By stressing humanity's direct access to God and the Bible, stressing salvation through faith alone, and also uplifting non-ecclesial vocations and marital life, Protestantism ennobled and liberated much of humanity. Modern literacy, modern science, modern markets and capitalism, constitutional democracy and human rights were all advanced by the Reformation, and in a decisive way.

Martin Luther likely had few of these eventual developments in mind when he nailed those 95 theses to the church door. Perhaps he would have been discomfited by some of these consequences, had he known. But by his own admission, he was but a worm who was a tool of God's Providence. No human being can, in any age of history, fully appreciate how God is using him or her to advance divine justice and righteousness.

Luther's insistence on human direct access to God through Christ dethroned the medieval church's grasping after inordinate spiritual and temporal power. His stress on direct reading of the Bible by laity in their own language facilitated mass literacy, in order that the Bible might be read. His translation of the Bible into German, amid endless pamphleteering, helped launch modern publishing. His departure from the celibate priesthood, and his wife's departure from the convent, into a happy marital union, elevated marriage, and family, into godly estates no less than celibacy.

His stress on scholarship and translation from original sources, accompanied by rational discernment apart from direct ecclesial control, contributed to a broadening of scientific analysis and discovery, with free inquiry. His affirmations of professions outside the church dignified labor, trade, and finance, further enabling modern markets. His stress on private conscience and rejection of unquestioned ecclesial authority undermined political and ecclesial authoritarianism. After the Reformation, there was increasing expectation that governance was no longer the exclusive preserve of a favored few but now was a project involving all God's creatures.

After the Reformation, across decades and centuries, entire cultures were increasingly empowered by literacy and knowledge, expectations of political authority and economic prosperity, a sense of progress through scientific and technological discovery, a deliverance from superstition and captivity to a perceived invisible world, a growing awareness of human equality with consequent responsibilities, an appreciation for emerging nation states accountable to populations, and, above all, a confidence in God's direct love for and relationship with all who call upon Him.