On this day, October 31, we celebrate the moment when Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses and made a stand against the darkness and deception that had permeated the spiritual landscape. But over two thousand years before Martin Luther, another reformation took place. It was not a common Augustinian monk calling for a faculty meeting, but a king in the line of David: Josiah. And what was posted on the king’s door, so to speak, was not a document of concerns about religious traditions. Rather, it was the plain and open Law of God: the book of Deuteronomy.
Here I Stand
Exactly 500 years ago on this day, October 31, an audacious monk and professor named Martin Luther stamped his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle church in Germany. In this, Luther called into question the sale and legitimacy of indulgences (sheets of paper sold by the Church that allegedly absolved people of their sins). Soon after, he preached that popes and councils have no authority outside of the bounds of Scripture, and that salvation is only granted by the grace of God through faith alone.