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Hi, Reggie —
Just to clarify a point about Luther:
I don't think a balanced look at the history would allow us to say
that Luther wanted a rebellion. Yes, he went way too far but I believe
his goal was to reform the Church.
Luther was a troubled soul who, even as a Catholic priest, did not understand
grace and justification by faith. He was also any extremely scrupulous
man who mistook his desire to sin as sin itself.
Upon reading the book of Romans, he was enlightened about grace and faith.
From all I've read
he had a genuine conversion experience.
The problem arose when he took his personal conversion as a license to
re-interpret the meaning of the Scriptures. Based on his personal experience
he decided that the book of Romans taught that man is justified by
faith alone, whereas, it actually says we are justified by faith
apart from the works of the law.
He also looked around at the condition of the Church and saw corrupt Church
officials abusing legitimate doctrines. Instead of trying to understand
the doctrines he just threw them out.
In his defense, the Church hierarchy
of the day was not predisposed to listening to reformers.
In fact, it took
decades before the Church dealt with issues at the Council of Trent.
So Luther was definitely wrong for leaving the Church but then again,
reformers such as Savonarola (who preceded Luther) had been burned at the
stake for preaching reform.
Even the Catechism admits that sins were committed by men on both sides.
John DiMascio
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