1. Quote from the Diet of Worms
Best title for a church meeting ever

2. The Reformation for the 21st Century
A Look Back in History
An Assessment of Its Meaning For Us Today, Week 2
Issues and Answers, October 8, 2017

3. Reformation Events Leidy’s Church On-line Ligonier.org
Reformation Revival Service sponsored by BMCE
Sunday, October 29, 6:00 PM
Evangelist Frank Shelton
On-line Ligonier.org
Reformation 500 Celebration
Monday Evening, October 30, 6:00 PM-9:00 PM
Speakers: Stephen Nichols, Burk Parsons, Sinclair Ferguson, R.C. Sproul
Every day during October, Stephen Nichols
gives a five minute reflection on an aspect
of the reformation

4. Tentative Class Outline
Oct 1-15: Events surrounding the life of Martin Luther through the Diet of Worms
Oct 22: Contrasting the Roman Catholic and Protestant views of Justification by Faith
Oct 29: The Spread of the Reformation and what it means for us today
And a Reminder….October is Pastor Appreciation Month!

5. Last Time Why examine the Reformation and Luther’s life?
Luther is considered by many to be the most important figure in Church history
The right to dissent
Reformation Motto, “Post Tenebras, Lux”
Darkness was the corrupt Church – Sacerdotalism
Goal of the magisterial reformers was to recover God’s word
Luther is “The Father of the Reformation”
He “ignited the flames that soon engulfed the continent and spread to Britain and to the American colonies”
Followed in the efforts of Jon Hus
“There will come after me a swan who you will not be able to silence”
Early life - Middle Class upbringing
Father Hans was successful owner of 6 foundries
Hans desired that Martin would become a prominent
lawyer

6. Last Time The Thunderbolt of Lightening 1505
Off to the Augustinian Monastery in Erfurt
Martin lived in “fear of God”
Many hours in confession
Consumed with guilt and a lack of peace
Unable to perform his first Mass
“When I was a monk, I wearied myself greatly for almost fifteen years with the daily sacrifice, tortured myself with fastings, vigils, prayers, and other very rigorous works. I earnestly thought to acquire righteousness by my works.”
The pursuit of asceticism was the way of salvation.

7. The Church in the early 16th century
The “Treasury of merit”
Bainton, page 35
“Power of the keys” handed down from Jesus to Peter and onto subsequent Popes
Treasury contained the deposits of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the 12, and the saints down through history
To get to heaven, one had to be inherently righteous
If you die with a blemish, you go to purgatory
Purgatory could last a few days to millions of years
When you go without a lot of merit, you need to find ways to reduce it

8. The Church in the early 16th century
Three types of merit
Condign – God is obligated to reward it without effort by the individual; commutative justice
Jesus had this type; God crowns the individual
Congruous – something you do making it sufficient for God to act – penance, Hail Mary’s, pilgrimages, saying the rosary
To the unregenerate, by God’s mercy and love
Supererogatory – above the call of duty – e.g., St. Francis of Assisi, Jerome, the “great saints”
Surplus merit was distributed by an act of penance and the giving of alms (something of value) that would secure indulgences to reduce time in purgatory
The keys of the kingdom was the key to the most important treasury that contained the “treasury of merit” – that depository of all the merits earned by Jesus and also by the merit of Mary, Joseph, the original 12, and the great saints throughout the ages. It is therefore this great sum of merit.
In order for someone to go to heaven a person has to become inherently righteous. No venial sin. If a person dies with blemish, before they go to heaven, they go to purgatory where the blemishes are purged. As we have seen, a person’s time in purgatory can range from a few days to millions of years. People who lack merit have to find a way to reduce the time spent in purgatory. Only a few people have achieved enough merit such that they go directly to heaven.
Three types of merit – 1. Condign. Merit that is so virtuous that it imposes an obligation of justice on GOD to reward it. The church believed that the Merit of Jesus was condign.
The second type is congruous. This type is lesser but it has some sense of merit – it is sufficient to make it fitting or congruous for GOD to reward it. This comes to play in the doctrine of penance.
Third kind of merit – superarrogatory merit achieved by works of superarrogation. They are meritorious above the call of duty, above the call of God. The martyrs, the great saints, Jerome, St Francis of Assisi

