Free Republic

At the time, few would have suspected that the sound of a hammer striking the castle church door in Wittenberg, Germany, would soon be heard around the world and lead ultimately to the greatest transformation of Western society since the apostles first preached the Gospel throughout the Roman empire. Martin Luther’s nailing of his ninety-five theses to the church door on October 31, 1517, provoked a debate that culminated finally in what we now call the Protestant Reformation. An heir of Bishop Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther is one of the most significant figures God has raised up since that...

Justification No doctrine is more important to evangelical theology than the doctrine of justification by faith alone--the Reformation principle of sola fide.Martin Luther called it the article that determines whether the church is standing or falling.History provides plenty of objective evidence to affirm Luther's assessment.Churches and denominations that hold firmly to sola fide remain evangelical.Those willing to yield at this point inevitably capitulate to liberalism, revert to sacerdotalism, or embrace even worse forms of apostasy.Historic evangelicalism has therefore always treated justification by faith as a central biblical distinctive--if not the single most important doctrine to get right.It would not be...

The following is from the web page Luther, Exposing the Myth, under the heading "On Sin": "Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides... No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day" ['Let Your Sins Be Strong, from 'The Wittenberg Project;' 'The Wartburg Segment', translated by...

Recently-across-the-Tiber Jason Reed says:"And then, as I started reading the reformers, they're Catholic! Luther believed in the devotion to Mary." While Luther said nice things about Mary, his mature Mariology is not modern-day Roman Catholic Mariology. Saying nice things about Mary is not the same thing as Roman Catholic Marian devotion, both then and now. Young Luther, Saints, and the Virgin Young Luther was enveloped in a religious climate consisting of a host of saints and superstitions. All worked together in a grand scheme of relief from the ravages of medieval life as well as appeasing the always-watching wrathful God....