(Daniel 12:12)
Martin Luther is often identified as the founder of the Reformation, and his coming fulfilled several prophecies.
Most significantly, he fulfilled the prophecy of the two olive trees and the two witnesses in Zechariah, Daniel, and the Book of Revelation. The Angel said, “Blessed is he who waits and comes to 1,335 days.”1Dan 12:12 Adding 45 days, or years, from the end of the “time, times, and half a time” brings us to the year 1516, when Martin Luther first challenged the authority of the papacy in a public debate. In his famous Reformation history, Jean-Henri Merle d’Aubigné said, “This disputation made a great noise, and it has been considered the beginning of the Reformation.”2History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, Book 2, Chapter 9, pg 239
Both Jan Huss and Martin Luther understood themselves as two witnesses who spoke against the beast. In his famous debate with Johann Eck, in 1519, Martin Luther declared, “I am a Hussite.”
The 1530 Apology of the Augsburg Confession of the Lutheran Church claimed that 1516 was the start of the Reformation. It was the fulfillment of a prophecy by a monk named Johannes Hilten, which he recorded in his commentary on the Book of Daniel. Hilten was imprisoned in a Franciscan convent in Eisenach, only a short distance from Luther’s birthplace.
Martin Luther is most famous for the 95 theses he nailed onto the door of the Wittenberg Church on October 31, 1517. He preached that salvation was by faith and attacked the sale of indulgences, which were payments for the forgiveness of sins.
In fact, however, Jan Huss protested against indulgences 100 years earlier than Martin Luther did. The Lutherans believed that Martin Luther was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Jan Huss, who said to his executioner, “Today you burn a goose, but in one hundred years a swan will arise, which you will prove unable to boil or roast.” Many pulpits in Lutheran churches are in the shape of a swan to commemorate this prophecy of Jan Huss.
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