9. The Trek to Rome,
Pilgrimages (on foot) encouraged to places with relics
Such a trek would secure indulgences and forgiveness of sin
Martin went on behalf of his deceased grandparents
What did Luther experience in Rome?
Found a city full of corruption and prostitution
“The abysmal ignorance, frivolity and levity of the Italian priests stupefied him”.
Found them “flippant and unbelieving”; rushing thru the liturgy
The climbing of the stairs of the Lateran church repeating the “pater nosters” and kissing each step
Upon reaching the top, “Who knows whether it is so?”
“I had gone to Rome with onions and had returned with garlic”
Doubt remained with him for the next five years
The practice of the pilgrimage during the 16th century. Took place when a pilgrim would go to a cathedral that had a reliquary. Things preserved – hair from John the Baptist for example. Some churches had massive collections of these. So a trek or pilgrimage to a reliquary, you could receive indulgences and forgiveness of sin. The two cities most common for pilgrimages were Jerusalem and Rome. The bones of Peter and Paul were in Rome. The opportunity to make the trip from Germany to Rome was an unbelievable opportunity. Two brothers were selected and Luther was one of the two – this selection gave him more joy than any experience up to this point. Martin wanted to use the indulgences for his parents but since they were alive he dedicated the indulgences to his grandparents. Trek was entirely on foot. This became the most significant disillusionment of his life. He got there by 1511.
When he got there instead of finding a holy city, he found it marked by unprecedented corruption. Priests went through liturgy as quickly as they could to collect the fees. Prostitution widespread.
Desire to go to the Lateran church (The Scala Sancta) which had the steps that Jesus had walked on during his exchange with Pilate. Became a focal point for the selling of indulgences. Steps were brought there during the 4th century crusades. When RC went there he found the practice still going on with the steps covered with pilgrimages and a large sign describing what indulgences were available so this is going on to this day! Pilgrim would crawl up the steps on hands and knees and say a Hail Mary, Rosary prayer. When Luther got there, he said to no one in particular, “Who knows if it is true”. This doubt that was cast into his heart that day remained with Luther for another 5 years.

10. Luther’s Protector Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony
Had a vote in the selection of the Emperor
Wanted to create an intellectual and cultural center in Wittenberg – the “Rome of Germany”
Collected over 19,000 relics to make it a reliquary
In 1518, Emperor Maximillian died
Pope Leo X did not want any of the leading candidates
Effort to persuade Frederick who turned it down
Put Charles of France on the Throne
Frederick persuaded Martin to come to Wittenberg
It is said, that Frederick protected Luther as he wrote and lectured

11. From Erfurt To Wittenberg
After Rome, Luther was transferred to the cloister of Wittenberg in 1511
Spent the rest of his life there (next 35 years)
A village of 2500 people, 10% the size of Erfurt
Less than a mile long
Martin lived in the Augustinian cloister at the opposite end of town from the Castle Church
Chief glory of the village was the recently founded university

13. The Tower Experience The biggest Crisis of them all
The vicar of the Wittenberg Cloister, Johann von Staupitz influence
“If it had not been for Dr. Staupitz, I would have sunk in hell” - Luther
The failure of confession
Luther continued to spend much of his days trying to earn his way to God’s grace
“If ever a monk got to heaven by monkery, I was the monk!”
Staupitz, “If you expect Christ to forgive you, come in with something to forgive – blasphemy, adultery instead of thee peccadilloes”
For Luther, it was not the magnitude of the sin, but whether the sin had been confessed
Luther was at an impasse….Blainton p. 42

14. The Tower Experience The biggest crisis of them all
Luther began to realize that the penitential system failed because it is directed at specific lapses
But man is entirely corrupt!
Suffice it to say Luther lived in perpetual torment
“the horror of nightmare gripped his soul”
Staupitz was a mystic
Accepted the penitential system
Focused on surrendering the whole self to God
Ceasing to strive; give up any assertiveness of the ego
But Luther would ask, “How can one love a God sitting on a rainbow angry and damning?”
Reference to Hartmann Schedel’s, History of the World

