_____ was the voice of the protestant reformation.

There is no simple explanation for why, 500 years ago, an obscure German monk decided to risk all and challenge the authoritative teaching of the Catholic Church. But by hammering 95 indictments to the door of All Saints’ Church at Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther launched a reformation with a singular effect. Deliberately or not, he overturned many of the bedrock assumptions of Western culture, instigating a revolution in human freedom that continues to shape the modern world.

At its heart, Luther’s protest against the church was theological, an attempt to recover the historic meaning of the Christian gospel from what he saw as a legalistic corruption. The pathway to peace with God, Luther insisted, was not through good works, religious rituals, or scholastic reasoning, but rather through heartfelt faith in Jesus Christ and his atoning death on a cross.

Nevertheless, in defending a gospel of salvation “by faith alone,” Luther introduced a new source of authority into the bloodstream of the West. For nearly a thousand years, every European man and woman owed allegiance to two kinds of authority: political (kings, nobles, magistrates) and religious (popes, councils, bishops, or their representatives). When it came to deciding matters of faith, however, Luther found both to be deeply flawed and untrustworthy.

History 101: The Protestant Reformation

Who was Martin Luther? What is the Reformation and why does it matter? Roughly 500 years ago, Luther is said to have nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Germany. With the help of the printing press, this 16th century protest against corruption in the Catholic Church would drastically change the course of Christianity - and history itself.

This was the crux of Luther’s defense of his writings at the Diet of Worms in 1521. “My conscience is captive to the Word of God,” he told his accusers. “I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand.” The individual believer and his conscience, standing before God and his Word—here was a confession that redefined the meaning of faith and the dignity of the human person.

In the process, Luther laid bare the scandal of Christendom: a political society that preserved spiritual unity through coercion and violence. Dissent from orthodoxy was outlawed, heresy was rooted out and punished by fire and sword. The papal bull of 1520 excommunicating Luther from the Catholic Church, for example, accused him of promoting 41 heresies and “pestiferous errors.” One of the alleged errors was his view that “the burning of heretics is against the will of the Holy Spirit.”

Luther did not address the issue of freedom of conscience in his Ninety-Five Theses, nor did he ever devise a political theory supporting religious pluralism. But his letters and major works leave no doubt that the father of the Protestant Reformation hoped to reconstruct the entire medieval approach to religious belief. Luther offers his fullest treatment of these issues in Secular Authority: To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed (1523), where he sharply distinguished the aims of church and state, limiting the reach of government to preserving life and property.

“For over the soul God can and will let no one rule but Himself," Luther wrote. "Therefore, where temporal power presumes to prescribe laws for the soul it encroaches upon God’s government and only misleads and destroys the souls."

Rejecting the notion of a Christian commonwealth, Luther argued that the state possessed neither the competence nor a mandate from heaven to intrude into spiritual matters. “The soul is not under Caesar’s power,” he wrote. “He can neither teach nor guide it, neither kill it nor make it alive.” Other reformers sought a radical separation of church and state, a concept that Luther ultimately rejected. Others went further in defending the rights of all religious believers, even heretics and non-believers, in civic and political life.

Nevertheless, virtually every important defense of religious freedom in the 17th century—the liberal politics of William Penn, Roger Williams, Pierre Bayle, and John Locke—took Luther’s insights for granted. “The one only narrow way which leads to heaven is not better known to the magistrate than to private persons,” wrote Locke in A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), “and therefore I cannot safely take him for my guide, who may probably be as ignorant of the way as myself, and who certainly is less concerned for my salvation than I myself am.”

In the 18th century, the United States became the first nation to enshrine in its constitution the Protestant conception of the rights of conscience. James Madison, the mind behind the First Amendment, was inspired by Luther’s achievement. In a letter to F.L. Schaeffer, dated 1821, Madison explained that the American model of religious liberty “illustrates the excellence of a system which, by a due distinction, to which the genius and courage of Luther led the way, between what is due to Caesar and what is due God, best promotes the discharge of both obligations.”

When the modern human rights movement took shape after the Second World War, a committee of public intellectuals acknowledged Luther as they searched for a philosophical basis for an international bill of rights. Their 1947 UNESCO document cited the Reformation, because of its “appeal to the absolute authority of the individual conscience,” as one of the historical events most responsible for the development of human rights.

