Chapter 3, Reformation, The Gospel Clarified Summary and Analysis

Chapter 3 discusses the era of spiritual reform in Europe that began in the 1500s. In the author's view, the Reformers "rediscovered" the Gospel in discovering that sinners are saved by faith alone. Many risked their lives to defend this truth. The first figure is the father of the Reformation, Martin Luther, who lived from 1483 through 1546. It was in 1517 that Martin Luther saw a monk named Tetzel selling indulgences from Pope Leo. Indulgences were writs of forgiveness for the dead to get them out of purgatory. Luther could not believe that God would not give men such power to mediate the forgiveness of sins. Thus, on October 31st, 1517, Luther nailed the 95 theses, a statement of counterarguments to the practice of indulgences, to the door of the local chapel in Wittenberg. This created a firestorm...