to praise God–not because of the unholy reasons that the world celebrates this day, but because October 31 is Reformation Day, a day when God did a huge thing in His church over 500 years ago!

Are you curious about what “Reformation Day” is, and why it’s important? Here are some fun facts to know.

First, what is Reformation Day?

On October 31, 1517, a theologian and former monk named Martin Luther posted papers on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. These papers contained 95 points arguing against what the Catholic Church (at that time, the only church) was doing. The papers that Luther posted (tradition has it that he nailed them to the church door) are called the “95 Theses.”

Read below for more about this, but first just know that Luther’s public defiance of the church’s bad theology and unholy actions were the fuel that turned the Protestant Reformation from a spark into a blazing fire.[v]

Next, know this: at that time, there was a big debate happening about the Church.

According to Dr. Bruce Shelley in his book Church History in Plain Language, there were four main theological questions in people’s minds at the time:

1. “How is a person saved?
2. Where does religious authority lie?
3. What is the church? And
4. What is the essence of Christian living?”[i]

When people began to protest the Church’s widely held beliefs in these areas, they were called “Protestants.” And “Protestantism” had this to say:

1. That men were saved by grace through faith (and therefore that good works couldn’t get you saved);
2. That spiritual authority comes only from the Bible, not from men (not even from popes or kings);
3. That the church is the whole Body of Christ at large;
4. And that all vocations are useful for serving God–in other words, you didn’t have to specifically be a monk or nun to serve God.[ii]

The church had gotten corrupt, and people were noticing.

One of the most blatant forms of corruption was that, in 1517, a Dominican monk named John Tetzel started selling a thing called “an indulgence.” Basically, an indulgence was permission to sin with forgiveness supposedly granted. People could “indulge” their flesh and pay to have their sin supposedly forgiven by the church.

Well, John Tetzel was selling indulgences throughout Germany to finance one of the pope’s building campaigns. He preached even more outlandish doctrine than that, too, promising freedom from purgatory for deceased loved ones when someone bought an indulgence.

That’s where Martin Luther enters the story.

Martin Luther was a German monk born in 1483. He worked hard at his salvation, but actually hated God because he did not have a personal relationship with God.

BUT JESUS! One day, Martin Luther was radically saved when he received the revelation of the Scriptures about how we are saved by grace through faith. He gave his life to Jesus to be his Lord and Savior, and he was brought into a personal relationship with Christ.

After that, he left the monastery, got married, and lived as a theologian and reformer in the village, leading a normal life. After having left the monastery, he dedicated his life to studying and teaching Scripture, especially to challenging papal authority and teaching that salvation was by grace through faith alone.

On October 31, 1517, Luther decided to take his arguments with the church public.

Because of his new understanding of repentance of sin and salvation by grace through faith, Martin Luther took issue with Tetzel’s preaching about selling indulgences. And in response to that unholy, false theology of selling indulgences, Luther wrote up his arguments and nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany.

As one might expect, that didn’t go over well.

Because of his public defiance, Luther incurred the wrath of the Catholic Church and was persecuted. But, various noblemen who were friendly to his cause hid him and protected him.

Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church in January 1521. He founded the Lutheran church after that, and he did a lot good. He is perhaps the most famous Protestant of the Reformation. However, he declined in sensibility and in theology in his latter years, and died in 1546 in a poor state of mind.[iii]

Fun fact: Just how was Luther converted, anyway?

Remember that Luther was first a monk. He worked hard at salvation. However, he knew that he had failed to find God through fasting, prayers, pilgrimage, penance, and living the monastic life.

So, he turned to the Scriptures. He was searching for the God of love that he had heard was the one true God, but Whom he had not been able to connect with personally.

In 1515, Luther was meditating on the book of Romans, and came across Romans 1:17, which states, “…the just shall live by faith.” These words leapt off the page to him and he meditated on them until he finally saw the plan of salvation through faith in Christ alone, as outlined in the book of Romans.

When later describing his first belief and acceptance of salvation through grace by faith, he wrote, ““Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.””[iv]

What else did Luther do that was of note?

In addition to his revelation about salvation by grace through faith, Luther also got a second revelation that rattled the Catholic world.

According to Shelley:

“During an 18-day debate in 1519 with theologian John Eck at Leipzig, Luther blurted out: “A council may sometimes err. Neither the church nor the pope can establish articles of faith. These must come from Scripture.” Thus, Luther had moved from his first conviction—that salvation was by faith in Christ alone to a second: that the Scriptures, not popes or councils, are the standard for Christian faith and behavior.”[vi]

So, basically, Luther shocked the world by saying that neither the church nor the pope were spiritual authorities if their teachings weren’t backed by Scripture. In a church environment that taught that the pope had total spiritual authority and could not even sin, this felt like absolute heresy to the Catholic establishment.

Luther also taught that any believer could take communion, administer communion to oneself, and baptize. Before, administration of the sacraments was reserved for priests. So that was a big deal too!

Was Luther a cool guy in every respect? No!

Luther definitely had some errors in some of his doctrine too. Specifically:

• Luther endorsed the violent murder of mass numbers of peasants who were rebelling against the slavery of feudalism.
• Later in life, he also endorsed a bigamous marriage;
• He spewed venomous words for those who disagreed with him;
• And he was an anti-Semite, hating the Jewish people.[x]

But, Martin Luther did a lot of good, and God used him.

All of us who name the name of Christ have been impacted by what this one man did, even if we don’t realize it since he lived over 500 years ago. But, when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, he rocked the world … and the Body of Christ reclaimed its revelation that “by grace you are saved through faith.”

As we read in Ephesians 2:8-9:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV).

Let’s all thank God for that truth today, and remember that we Christians do have a good reason to bless the Lord every day–and to celebrate October 31 not as a day of evil, but as a day the Lord has made, and on which He (the Lord Himself) brought His church back to saving faith in Christ!

Bibliography:

Shelley, Bruce. Church History in Plain Language, third ed. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008.

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[i] Ibid., 238

[ii] Ibid., 246

[iii] Ibid., 237-245

[iv] Ibid., 238-239

[v] Ibid., 240-241

[vi] Ibid., 241

[vii] Ibid., 241

[viii] Ibid., 241-242

[ix] Ibid., 243

[x] Ibid., 243-245

[xi] Ibid., 245