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Works to Make up for His Sins. Martin Luther Wondered, “Could He Really Be Admitted to Heaven on the Basis of His Actions Alone ?”

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Works to Make up for His Sins. Martin Luther Wondered, “Could He Really Be Admitted to Heaven on the Basis of His Actions Alone ?” 1 Martin Luther Name: ______________________________ Prd: ___ Score: _____ / 15 & his 95 Theses Directions : Highlight the answer in the text on the left before answering the questions on the right . Martin Luther of Germany was the person most responsible for the reform movement called Martin Luther is the Reformation . He was born in 1483, & as a responsible for __. young man, wanted to become a lawyer. But one a. The Renaissance night, as the story goes, Martin was caught in b. The Reformation a thunderstorm. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning c. writing the Bible hit him & knocked him to the ground! Terrified, d. monasteries he promised God that if he lived through the storm, he would become a monk. Luther lived & indeed became a monk. As a monk , he spent most of his time thinking about religion Applying past knowledge : As a monk , & became a professor of religion. All the while, Martin Luther must have spent much of his he tried desperately to sort out his ideas about time at the monastery _____. religion. He was convinced that he had a. painting d. all the above committed many sins. The Church taught him b. reading the Bible e. a & b only that he could get to heaven IF he did good c. praying to God f. b & c only works to make up for his sins. Martin Luther wondered, “Could he really be admitted to heaven on the basis of his actions alone ?” Luther fasted & prayed constantly. Finally, he began reading the Bible very carefully. He focused on the words of the apostle Paul, who wrote, “The just shall live by faith alone.” Then Luther decided that he could earn God’s love by having great faith in God. Luther came to believe that he could not get to heaven simply Gutenberg's Bible by lighting candles, praying all the time, or donating money to the Church. Getting into heaven was not a matter of behavior. It was a matter of faith. Luther might have kept his ideas to himself had a Dominican friar named Johann Tetzel not come Tenzel's indulgence box to Germany in l517. Here is how Luther’s diary MIGHT have told what took place then: Johann Tetzel Wittenber, Saxony Holy Roman Empire November 26, 1519 I still can’t believe what is happening! Everything has changed since the day Johann Tetzel came to town selling indulgences , or pardons. People would tell him they had committed a sin, then pay him money. Then Tetzel would tell them that God forgave them! He didn’t ask if they were sorry, & it Indulgences is another word for ___. didn’t even matter how serious the sin was! As a. sins c. pardons long as they had money, they were pardoned! b. annoyances d. towns 2 That hasn’t always been the practice of the In the past , pardons had been intended for Church. Pardons were ways that people could ___________________________________ make up for past or future sins. One way of ________________________ (what purpose?) . getting pardons was by giving money for the poor. But pardon--selling began during the Crusades. Now, the practice is approved of by our local bishop & the pope in Rome! In my opinion, the selling of pardons goes too far! Making inferences : Why would selling pardons Besides, I don’t think God would forgive a sin (indulgences) be “bad for the people as well as unless the sinner was really sorry. The whole bad for the church "? ____________________ business of indulgences is bad for the people ___________________________________ & bad for the Church. ___________________________________ I thought about what Tetzel was doing…then I did what any good Christian teacher would do. I Making inferences : Why would nailing these challenged Tetzel & others to talk about it. I wrote 95 theses to the church door upset the Church ? up a list of things I believed. I said it seemed to me __________________________________ that the best way to get to heaven was to have faith __________________________________ in God & in Christ. I added that I didn’t think you could buy your way into heaven. In all, my list had 95 theses (or statements) in it …& I nailed my list up on the church door! But I didn’t realize what a big fuss there would be! Applying current knowledge : Who was (ultimately) Someone took my list & printed it! Before I knew it, responsible for the printing of these theses ? every town was reading what I wrote. Tetzel was a. Martin Luther King c. Leonardo da Vinci heckled & thrown out of Germany! b. Johann Tetzel d. Johann Gutenberg I thought the fuss would die down, but people just wouldn’t stop talking about my list. They kept arguing about my ideas, & that made me think even more. I went back to the Bible & read more & more. Now I’ve reached some new conclusions about my faith. I think the Church has made many mistakes. I think it has forgotten some of the things Jesus taught us. I agreed that human beings are sinful by nature… but I don’t believe any of us can get into Heaven by buying indulgences or even by praying. According to the Bible , faith is the most important thing for a Christian. It’s more important than Church ceremonies & building expensive cathedrals. Merchant selling indulgences like the 1 shown below . It’s even more important than how priests live or if they get married. The pope has tried to get me to say I’m mistaken, Translation : but I won’t unless someone can show me in the Bible “With the Authority of all Saints & with that I am wrong! I’m sorry I have to disagree with my Church, but I’m convinced I’m right. So, I’m mercy for you, I going to keep on teaching & writing. I want all free you of all sins & crimes & excuse you from all Christians everywhere to know the truth! ~ martin Luther punishments for ten days.” – Johann Tetzel In 1521, the pope excommunicate d Luther, & Match these terms to their definition : the Holy Roman Emperor (Charles V) declared him (Don’t guess! Look them up in a dictionary if you have to!) an outlaw. Charles asked Luther if he would ____ excommunicate a. non-believer recant (take back) the heretic al statements in ____ heretic (think Akhenaten) b. withdraw his books. Luther refused! ____ recant c. throw out 3 Luther said that he could not go against his conscience unless convinced to do so by the Bible or by reason. The angry emperor dismissed Luther, then issued the Edict of Worms which branded Luther an outlaw!! It also banned all of Luther’s writings! The Prince of Saxony liked Luther & gave him a safe haven in his castle for a year. During Addressing Martin Luther & the effects that time, Luther translated the entire New of the Protestant Reformation Testament from Greek to German. Then in BONUS : Give a synonym for “ safe haven .” 1522, he began preaching again. ________________________________ The pope & Charles V would have liked to get rid of Luther, but much of Germany was ruled Applying past knowledge : What is a civil war ? by regional princes. Many of them defended _________________________________ Luther & fought back against Charles V. This _________________________________ led to a bloody civil war . Large numbers of _________________________________ people were killed on both sides. But Luther was able to live out his life in peace. He spent his time preaching his views. And his ideas did catch on. Soon people in many parts of Europe, especially in Germany, called themselves Luther ans. ☺ Why did Luther’s ideas catch on so quickly? Finish reading this page : Then list 3 There were several reasons for their success. reasons WHY Luther's ideas caught on Some Europeans were already challenging the so quickly . 1) _________________________ Church. Some of them were convinced of ___________________________________ Luther’s teachings. Others were simply tired 2) _________________________________ of paying tax money to Rome. 3) _________________________________ Lutheranism also spread quickly because some of its rituals were the same as Catholic rituals. For example, Luther believed in baptism & communion because they were described in the Bible . Preserving these rituals reassured former Catholics. It made their conversion to Lutheranism easier. Even so, Lutheranism might not have become So popular. Just before Luther was born, an important invention had been made; & that was the printing press ! The main credit for this is usually given to a German silversmith named Johann Gutenberg . Before the printing press, remember? books had to be copied by hand. * This took a Applying past knowledge : *Who was good long time & very few copies were made. responsible for copying books prior to the But the printing press made it possible to print printing press ? _________________ many books quickly & quite cheaply. (Clue: Put yourself back in the monastery… ☺) 4 Martin Luther’s movement depended on books. In Luther’s views, people could increase their faith by learning what was in the Bible . But to do that, they must be able to read it! Before Luther’s time, most books were written in Latin, the language of the clergy. By the time Drawing conclusions : How was Luther able of his death, Luther had translated the entire to inspire people to learn how to read ? Bible into German. In this way, he gave his ___________________________________ followers a powerful motive for learning ___________________________________ how to read! ___________________________________ When he began, Martin Luther had considered himself a good Roman Catholic. Before he died in l546, however, he knew he had started a Luther's new church. His church was different from 95 Theses the Roman Catholic Church in many ways.
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