What is the history of the Lutheran Church?

Answer 1

The Lutheran church began with historic Christian reformer Martin Luther, born in 1483. He was a German theologian and leader of the Reformation. The Reformation was a movement in Western Europe during the 16th century, which aimed at reforming some doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the establishment of the Protestant churches. Luther himself was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic church for his attacks on the wealth and corruption of the papacy, and his belief that salvation would be granted on the basis of faith alone rather than by works. In 1521, the same year in which he was excommunicated, Luther was summoned before the Diet of Worms. The Diet was a general assembly of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire that occurred in Worms, Germany, from January to May in 1521. When an edict of the Diet called for Luther's seizure, his friends took him for safekeeping to Wartburg, the castle of Elector Frederick III of Saxony. It was here that Luther translated the New Testament into German. This was published on 21 September 1522. Luther also began translating the entire Bible, which took him 10 years to complete. He was motivated by Erasmus , a Dutch scholar and contemporary of Martin Luther. As an ordained monk as well, Erasmus saw how the Bible was being withheld from the common people. Like Luther, Erasmus was critical of some Roman Catholic beliefs, abuses and practices. He became a scholar of Latin and Greek, carefully studied the original Greek texts and put together the first copy of the Greek translation of the Bible, in 1516.

This action had further repercussions, giving Luther the foundation, and motivation, to translate the entire New Testament into German. This in turn made the Bible accessible to all people, which was what Luther wanted: to make the Gospel of Salvation available to everyone. For centuries, the Roman Catholic church had free reign on their interpretation of the Bible, as there were no copies in a language available to the common man. Luther's translation was one of the means which made the Bible available to all.

Luther's extensive writing on church matters included the composition of hymns, liturgy, and two catechisms that are basic statements of the Lutheran church. Luther actually died, believing he was a Catholic. He had loyal followers who took his works and doctrines, and developed a new protestant denomination branch based on these. See also the weblinks below.