He has more problems than the forgiveness or condemnation by the Catholic church....He will have to answer to Christ Who may ask, why did you attack, from the outside, the church which I personally founded??????
Born again Christians have the Holy Spirit and Jesus dwelling within them.
He (Luther) will have to answer to Christ Who may ask, why did you attack, from the outside, the church which I personally founded??????More likely is that Catholics will be asked why did you attack Me and My Holy Spirit when attacking members (whom We indwell) of my Body, my church?
Why did you attempt to fill them with such false doctrine? Did you see the strength with with they withstood the attacks? That was Me, you were fighting Me and I answered you through you. And you should have listened.
I believe there will be many posters who will have those questions put to them.
*Sigh*--Scriptures say there will be those with hardened hearts who have neither eyes to see or ears to hear.
Martin Luther was a Catholic priest, if you remember, so he was NOT attacking from the "outside". ALL of the areas he tried to reform were intended to be from within and several faults actually DID get changed. For those the hierarchy refused to correct, Luther was commanded to recant and bow in submission to the Pope on all areas. He could not and remain honest to the word of God because the Lord had opened his spiritual eyes and he saw through the accursed gospel Rome insisted on clinging to. For that, he was cast out, though this was not his intention.
During the time of the Reformation, there were numerous depraved and wicked popes and bishops who recognized what they would have to personally give up to get right with God and they refused. They chose to persecute and hunt down those who wanted to restore the church to what Christ intended it to be. They left the reformers with no choice BUT to leave and continue to lead others to saving faith in Jesus Christ. What many Catholics today don't know is that their church leaders had perverted the Gospel and the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles and used their offices for personal enrichment and power - something the early church was forbidden to do.
The Reformation in the sixteenth century was NOT the first time the Catholic Church had to face the correction of God. It won't be the last either. I have a strong sense that Martin Luther has already been welcomed into heaven with a hearty, "Well done my good and faithful servant.", and he is enjoying being in the presence of the Lord for eternity.
He could point out that from of old God had raised up holy if imperfect men to reprove those who sat in magisterial power, and which body rejected them, but by them the faith was preserved.
And consistent with that is the example of an Itinerant Preacher who began a church in dissent from those who were the instruments and stewards of Divine revelation, and which body did not sanction Him nor a man in the desert with a strange diet and clothes, and who did no miracles. But the preaching of both manifested Divine sanction, and which included reproof of those who sat in power, and thus they were rejected by them. But this is how truth was preserved and the true Israel of God manifest.
And that while he, Luther, did not intend to start a new entity of the universal church, but to reform the old, he was only trying to do what had been manifest from of old, that of holding the Scriptures as supreme, rather than yielding implicit submission to men who presumed a level of assured veracity which Scripture did not afford them.
The fact is that it is Rome that will have to answer for the persecution and blood of souls who in the light of Scripture could not submit to Rome in conscience toward God, and which guilt extends to you who support submission to Rome above the Scriptures.
And consistent with the premise behind Rome's claim to supreme authority, that of being the steward of Scripture and inheritor of Divine promises of God's presence, and historical descent, and thus she persecute those who reprove her, Rome would exhibit the same reaction to the Christ as those who sat in the seat of Moses did, though uniole her, they actually has explicit affirmation of their office, but not for the manner of Romish submission they presumed it conferred.
"And they come again to Jerusalem: and as he was walking in the temple, there come to him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders, And say unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things? And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer me. " (Mark 11:27-30)
And if the Reformation had not happened, with its historically transformative gospel - and despite its need for further ongoing reformation - the world would be a more darker superstitious and lost place indeed.