While most Americans spend the evening of Oct. 31 dressed in imaginative costumes knocking on their neighbors’ doors begging for treats, most Christians — and LDS members should as well — celebrate a world-shaking event that took place on this evening in 1517 in the small German university town of Wittenberg. Knowing that on the morning of Nov. 1, the sacred All Saints Day, dignitaries, professors, students and town folk would enter the Castle Church to celebrate mass, the Catholic priest and Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, pinned 95 theses on the entrance to the church. It was customary in those days to formulate grievances as thesis statements and publish them in a well-attended spot, challenging interested parties to a public debate about the issues.

Who was this relatively unknown monk and what motivated him to such a courageous act? Luther was born on Nov. 10, 1483 in the central German town of Eisleben to an ambitious mine operator and a deeply devoted mother. He received an excellent education, earning an MA in law. His father wanted him to enter the prestigious diplomatic service. But the Lord had a different destiny in mind for this precocious young man. The passing of a friend and a close encounter with death during a violent thunderstorm caused him to change his career and enter the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt to devote his life to God. He studied theology, was ordained a priest in 1507 and in 1512, was awarded the Doctor of Theology degree from the newly founded University of Wittenberg. From then on, he occupied the chair of biblical studies at the university.

For years Luther had been plagued by a fundamental question: What can sinful man expect from God’s justice? Luther longed for God’s mercy but feared His condemnation. How could he please a God who was angry with him, and how could he escape His vengeance? The church had prescribed the way of meticulous confession and the performance of works, pilgrimages to sacred shrines and prayers before the relics of saints. Several intimate experiences drove Luther to desperation, and he began to hate God, an unpardonable sin. Finally, after years of agonizing struggle, he received his answer from the Apostle Paul, who in his Epistle to the Romans admonished Jewish converts to forsake the detailed “works” prescribed by the Law of Moses in favor of accepting Christ by faith: “The just shall live by faith” (Rom 1:17).

When members of his parish no longer came to confession, but returned with letters of indulgences firmly believing that their sins had been forgiven them by purchasing these documents, Luther was greatly troubled for the souls of his sheep. After much thought he decided to act and called on his learned colleagues to debate the issue of indulgences and reject this immoral practice. On Oct. 31, 1507, the eve of a major church holiday, All Saints, when thousands of pilgrims and church dignitaries would attend sacred services in the Castle Church of Wittenberg, Luther pinned 95 thesis to the church door. Written in Latin, they were intended for the consideration of educated church and secular leaders, but were almost immediately translated into the vernacular and spread like wildfire throughout Europe:

1. When our Lord and master Jesus Christ said, “Repent”, he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.

2. This word can not be understood as referring to the sacrament of penance, that is, confession and satisfaction, as administered by the clergy.

42. Christians are to be taught that the pope does not intend that the buying of indulgences should in any way be compared with works of mercy.

43. Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better deed than he who buys indulgences.

45. Christians are to be taught that he who sees a needy man and passes him by, yet gives money for indulgences, does not buy papal indulgences but God’s wrath.

71. Let him who speaks against the truth concerning papal indulgences be anathema and accursed.

82. “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? [A reference to the construction of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome.] The former reason would be most just, the latter is most trivial.

88. “What greater blessing could come to the church than if the pope were to bestow these remissions and blessings on every believer a hundred times a day, as he now does but once?” [A reference to special sales on certain days.]

It is well known what transpired next. The church rejected Luther’s challenge, excommunicated him in late 1520 and in the Imperial Diet of Worms, in May 1521, he was stripped of all his civil rights and marked for execution. Fortunately his benefactor, Frederic the Wise, the powerful Duke of Saxony, saved his life by hiding him for a year in one of his fortresses, the Wartburg Castle. There, Luther translated the New Testament from the original Greek into modern German, a monumental task which not only made it possible for literate people to read the scriptures for themselves, but also established the basis for the modern, unified written German language.

Since the Catholic Church rejected the reforms proposed by Luther, he had no choice but to break its formidable power and establish the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church, which to this day dominates much of northern Europe. Space and time prevent me from enumerating all of Martin Luther’s considerable reforms. Let me state in closing, however, how indebted we Latter-day Saints are to this courageous reformer. We esteem him gratefully as a prominent forerunner of the restoration. Numerous statements by Church leaders underline the vital role Luther played in preparing the way for Joseph Smith and the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On this Halloween, this holy evening, let us not merely enjoy the chocolate candy but also remember this great man, a favorite son of our Heavenly Father.

Hans-Wilhelm Kelling
Professor of German at BYU