Martin Luther started steps which led to Protestantism

Joyce Voysey

From Martin Luther * - www.spurgeon.org/-phil/history/95 theses:

		Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences Commonly Known as The 95 Theses by Dr. Martin Luther

Out of love and concern for the truth, and with the object of eliciting it, the following heads will be the subject of a public discussion at Wittenberg under the presidency of the reverend father, Martin Luther, Augustinian, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and duly appointed Lecturer on these subjects in that place. He requests that whoever cannot be present personally to debate the matter orally will do so in absence in writing.

The 95 Theses can all be read in this entry on the Internet – The Spurgeon Archive*.  I like number 93: Hail, hail to all those prophets who say to Christ's people, "The cross, the cross," where there is no cross. **


 It seems to echo something from Mary Baker Eddy which I cannot put a finger on.  But she certainly tells us we must take up the cross as Jesus advised his disciples they must do.  See Luke 9:23-25, which is a daily duty for students of Christian Science.

Luther was calling for public scholarly debate
of these 95 points at the University of Wittenberg.  He pinned a copy to the Castle Church at Wittenberg.  The main cause of complaint was the sale of indulgences by the Pope and other clergy.

Luther sent a hand-written copy, accompanied with honourable comments, to the archbishop Albert of Mainz and Magdeburg, responsible for the practice of the indulgence sales, and to the bishop of Brandenburg, the superior of Luther. Within two weeks, copies of the Theses had spread throughout Germany; within two months throughout Europe. It was not until January 1518 that Christoph von Scheurl and other friends of Luther translated the Ninety-Five Theses from Latin into German, printed, and widely copied them, making the controversy one of the first in history to be aided by the printing press.

What a remarkable history printing had in the lead up to the printing of the Christian Science textbook, which is a Key to the Scriptures, in 1875.   Copies of the textbook carry the information that the book (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures) was “entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1875, by Mary Baker Glover”, with the Congress Catalog Card Number 00-105023.

** Ed.  Thesis 45 hints at Luther’s thinking: Christians are to be taught that he who sees a man in need, and passes him by, and gives [his money] for pardons, purchases not the indulgences of the pope, but the indignation of God.