The Protestant Reformation Movement of Martin Luther

Martin Luther, a man who was born to revolutionize and reform an entire religion, mainly for the eruption of corruption inside of its leaders and institutions, was a man who would come to change the Church. Martin Luther was born in what is now Germany in 1483. He was a son of peasants, Hans and Margarette Luther. His dad was dedicated to mining; mining was his income source, which gave him the ability to meet the needs of his family. Even though they were living in Eisleben, Saxony, in 1484 they moved to Manfeld. Similar to most of the parents Hans had a great desire for his son to become a professional lawyer. Most of our parent's desire for their sons to become greater and go further than they did, and Hans was not the exception. Martin Luther knew the desire of his father, which caused him to go to study at the age of seven. As the time passed, his desire for learning was increasing; a few years later, in 1501, he entered the University of Erfurt and gained a Master of Arts degree. Martin Luther was doing his best to accomplish his dad's dream, he was about to become a lawyer but he did not know about a radical change he was about to experience. 

        Luther's future as a lawyer ended when he got caught in a horrific thunderstorm because he was so scared that he even made a promise to St. Anne, Save me, St, Anne, and I'll become a monk! After Luther's promise he stood alive and fulfil his promise. His dad rejected and hated his decision of becoming a monk; leaving all the studies he had done to follow his promise. Hans Luther probably saw his son's decision as irrational.  

        Luther's early life as a monk was not as delightful as he probably thought; instead, it was difficult for him mainly because of the lack of answers he had from the Catholic doctrine. He entered an Augustinian Monastery, and a passion for spiritual and biblical insight erupt within him. He was a man who feared God and wanted to be right by him, he followed the religious rituals a monk most due according to the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Even though he was committed to fulfilling his promise, during his journey as a monk, he found within the leaders of his religion terrifying immorality and corruption.   Suddenly, he knew something had to be different from what was established. What the Catholic Church did not know was that a simple German, who served as a monk, was about to change radically the corruption and wrong believe that they implement on their followers. Martin started to develop a desire for learning theology, and in 1512, he received a doctorate and became a professor of theology. A few years later, his studies begun to show him the answers that he could not find before, this answers will become the fire that made the Protestant Reformation to spread out throughout the country, religion, and generations .

There was something that Luther detested, which was corruption and injustice within the church. In other words, he hated the misuse of power and lies that were told to the society. Many of this lies were been justify as spiritual or from God, when in reality they were not. One of this act of corruction was the selling of indulgencies that the Catholic Church began to practice. The selling of indulgences began in 1517, and according to the article Martin Luther's Challenge, Luther became upset by the number of indulgences that were being sold... An indulgence, an official piece of paper. intended to reduce the time that a person's dead. would spent in purgatory.  This indulgence were sold to the believers and many folks fall for this lie and even bought indulgences for their relatives who were dead already. If we think for a moment about indulgences we can come up saying that you were able to pay for your salvation, or pay for less suffering before going to heaven or hell. For Luther it was unacceptable and for many other who knew that indulgences were a complete lie; in other words, they knew that this act was unjust and corrupt. Some of the biblical studies done by Luther helped him understand the origins of salvation, he started to see salvation as a spiritual gift given by God through faith, according to a biblical passage in Romans The just will live by faith.

One of the purposes of this indulgences was to build St. Peter's Basilica. Adding to early comments, the leaders of the Catholic Church were involved in a huge controversy which caused Luther and others began to question the authority by which the Catholic Church based its belief.of indulgences.  It was something predictable because it sounds suspicious that never in the past they had to sell this monetary payment for salvation or less suffering in purgatory; and all of the sudden they have to do it.

        Martin Luther was a man with a great boldness, which even lead him to confront the Church authority of his period of time. His main purpose was not to go away from the Catholic Church but to help them to get right with God by changing their wrong dogma. In one of his speeches, he acknowledges that he has:

composed, secondly, certain works against popery, wherein I have attacked such as by false doctrines, irregular lives, and scandalous examples, afflict the Cristian world, and ruin the bodies and souls of men.

