Reformation Day: The Just Shall Live By Faith
Romans Romans 1:17
By Harold D. Dinsmore, M.Div.
Ó2008 Harold D. Dinsmore 

A boy named Martin was born on November 10, 1483 in a small German town nine years before Columbus discovered the Americas.  His parents were simple and of the peasant class.  His father was a miner.  Martin’s father wanted his eight children to have a better life than what he felt he had, and saved to send Martin to law school.  As Martin grew up, he was primed and sent to special preparatory schools.  When Martin turned 18, he entered the University of Erfurt in 1501.

Following his graduation with a Masters of the Arts in January 1505, he entered law school in May of that year.  However, something happened that year that would profoundly alter his course in life.  A close personal friend died that year and he became concerned over his own death.  Then, while returning to Erfurt after a trip home, he narrowly escaped a lightening strike.  If frightened him so much that he made a vow to St. Anne to become a monk.

So, much to his father’s dismay, he broke off his law studies and entered the monastery of Augustinian hermits in Erfurt on July 17, 1505.  This one act would begin a chain of events that would eventually change the face of the church and religious world forever.