15. The Tower Experience The biggest crisis of them all
Luther had also been taught by the scholastics
Taught God was under no obligation to confer onto man any of man’s achievements no matter how meritorious
Luther concluded that God was capricious and unpredictable
Christ the avenger vs. Christ the redeemer

16. Schedel’s
Depiction of
Christ upon
The rainbow

17. The Breakthrough
Staupitz asked Luther to study for his doctorate, undertake preaching and assume the chair of Bible at the university
“It will kill me” said Luther
“Quite all right, God has plenty of work for clever men to do in heaven”, said Staupitz
“Cure others and you will cure yourself”, said Staupitz
Finally, Luther set himself on a course to learn the bible
Began reading Augustine and Peter Lombard
August 1, 1513 began lecturing on the Psalms

18. The Breakthrough Prevailing means of Interpretation included:
Literal Sense
Allegorical meaning
Ethical meaning
Mystical meaning
Luther concluded the bible with this methodology became a “waxed nose”
One needed to find the “literal sense” or plain meaning
No such thing as “Holy Ghost Greek”
His study of Galatians and Romans Greek Text in 1516
Erasmus had translated the NT into Greek in 1515

19. Key Verse: Romans 1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”
The righteousness of God terrified Luther because he knew he could not measure up.
Luther had been taught and the Latin text stated that the just must be made to be righteous
Thus, he labored so hard in the monastery to become righteous
But what does the “righteous or just shall live by faith mean???
He discovered that the Greek text did not agree with the Latin translation
Latin word was justificare – to make righteous and that happened only through the 7 sacraments through the administration of the church
See RC Notes Page

20. Romans 1:17
However, the Greek word for justice, “diakos” did NOT MEAN “to make righteous”, but rather, “to REGARD AS” righteous.
Or, “to declare” or “to count as” righteous
Do you see the difference?
Paul is not talking about the righteousness by which God himself is righteous, but the righteousness that God gives us freely by his grace to people who don’t have any righteousness of their own!!!
And reading Augustine, long since ignored by the Roman Church, he discovered that Paul was talking about a righteousness made available to believers by FAITH!

21. The Breakthrough
Completely altered Luther’s understanding of salvation
This was Luther’s Road to Damascus experience
It meant that the righteousness by which we are saved is not ours
Justicia Alienum – an “alien righteousness” belonging to someone else
“The doors of paradise swung open and I walked through”

22. The Impact of the Breakthrough
There is simply no way to understand Luther’s motives from here on throughout the rest of his life to ever again compromise on the issue of the true meaning of justification by faith alone apart from the saving work of Christ alone.
For the first time in his life, he understood the gospel!!
He began to see the gospel on every page of scripture
What a contrast with the Trek to Rome, the sacrament of penance, the securing credit with the treasury of merit

23. The Construction of St. Peter’s in Rome
Julius the Second succeeded by Leo the 10th
Even RC historians consider them to be two of the most corrupt Popes in history
Popes had the “power of the Keys”
Most important key was to the Treasury of Merit
Leo had bankrupted the church
Prince Albert of Brandenburg
Simony practiced – purchasing of church offices
Albert too young and had two bishoprics
Deal with Pope Leo to buy a third bishopric at Mainz
50% of indulgence revenue from Albert went to the Pope in exchange for Albert getting the right to sell indulgences throughout Germany

24. The Indulgence Controversy Spreads
Back to the Treasury of merit
Excess or surplus merit
An indulgence is a papal grant by which so much merit is taken out of the treasury and applied to someone lacking in merit to shorten their time in purgatory.
In Germany, Frederick the Wise prohibited indulgence selling in Saxony, a region just outside of Wittenberg
This “new” indulgence was prohibited in Wittenberg
But where they were allowed, a Dominican named Johann Tetzel promoted their sale heavily

25. Johann Tetzel Entering a town Pomp and pageantry
Cross with picture of Leo X
Goal was to stir the heartstrings of the people about their deceased relatives in purgatory
“Can you hear their cries?”
“Every time a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.”
Prince Albert: A true spirit of contrition was required of those who purchased indulgences
In many cases this did not occur because of the marketing tactics of Tetzel.
Luther was infuriated accusing Tetzel of abusing his authority and deceiving the people