This weekend marks a big party celebration. It’s Halloween weekend! Costumes and candy, and all things scary will be rampant. There’s a lot of interesting information that I learned about this “holiday” but I’m not quite knowledgeable to discuss this in depth; I’m still absorbing it, and frankly, some of the things I’ve learned about the history of Halloween are evil. I’ll have to save this for another time. (Wink) However, if you’re so inclined, you can read about Halloween and ties to Samhain.
Recently, I read about an incredible event that happened and it’s not celebrated in the Catholic or Christian religions, at least not that I know of. It’s an eye-opening revelation and I’m just scratching the surface. You’ll need to do your own research, but I feel compelled to share some of my findings.
Martin Luther, a German Monk was the man who was responsible for lighting the fire of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century, protesting the Vatican along with many others, in their defiant battle cry of Sola Scriptura, which means Scripture only, and bringing the Word of God to the masses. He is responsible for translating the Bible into the German language.
Why is this important? Because over 500 years ago, on October 31st, 1517 (Halloween), Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the church door at Wittenberg to start a discussion about abuses and other problems he saw in the church of his day.
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You see, during the Roman Empire in the 5th and 6th centuries, the Roman Catholic Church, used the Latin version of the Bible, called the Latin Vulgate, for only those in the elite Catholic hierarchy, bishops, popes, cardinals, etc. Only those in the church who read Latin, could decipher it, and explain it to the common folk like you and me. It was said that the Bible was chained to the alters of the church, and not to be removed. No one else had access to the Word of God except those in the Church. This continued well after the fall of the Roman Empire.
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Over a thousand or so years later, when Martin Luther, a monk and university teacher, heard Johann Tetzel’s message, he was livid. Johann’s job was raising money for the building of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
“When a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from Purgatory springs.” Tetzel claimed.
Tetzel explained that the Pope had sent the common people a gift, a way to escape the flames of eternal damnation: a special indulgence granted for the building of St. Peter’s church in Rome. If they paid for this indulgence and thus help build this church, they would “lay the stone of eternal salvation” for themselves.
God did not command the preaching of indulgences, but of the Gospel! These indulgences were just paper. “You must trust in God’s love,” Luther urged his congregants.
Luther raised his voice with a desire to bring an end to this injustice. The reign of the church was keeping people from a relationship with God, using practices that separated them from the very One who came to save them by His grace through faith in Christ.
“For as long as I have God’s Word, I know that I am walking in His way and that I shall not fall into any error or delusion.”
—Martin Luther
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This historical event thus opened up the translation of the Bible to English by another man, William Tyndale, which later became one of the biggest publishing houses.
If it weren’t for men like Martin Luther or William Tyndale, and many others, the Bible would not be in the hands of millions and millions of people and translated into 704 languages. According to Wikipedia, there could be over 3,000 translations between the Old Testament, the New Testament, and other books of the Bible.
So while everyone else is celebrating Halloween on October 31st, we might want to give thanks and homage to the Reformation Movement as well.
References:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/martin-luther-posts-95-theses
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulgate
www.revelationmedia.com
https://www.christian-history.org/john-tetzel.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tyndale
https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Tyndale
https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/samhain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_translations