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- Martin Luther translated the Bible into German.
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- The Luther Rose is a symbol for Lutheranism.
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- This statue of Martin Luther in Wittenberg, Germany, designed in 1821 by J.G. Schadow, was the first public monument of the reformer.
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- A statue of Martin Luther stands before the Dresden Frauenkirche, in Dresden, Germany. As a junior faculty member at a university in a small town in Germany, Luther was tormented by the demand for righteousness before God. In the midst of that struggle, he realized that a “merciful God justifies us by faith.”
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- These are the doors of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Germany, where Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses or “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” which became the first of a life-long stream of books, sermons, letters, essays and even hymns.
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- Martin Luther wrote: “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that believers would stake their lives on it a thousand times.”
When Martin Luther posted on Oct. 31, 1517, his “Ninety-Five Theses” on the “castle church” in Wittenberg, no one expected the breadth of evangelical reforms in Christian teaching and practice that followed. The posting of the theses is considered the beginning of the Reformation. The 500th anniversary of the posting will take place in 2017, and ELCA members, congregations and synods are encouraged to observe the anniversary of this evangelical reformation in a variety of ways and alongside others, including ecumenical partners, member churches of The Lutheran World Federation and others.
