History of the Christian church

1. Romans 1: 16, 17 TNIV
 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is
the power of God that brings salvation to
everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to
the Gentile.
 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is
revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from
first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous
will live by faith."

2.  Born November 10, 1483, in Eisleben Germany.
 His father was a somewhat ambitious middle-
class silver miner.
 Father desired that he should become a lawyer.
 He began his schooling at an institution ran by
the Brethren of the Common Life in
Magdeburg.

3.  Began his university studies at Erfurt in 1501.
 In 1505 he had a religious changing moment
during a thunderstorm.
 In July of that same year he entered the
Augustinian monastery and became a monk.
 In the winter of 1508 he lectured in theology at
the University in Wittenberg.
 Winter of 1510 – 1511 saw him going to Rome
on business of his order. The excesses seen in
Rome shocked him and awakened his
sensitivity.
 In 1512 he became a theology professor at
Wittenberg.

4.  During his preparations for teaching the Bible
he began to have a new understanding of its
authority.
 Lectured on the Psalms, 1513 – 1515, Romans,
1515 – 1517.
 While lecturing on the Psalms he began to get a
new understanding of God. Psalm 22 brought
to him a new understanding of God.

5.  This controversy grew out of Pope Leo X’s deal
with Albert of Mainz.
 Albert wanted to buy the bishopric of Mainz
and the Pope agreed to grant it to him if he
could raise 10,000 ducats.
 He got a loan and the Pope gave him the
authority to sell indulgences in an effort to
recover the expenses.
 Half of the money raised was to go to the loan
and the other half to the Pope; who, at that
time, was completing St Peter’s Basilica in the
Vatican.

6.  Johann Tetzel; a salesman of high ability and
low ethical standards was given the
commission by Albert to sell the indulgences.
 There was growing apprehension among the
German people against the strategies utilized
by Tetzel; some seeing the sale of indulgences
as being exploitation of the masses.
 At the University City of Wittenberg the whole
affair came to a head when Martin Luther, an
Augustinian friar and professor at the
University challenged Tetzel to a debate on the
sale of indulgences.

7. Doctrine of Indulgence:
 Indulgence is attached to the sacrament of penance
and has its basis in the concept of a “treasury of
merits.”
 The sacrament of penance had three aspects:
“contrition, confession and satisfaction.”
 When first introduced indulgences were supposed
to only absolve a believer from penalties enacted
by the pope.
 Eventually indulgences were seen as being able to
purchase forgiveness of sins, past, present and
even future.
 Pope was seen as being in charge of the “treasury
of merit” and as such had the power to dispense
from it to those who qualify.

8.  The sale of indulgences brought great benefit to
the local bishops as well as the pope.
 Doctrine of indulgence seems to give the pope
authority almost equal to God, if not superior,
since he could proclaim the release of a soul
from purgatory and forgive sins even when not
confessed.

9. Indulgence and Grace:
 Indulgence is an affront to grace.
 Indulgences, according to Luther, are
“deceptive and pernicious….”
 Theory of “treasury of merit” runs contra to the
Bible.
 Indulgences tend toward libertines rather than
contrite believers.

10.  Resented the idea of St. Peter’s being built via
exploitation of the German people.
 Rejected the notion of the pope having
jurisdiction over purgatory and also denied the
“treasury of merits.”
 Attacked the fact that indulgences tend toward
a “wrong state of mind.”

11.  The challenge to Tetzel reached the ears of the Pope
from Luther himself.
 Pope responded to Luther’s arguments by asking the
Augustinians to deal with him.
 Pope sent Cardinal Cajetan on a dual mission to
Germany, (gather support for a crusade against the
Turks and get Luther to recant).
 Luther refused to recant unless his teachings could
be debated and refuted by Scripture.
 John Eck, using the guise of wanting to debate
Karlstadt, debated Luther at Leipzig and during this
debate Luther sided with Huss and affirmed the
Scripture as having authority over the pope and
councils.

12. Superiority of Scripture:
 The doctrine of sola scriptura can be seen as being
the formal cause of the Reformation.
 Scripture is to have priority over popes and
councils.
 He rejected the fourfold interpretation of Scripture
which existed since the time of Origen and instead
proposed the historical-grammatical method.
 At the same time he saw somewhat of a hierarchy
within the Scriptures.
 Presided over the translation of the Scriptures into
German.

13. The Church:
 Church visible is constituted via the
proclamation of the gospel.
 Saw the Church as being both visible and
invisible.
 Understood the Church as being more
functional and not merely historical.
 Priesthood of Believers: In his 1520 work
Freedom of a Christian he promulgated this
concept.

14.  “All Christians are priests by virtue of their
baptism, faith and the gospel.
 This idea struck a blow at the sacerdotal system
and even the monastery was now being
deemed as not being necessary.
 He still had room for the social structure of his
day and favored feudalism over capitalism.

15. Predestination:
 Believed that God has predestined those who
are saved; his concept of predestination is not
the same as Calvin’s
 Attached to his concept of predestination is the
bondage of the will.
Don Matzat describes Luther’s doctrine of
predestination this way:
 Impasse: there is an impasse between the
concepts of man’s depravity, universal grace
and God’s election.

16.  He feared that if we are forced to make
concessions then it will violate the truth.
 The matter of salvation does not depend on
man’s doing but God’s will. However he did
not conclude that there is universal election.
 To him if we investigate it we will not find out
its true meaning.
 To him the doctrine of predestination was not
central but the doctrine of grace was.
 Any debate or discussion of the doctrine of
predestination should be avoided.

17. Sacraments:
 Luther defined a sacrament as “an outward
sign of invisible grace instituted by Christ and
exclusively Christian.”
 Reduced from seven to two; baptism and the
Eucharist.
 Rejected the notion of transubstantiation
proposed consubstantiation.
 His work On the Babylonian Captivity of the
Church dealt with the sacrament of the
Eucharist.
 Retained the term and concept of the “real
presence.”

18. Justification by Grace through Faith:
 As a monk Luther understood the concept of iustia
Dei as being a justice whereby God impartially
judges each individual based upon merit.
 He came to see God as placing upon human beings
a standard to which they cannot reach.
 He did not believe that he could love such a God;
he wanted to find a gracious God.
 He later came to understand that “the
righteousness of God” is that righteousness by
which He justifies humans by faith.
 Saw the righteousness by which the sinner is
justified as being passive and not active.

19. Forensic Justification:
 God who takes the initiative on justification;
the sinner is incapable of self-justification.
 God provides all resources necessary to
justifying the sinner.
 Righteousness given to him by God; the sinner
does not have any righteousness on his/her
own.

20.  Alien righteousness - located outside the
believer; it is not an inherent righteousness.
 God reckons His righteous as if it is part of the
sinners person
 Imputed righteousness; comments on Rom 4:7;
God counts, considers, reckons the sinner as
being righteous.
 In this form of righteousness the individual is
simul Justus et peccator; at the same time just at
the same time sinner.