His own words can sound in a way offensive, disrespectful or probably out of control but his desire was to take away specifically what was hurting, destroying the core of the doctrine of the religion in which he grew up. In this speech he points out .afflict the Cristian world, and ruin the bodies and souls of men, he is kind of explaining that our lives could be damage and even ruin by a wrong belief, he is totally right, for example, if someone believes that killing people is right this person is damaging and ending with the life of an innocent.

        A wrong belief, as Luther describes, if not attacked can be really dangerous. The best way to attack a dogma that is base in a lie it is with knowledge of the truth and expose it. The way Luther began his protest against the rising of corruption was with his Ninety-Five Theses, which condemned and confront the indulgences and more.

        Luther wrote his Ninety-Five Theses in Wittenberg, Germany, theses which were full of his thoughts concerning pope's authority and against the act of selling pardons for sins. On October 1517, he posted his 95 Theses on the door of the castle church. This decision was his first act of protest against the corrupted church. By the way, his target never was to break away from the Catholic Church or to break apart the religion into new groups, no! He simply desired a cleansed doctrine for the church. Luther showed his real intention for the theses when he said: Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring light . Adding to it, when expressed the desire to bring light he probably was visualizing himself in a world surrounded by darkness or wrapped up from bottom to top by this darkness, in other words, corruption was compared to living without life. His real intention was to bring the truth for those who were suffering cause of a lie. His theses presented a radical argument against the Pope's authority in the theses number five he said: The pope does not intend to remit, and cannot remit any penalties., for him to say something like that it was dangerous because he was confronting one of the most influential authorities of the time. 

        Moreover, he showed how much he disliked the selling of indulgences in his tenth theses which is written: Ignorant and wicked are the doings of those priest who, in the case of the dying, reverse canonical penances for purgatory.  With his 95 theses, he was expecting a positive response from the Church but they did not. On his own he started to distribute the theses and in two weeks his thoughts were throughout Germany. Thanks to the invention of the printing press, his theses were not just covering his area, but all over the major nations. When his arguments arrived in Rome there were not welcome by the Pope Leo X, they demand from him to recant, in other words, to deny his thoughts. But Luther refused to deny his theses and continued to share them.  Even though Pope Leo and Luther were trying to come up with an agreement, they could not, as a result of this, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Now he was seen as a wanted man and a heretic.  This problem never stopped him, instead, he continued his works and secretly translated the New Testament of the Bible to his native language which was German. After his translation, people were noticing that for a long time they have being taught with some unbiblical beliefs.

        A simple way to define Protestant Reformation would be, is the protest made with the purpose of changing, reform anything that was erroneous implemented.  One of the major things that happened in the Reformation was that the Lutheranism became the state religion in most of the Germany, and other places.

        An interesting fact of the Reformation is that it is believed that Girolamo Savonarola who was known as a religious reformer, he set the stage for Martin Luther's coming challenge to the Catholic Church (in 1521), which would start the Protestant Reformation.  The Protestant Reformation became a very successful movement in numerous ways. The movement cause other leaders in the community and it`s surroundings to participate and contribute towards the same goal. One of the sources presents how The Protestant Reformation impacted leaders in the community Other leaders stepped up to lead the reform, and concurrently, the rebellion known as the Peasants' War was making its way across Germany.

Conclusion

        In my opinion, Martin Luther was one of the most important figures in history. Knowing that the Protestant Reformation that he gave birth to happened hundreds of years ago, we still see the results of the movement in numerous Churches. He was a man who was extremely passionate who overcame fear and challenged the authority of the Church. Even though he was consider a rebel, was a wanted man and was rejected by the Church I consider that it was worthy, when it comes to share with everyone the truth that was purposely hidden by corrupted people. His accomplishment and works became the foundation of upcoming groups and I totally agree with his decision of confronting the corrupted Church. The core of the Catholic Church did not know that one of his followers was about to surprise them by exposing the truth which was covered.   

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