Most of the secular world celebrates Halloween on October 31st while Protestant Christians celebrate Reformation Day. Protestants celebrate Reformation Day to memorialize the day a Roman Catholic monk named Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517. Luther had become concerned with certain heresies taught by the Roman Catholic church and finally wrote out 95 objections to protest these heresies.
This act by Luther began the so-called Protestant Reformation that saw many Roman Catholic trained priests, monks, and clerics leave the Roman Catholic church and develop a Christian church based on their interpretation of the Bible―Protestantism. Professor Hillerbrand[1] speaking of Luther’s 95 theses suggests that Luther merely intended to make a scholarly objection to indulges and other matters and did not intend to be confrontational. But some of his theses (e.g., #86) may be taken as somewhat confrontational in tone.
Lutheran, Calvinist, and other Reformed Theology churches celebrate October 31st as Reformation Day. This year is the 505th anniversary of Luther nailing the 95 theses to the Wittenberg church.
For more information on Reformation Day, please see the article located here on the Christian Inquiry blog (search “Reformation Day”).
[1] Hans J. Hillerbrand, Professor Emeritus of History and Religion, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. Author of The Division of Christendom: Christianity in the Sixteenth Century and Men and Ideas in the Sixteenth Century and others.
