Presentation on Luther and his cultural impact

1. MARTIN LUTHER
REFORMER
Wittenberg, Germany
October 31, 1517

3. Martin Luther’s Younger Years
Born in 1483
Eisleben, Germany
Baptized day after his birth
Early Education by the Brethren
of the Common life, founded in
the Netherlands by Geert
Groote.
Luther’s childhood home

4. Martin Luther’s Call to the Ministry
1505, age 21
Lightening Strikes!
Luther was a Law Student
Cries out:
“SAVE ME, St. Anne!!! I will
become a monk!”
He enters the Augustinian
Monastery in Erfurt.
His Father was very upset.

5. Luther the Monk
Luther would daily
confess minor sins for
2 hours
Extreme Asceticism:
 Prayer
 Fasting
 Sleep Deprivation
 Exposure and austere
living conditions
“If ever a monk got to
heaven by monkery, It
was I.”

6. Luther Disenchanted by Rome (1510)
 Sent on Roman Pilgramage by
his Abbot
 Observed the gross immorality
of the priests and bishops
 Those who climbed on their
knees were promised an
indulgence from one thousand
years of penance. Luther,
believing the superstition,
decided to try the ascent. He
had climbed halfway up
repeating the usual prayers
when these words came to his
mind: “The just shall live by
faith.” He stood up and walked
slowly down the stairs.
“I went with onions and returned
with garlic”

7. Luther (Re) Discovers the Gospel
 Luther remarked, “I hated that word, ‘the righteousness of God,’ by which I had been
taught according to the custom and use of all teachers … [that] God is righteous
and punishes the unrighteous sinner.” The young Luther could not live by faith
because he was not righteous—and he knew it.
 Meanwhile, he was ordered to take his doctorate in the Bible and become a
professor at Wittenberg University. During lectures on the Psalms (in 1513 and 1514)
and a study of the Book of Romans, he began to see a way through his dilemma.
“At last meditating day and night, by the mercy of God, I began to understand that the
righteousness of God is that through which the righteous live by a gift of God, namely
by faith.… Here I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise itself
through the gates that had been flung open.”

8. Luther (Re) Discovers the Gospel
DECLARED RIGHTEOUS, RATHER THAN ‘MAKE RIGHTEOUS’
 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to
everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the
righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written:
The righteous will live by faith. - Romans 1:16,17
 A righteousness from God. God in His grace makes righteousness available to those
who would receive it passively, not those who would achieve it actively, but that would
receive it by faith, and by which a person could be reconciled to a holy and righteous God.

9. Luther (Re) Discovers the Gospel
The Linguistical and Translational Understanding between the Latin and Greek
A linguistic trick. The Latin word for justification that was used at this time in church history
was—and it’s the word from which we get the English word justification—the Latin
word justificare.
It came from the Roman judicial system: justus, which is justice or righteousness, and the verb,
the infinitive facare, which means to make.
The Latin fathers understood the doctrine of justification is what happens when God, through
the sacraments of the church make unrighteous people righteous.

10. Luther (Re) Discovers the Gospel
Luther was looking now at the Greek word that was in the New Testament, not the Latin word.
The word dikaios, dikaiosune, which didn’t mean to make righteous, but rather:
“to regard as righteous, to count as righteous, to declare as righteous.”
The moment of awakening for Luther. “Paul is not talking about the righteousness by which
God Himself is righteous, but a righteousness that God gives freely by His grace to people who
don’t have righteousness of their own.”
Alien Righteousness. He called “justitia alienum”; a righteousness that belongs properly to
somebody else. It’s a righteousness that is extra nos, outside of us. The righteousness of Christ.

11. Martin Luther Nails the 95 Theses
November 1, 1517
 The Door of the Cathedral
in Wittenberg, Germany
 Lightening Strikes Again!
 Luther wanted debate.
 Common practice, written
in Latin
 Within 2 weeks, All of
Europe was reading them!
 The Pope (Leo X) was very
upset.

12. Martin Luther Nails the 95 Theses
What Upset Luther:
The Selling of Indulgences to
pay for St. Peter’s Cathedral
in Rome.
“As soon as money in the coffer
rings, the soul from purgatory's
fire springs." -
Tetzel
“God no longer deals with us as
God, He has given all power to
the Pope!” - Luther

13. Martin Luther Nails the 95 Theses
# 1 - When our Lord and Master, Jesus
Christ, said “Repent,” He called for the entire
life of believers to be one of penitence.
2. This statement cannot be understood of
the sacrament of penance, i.e., of confession
and satisfaction, which is administered by the
priesthood.
27. They preach human folly who pretend
that as soon as money in the coffer rings a
soul from purgatory springs.
32. Those who suppose that on account of
their letters of indulgence they are sure of
salvation will be eternally damned along with
their teachers.
36. Every Christian who truly repents has
plenary [full] forgiveness both of punishment
and guilt bestowed on him, even without
letters of indulgence.
51. Christians should be taught that the pope
ought and would give his own substance to
the poor, from whom certain preachers of
indulgences extract money, even if he had to
sell St. Peter's Cathedral to do it.

