Luther's theses were intended to begin a debate among academics, not a popular revolution, but there are indications that he saw his action as prophetic and significant. Around this time, he began using the name "Luther" and sometimes "Eleutherius", Greek for "free", rather than "Luder". This seems to refer to his being free from the scholastic theology which he had argued against earlier that year. Luther later claimed not to have desired the Theses to be widely distributed. Elizabeth Eisenstein has argued that his claimed surprise at their success may have involved self-deception and Hans Hillerbrand has claimed that Luther was certainly intending to instigate a large controversy. At times, Luther seems to use the academic nature of the Theses as a cover to allow him to attack established beliefs while being able to deny that he intended to attack church teaching. Since writing a set of theses for a disputation does not necessarily commit the author to those views, Luther could deny that he held the most incendiary ideas in the Theses.

Martin Luther himself is an interesting guy, more so for what he rolled into motion. He was a catalyst for a sea of change that was boiling under the surface for years; his academic papers really lit a spark that gave cover to those whom wanted to split from the Mother Church. Later in life, Luther got... weird. His final writings were scholarly books on how the Jews were evil and that their synagogues should be burned, their property seized and the people should be force-converted to Christianity.