Church History Chapter 4

Luther’s fundamental religious problem was, how was it possible for a despairing sinner (human) to be welcomed to a wholeheartedly just and almighty God (receiving salvation)? Proceeding to his departure with the Roman Catholic Church, Martin Luther was a Augustin monk, Catholic Priest, and instructor of theology. With this being said, his judgments were supported on the lectures of the Catholic Church; on this he was thought of as an specialist. By virtue of his strong beliefs in the religion, he chose the teachings without any doubt. Nevertheless, this all altered when Albrecht of Brandenburg obtained the archdiocese of Mainz on the foundation of a considerable loan that he planned to repay by the sale of self gratification (indulgence).

In history, understanding the past is key to foreseeing the future and understanding the roots of the present world. As such, understanding the beginnings of the early church gives us insight into the success of the Catholic Church today and its 1.2 billion followers. The major transformation of Catholicism today can be traced to its early days, in particular, the early first century AD. After the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, the apostles brought themselves to embrace the mission Jesus gave them, and in doing so, they began preaching the word of God to all nations. As Christianity was still developing, a man named Saul, once a persecutor of the early Christians, would experience a powerful vision of Jesus in heaven on the road to Damascus,

The early church had lots of characteristics. According to Acts 2:42-47, the church was teaching, worshipping, communal, selfless, and growing. This empowered people to join the apostles in their spiritual journey. The modern church still is all these things, but also an institution, a herald, a sacrament, body of christ, servant, and community of disciples. All of these characteristics are important to the church as a whole.

Martin Luther, a German monk, started the biggest reformation in Christian history in 1517. Causing the reformation was the idea held by the Catholics that indulgences, or rather temporal pardons meant for the wrongdoings, were in a position of being achieved by the people who had the feeling that they had committed a sin. Martin Luther had chosen a path that needed dedication and sacrifice by fasting and dedicating his time to prayers (Luther & Dillenberger, 1961). The commitment that he made led to his realisation of how sinful he has been and this put him to anguish. Luther was facing so much anguish which forced the order for Luther to intitiate instructions in academics. Later on he was ordained into the priesthood in 1508. He was awarded a doctorate in 1512 and started teaching theology at Wittenberg. At the university is when he started to question the doctrines that were been followed by the roman church. He developed a strong feeling on matters concerning penance, salvation and the righteous way of life, and this formed a strong basis of his believe. According to him, salvation was a gift from God could not be given by anyone or be found through

The process by which Scripture has been preserved and compiled is one whose history is worth noting. The early church had many opportunities to share the Good News of Christ via word of mouth, but from the time of Christ’s resurrection until the mid-second century, there had not been a single culmination of writings considered to be essential for the purposes of

The major ways in which Luther challenged the Catholic Church included different ideas of salvation, where religious authority resides, what the church was, and what the highest form of Christian life was. Where Catholics believed salvation was achieved by both faith and good works, Luther believed it was gained through only faith. Christian doctrine had long maintained that

During the 1500’s a movement away from traditional Catholicism started to take hold. The most notable figure during this time was Martin Luther. He had ideals that, at the time, were extremely radical. As Gerald Strauss put it, “His doctrine of the two realms- the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the world, derived directly from Augustine – entailed the strictest segregation of things spiritual and things material” (22). He did not believe that the people of the church had any right to control the population at large. He believed that they were meant to be spiritual guides, not rulers, and that they wielded way too much control over the common people. One of the most radical things that he did, which was also the most influential

He wrote the 95 theses challenging the wealth of the church, the way to salvation, the authority, and indulgences. Moreover, his four concepts of sola fide, sola scriptura, priesthood of all believers, and all work is sacred challenged the very structure of the religion that the church was built upon. His belief of only faith alone could save one from purgatory, which nullified the need for indulgences. He proves this by quoting the Book of Romans and the New Testament, which was the passage God made him point to. He was able to justify faith alone by proving if one believed in Jesus's messages one was saved, because believing one was saved only with works while not believing in God was not the way to salvation (Justification by Faith). Moreover, Luther believed anyone could interpret the scripture and only what is in scripture should be believed, which challenged the Pope's interpretation and made people less dependant on the church. The Priesthood of all believers challenged the Pope's immediate connection to God and argued that even Priests and the Pope were susceptible to mistakes (The interpretation of the Bible and the Nature of the Clergy). In contrary to the Roman Catholic Church he was adamant about the fact of all being equal in God's eyes, thus the clergy was equal to the laity and not deserving of special privileges. He also stated that the church was protecting itself with the three concepts of spiritual power stronger than temporal power, only the Pope could interpret Scripture, and only the Pope could summon a council (On Papal Power). This allowed the papacy to defend itself from outside attempts to reform it. The papacy argued temporal power was earthly and ever changing, but spiritual power dealt with the after life and was constant, resulting in the papacy seeing itself more powerful than temporal power. Luther

