Sundays are the days Christians world over troop to their place of worship for whatever reasons they choose, Catholics also troop to their magnificent cathedrals although Protestants are giving them a run for their money in modern architectural masterpieces. Also, Sunday is the day skeptics come out in droves on social media to lecture, berate, demean and expound on why atheism is the best logical worldview to pander to and how Pastors/religious leaders are professional scammers(a legit claim against most religious leaders), however, today the onus is to set the records straight on what it means to be a PROTESTANT.
A Protestant is one who is against traditional Catholic dogmas, the most widely acknowledged Protestant is Reverend Father Martin Luther King but he was not the first Protestant('John Wycliffe' a theologian influenced 'Jan Hus' a Priest, both preceded Luther[Hus was a big influence on Fr. Luther]), Luther only started the proper Protestant Reformation/Revolution on a wider scale.
Truth be told, Fr. Luther was not trying to create a division in the Catholic Church nor was he trying to leave the church(if not for excommunication he would remain there), instead he was trying to correct some errors especially in areas of selling indulgences, corruption in the papacy and a fundamental misunderstanding of Salvation(although he disagreed with some scriptural canon like the Book of James{because it seemed to suggest that GOOD WORKS were necessary for Salvation against FAITH ALONE[Sola Fide]}). The famous 95 theses nailed to the door of the Wittenberg church was a call for a debate in Rome against anyone the Papacy would bring and the theses were the points to debate on; Below are the first 10 of the 95 theses and a modern translation(ModTrans).
- When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ``Repent'' (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.
ModTrans: When Jesus said “repent” he meant that believers should live a whole life repenting.
- This word cannot be understood as referring to the sacrament of penance, that is, confession and satisfaction, as administered by the clergy.
ModTrans: Only God can give salvation – not a priest.
- Yet it does not mean solely inner repentance; such inner repentance is worthless unless it produces various outward mortification of the flesh.
ModTrans: Inner repentance must be visible by an outward change in behavior.
- The penalty of sin remains as long as the hatred of self (that is, true inner repentance), namely till our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
Mod Trans: Sin remains till we get to Heaven.
The pope neither desires nor is able to remit any penalties except those imposed by his own authority or that of the canons.
ModTrans: The Pope can only act in accordance with the Canon(Bible).The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring and showing that it has been remitted by God; or, to be sure, by remitting guilt in cases reserved to his judgment. If his right to grant remission in these cases were disregarded, the guilt would certainly remain unforgiven.
ModTrans: The Pope is incapable of granting salvation, he can, however, assure people that God will forgive them.
- God remits guilt to no one unless at the same time he humbles him in all things and makes him submissive to the vicar, the priest.
ModTrans: A sinner must come humbly to a priest before God can forgive such a one.
- The penitential canons are imposed only on the living, and, according to the canons themselves, nothing should be imposed on the dying.
ModTrans: Canon Laws applies only to the living!
- Therefore the Holy Spirit through the pope is kind to us insofar as the pope in his decrees always makes exception of the article of death and of necessity.
ModTrans: The Pope, however, can make an exception on (Thesis 8) i.e. to make the canon law applicable to the dead.
- Those priests act ignorantly and wickedly who, in the case of the dying, reserve canonical penalties for purgatory.
ModTrans: Priests who threaten the dying with purgatorial penalties are both ignorant and wicked.
Next time, we get to dissect theses 11-20, till we get to thesis 95.
Fun Fact: This is the 500th year of the #Protestant_Reformation!