Wittenberg Castle Church

Hi, I’m Pastor Lutzer in Wittenberg, Germany. With me is a tour group, and we are touring Germany and learning all about German history … at least some of the German history that is most important to us. Today, we are in the city of Wittenberg, famous, of course, because this is where Martin Luther lived, and he lived here with his wife, Katie. Behind me is the church, the castle church, on which Luther nailed the 95 Theses.

Now, in order for you to understand what happened, we have to go back to Rome, where Pope Leo was hoping to raise money to finish St. Peter’s Basilica. It had been built before, but it was not finished, and he needed money. So, as a result of that, there was the indulgence trade. Now, indulgences have a long history in the Catholic Church, and they were not really documents that could forgive your sin, at least technically. An indulgence was a payment that was made in order to take care of the temporal consequences of your sin. As a result, some people began to ask themselves whether or not a specific sin might be worth it, considering how much they might pay for the temporal consequences.

During Luther’s time, the indulgence trade was ramped up, so to speak. Men like Tetzel, who went about saying things like, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, another soul from Purgatory springs.” Now, just think about that for a moment. What he was saying was these indulgences are not just for the living, but they’re for the dead as well. Furthermore, he used emotion. He would say to the parents, or to the children of the parents, “Your mother is in Purgatory. She is crying. But for a few pence, you can buy her out.” And so a lot of people from Wittenberg went across the river where the indulgences were sold, and they came back and they showed Luther.

Some of them bought indulgences for sins that they had not committed but planned to commit. Well, when Luther saw that, he was very angry! When he wrote the 95 Theses, it was not as if he was intending to break from the church. Not at all. He did it as a loyal son of the Catholic Church, interested only in challenging the abuses of the church.

Now, behind me is the door. Of course, the original door is no longer there. It was burned in a fire. But you can see here the 95 Theses in Latin, and they are engraved on this door. But let’s look above the door, and what you will see is the crucified Christ. To the left, you have Martin Luther with an open Bible. To the right, you have Melanchthon with the Augsburg Confession, and the skyline is the skyline of Wittenberg. So here we are where history was made. Now, when we think of the 95 Theses, I want to emphasize again that they were not critical, necessarily of indulgences as such. He was only attacking the abuse of indulgences.

Now, many of you have heard of the 95 Theses, of course, because from here there was a spark that lit a fire throughout all of Europe, so to speak. Because the printing press had been invented, Luther wrote the 95 Theses in Latin. They were translated into German, they were sent throughout Germany, and all of Germany agreed with Luther’s complaint, so to speak. That began what is known as the Protestant Reformation.

After that, one thing happened after another, and you and I are affected by the consequences. Now, I’m going to ask some people to come up here, because many people have heard of the 95 Theses, but they have no idea what it is that they said. So, I’ve asked these individuals if they would please read from the Theses. They can say what number they are reading, and they read it for us, so that we get some sense of what Luther was concerned about. I’m actually going to begin with thesis numbers one and two. This is critical.

The Vulgate said that people must do penance for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Well, penance is very different than repentance. And so Luther,  going back to the original Greek, saw the error of the Vulgate. Here are theses numbers one and two:

When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said, Repent, he willed that the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.

This word cannot be understood as referring to the sacraments of penance, that is confession and satisfaction as administered by the clergy.

What Luther is going to emphasize is that repentance is a matter of the heart. It isn’t doing some good deed to make up for your sin. Well, let’s begin here, right next to me. You don’t need to give us your name, but tell us what thesis you are reading.

Number 10: Those priests act ignorantly and wickedly, who, in the case of the dying reserve, canonical penalties for purgatory.

Number 21: Thus those indulgence preachers are an error who say that a man is absolved from every penalty and saved by papal indulgences.

Number 27: They preach only human doctrines who say that as soon as the money clinks into the money chests, the soul flies out of purgatory.

Number 32: Those who believe that they can be certain of their salvation because they have indulgence letters will be eternally damned together with their teachers.

Number 52: It is vain to trust in salvation by indulgence letters, even though the indulgence commissary, or even the Pope would offer his soul as security.

Number 79: To say that the cross, emblazoned with the papal coat of arms and set up by the indulgence preachers, is equal in worth to the cross of Christ is blasphemy

Number 81: This unbridled preaching of indulgences makes it difficult even for learned men to rescue the reverence which is due the pope from slander or from the shrewd questions of the laity.

Number 82: Such as: “Why does not the pope empty purgatory for the sake of holy love and the dire need of the souls that are there if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a church?” The former reason would be most just; the latter is most trivial.

Number 94: Christians should be exhorted to be diligent in following Christ their head through penalties death and hell.

Number 95: And thus be confident of entering into heaven through many tribulations, rather than through the false security of peace. (Acts 14:22).

So, we have it very clearly stated. Luther is saying that indulgences cannot be purchased as a means to go to heaven or as a means to have your sins forgiven. So, in the 95 Theses, what he was doing was criticizing their abuse.

Now, there are some lessons that we have to learn here. One of them is this: When God wants to do something big, he sometimes begins by something that appears to be insignificant. Who would have believed that a professor who wanted these 95 Theses to be the means of a debate would eventually touch the whole world from here, Luther had various debates and disputations, and he clarified his theology as things went on, and he ended up being willing to stand against Pope and Emperor.

Something else: When Luther at the Diet of Worms said, “My conscience is taken captive by the Word of God, I cannot and I will not recant. So help me, God,” he planted the seed of freedom of religion. Now he was supposed to be put to death. He wasn’t, for some fascinating reasons that we can’t go into, but there was no freedom of religion. But as a result of that, that seed eventually grew into the Peace of Westphalia, 1648,

Freedom of religion in Europe … my dear brothers and sisters, let’s never take freedom for granted, and let’s always remember, “The just shall live by faith.” Thank you so much for joining us from Wittenberg, Germany.