[Aquinasfan]

I like the parts about indulgences and purgatory - they're swell.

You'd see it in the Bible if you weren't using Luther's abridged version. By what authority did Martin "Bible Alone" Luther remove five books from the Bible?

[Yardstick]

Just curious, which parts of the Bible did Luther abridge?

Side note: I've just recently jettisoned the notion of sola scriptura and am considering converting to Eastern Orthodox (after fifteen years as non-denominational Protestant type).

[Clintons a commie]

You'd see it in the Bible if you weren't using Luther's abridged version. By what authority did Martin "Bible Alone" Luther remove five books from the Bible?

And speaking of Luther, as long as people love to throw around accusations about the Catholic Church, how about his tract "On the Jews And Their Lies" where he advocates killing Jews and burning down Synagogues. Very inspirational stuff from the founder of Protestantism.

[AD from SpringBay]

I thought it was Pope John the 22nd, in 1316, that developed the widespread system of remitting sins by the sale of indulgences. My bad, I guess.

Be that as it may, do you really see this as something that Jesus taught - that a family member on this earth can buy someone's passage out of purgatory with a few gold coins? And, if there were any money left over, could that be stored in the Thesaurus meritorum sanctorum (Compendium of the Merits of the Saints)? You really believe that?