Many years ago - about 500 actually - a young priest was tortured by his own sinfulness, and even more tortured by the righteousness of God that terrified and condemned him. For years this priest wrestled with this image of God who expected more than what humanity could do. Then one day this man - named Martin Luther - had an epiphany while reading Romans 1:17. Luther realized that God did not expect us to be righteous, but knew that in the salvific event of Jesus' death we were made righteous with God. That epiphany led Luther to question the practice of selling indulgences which the church was doing. Luther knew that if we were made right in Jesus' death, then it wasn't right to sell forgiveness, even if the Pope said it was.
On October 31, 1517, Luther nailed a letter which came to be known as the 95 Theses on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany. He did this so that people coming in to worship on All Saints Day (November 1) would see the letter and it would engender discussion on the topic. With the letter Luther hoped to invite people to debate about it. But it became much more than a community debate. Word of the letter spread throughout the region, and within a few years Luther had been excommunicated, and the movement gave birth to a movement and a church. The Protestant Church.