14. Luther at the Diet of Worms (1521)
Unless I am convinced by the
testimony of the Scriptures or by
clear reason (for I do not trust
either in the pope or in councils
alone, since it is well known that
they have often erred and
contradicted themselves), I am
bound by the Scriptures I have
quoted and my conscience is
captive to the Word of God. I
cannot and will not recant
anything, since it is neither safe
nor right to go against
conscience. On this I take my
stand. I can do no other.
May God help me.

15. Luther translates the Bible (1522)
 Translates Latin New
Testament
 Castle in Wartburg
 He was in hiding because of
bounty on his life, known as a
Papal Bull.
 Takes him 11 weeks to
Translate into German.
 Becomes the standard of
German language as it
codifies the various dialects.
 The Room where he
translates.

16. A Monk Marries
Katharina is often considered one
of the most important participants
of the Reformation because of her
role in helping to define Protestant
family life and setting the tone
for clergy marriages.
On Easter Eve, 4 April 1523,
Luther sent a city councilman
who regularly
delivered herring to the
monastery. Katharina and
several other nuns escaped by
hiding in the covered wagon
among the fish barrels, and fled
to Wittenberg. Luther arranged
marriages for all the nuns.
Katharina was placed in a
monastery at age 5!

17. A Monk Marries
Luther came to the conclusion that
"his marriage would please his father,
rile the pope, cause the angels to
laugh, and the devils to weep.“ Martin
Luther married Katharina on June 13,
1525
Katharina immediately took on the task
of administering and managing the
monastery's vast holdings, breeding
and selling cattle and running a
brewery to provide for their family, the
steady stream of students who
boarded with them, and visitors
seeking audiences with her husband.
(Lutherhaus)
In times of widespread illness, she
operated a hospital on site, ministering
to the sick alongside other nurses.
Luther called her the "boss of
Zulsdorf," after the name of the farm
they owned, and the "morning star of
Wittenberg" for her habit of rising at
4 a.m.
They also had 6 children together.

18. Martin Luther’s Legacy
THE REFORMING OF CHURCH
 Genesis of all Protestant Churches (Religious
Liberty)
 Impacted reforms within Roman Catholic Church
 Founder of the ‘German Evangelical Church’ or
Lutheranism
 First priest to marry (broke celibacy rules among
clergy)
 Translated the bible into the vernacular (German)
 The reordering of theology (Five Solas &
Catechisms)
 The rediscovery of the doctrine of Justification
THE REFORMING OF SOCIETY
 Genesis of Modern Era, brought the Medieval Age
to a close
 Origin of the American Revolution “Here I Stand”
(1st Protestor)
 First to demand Public School Education
 First to demand to educate girls
 Originator of Personal Liberty or Individual Rights
 The first to capitalize on mass media (printing
press)
 Standardized the German Language, which unified
the German People, leading to her national
strength and success
 Luther called Germans ‘pigs’ for their laziness, now
most industrious of all peoples.

19. Martin Luther’s Legacy: The Word of God
I opposed indulgences and all the papists,
but never with force. I simply taught,
preached, and wrote God’s Word;
otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept
[cf. Mark 4:26–29], or drank Wittenberg
beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf,
the Word so greatly weakened the papacy
that no prince or emperor ever inflicted
such losses upon it. I did nothing!
The Word did everything. Had I desired to
foment trouble, I could have brought great
bloodshed upon Germany; indeed, I could
have started such a game that even the
emperor would not have been safe. But
what would it have been? Mere fool’s play.
I did nothing! I let the Word do its work.
 What was the source of what Reformed
the Church and Society?
The Doctrine of Justification
 Why Luther?
He was obstinate and strong in his
conviction of God’s Word.

20. Martin Luther’s Legacy
When Atlanta pastor Michael
King traveled to Germany in
1934, he was so inspired by the
story of Luther’s Reformation, he
decided to change his name.
He also changed the name of his
then 5-year-old son, Michael Jr.
From that day on, Michael Jr.
was known as:
Martin Luther King, Jr.