This is an essay about Martin Luther, and his concept of Christianity. As a student and a unbiased Christian, I enjoy studying all types of religions, and elements that encompass them. Luther began his religious career as an Augustinian Monk in the Roman Catholic Church. So, Luther was initially loyal to the papacy, and even after many theological conflicts, he attempted to bring about his understanding with the Church. But this was a contradiction not to suffer because in his later years, Luther waged a continual battle with the papacy. Luther was to become a professor of biblical exegesis at Wittenberg where, in 1957, he posted his critique of the Roman Catholic Church 's teachings and practices. This is otherwise known as The Ninety-Five Theses, which is usually considered to be the original document of the Reformation. The Reformation was very controversial then, and, from a historical viewpoint, it still is today. Luther played a large part in the movement, and I was interested I doing a research to uncover what was the issue with religion. Basically, this document was an indictment of the venality of the Roman Catholic Church, particularly the widespread practice of selling indulgences in association with the sacrament of penance. Luther 's beliefs on the matter were that after confession, absolution relied upon the sinner 's faith and God 's Divine Grace rather than the intervention of a priest.

Over the past years of my life I have seen many changes, some for the good and others not as good. Change can be demanding and also crucial. The early believers would encounter this. One can see that significant change happened, when reading through the gospels and the book of acts it is obvious to the reader that the believers who followed Jesus would never be the same again.

The story of the early Christian church involves a number of experiences of persecution. Most of the conflicts happen between Christians and Jews. Acts narrates that Peter and John were arrested by Sadducees (4:3-22), then harshly questioned by the Sanhedrin (5:17-42), and then flogged for what they believed in (5:40). The readers can begin to see the reason for persecution from the start—their belief in the unconditional love and resurrection of Jesus. Acts continues to show the demonstration of persecution by telling the stories of how Saul imprisoned many Christians (Ch. 8); how Jews plot to kill Paul (9:23-24, 20:19, 23:12-14); how King Herod executed James and imprisons Peter (12:1-5); how Paul and Barnabas were driven out of Antioch

In the Gospel of Matthew the term “apostles” is only used when introducing the list of twelve apostles commissioned to follow Christ. “Now the names of the twelve Apostles are these: the first, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alpheus, and Lebbeus, whose surname was Thaddeus; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him” (Matthew 10:1-4). An apostle is a person sent to accomplish a mission. An apostle represents the one sending and has authority to represent the sender in business, political, or educational situations (T.

The early churched mentioned in Acts 2:1, demonstrates what it is like to be brave through faith in Jesus, was a model of unity in believers, and showed the power of prayer while they nervously anticipated the arrival of the Holy Ghost. These people were the body of Christ coming together in its infant and earliest form. Jesus had been crucified by the local authorities less than two months previous to this, and at this point the disciples no longer had their leader to guide them. Yet, rather than allowing the negative feelings of doubt, fear, or anxiety to limit their capabilities, the disciples spent their time together in prayer and expecting the coming of the Helper. It would have been easy for any number of the disciples to go about with their everyday lives as they lived before they experienced Jesus, but they allowed their faith in what was promised to them to empower them to be courageous in

Luther’s theology is strongly Christocentric, but Christology is rarely the central focus of his writings. In some of his most considered summaries of his own faith, he presents Chalcedonian Christology alongside the church’s teaching on the Trinity as the uncontroversial foundation of the Catholic faith, which he shared with his opponents. At the same time, it is evident that Luther’s most celebrated theological innovations, including his teaching on justification by faith, his theology of the cross, his soteriology, and in particular his doctrine of the Eucharist, had considerable Christological implications that sometimes seem at variance with received orthodoxy.

Church history is a very important class, especially to us as Christians. When we look back at the history of the church we are able to see how God worked in the formation of the church, as we know it today. In Hebrews 13:7 it reads, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” By learning the good things in history we are able to imitate and live out the gospel the way that God would have us to live. Church history provides us examples of good teachers, tradition, thinkers, and establishes “boundaries.” Also, there is a saying, “those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it”, and therefore history is an important subject.