Martin Luther's 95 Points

“God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does” -Martin Luther. Martin Luther’s 95 theses sparked the start of the Protestant Reformation. People misinterpreted Luther’s works and it started controversy within the Catholic Church. He believed the Church lacked authority and needed to be changed. Martin Luther strongly believed in the Four Marks of the Church. The Four Marks state that the Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. However, people have forgotten the core of their identity as followers of Christ. People in the Church claim to believe in the Four Marks, as we profess in the Nicene Creed, but do not live them out. This also contributed to the start of the Protestant Reformation, which has changed many principles of the Catholic Church.

It started to focus on wealth and practices like the buying and selling of indulgences. Luther believed that the people of the Church were not living out the Four Marks. He challenged the corrupt teachings of the Church and focused on scripture. He believed in one main idea, Sola Scriptora, meaning “all scripture”. Martin Luther wrote his 95 theses and posted them on the Church door on October 31, 1517. The 95 theses covered the teachings of Christian scripture and the practices of the Roman Catholic Church. The 95 theses played a big role in the start of the Protestant Reformation. People read Luther’s works and called him a heretic. Luther spent the following year in hiding and began to translate the Bible from Greek to German. This allowed more people to understand what was going on at the time. This also caused literacy rates to go up. People misinterpreted Martin Luther’s writings and believed freedom of religion meant freedom from their feudal lords. All this led to the start of the Protestant Reformation. The Church is split into two. One side was the Roman Catholics, and the other side was the Protestants. The Protestant Reformation weakened the Four