d. He was born in Eisleben in 1483 to a middle-class family. All through his life, he tried to live according to the church’s teachings but it seemed like nothing was sufficient to save him from eternal judgment. He tried to do everything in his strength to obey what the church told him a Christian ought to do, yet he never experienced a sense of forgiveness in his soul, only guilt and condemnation. Fortunately, one day, while he was studying the Bible, he came into Alvarez 4a passage (Romans1: 16-17) which made it to him clear that Salvation was by faith and not by good deeds. By the time he discovered this, he was a very respected monk, who soon realized that the church didn’t teach this and that many things the Catholic church did, including the selling of indulgences (papal certificates that excused a person from doing penance and shortened the required stay in purgatory before going to Heaven) were not in accordance to what he had read in the Bible. The more he read, the more he convinced himself about the lies and worldliness, which existed in the Roman papal court. Few years after, he, and his followers were excommunicated and persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church, but he kept preaching and spreading his belief. He taught that everyone had the right to be educated no matter his or her social position since God made us equal. He constantly encouraged Christian families to train their children in the ways of the Lord and effortlessly persisted throughout Europe the important need of more schools with a strong foundation in God. During his lifetime and after his death he inspired other men such as John Calvin and William Tyndale to follow his example. After Luther’s death the Protestant leadership shifted towards John Calvin. John Calvin further studied the Bible and made a more comprehensive ecclesiastical basis for the church of the new Christian faith, teaching that everything existed for the glory of God and ...
