Page 200: Martin Luther sparked the Protestant Reformation and formulated the key tenets still held by all Protestants today: sola fide and sola scriptura. He also had a key role in discerning the Protestant canon of Scripture. Since Protestantism’s foundation is so closely tied to Luther’s personal theological judgment, it’s reasonable to expect that he would have had personal holiness to match.
Note: Why does not the author investigate the misconduct of the popes?
The scandalous conduct of the "pardoners" was an immediate occasion of the Protestant Reformation. In 1517, Pope Leo X offered indulgences for those who gave alms to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The aggressive marketing practices of Johann Tetzel in promoting this cause provoked Martin Luther to write his Ninety-Five Theses, condemning what he saw as the purchase and sale of salvation. In Thesis 28 Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel: "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs". The Ninety-Five Theses not only denounced such transactions as worldly but denied the Pope's right to grant pardons on God's behalf in the first place: the only thing indulgences guaranteed, Luther said, was an increase in profit and greed, because the pardon of the Church was in God's power alone. Wikipedia Encyclopedia.
Note: Will you investigate the numerous sins of the Catholic Church?

Pages 200-201: Protestants see Martin Luther as a hero, a champion of the true faith that had been tainted by Romish errors. I recall reading one book on his life – a hagiography to be sure – that described his harrowing “escape” from the Catholics to Wartburg Castle, where he translated the New Testament into German. The popular story goes that Luther, a Catholic priest, had performed painful penances under the notion that he could win God’s love and his own salvation through them. Then one day he started reading the Bible for himself, and his eyes were opened to justification by faith, rather than by works. He sought to correct the Church of her errors with a return to this biblical belief, but the Catholic authorities condemned him, causing him to flee for his life.
Note: Martin Luther believed Saint Paul instead of Catholic Tradition.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9.
Note: Will you believe Saint Paul or will you believe Catholic Tradition?

Page 201: Of course, Protestants realize that Luther was a sinner like everyone else. But the important thing to them was that he realized he was a sinner in need of grace, unlike the Catholics who thought their paltry works could make them acceptable to God. He didn’t get everything completely correct, but he got the main things right, or near enough to right to get Christianity back on track. And his own personal faithfulness was so great that even Anglicans recognize him as a saint in their calendar.
Note: Martin Luther believed Saint Paul instead of Catholic Tradition.
But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:21-26.
Note: Will you believe Saint Paul or will you believe Catholic Tradition?

Page 201: Catholics, who don’t need to believe that Luther was a saint, can offer a much more realistic appraisal of his character. For instance, it’s a fact that Luther wrote terrible things about Jewish people. In his 1543 treatise, On the Jews and Their Lies, Luther wrote that the Jews are “full of the devil’s feces … which they wallow in like swine.” He wrote many other repugnant things about them that do not need to be repeated.
Note: Martin Luther was not fully cleansed of Catholic Tradition.
Later in medieval Western Europe, further persecutions of Jews in the name of Christianity occurred, notably during the Crusades—when Jews all over Germany were massacred—and a series of expulsions from England, Germany, France, and, in the largest expulsion of all, Spain and Portugal after the Reconquista (the Catholic Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula), where both unbaptized Sephardic Jews and the ruling Muslim Moors were expelled. In the Papal States, which existed until 1870, Jews were required to live only in specified neighborhoods called ghettos. In the 19th and (before the end of World War II) 20th centuries, the Roman Catholic Church adhered to a distinction between "good antisemitism" and "bad antisemitism". The "bad" kind promoted hatred of Jews because of their descent. This was considered un-Christian because the Christian message was intended for all of humanity regardless of ethnicity; anyone could become a Christian. The "good" kind criticized alleged Jewish conspiracies to control newspapers, banks, and other institutions, to care only about accumulation of wealth, etc. Wikipedia Encyclopedia.
Note: The Catholic Church persecuted Jews for over 1,000 years.

Page 201: How could Luther have had God’s love in his heart when he said such things of his neighbors? Certainly not many of us are completely free of all prejudice, but perhaps we should strive to be before we endeavor to fix God’s Church. How is it possible for a man to have such a blind spot of hatred and yet also have been spiritually commissioned to reform the Church?
Note: How can this author turn a blind eye to the numerous sins of his church?
Although the Inquisition was technically forbidden from permanently harming or drawing blood, this still allowed for methods of torture. The methods most used, and common in other secular and ecclesiastical tribunals, were garrucha, toca and the potro. The application of the garrucha, also known as the strappado, consisted of suspending the victim from the ceiling by the wrists, which are tied behind the back. Sometimes weights were tied to the ankles, with a series of lifts and drops, during which the arms and legs suffered violent pulls and were sometimes dislocated. The toca, also called interrogatorio mejorado del agua, consisted of introducing a cloth into the mouth of the victim, and forcing them to ingest water spilled from a jar so that they had the impression of drowning (see: waterboarding). The potro, the rack, was the instrument of torture used most frequently. Wikipedia Encyclopedia.
Note: Will you investigate the numerous sins of the Catholic Church?

