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Martin Luther's Influence On The Church

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C. S. Lewis noted: "We need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present." The journey of the Church was changed for the better, due to the aftermath of Martin Luther’s Thesis. Luther believed in a more active role of Christians in their walk with God and that the rules set by the Catholic Church were not based from Biblical rules that are required of them. From the time of Jesus, the search for the freedom to worship freely had been a struggle, with many followers of Jesus losing their life. Although, the church’s journey has not been easy it continues to keep moving forward generation after generation toward the things …show more content…

He had a true zeal to learn the word of God for himself and pass it on to other. “Luther trusted Christ, and that Christ was with him in his and all people’s suffering; God was accompanying, calling, bringing him and all fellow sufferers into the life of hope and resurrection.” “Most fundamental is the first step, Luther’s teaching that by faith alone we are united with Christ. Protestants loved to talk about “accepting Christ by faith,” which certainly owes a great deal to this fundamental teaching of Luther’s. Usually, however, it is presented as a decision we must make, as if it were by our own free will. Luther, by contrast, hates the very idea of free will when it is applied to matters of salvation, for our confidence in our own free will lies at the core of our efforts to be justified by good works rather than faith alone. The great pastoral aim of Luther’s doctrine of justification is to free us from the kind of performance anxiety that arises whenever our salvation depends in any way on us, our hearts, our will, or our doings. …show more content…

Martin Luther’s views of the Roman Catholic Church started off good, until he began to question some of the Church’s practices and the way it used faith to control the population. Martin Luther’s German translation of the Bible and the Catholic Church’s condemnation of such activities led to the question of whom exactly should be reading the Scriptures and who was capable of understanding them. Can the average Christian study the Bible, or does the Pope have a monopoly on scriptural

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