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Terms
History
Theology
Sacraments
Martin Luther
100
They may or may not have been posted on the University of Wittenberg’s “bulletin board” (the Castle Church door) on October 31, 1517—but they were posted in the mail to the Archbishop of Mainz, Albrecht von Brandenburg.
What is the 95 Theses?
100
In 1543 Luther wrote a series of hateful tracts against them. Although not all of his colleagues approved of them even at that time and sometimes preferred his more balanced comments about these people from 1523, Luther’s comments were for the most part ignored by later Lutherans until the Nazis reprinted them in the 1930s (accusing the Lutheran churches of suppressing them). Only after World War II have many Lutheran churches around the world (including the ELCA) explicitly condemned Luther’s statements about these people.
Who are the Jewish people?
100
In Luther’s defense of the 95 Theses, called the Explanations, Luther first insisted that this, not our decisions or works, creates faith in us and makes us Christians.
What is God's word?
100
Luther preferred immersion for this sacrament. He also embraced the ancient African Christian practice of kissing infants beforehand to honor the hands of God that the child will become in this sacrament.
What is Baptism?
100
Luther composed more than 40 hymns in his lifetime, and in 1529 wrote and composed this tune for what became known as “The Battle Hymn of the Reformation”.
What is "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"?
200
In 1520, Luther became convinced that this word, charis in the Greek New Testament, did not designate a power dwelling in us but God’s undeserved mercy.
What is grace?
200
The chief Lutheran confession of faith, it was presented on June 25, 1530, to Emperor Charles V. Luther compliments its main drafter, Melanchthon, by insisting that Luther could not have treaded so lightly. He also saw it as a fulfillment of Psalm 119:46: “I will also speak of your decrees before kings, and shall not be put to shame.”
What is the Augsburg Confession?
200
When Luther and other reformers distinguished between them, they were not differentiating between the Old and New Testaments but between two ways that God’s word works: to reveal sin and mortify the “old creature”, and to reveal God’s mercy and make the new creature of faith alive.
What is Law and Gospel?
200
Luther didn’t always teach only two. Sometimes he claimed that there were three—and once even said there are seven.
What is the number of sacraments?
200
Among Luther's least favorite books of the Bible, the Reformer would probably have erased it from the canon, along with Esther, Hebrews, James, and Jude. He claimed that a book with this name ought to be revealing.
What is the Revelation to John?
300
In the 16th century, Lutherans accorded special authority to three of Luther’s writings (Small and Large Catechisms and the Smalcald Articles) and placed them in this collection of confessions of faith, along with the Augsburg Confession and its Apology, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, and the Formula of Concord, because these writings especially witnessed to the Christian faith.
What is The Book of Concord?
300
The event at the city of Worms where Martin Luther famously said, “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason … I am bound by the Scriptures that I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.”
What is the Diet of Worms?
300
In Luther’s last great tract, On the Councils and the Churches (1539), he listed seven visible markings of the true church: preaching and professing the gospel; baptism; the Lord’s Supper; public absolution; the call and consecration of public ministers; public prayer, praise and the catechism; and this, which means misfortune and persecution.
What is the cross?
300
In 1529, when asked in a debate over this to explain how Christ could be truly present at God's right hand AND somewhere else, Luther responded that people should not argue about mathematical concepts concerning “place” but simply believe Christ’s promise to be truly present.
What is the Lord's Supper?
300
Martin Luther did not think of himself as a reformer of the church, as only this person could truly be the reformer of the church. Luther considered himself at best a John the Baptist, pointing to this one true reformer.
Who is Jesus Christ?
400
Although Luther did not always mind that people called his followers this, he preferred to think of all believers as “Christians.” In German-speaking areas, the usual designation is “evangelisch”—that is, people oriented toward the gospel.
What is Lutheran?
400
It ravaged central Europe from 1524 to 1525. Luther and several other important leaders of the Reformation wrote against the uprising—not only as a breach of fealty by those in revolt but also as a misuse of God’s word for selfish ends. Luther was one of the few who, at least initially, also blamed the rulers for exploiting their subjects.
What is The Peasants' War?
400
By defining this as the assembly of believers where the gospel is proclaimed and the sacraments rightly administered, Luther (sometimes) included Anabaptists and Roman Catholics as being it.
What is the Church?
400
In communion, at least at one point, Luther believed we actually swallow this person, who enters our bodies.
Who is Jesus Christ?
400
Luther's chief complaint in his famous 95 theses, he said that it undermined people's faith in God.
What is bad preaching?
500
Luther was not actually one but a friar. Friars (Dominicans, Franciscans and Augustinians) lived in community in cities and often had responsibilities as university professors of theology or preachers. These, on the other hand, often lived in isolated areas and focused their lives on work and prayer.
What is a monk?
500
One of Luther’s chief contributions to German society in the 16th century was his consistent concern for the poor. He refused to glorify self-chosen poverty and thought it was a citizen’s duty to help those who were living in poverty, especially through the establishment of this fund.
What is the Community Chest?
500
Luther understood this as the common priesthood believers share with Christ through baptism not as a way to divide the clergy and laity but as a way to unite them in it. He felt that within that common priesthood, different members have different “offices,” but all are spiritually equal in God’s grace.
What is the Body of Christ?
500
While reformers rejected it as a sacrament of the church, they expanded the role of the church in it. The ceremony was moved from outside the church on the doorstep—a medieval practice—to inside the sanctuary in front of the altar.
What is marriage?
500
With this phrase, Luther excluded all human preconditions for receiving God’s mercy, so that faith itself can never be a “work” we do for God but a relationship God establishes with us through word and sacrament. That is why his explanation of the third article of the Creed in the Small Catechism begins, “I believe that … I cannot believe.”
What is "faith alone"?