Similarly, the language of Article 18 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—“everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion”—pays homage to Luther’s vision. Its prime author, Lebanese Ambassador Charles Malik, a delegate to the original UN Commission on Human Rights, was also a student of the Reformation. “People’s minds and consciences are the most sacred and inviolable things about them,” Malik wrote, “not their belonging to this or that class, this or that nation, or this or that religion.”

Today the Catholic Church, once a fierce opponent of religious liberty, is one of its most vigorous defenders on the world stage. “Man demands civil liberties that he may lead in society a life worthy of a man,” wrote John Courtney Murray, an architect of Vatican II’s support for the rights of conscience. “And this demand for freedom from coercion is made with special force in what concerns religion.” Here, it seems, is a quiet tribute to Luther’s revolution: “I will preach it, teach it, write it, but I will constrain no man by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion.”

The social realities of Christendom—the deep entanglement of church and state—prevented Luther from working out the implications of his political theology. Once Protestantism became an established faith, he approved the use of force against heretics; his rough treatment of Jews followed the woeful pattern of European Christianity.

Nevertheless, the moral courage and intellectual coherence of Luther’s dissent should not be undervalued. If Luther was a flawed prophet of human freedom, his voice was nonetheless vital in the long march toward a more just and pluralistic society. In Luther, we find an advocate for human dignity who defied the forces of religious oppression and reimagined the political ideals of medieval Europe.

In his defiance, Luther delivered a challenge to the conscience of the West like no other since the Sermon on the Mount—as essential today as it was half a millennium ago.

Joseph Loconte is an associate professor of history at the King’s College in New York City and the author of God, Locke, and Liberty: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West.

The Protestant Reformation is known as a religious renewal movement that changed Western civilization. It was a 16th-century movement fueled by the concern of faithful pastor-theologians like Martin Luther and many men before him that the Church be grounded in the Word of God.

Martin Luther confronted the teaching of indulgences because he was concerned about the souls of men and made known the truth of the finished and sufficient work of the Lord Jesus no matter the cost. Men like John Calvin preached multiple times a week from the Bible and engaged in personal correspondence to pastors throughout the world. With Luther in Germany, Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland, and John Calvin in Geneva, the Reformation spread throughout the known world.

Even before these men were around men like Peter Waldon (1140-1217) and his followers in the Alpine regions, John Wycliffe (1324-1384) and the Lollards in England and John Huss (1373- 14:15) and his followers in Bohemia were laboring for Reformation.

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One of the most significant figures of the Reformation was Martin Luther. In many ways, Martin Luther, with his towering intellect and over-the-top personality, helped ignite the Reformation and fueled it into a bonfire under his watch. His nailing of the ninety-five theses to the church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, provoked a debate that led to his being excommunicated by a papal bull from the Roman Catholic church. Luther’s study of Scripture led to the confrontation at the Diet of Worms with the Catholic Church. At the Diet of Worms, he famously said that unless he could be persuaded by plain reason and by the Word of God, he would not budge and that he would stand on the Word of God because he could do no other.

Luther’s study of Scripture led him to oppose the church in Rome on many fronts, including focusing on Scripture over church tradition and what the Bible teaches about how sinners can be made righteous in the sight of the Lord by the finished and sufficient work of the Lord Jesus. Luther’s rediscovery of justification by faith alone in Christ alone, and his translation of the Bible into German, enabled people in his time to study the Word of God.

One other important aspect of Luther’s ministry was recapturing the biblical view of the believer's priesthood, showing that all people and their work have purpose and dignity because they serve the Creator God.

Others followed Luther’s brave example, including the following:

- Hugh Latimer (1487–1555)

- Martin Bucer (1491–1551)

- William Tyndale (1494–1536)

- Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560)

- John Rogers (1500–1555)

- Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575)

All of these and many others were committed to Scripture and sovereign grace.

In 1543 another prominent figure in the Reformation, Martin Bucer, asked John Calvin to write a defense of the Reformation to Emperor Charles V at the imperial diet set to meet at Speyer in 1544. Bucer knew that Charles V was surrounded by counselors who opposed reform in the church and believed Calvin was the most capable defender the Reformation had to defend the Protestants. Calvin rose to the challenge by writing the brilliant work The Necessity of Reforming the Church. While Calvin’s argument did not convince Charles V, The Necessity of Reforming the Church has come to be regarded as the best presentation of Reformed Protestantism ever written.

One other critical person in the Reformation was Johannes Gutenberg, who invented the printing press in 1454. The printing press enabled Reformers' ideas to spread rapidly, bringing along with it a renewal in the Bible and all Scripture teaches to the Church.

