Well, on October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses Against papal indulgences or the atonement of Sins Through monetary Payment. And he, nailed these theses on the door of the church at Wittenberg in Germany. the basic, doctrine that he was challenging is the idea that if you drop a coin in the vending machine, out comes eternal merits. but six months later, April 26, 1518, a more significant event occurred, that is called the Heidelberg disputation, a formal debate, as part of the regular regional meeting of the Augustinian, monks, and part of the background behind this disputation, this meeting.
You have to go back to the fact that the Muslims actually reintroduced Aristotle, to the West, and which kick-started what we would call scholasticism from 1100 to about 1500 AD. the Muslims had. secured their, their, their philosopher Aristotle, and then as they interacted with Europe, all of a sudden Europeans were reintroduced to this theology which then came into the church. And so what you have at the time of Martin Luther and the 95 thesesis and the Heidelberg disputation is, is really a full blown system that.
Luther and others begin to challenge the idea of scholastic theology based on Aristotle is that God is like us, only he's greater. The essence of God can be discerned through natural law and through our reason. And so it goes something like this, that God has left things discernible about Himself in nature and so we study nature and philosophy to to discover God. He's also left our will and intact and we can use our will and works to move closer to God.
And the law, both the mosaic law and natural law, as we study it, we can discern something more about God. And so the invisible works of God can be discerned, as we use our reason. And through our reason and will and works aided by the law, we can, as it were, get into the red zone. If you think of a football competition and you're moving down the field with your team, all of the things that the scholastics taught can get you into the red zone, but then it's Christ and His cross that gets you into the end zone....
