My Thoughts on How the Heresy "Priests Save Souls" Makes Easy, Filthy Money for Rome
Two days ago was the anniversary that celebrated the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. One could consider that while I don't consider myself as a Protestant - I still think about the importance of yet another event in the Church. When Jesus said in Matthew 16:18-19 that the gates of Hell can't prevail against it - He meant it. The execution of Jan Hus and early Christian groups such as the Waldenses and pre-Reformation era Baptists (though I reject the Baptist Bride doctrine as utterly heretical) didn't stop it. One area that launched the Protestant Reformation was with Johannes Tetzel who tried to sell "salvation". But one thing Martin Luther protested was, "Salvation is not for sale!"
How often do you hear the idea that priests save souls and worse, pastors damn souls? Since when can a mere man save or damn a soul as a judge? A man can lead someone to damnation or salvation but never damn or save a soul by authority! I could remember the dramatization of Tetzel's scam of indulgences where he said, "I can save your souls! Now pay up!" which was done to establish the St. Peter's Basilica during the Middle Ages. People were to pay their priests up in the hopes of attaining eternal salvation. Nowhere in the Bible is it taught that you can buy your salvation!
I remembered how often it went this way. Baptism? No baptism without payment! First communion? Pay up! Confessional? Oh, I need a donation or you can't get your sins forgiven! Confirmation? Oh, you still need to pay again! Marriage? Okay, paying the registration isn't enough - you need to pay me too! Last rites? Okay, payment or no last rites! Masses for the dead? It goes on and on. It just reminds me of how my paternal grandfather died in the 1970s and masses are still going on. My great-grandfather died during World War 2 and masses are still going on. Somebody died for 92 years or more and masses are still said for that person! If the person died in God's grace then why must they stay in Purgatory? That's not biblical. Jesus took the thief immediately to Paradise, not Purgatory!
Why does the Vatican hate the doctrine of assurance? It's because their easy source of income is gone. What's the use of some of the Vatican's amateur defenders pointing against prosperity gospel heretics (many of these heretics are also Vatican stooges) when their religion is built on dirty money? How many peasants toiled endlessly and unable to buy their needs because they were paying for indulgences. Pay to enter Heaven? Then why didn't the rich man in the story of "The Rich Man and Lazarus" enter Heaven? Why did Lazarus who had not a penny immediately enter Abraham's bosom? Now some amateur Catholic apologists say that the rich man is in Purgatory? Please, even a Roman Catholic approved translation says that the rich man went to HELL which is seldom translated as Gehenna.
The whole priests save souls to make people frightful. One reason why Luther spent so much time in penance was that he finally saw what he was - a dirty, rotten sinner! How can a mere man save souls? Peter only preached and never claimed he saved souls. Peter whom Roman Catholics embrace as their first Pope when he wasn't said no such thing that he saved souls! Yet, the Pharisees of Rome have the audacity to say that they save souls? It's all about keeping people under control if you ask me!