Well, believe it or not, I agree with that. I am not Lutheran nor affiliated with any specific denomination so I have no dog in the hunt, so to speak. But, by the same token, you must also accept that no man is either all good or all evil. Those who do identify with the Reformed denominations have never, as far as I have seen, proclaim that their founders were infallible, but rather men who felt in their hearts a calling from God to change what they believed had been corrupted by evil influences. I don't doubt for one minute that Luther, a devout Catholic priest, would have stayed in the Church had she shed those influences and returned to true Biblical orthodoxy. That the "powers that be" would not - even though I think Luther was and still is correct in his criticisms - repent of that wrong they had done gave him every reason to leave.
I would not ever consider returning to the Catholic religion because I, too, know the truth about the Gospel that it IS by grace through faith in Jesus Christ that I am saved and not by any works of righteousness that I may do.
I can't help but think that there is just this awful stubbornness or blindness that takes over people and places them in a kind of box. I see it as - and I know you ain't gonna like what I say - a brainwashing effect. I know because I was in it myself. I know the feeling I had when I was about thirteen and we had moved to a new base and I went to my first Mass in the base chapel. I got the timing wrong and instead of a Catholic Mass, I was sitting in a Protestant service. I was so worried that I had sinned but I didn't think I could get up and leave so I sat through the service. I remember the fear that I had done something wrong. I remember the shame in sneaking a half of a donut before Mass when I should have been fasting before communion. I remember confessing before the priest about taking a quarter from my Mom's purse when I was seven. I must have confessed it five or ten times, but I never felt cleansed. That is the kind of life that none of us who were in it want to return to. The guilt, the worry, the fear that I can never be good enough to go to heaven.
But, now, I do know that I am forgiven. I know that I need not ever fear and I know that my goodness or lack of it does not change the fact, and never will, that God loves me and has given me the gift of everlasting life through Jesus Christ. I believe that people like Luther also saw the true light of the Gospel and I do not blame him for wanting to change what he saw that was wrong with the faith that he loved so dearly. He wasn't perfect, and none of us are, but he was a courageous man who God used to make a big difference in millions of lives. I respect that man.
Amen to that. As is man so are the institutions of man. I don't begrudge anyone rejecting Catholicism in favor of a Reformed denomination. I don't begrudge anyone citing the specific reasons why as long as they honestly portray Catholic teachings. Too often, though, I see ex-Catholics projecting their poor knowledge of the Catechism into actual Church teachings and I see anti-Catholics outright lying about what the Church does or does not teach. When that happens I have to correct that. I do not worry that the Church will not stand up to any scrutiny of its actual teachings, but to mischaracterize and lie about the Church is theft from both the Church and those lead astray.
Wow, that's an understatement.
We look at it from our perspective of history and see where it went. He had no clue what to expect. For all he knew, he was laying his life on the line. Remember, this was the era of the Inquisitions. He knew what the RCC did to heretics.
Funny thing is, Catholics like to portray Luther as a Protestant from the start who intended to start his own religion.
They conveniently over look the fact that he WAS indeed a Catholic priest. His wanting to see the Catholic church cleansed from the corruption that infested it in his day is not much different than those Catholics here on FR who want to see the Catholic church cleansed from the corruption which is infesting it today.