How the Reformation Shaped Your World | 5 Minute Video
Can one man change the world? The life and work of Martin Luther prove the answer to that question is an unqualified, “yes.” Stephen Cornils of the Wartburg Theological Seminary details the rebellion that fractured a centuries-old religion and changed the course of history.
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Script:
Five hundred years ago, on October 31, 1517, a German Catholic monk by the name of Martin Luther posted some complaints he had about the Catholic Church on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany.
Luther was upset by the Church practice of selling what were known as “indulgences” to wealthy patrons. Indulgences might be loosely described as “get out of hell free” cards: pay this amount to the Church and the Church would make sure you don’t suffer unduly for your sins in the hereafter.
Luther felt very strongly that the practice not only made the Church look bad in the eyes of the common people, but had no scriptural basis. He believed the Church needed to reform itself or would lose its legitimacy.
Nobody, including Luther, thought that his complaints—and he had made a list of 95 of them—would amount to much. He simply wanted to spark a discussion on an issue that deeply concerned him. Instead, he set off a chain reaction that literally changed the course of history.
The name we give to this change is the Protestant Reformation.
Had Luther limited his criticism of the Church to indulgences as his friend, the Dutch scholar Erasmus, urged him to do, the matter might have been resolved and the old order preserved. But the headstrong Luther was not someone to be restrained.
Luther was what we could call today a flawed individual. He was brilliant and charismatic, but he was also vindictive and stubborn to a fault, and at the end of his life, sadly anti-Semitic.
Luther believed there should be no separation between the Bible and the believer. Every individual should have access to the word of God, Luther contended, as any priest did—or even the Pope. We take this view for granted now, but in the 16th century it was a radical concept.
And here’s why:
For more than a thousand years, the Church had been the dominant religious and political authority in Europe. It alone taught Christians how to understand the Bible. Luther was now challenging the very basis of this authority.
Not surprisingly, the Church didn’t take it well. What began as a squabble between a bold monk and the Catholic hierarchy soon developed into a titanic and bloody struggle that split Europe into opposing religious factions.
But the consequences of Luther’s ideas extended far beyond a religious dispute. It’s not an exaggeration to say that as a result of Luther’s ideas the modern individual was born—a free actor endowed with God-given rights that exist independent of government or any other institution. Each person could find those rights by reading and interpreting the Bible for himself.
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What sick opportunistic leaders could see early Christians burned at the stake,
then abuse their power to burn others in the same way.
The Catholic church was in need of heavy reform.
The concept of a pope should be utterly condemned.
Luther got into trouble with the Church not because of his concern about the abuse of indulgences; he invented a false version of Christianity by claiming that “Faith Alone” saved people . He translated the Bible into German but dishonestly added the word “alone” after Faith into Paul’s letter to the Romans, to justify his decision to invent a new religion.
He claimed the right to follow his own conscience, and then murdered thousands of people who disagreed with him. Some hero!
Great video. Lesson learnt and thank you!
I learned about Martin Luther in history class. He was truly a bold man. He also helped some nuns escape from their covenant and he married one named Katharina Von Bora. She was originally the daughter of a minor Saxon noble but her father was impoverished and so he sent to a nunnery when she was about 5. Originally, Luther married her to ensure her well-being, but they truly grew to love each other. They had six children together and both were loving, diligent parents and partners.
The factual mistakes and skewed perspective of this video makes me wonder about the reliability of the rest of PragerU
If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and right. Martin Luther
What a Dollar novel.
Luther scaterred the sheep, Christ had gathered.
Luther's antisemitism would go on to inspire the Nazis…
Sinful men continue to sin and dying until Jesus return
I’m not surprised 500 years gone by, but mortal and sinful men have not learned much of Gods grace and mercy
Oh wow. That is a accurate account of Martin Luther. I am impressed. It was better than I expected from PragerU. It is strange to call indulgences as "get out of Hell free cards". I guess that is okay as a simplifications. What the indulgences actually do was shorten a person's sentence in purgatory. Purgatory is a very great and very underrated idea. It is a shame that the Catholic clergy exploited the idea for profiteering. This is the biggest problem that provoked the Reformation. This problem is most likely the reason why Purgatory isn't in Protestant denominations. Martin Luther is my favorite person in Christian History. He rebelled against the tyranny of the Catholics. Yet he also adhered to all the good stuff about Catholics. I think that a lot of the other Protestants in the Reformation went too far in the opposite. The good part about the Protestants is the independence with a focus on the Bible and forming different denominations. Baptists and Quakers are especially great at independence, because they really minimize clergy. I generally think Catholics are better. It is because they make religion nice and concrete. They got saints, Purgatory, fancy imagery and fancy ritual objects. That is really cool. Protestants have a tendency to strip that away, which is too bad. Lutherans and Anglicans have a happy medium. The former was actually founded by Martin Luther. I have other favorite people of Christianity. Two were in the northern US colonies. The Puritans tried to make a Christian Nation in America. It ended up failing. The society was way too strict, and it had control over lifestyle. My two favorites rebelled against the tyranny. One was Roger Williams. He came up with separation of church and state, which later got into the Bill of Rights. He also founded the denomination of American Baptist and even the colony of Rhode Island. the other was Anne Hutchenson. She got rid of the strict lifestyle control. Besides those two, I have another favorite. This is George Fox. He found that there was a lot of bloodshed during the Reformation. So he rejected that and became a total pacifist. He had the idea that every person has a divine spark. Everybody can contact God directly so clergy wasn't necessary at all. George Fox went on to found the Quakers, which is my favorite Christian denomination. The Quakers did found Pennsylvania much later. I think that is the best American colony. I am not a Christian myself. However I deeply appreciate that there were Christians that were rebelling against the tyranny of their own religion. The best one is Martin Luther of course. He is a total religious genius.
