Reformation Day

Every October 31, Protestant churches such as the Lutheran and Adventist churches remember Reformation Day. In 2026, the date falls on a Saturday and marks 509 years. It all began at the end of October 1517, when a professor at the University of Wittenberg, in Germany, sent the archbishop of his region a letter along with 95 short statements for debate. The subject touched people's wallets and consciences alike: the sale of forgiveness. The professor was Martin Luther, and that letter became the starting point of the Protestant Reformation.

📜What was the Protestant Reformation, and what happened on October 31, 1517?

The Protestant Reformation was the 16th-century religious movement that split the Christian church in the West into Catholics and Protestants. Its landmark date is October 31, 1517. On that day, Martin Luther (1483-1546), an Augustinian monk and professor in Wittenberg, wrote to Archbishop Albert of Mainz to object to the sale of indulgences in the region. Along with the letter went the 95 Theses, numbered statements for an academic debate.

The famous scene of Luther hammering the theses onto the door of Wittenberg's Castle Church has been retold for centuries, including on the Adventist Church's Religious Liberty website. Historians, however, debate it. In 1962, the Catholic historian Erwin Iserloh pointed out that there is no testimony from the time: the scene first appears in a preface by Philip Melanchthon written months after Luther's death. A note by Luther's secretary Georg Rörer, found in 2007, also mentions the doors, but Rörer only arrived in Wittenberg in 1522. Luther himself only ever mentioned the letters.

The letter survives, and the theses spread fast. Printers in several cities published them without Luther's knowledge, and by around 1518 they were already circulating widely, thanks to the movable-type printing press Johannes Gutenberg had developed in the 1450s.

🎟️What did Luther's 95 Theses say, and what are the main points?

At the time, many people believed the soul spent a period in purgatory before reaching heaven. An indulgence was a church document that promised to shorten that time and, in popular understanding, it became a trade: so much money for so many fewer years. Some people even bought them on behalf of deceased relatives.

In 1517, the Dominican friar Johann Tetzel was selling indulgences in the region. Pope Leo X wanted money to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and Archbishop Albert owed money to bankers; the two would split the proceeds. Tetzel is credited with the rhyme "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs", but there is no proof that he knew about the deal or that he kept any of the money.

The theses, written in Latin, were soon translated into German. The church's Religious Liberty website sums up their content: freedom of conscience, condemnation of the sale of indulgences and charges against abuses by the papacy. Luther still wrote as someone inside the church: in thesis 50 he states that if the pope knew of the indulgence preachers' abuses, he would rather see St. Peter's Basilica burned to ashes than build it at the expense of the faithful. Some of the 95 Theses:

Our summary based on the translation of the 95 Theses published by World History Encyclopedia; the numbering follows the original.

⚖️How did the Reformation spread, and why are they called Protestants?

The theses made Luther famous. In 1520 he published On the Freedom of a Christian. In January 1521, a papal bull excommunicated him, and in April he was heard at the Diet of Worms (the assembly of the empire), before Emperor Charles V. Luther refused to take back his writings unless he was convinced by the Bible or by clear reasons, because his conscience was bound to the Word of God.

The line "Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise" was probably added by the printers of the speech. The Edict of Worms declared Luther an outlaw and ordered his books burned, but his ideas kept spreading through the German cities.

On April 20, 1529, at the Diet of Speyer, one prince-elector and four princes, later backed by 14 cities, delivered a formal protest: in matters of faith and salvation, each person answers for himself before God and cannot hide behind the majority. That protestation gave rise to the name Protestants, which began as a label pinned on them by their opponents and was only embraced by the movement itself in the 18th century.

👥Who were the reformers before and after Luther?

Luther was not the first. Centuries earlier, Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe and Jan Hus were already championing the Bible in the people's own language and preaching by ordinary believers. Luther's advantage was the printing press: his ideas went out in millions of cheap books and pamphlets.

The last name in the table below matters to Adventists. According to theologian Glauber Araújo, Oswald Glait was one of the first reformers to proclaim the holiness of the Sabbath. The path of the Sabbath to the Adventist pioneers is told in how the seventh-day Sabbath reached the Adventists, and the stories of Wycliffe, Hus and Luther are in The Great Controversy, by Ellen White.

Sources: German Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) and Notícias Adventistas (2020).

📖What are the five solas of the Protestant Reformation?

Scholars sum up Reformation thought in Latin phrases built on sola, which means "alone". The German historian Axel Gotthard points out that Luther himself never made this summary, which was created later as a teaching tool.

The church's Religious Liberty website points to one Bible phrase as an important landmark of the Reformation: "the just shall live by faith". It comes from Habakkuk 2:4 and is quoted by Paul in Romans 1:17 (NKJV): "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'The just shall live by faith.'"

If the Bible is the measuring stick, everyone needs to read it. In 1524, Luther asked the German cities for public schools for boys and girls. He was not the first to translate the Bible into German (there were 22 complete editions between 1466 and 1522), but his translation outsold the others. The journey of the sacred text is told in how the Bible came to us.

The five solas according to Notícias Adventistas (2024); the plain-language explanation is ours.

🕊️Why does the Adventist Church see itself as an heir of the Protestant Reformation?

In a 2020 interview with the South American Adventist News Agency (ASN), theologian Glauber Araújo, then editor of religious books at Casa Publicadora Brasileira (CPB), the Adventist publishing house in Brazil, summed up the relationship in the sentence highlighted at the end of this section. He notes that Adventists and the reformers are separated by almost 350 years, yet the Protestant ethos still runs through Adventist veins.

The strongest link is the Bible. Araújo describes Adventists as a movement that exalts the Bible as its only rule of faith and seeks to restore biblical truths lost over the centuries. In the Adventist reading, the seventh-day Sabbath is one of them. The church's statement of beliefs opens by saying that Adventists accept the Bible as their rule of faith and practice. In the club, the theme connects with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Bible. Araújo also argues that the Reformation continues and will only end when the message reaches "every nation, tribe, tongue, and people", in the words of Revelation 14:6 (NKJV).

Another legacy is religious liberty, in the spirit of Acts 5:29 (NKJV): "We ought to obey God rather than men." In 1893, the Adventist Church organized the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA) to promote religious freedom for all people, regardless of creed. The church's own origins, from 1844 to 1863, are told in how the Seventh-day Adventist Church began.

A historian's caution: in the 16th century, freedom of belief for everyone did not yet exist, not even on the Protestant side, and many Protestant princes imposed their faith on their subjects. Remembering this keeps us from telling the story as a movie of heroes and villains and helps us respect friends from other churches.

Seventh-day Adventists consider themselves heirs of the Protestant Reformation.Glauber Araújo, theologian, in an interview with Notícias Adventistas, 2020 (translated from Portuguese)

🧭What Reformation Day activity can your Pathfinder Unit do in 2026?

This Unit program idea for Saturday, October 31, 2026, takes about an hour and follows the spirit of Sabbath activities for Pathfinders.

Door of convictions (20 minutes). On a cardboard door, each Pathfinder sticks a Bible verse that supports his or her faith, with a sentence explaining why. The Unit's goal is to reach 95 slips of paper over the coming weeks.

Living timeline (15 minutes). Hand out cards with the years 1415, 1517, 1521 and 1529 and others with the events. The Unit lays out the sequence on the floor, without phones, and the Counselor checks it.

Two versions of the same sentence (15 minutes). Read Habakkuk 2:4 and Romans 1:17 in the NKJV and the NIV and talk about what changes and what stays the same.

Prayer and respect (10 minutes). Pray for Christians in other churches and for classmates at school. The date is a chance to value the Bible and freedom of conscience, with respect for each person's faith.