Happy Reformation Day!
October 31, 2008 by Laura | Trackback URI
Veith has the battle hymn of the Reformation and lots more.
Some background:
The year was 1517, and Tetzel, a Dominican monk, was selling papal indulgences near Wittenberg. Tetzel was offering total remission of all sins forever – whoever bought his indulgence would go to Heaven immediately upon death.
This practice was not uncommon. In theory, the person purchasing the indulgence was to repent his or her sins prior to the purchase, so that it was clear that God was doing the forgiving of the sin while the Church was merely remitting the punishment that went with it. But Tetzel did not demand repentance. You paid your money and you got your indulgence and good day to you.
Tetzel was a born publicist. He set up his table in the town square, had lovely banners all around, and even distributed announcements complete with a little jingle to make it memorable:
“Another penny in the coffer rings, another soul to Heaven springs.”This sort of marketing was repellant to Luther, as indeed it was to many pious Christians. Most merely wrinkled their noses in disgust and turned away. Luther, being a university professor, instead wrote a paper.
Specifically, a list of 95 theses, or propositions, challenging the sale of indulgences in theory and practice. He nailed the document to the door of the Wittenberg Church, which was the usual place for posting public notices, and offered to debate the theses with any churchman.
I would...
Like an aging monument, democracy itself is crumbling.
What Reformation Day really is is this: The Reformed doctrine is a reformation of Satan’s character. The Reformed doctrine asserts that Satan is under the direct micromanagerial control of Christ, that “the Devil is God’s Devil and only does what God wants.” Thus, by asserting that the devil does as God makes him, and that alone, the devil is Reformed into being an obedient puppet of God. In the process, however, God is Reformed into being as bad as the Devil. Thus, the Reformed (i.e. Calvinists) chose to place their holiday on October 31st to coincide with the Devil’s holiday, which is Halloween. But Paul says that Christ has no concord with Belial (i.e. the Devil) in 2nd Corinthians 6:15. The Reformed position is a denial of this very important distinction between Christ and Belial and was invented by Belial specifically to convince men that he is nothing more than Christ’s sock-puppet and thus Belial causes men to blaspheme Christ and go to hell.
Rey, get some thorazine. Stat!
Okay, snark aside, you don’t have a very good grasp of Reformed theology. I’ll post some links on it soon, just for you.