Luther was just a huge famous heretic, nothing new under the sun.
All Luther did was take the Bible from the Church, from thousands of other great faithful men that came before him, & ignored all the thousands of great Faithful Men that came before him, men who hand copied, and preserved the books of the Bible who were entrusted to the church, & Luther said they're all wrong but he's right…
Yeah it was more like the Catholic Church was responsible for building civilization, shaping the world into what we have today.
No religion has donated more in charities, building orphan homes, building hospitals, schools, colleges etc etc.
No other Religion on earth has done more than the Catholic church has in history, even the ancient Orthodox churches admit that they dont even come close to spending money as the Catholic church has throughout antiquity,
spreading all around the world…
But people ignore the other side of history, & just think about the Crusades, & the inquisition's, from the Catholic church which is always exaggerated on the numbers for the death toll…
Its a shame people really don't go in depth with church history, bc of their hate for the Catholic Church…
And the Catholic church did not hide Bibles from the public, so they couldn't read them he said, that they were finally able to read the Bible for the 1st time bc Luther copied the Bible, & bc of the printing press people were allowed to have Bible's for the 1st time in history…
NO' This is such a huge lie, & Luther didn't copy the Bible for people could have a Bible, he just translated the Bible in German, which wasn't the first German Bible🤦🏻♂️…
The Catholic Church could've had Luther locked up for heresy, & had a trial in court to be executed, way before he translate the Bible in German plenty of times if they wanted to, through the state of course, it wasn't like the Catholic church had their own personal executioner like most people think they did🤦🏻♂️…
Protestantism spread bc of sola scriptura, everyone was able to afford to buy Bibles now because the printing press, & build their own lil church…
But hand copied Bible wasn't cheap, & took over a yr to hand copy one Bible, & took a three-year wage to buy one Scholars say, so no regular citizen could afford to buy one, that was the issue, not that Luther translated the Bible, & the Public was able to have Bibles now for the 1st time, this is such a big fat lie 💯…
This is very informative and well researched. Thank you 🌞
Thanks for making this
0:33 wrong indulgence was never for getting out of hell but for those in purgatory can quickly go to heaven
ANTI CATHOLIC BIAS IS A SHAME!
All the Catholics be triggered right now.
Martin Luther is a liberal
I grew up in a Lutheran church, but was told, "The Bible is a dangerous book. You need to read about it, not the book itself." I took the more dangerous path and now I'm a trinityarian Pentecostal. 😉
You forgot one of the most important ideas to come out of the Reformation; that is self education. It was Luther who promoted the education of the masses, and why Germans to this day value it as much as anyone in the world.
PragerU seems to be pro-Protestant and anti-Catholic. Where is the Catholic point of view? Protestantism (500 years old) is now 100K different religions and is vanishing. Meanwhile, the only Church founded by Jesus Christ still is very much alive, (about) 2000 years later.
PROTESTANT PROPAGANDA
This video is a Protestant's opinion.
Martin Luther was a murderer and a heretic. He split Jesus’s Church, and spawned many evil people to murder, massacre, and starved to death millions of Christians. This evil continued well into the 20th century. He was also an anti-Semite.
Protestantism is always moving and changing beliefs to fit in with society. How many "religions" grew out of protestantism – 100K+. Look at todays European Protestants. They are gone and become atheist, similar to the USA.
Everyone should go home to the church founded by Jesus.
Excellent history. Thank you. Also: The Bible Verse That Could Destroy Protestantism https://youtu.be/MhMlMdhDqTQ
Further: Why This Evangelical Professor Became Catholic https://youtu.be/b3ud6blplaQ
who else here because of school 😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔
The Protestant Reformation and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
Amen breaking free from the harlots catholic church of Satan was definitely a step forward away from evil worship of a church statues and the pope to true worship of God through the understanding of his word love this video 🙏❤🙏
I'm catholic. How should I greet protestants?
Thanks.
Being a strong Conservative myself I usually love Prager U videos and often share them but this one is filled with so many errors and a lot of misinformation. The issues of the Reformation are much more complicated than described here. Also, it is not the first PU video that was laced with anti-Catholicism. I am beginning to notice a rather sad pattern with PU videos. They need to do a better job presenting this dark time in western history. There is much more to this story that most people are unaware of and it is important to present both sides of the argument.
A lot of single figures had much stronger impact on the world around them. Take, for example, Jesus himself. The world would be much different without Christianity than it would be without the reformation. Muhammad is another figure in that category. Even less religious figures such as many kings and emperors would make a bigger difference.
Not Jan Hus, Ahhhhh, My inner Czech is in pain. 🇨🇿
I think one important distinction is that while Luther and the Reformers believed in the right to private interpretation, they didn’t believe in the right to **misinterpretation**
who else watching this in class?