Oct 29, 2010

Reformation Day Resources, Plus 4 Free MP3 Downloads

5 Min Read

On October 31st, we celebrate Reformation Day in honor of the day in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed the Ninety-five Theses to the door in Wittenberg and thus sparked a reformation.

But what did Martin Luther stand for? What did he believe? What can we learn from Luther and the Protestant Reformation? Could it happen again today? Find answers to these questions and more in these various resources, articles, and messages. In celebration of Reformation Day, we are also providing four free MP3 messages by Dr. Sproul on Luther and the reformation.

Free MP3 Downloads by R.C. Sproul

Right click on the links to save to your computer:

The Making of the Protestant Reformation (Part 1)
The Making of the Protestant Reformation (Part 2)

Martin Luther (Part 1) (From the series Heroes of the Christian Faith)
Martin Luther (Part 2)

Resources by Martin Luther

Who was Martin Luther? Roland Bainton gives a look into the life of this reformer in his book Here I Stand. “I have read many biographies of Martin Luther. Here I Stand is the best that I have found,” says Dr. Sproul. “It is packed with information, yet it reads like a novel. I highly recommend it.”

Luther wrote many influential works, two of which include The Bondage of the Will and A Simple Way to Pray. Free will was no academic question to Luther; the whole gospel of the grace of God, he believed, was bound up with it and stood or fell according to the way one decided it. In The Bondage of the Will, Luther affirms our total inability to save ourselves and the sovereignty of divine grace in our salvation.

Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther’s barber asked him for advice on how to pray. Luther responded with a 34 page booklet showing a simple but effective way to structure a life of devotion. A Simple Way to Pray, edited by Dr. Archie Parrish, contains Luther’s booklet and offers other helps for structuring your personal prayer life. Dr. R.C. Sproul, who wrote the foreword, considers this to be among the top fifteen Christian works that have most shaped his life and ministry.

Articles by R.C. Sproul and Others

Crossing the Channel by R.C. Sproul
Fueling Reformation by R.C. Sproul
God's Other Kingdom by Gene Veith
A Man More Sinned Against than Sinning?: The Portrait of Martin Luther in Contemporary New Testament Scholarship by Carl Trueman
Remembering the Reformation by Keith Mathison
Repentance and Reformation by R.C. Sproul Jr.
Staging a Reformation by Burk Parsons
Was Luther Right? by Thomas Schreiner
The Works of Faith and Assurance by Martin Luther

Streaming Messages

Profiles of the Reformation (Part 1) by Ligon Duncan & Derek Thomas
Profiles of the Reformation (Part 2) by Ligon Duncan & Derek Thomas
Profiles of the Reformation (Part 3) by Ligon Duncan & Derek Thomas
Forerunners of Luther: Wycliff and Hus by John Gerstner
Forerunners of Luther: Lyra, Valla, Erasmus by John Gerstner
Forerunners of Luther: Brothers of Common Life by John Gerstner
Forerunners of Luther: Savonarola by John Gerstner
Martin Luther (Part 1) by John Gerstner
Martin Luther (Part 2) by John Gerstner


If we want reformation, we have to start with ourselves. We have to start bringing the gospel itself out of darkness, so that the motto of every reformation becomes post tenebras lux — “after darkness, light.” Luther declared that every generation must declare freshly the gospel of the New Testament. He also said that anytime the gospel is clearly and boldly proclaimed, it will bring about conflict, and those of us who are inherently adverse to conflict will find it tempting to submerge the gospel, dilute the gospel, or obscure the gospel in order to avoid conflict. We, of course, are able to add offense to the gospel by our own ill-mannered attempts to proclaim it. But there is no way to remove the offense that is inherent to the gospel message, because it is a stumbling block, a scandal to a fallen world. It will inevitably bring conflict. If we want reformation, we must be prepared to endure such conflict to the glory of God.

—R.C. Sproul