Luther threw out seven books and added a word in the bible.
I like the guy, but Luther was a man of many faults.
The RC had corruption but it was not all of the church. Saints did many good things for the church.
Certianly. The saints did ineradicable things for God and in general deserve their status. They lay people are always a mixed bag of sincerity and corruption. At that time the power structure was getting terribly corrupt, but it certainly was not always so. Now there is certainly still corruption, but also many very Godly priests and bishops serving God in true piety.
Many focus on a corrupt church but fail to see the chain of events that came before it.
Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it right? Many focus on the good things of the reformation but fail to see how time has allowed corruption into their own denominations, often very similar to the worst of RCC corruption.
There where many christians killed by muslims, the church began to disappear from places because of the many killings.
It is good to point that out. I suppose many of the most sincere Christians would have been on the front-lines. I never thought of it that way before.
As the church took stance to defend itself in fear of disappearing some people began to see the See of Peter as a powerful chair. Many power hungry people got close to the Pope, some succeeded.
Naturally.
But no matter how corrupt some of the clergy be, the Power of Jesus Christ, the second person in the Trinity, God the Son did not let His church give false teachings. This is what is known as infallibility, not that the Pope is Jesus because that would be heresy. They have infallibility when speaking for the church, Jesus power and glory will not let His church teach wrong.
And yet we have the likes of Alexander VI. That such a man could be said to be infallible in any state of his life is beyond my suspension of disbelief. Any mans statement will require discernment. Unam Sanctam I could handle if that where still the Churches claim, the 'infallibility' of the 1870's is unpardonable to me. I've read several times that earlier pope's opposed the idea, and it is clear that John XXII would call it madness, a
s he objected to the inability to call into question his predictors. He went so far as to call such a thing the doctrine of the devil, the father of lies. I'm inclined to agree with him. Given that that itself is a papal bull non-contradiction applies. Either John XXII or Pius IX had to be wrong, and I'm going with John personally. In fact if Pius was right then John was wrong, but John can't be wrong if Pius was right, so Pius must needs be wrong about that one.
If people did bad things it was of their own free will and will be judge accordingly. We know some clergy charged money for indulgences, but the catholic church never teaches this.
It wasn't until the council of Trent that the selling of indulgences for money was forbidden. I suppose it is fair to say that no official stance advocated selling them, the practice was however both common and well known. I will admit that the way in which indulgences where used in Luthers time where not in line with the official stance of the Catholic Church on indulgences (which is actually quite good, they are a form of penance not permission)
Will the devil not try to infiltrate the church and make everyone believe they are false? The doctrinal teachings have never changed. The saved by grace that Luther teach is actually a catholic doctrine. Catholics have never believe they are saved by their own works, but this lie has been spread so much and people believe it. Even some catholics have come to believe this false teaching of saved by works.
The works of penance that where done in Luther's day give rise to 'saved by works'. But of course that never was the official stance there either.