FREE ESSAY ON MARTIN LUTHER

MARTIN LUTHER

Martin Luther
In this paper I will write about Martin Luther and how I agree with what he did for our
religious beliefs. I feel that any person who will stand up for what he or she believes
in is best thing you could do. If no one ever stood up for what they believed in then we
wouldn't be free like we are today. I will include some quotes from my readings to give a
brief description as to why I agree.
I would first like to say that when Martin Luther was hit by a bolt of lightning and
decided that he would have to enter a monastery, because he hoped that a penitential life
would help him overcome his sense of guilt. This makes it obvious that he believes in god
and doing right will give him salvation. Therefore when he started to go against the
Catholic beliefs, it wasn't because no one else could believe in it. It was because he
didn't believe in it and he thought that there were people that believed the same way he
did. 
When in Wittenberg Luther published ninety-five theses, or statements on indulgences that
he offered to debate with experts in Christian doctrine. He wrote this because this was
what he believed to be correct teachings on indulgences. He felt that it was unforgivable
that people should be deprived of their hard-earned money for spurious, worthless
promises. I too agree with that, when I go to church and money is being collected, I
don't feel like I am giving money to save my soul, I feel like I am giving money to keep
the church open. If I had to give money to feel saved, then I don't think I would go to
church anymore, because I feel that as long as you believe in god and are a good person
that my soul will be saved. 
After being excommunicate by Pope Leo X, Luther continued to believe what he believed in.
He declared "I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is unsafe and wrong to go
against my conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen." Luther
then went and developed his ideas and shaped them into a formal set of beliefs that
influenced most of the subsequent variations of Protestant Christianity. These doctrines
have remained the basis of Lutheranism ever since.
The influence that this first Protestant Church was to exert on all of European life was
immense. The idea that all believers were equal in the eyes of God inspired revolutionary
changes in though and society. It justified anitmonarchical constitutional theories, it
allowed people to feel that all occupations were equally worthy and that there was
nothing wrong with the life of the merchant or even the money-lender and it undermined
the hierarchic view of the universe. Lutheranism made people more self-reliant, because
independent and pioneering behavior was far from new.