Martin Luther
Lutheranism is a result of a Catholic monk named Martin Luther. He was a very devout religious man and was very troubled by his sins. He began to question the practices of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the most prominent of which was the practice of indulgences. Indulgences were slips of paper guaranteeing that a soul be released from purgatory. Luther was bold enough to go against the entire Catholic Church and condemned the indulgences as improper and sinful. Through this, he started the Reformation. The church group that formed as a result of the split was know as the "Lutheran Church". Today the Lutheran church has many denominations, many of them straying from the truths of the Bible. However, two Lutheran synods, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), still maintain a conservative, Bible-based form of Christianity. These two synods are in complete fellowship with each other. Our beliefs and practices are based solely on God's word.