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Exactly. Furthermore, Luther would later admit at the end of his life that when he started his revolt, he did not even really know what an indulgence was! (cf. Luther, Hans Worsts, 1541). They were merely a convenient catalyst to begin his revolt.

Here is an indulgence explained by St. Paul from 2 Cor 2... "...But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye oughtrather to forgive him, and...

Great post. Interestedly, by the end of the 16th century, there were already nearly 300 different sects. 300 is an astonishing number. Because Protestantism does not have a living authority to resolve exegetical disagreements, the fruit of doctrine of Sola Scriptura has been continual division...

I was just about to post that! Sometimes it takes satire to point out the ridiculous.

Agreed and my favorite is all these adherents of it actually putting down dates But for me the worst part of the fable is its desire to remove suffering from the life of the Christian. It offers a false hope that says don't worry, you can avoid suffering. Christianity lives in the constant...

No, he invented the fable of a rapture whereby a select group of people get removed via a quasi-second coming of Christ in order to escape suffering. "...Finally, by means of an innovative theological exegesis, he [John Nelson Darby] formulated the doctrine of the pretribulational rapture of...

No, you haven’t shown St. Paul was hopeful of a Rapture as you understand it because there was no such belief until Darby invented it in the 19th century. The idea that Jesus will come twice, first to take a selected number of people up to heaven on a specific date is a fable. In fact ,many...

And we know St. Paul never taught man is saved by faith ALONE because in Romans he says we are saved by hope! Romans 8:24: "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?"

Jesus answers Nicodemus and says two things are required for man to be born again: Water and the spirit. Christians call this ceremony whereby man is born again in water and the spirit baptism.

If one does believe that faith ALONE can save, then one must believe that a dead faith, i.e. a faith apart from ANYTHING, is a salvific one.

You are really taking the spilled milk / shotgun approach here. You are throwing so many non-sequiturs it's difficult to address them all. My belief is that of the early Church, best expressed by St. Augustine's amillennialism. Johannine texts, particularly the Apocalypse, is polyvalent and...

We are not Jews so what the Jews believe about the eschaton is irrelevant to Christians, especially given they missed the messiah's first coming.

Agreed. But there is a modern day dispensationalist movement which started in the 19th century which posits Jesus returns twice. Once in the rapture then again to set up his earthly kingdom. This theory was started by a Scottish visionary named Darby, and gained popularity in contemporary...

It's as if Dan Brown is posting here.

The first death is that normal separation of body and soul at the end of this earthly life. When the soul leaves the body it is judged at once. "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment" says St. Paul. If a soul is in God's grace and friendship, he goes to heaven and...

One is particular, one is general. Yes, but a "rapture" whereby Jesus returns twice, once in secret to snatch away people to avoid suffering, is a fable originated by Darby in the 19th century.

I do believe in a second resurrection, but I'm sure not in the same way as you. I do not believe in a rapture, which is a modern fable.

Bingo. Faith alone is nothing but a noisy gong or clanging cymbal. St. Paul could not be more explicit... "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all...

The "second death” describes those who go to hell. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the presence of the throne. And the books were opened: and another book was opened, which was the book of life. And the dead were judged by those things which were written in the books, according...

Jesus Christ is the rightful judge of all men. You do not have the authority to supplant his authority and judge yourself. And which one of us, if we were appointed judge of ourselves, would render a guilty verdict?? Christians do not get to judge themselves. In Christianity, we have the...