[PastorBooks]

It’s a good thing that he knew more about Christian beliefs and teachings than did 16 centuries of church leaders....

Yes, he did know more!

The Catholic church had completely lost the Gospel. They were selling “indulgences”! They had a nice little religion thing going, a centuries-old scam. No relationship to Christ and His teachings whatsoever.

Thank God for Luther and the other reformers!

[matthewrobertolson]

This common idea of the "selling" of indulgences is mostly due to a misunderstanding. The Protestant understanding usually relies on the assault of characters: people like Johann Tetzel are demonized — perhaps rightfully — for abusing the system. But this abuse was not a doctrinal problem of the Church; rather, it was a disciplinary problem of men. Indulgences simply remove the temporal punishment due for past sin — they are not a "Get out of Hell free" card — and even when they were "sold" (meaning, donations were received) they required some sort of penance. Indulgences only have a salvatory effectiveness (remittance of time in Purgatory) if the recipient is already destined for Heaven.

So, it would seem that the fuss is all about nothing.

[reefdiver]

Yea, now we have more churches than anyone knows. And the authority for all these churches is?

[dsc]

“They were selling “indulgences”!”

That was corrupt, but it was only as bad as it was, and no worse.