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The distinguishing marks of the Protestant Reformation is in the five slogans known as the Solas: Sola Scripture (“Scripture alone”), Solus Christus (“Christ Alone”), Sola Gratia (“grace alone”), Sola Fide (“faith alone”), and Soli Deo Gloria (“the glory of God alone”).

One of the main reasons the Protestant Reformation occurred was the abuse of spiritual authority. The most critical authority the Church has is the Lord and His written revelation. If anyone wants to hear God speak, they must read the Word of God, and if they're going to hear Him audibly, then they must read the Word outloud.

The central issue of the Reformation was the authority of the Lord and His Word. When the Reformers proclaimed “Scripture alone,” they expressed a commitment to the authority of Scripture as the reliable, sufficient, and trustworthy Word of God.

The Reformation was a crisis over which authority should have priority: the Church or Scripture. Protestants are not against church history, which helps Christians understand their faith's roots. Instead, what Protestants mean by Sola Scripture is that we are first and foremost committed to the Word of God and all it teaches because we are convinced it is the reliable, sufficient, and trustworthy Word of God. With Scripture as our foundation, Christians can learn from the Church Fathers as Calvin and Luther did, but Protestants do not place the Church Fathers or Church tradition above the Word of God.

At stake in the Reformation was this central issue of who is authoritative, the Pope, the church's traditions or church councils, personal feelings, or Scripture alone. Rome claimed the church’s authority lay with Scripture and tradition at the same level, so this made Scripture and the pope at the same level as Scripture and church councils. The Protestant Reformation sought to bring change to these convictions by placing authority with the Word of God alone. A commitment to Scripture alone leads to a rediscovery of the doctrines of grace because any return to Scripture leads to the teaching of God's sovereignty in His saving grace.

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The Church is always in need of Reformation around the Word of God. Even in the New Testament, Bible readers discover Jesus rebuking Peter and Paul correcting the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians. Since we are, as Martin Luther said at the same time, both saints and sinners, and the Church is full of people, the Church is always in need of Reformation around the Word of God.

Undergirding the Five Solas is the Latin phrase Ecclesia Semper Reformanda est, which means “the church is always to be reforming.” The Word of God not only stands individually over the people of God but collectively also. The Church must not only preach the Word but always be listening to the Word. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

The Reformers came to the conclusions they did not only through the study of the Church Fathers, which they had extensive knowledge of, but by studying God's Word. The Church during the Reformation, like today, needs Reformation. But it should always be reforming itself around the Word of God. Dr. Michael Horton is right as he explains the need not only to hear the Word individually as people but collectively as a whole when he says:

“Personally and corporately, the church comes into being and is kept alive by hearing the gospel. The church is always on the receiving end of God’s good gifts, as well as His correction. The Spirit does not lead us apart from the Word but directs us back to Christ as He is revealed in Scripture. We always need to return to the voice of our Shepherd. The same gospel that creates the church sustains and renews it."

Ecclesia Semper Reformanda Est, rather than being restrictive, provides a foundation for the Five Solas to stand upon. The Church exists because of Christ, is in Christ, and is for the spread of the glory of Christ. As Dr. Horton further explains:

“When we invoke the whole phrase — ‘the church Reformed and always being reformed according to the Word of God’ — we confess that we belong to the church and not simply to ourselves and that this church is always created and renewed by the Word of God rather than by the spirit of the age.”

1. The Protestant Reformation is a renewal movement to reform the Church to the Word of God.

2. The Protestant Reformation sought to restore Scripture to the church and the primary place of the gospel in the local church's life.

3. The Protestant Reformation involved a rediscovery of the Holy Spirit. John Calvin, for example, was known as a theologian of the Holy Spirit.

4. The Protestant Reformation makes the people of God small and the person and work of the Lord Jesus big. Augustine once said, describing the Christian life, it is one of humility, humility, humility, and John Calvin echoed that statement.

The Five Solas are not unimportant to the Church's life and health, but instead provide robust and genuinely evangelical faith and practice. On October 31, 2020, Protestants celebrate the work of the Lord in the life and ministry of the Reformers. May you be stirred by the example of the men and women who have gone before you. These were men and women loved the Word of God, loved the people of God and longed to see renewal in the Church for the glory of God. May their example encourage Christians today to proclaim the glory of the grace of God to all people, for His glory.