I believe Luther never once challenge the authority of the RC Church to sell indulgences, just the method on how it was done.
Secondly, I have read in a few different places, the 95 Thesis were never posted on the church door. Luther never acknowledged this. It was verbal lore that grew, similar to Washington choping down the cherry tree.
Luther never should have become a priest. When he was scared sh*tless in a lightening and thunderstorm he promised God he'd become a priest if he lived through it. Well, God is not impressed with 'promises' or 'oaths' made under duress. Luther failed to use reason and faith and then apparently didn't know God well enough to know that God would not hold him to such an unnecessary promise.
Luther could have become a good civil lawyer and as a lawyer might have been able to influence the Catholic Church to inspect the issue of indulgences, if that's where his studies took him. The issue of paid indulgences might well have perished of its own accord in the Church if Luther had remained in secular life. But we can only speculate at this point, since none of us were there.
The phrase 'Protestant Reformation' incorrectly describes what occurred to the Church in the 16th Century. To "RE-form," there has to have been something already formed. There was no Protestant Formation in or out of the Catholic Church prior to Luther. But there were a number of "reforms" in the Catholic Church prior to Luther since God has always guided the Church and has sent His emissaries who worked within the Church to reform it and not to destroy it. (The reforms of monasticism comes to mind.)
What drew so many German Princes to Luther was less about "religion" than about money. The German Princes and other men of wealth realized that if they severed allegiance to Rome, they would not have to send their tithes to the Pope. And they could easily send a token to the "Lutheran" church of their choice and pocket the rest. Follow the money!
Think on this, if you will: Assuming that there was no other Christian Church before Christ instituted the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit rained down on the Apostles, the 120 followers and the women and that the Church to form out of the Upper Room as described in the Book of Acts was the original Christian Church and as spread by the Apostles and others, including St. Paul, became the Universal or Catholic Christian Church. Assume that everyone connected to this Christian Church remained as close to the original teaching of Christ as handed down first directly and then through the writings of the Apostles (or their secretaries/followers) and then of those followers of the Apostles who were given authority through the laying on of hands and so forth. Assume that all the followers of this Universal/Catholic Christian Church had no personal agendas and followed the teachings of Christ as handed down to those in Priestly Pastoral Authority.
ARE YOU LAUGHING at that suggestion? Of course. Because we ARE human and every time a human being puts his or her personal agenda into play in the Universal Catholic Christian Church the "new" church that is formed from the whole is missing an integral part. Then someone in that splintered off church puts forth his/her agenda and splinters from that church, leaving with less church than he/she started with. And so on and so on. Luther (or Melanchthon and those who remained after Luther's death) cast aside the Magisterium (teaching authority) and some of the Traditions handed down from the initial Universal Catholic Christian Church in order to form his religion. Luther went so far as to want to remove the Epistle of James from the Biblical Canon because it countermanded his agenda. Did you know that those who protested the Catholic Church decided to decimate the Bible and cut out some of the originally agreed upon books? Protestants call these books the "apocrypha" as if their "authorized" translation were the "first" or "best" or "only recognized by God" Bible. However the "real" or "full" or "complete" Bible was decided on by the early Universal Catholic Christian Church, around 180-200 AD (Muratorian Canon).
My Point is: It was human agenda which created the Protestant Formation of various churches or religions. And every time a group split off from their splinter group the church or group they 'founded' became less and less like the original, the universal, the catholic, the Catholic Church.
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Comments
Secondly, I have read in a few different places, the 95 Thesis were never posted on the church door. Luther never acknowledged this. It was verbal lore that grew, similar to Washington choping down the cherry tree.
Enjoy your stay in Hell ;-)
http://fratres.wordpress.com/2008/05/23/in-honor-of-the-beast/
Luther could have become a good civil lawyer and as a lawyer might have been able to influence the Catholic Church to inspect the issue of indulgences, if that's where his studies took him. The issue of paid indulgences might well have perished of its own accord in the Church if Luther had remained in secular life. But we can only speculate at this point, since none of us were there.
The phrase 'Protestant Reformation' incorrectly describes what occurred to the Church in the 16th Century. To "RE-form," there has to have been something already formed. There was no Protestant Formation in or out of the Catholic Church prior to Luther. But there were a number of "reforms" in the Catholic Church prior to Luther since God has always guided the Church and has sent His emissaries who worked within the Church to reform it and not to destroy it. (The reforms of monasticism comes to mind.)
What drew so many German Princes to Luther was less about "religion" than about money. The German Princes and other men of wealth realized that if they severed allegiance to Rome, they would not have to send their tithes to the Pope. And they could easily send a token to the "Lutheran" church of their choice and pocket the rest. Follow the money!
Think on this, if you will: Assuming that there was no other Christian Church before Christ instituted the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit rained down on the Apostles, the 120 followers and the women and that the Church to form out of the Upper Room as described in the Book of Acts was the original Christian Church and as spread by the Apostles and others, including St. Paul, became the Universal or Catholic Christian Church. Assume that everyone connected to this Christian Church remained as close to the original teaching of Christ as handed down first directly and then through the writings of the Apostles (or their secretaries/followers) and then of those followers of the Apostles who were given authority through the laying on of hands and so forth. Assume that all the followers of this Universal/Catholic Christian Church had no personal agendas and followed the teachings of Christ as handed down to those in Priestly Pastoral Authority.
ARE YOU LAUGHING at that suggestion? Of course. Because we ARE human and every time a human being puts his or her personal agenda into play in the Universal Catholic Christian Church the "new" church that is formed from the whole is missing an integral part. Then someone in that splintered off church puts forth his/her agenda and splinters from that church, leaving with less church than he/she started with. And so on and so on. Luther (or Melanchthon and those who remained after Luther's death) cast aside the Magisterium (teaching authority) and some of the Traditions handed down from the initial Universal Catholic Christian Church in order to form his religion. Luther went so far as to want to remove the Epistle of James from the Biblical Canon because it countermanded his agenda. Did you know that those who protested the Catholic Church decided to decimate the Bible and cut out some of the originally agreed upon books? Protestants call these books the "apocrypha" as if their "authorized" translation were the "first" or "best" or "only recognized by God" Bible. However the "real" or "full" or "complete" Bible was decided on by the early Universal Catholic Christian Church, around 180-200 AD (Muratorian Canon).
My Point is: It was human agenda which created the Protestant Formation of various churches or religions. And every time a group split off from their splinter group the church or group they 'founded' became less and less like the original, the universal, the catholic, the Catholic Church.
You can find all this at www.newadvent.org