500 Hundred Years Later
We interrupt this program today to bring a word about that 16thcentury German monk who changed the church from the inside out, Martin Luther. Some of your calendars may include mention about the 505th anniversary of the Protestant Revolution, but did you know that on or about this day 500 years ago, Martin Luther completed his translation of the New Testament into German? This was one of the first steps toward placing the Bible into the hands of the common man and into the hearts of a whole new wave of Christian believers who would demonstrate over the next several years a willingness to die while proclaiming their message, “Sola fide! Faith alone! It is only by faith in Jesus Christ that we can know peace with God.” The problem Luther had with the church was that as a monk, he was able to actually read the Bible in an authorized Latin version. In reading, he came to understand that the New Testament writers were talking about a different salvation than what the church was teaching.