MARTIN LUTHER Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

MARTIN LUTHER - Essay Example After being excommunicated from the Catholic Church, he stated the protestant movement which led to protestant churches throughout the globe. This paper attempts to describe Martin Luther and his contribution to reforms that led to protestant churches. Prior to his engagement in reforms Luther served as a philosophy student at University of Erfurt and became a professor in 1508 after having been ordained as a priest in 1507. He further engaged in higher studies of theology and in 1517 he opposed what he discovered as hypocrisy of priests in the Catholic Church (Somervill 27).Through expanded study and research of theology and understanding of the bible, Luther came to realize that Christians should not be deceived by church leaders that they can buy salvation or forgiveness of sins. His idea of justification of faith came from the bible and knowledge based on his theological study and he justified the fact that salvation was given by God through His grace that led to faith in Jesus Christ (Hendrix 56). His original idea on Christianity was not compatible with the church theology because the church theology involved deceptive gospel. He was opposed to such issues like teaching people that their deeds could earn them eternal life. The church theology was also based on the authority of the pope and he challenged this authority by claiming that the only divine source of knowledge was the Bible and was given by God (Bainton 47). Martin Luther started the protestant reformation after being irritated by the sale of indulgences within the Catholic Church and confronted Johann Tetzel who was a salesman with ninety five theses. He posted the theses at the main door of Castle Church based in Wittenburg and theses contained such issues like the hypocrisy of church leaders especially concerning the sale of indulgences to the masses. He was later asked to retract his writings by the Pope and Holy Roman Empire where he refused and was excommunicated from the