Page 202: It might also come as a shock to Protestants that Luther, claiming sola scriptura, believed a Christian man could marry multiple women (polygamy): I confess that I cannot forbid a person to marry several wives, for it does not contradict the Scripture. If a man wishes to marry more than one wife he should be asked whether he is satisfied in his conscience that he may do so in accordance with the word of God. In such a case the civil authorities has nothing to do in such a matter.
Note: Martin Luther was not fully cleansed of Catholic Tradition.
Of Pope Alexander VI’s many mistresses the one for whom passion lasted longest was a certain Vannozza (Giovanna) dei Cattani, born in 1442, and wife of three successive husbands. The connection began in 1470, and she bore him four children whom he openly acknowledged as his own: Cesare (born 1475), Giovanni, afterwards duke of Gandia (born 1476), Lucrezia (born 1480), and Goffredo or Giuffre (born 1481 or 1482). Three of his other children, Girolama, Isabella and Pedro-Luiz, were of uncertain parentage. His son Bernardo, a product of his liaison with Vittoria (Victoria) Sailór dei Venezia in 1469, is much less known because his father kept him in hiding, most likely due to shame, for he was a cardinal, who aspired to become the pope. He gave up hiding his many children after he fathered four more. Wikipedia Encyclopedia.
Note: Will you investigate the numerous sins of the Catholic Church?

Page 202: A Protestant who respects Luther faces a difficult problem when confronting these facts about him, and the best solution seems to be to ignore the dark and ignorant side of his heart. Surely, on a daily basis we tolerate the flaws of our fellow men. But to Protestants Luther is not an everyday brother in Christ. He is held up as the virtuous reformer of the corrupt Church, a man so faithful to the gospel that he alone was able to restore the true faith that had been suppressed for a millennium.
Note: Why did not Pope John Paul II stop the sexual abuse in the Catholic Church? Tradition?
BishopAccountability.org, an "online archive established by lay Catholics," reports that over 3,000 "civil lawsuits have been filed against the church" in the United States, some of these cases have resulted in multi-million dollar settlements with many claimants. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas paid $30.9 million in 1998 to twelve victims of one priest. In July 2003 the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville paid $25.7 million to "settle child sexual-abuse allegations made in 240 lawsuits naming 34 priests and other church workers." In 2003 the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston also settled a large case for $85 million with 552 alleged victims. In 2004, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange settled nearly 90 cases for $100 million. In April 2007 the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon agreed to a $75 million settlement with 177 claimants and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle agreed to a $48 million settlement with more than 160 victims. In July 2007 the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles reached a $660 million agreement with more than 500 alleged victims, in December 2006, the archdiocese had a settlement of 45 lawsuits for $60 million. In September 2007 the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego reached a $198.1 million "agreement with 144 childhood sexual abuse victims." In July 2008 the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver agreed "to pay $5.5 million to settle 18 claims of childhood sexual abuse." The Associated Press estimated the total from settlements of sex abuse cases from 1950 to 2007 to be more than $2 billion. According to BishopAccountability reports that figure reached more than $3 billion in 2012. Wikipedia Encyclopedia.
Note: Will you investigate the numerous sins of the Catholic Church?

Page 202: If Protestantism is true, then Martin Luther, the leader of the Reformation and the primary originator of its new doctrines, should have been a saintly man, one full of love for God and neighbor; but some of Luther’s writings and actions demonstrate that he was far from possessing these virtues.
Note: Homosexuality has been a Catholic Tradition for over 1,000 years.
In 1102, Saint Anselm of Canterbury demanded that the punishment for homosexuality should be moderate because 'this sin has been so public that hardly anyone has blushed for it, and many, therefore have plunged into it without realizing its gravity. Wikipedia Encyclopedia.
Note: Will you investigate the numerous sins of the Catholic Church?

MAIN INDEX

BIBLE INDEX

HINDU INDEX

MUSLIM INDEX

MORMON INDEX

BUDDHISM INDEX

WORD FAITH INDEX

WATCHTOWER INDEX

MISCELLANEOUS INDEX

CATHOLIC CHURCH INDEX