“He established the “catholic” church”.
You’re exactly right and Martin Luther and his minions decided to break away from that church......after 1,500 years of being CATHOLIC.
“You’re exactly right and Martin Luther and his minions decided to break away from that church......after 1,500 years of being CATHOLIC.”
Don’t conflate Christ’s church universal, composed of every believer everywhere, with the Roman Catholic Church, which does NOT represent the entirety of Christ’s universal body, as it is merely a part of it.
Luther was lead away from the sect of Roman Catholicism because of its egregious teachings, most notably on the sale of papal indulgences. He did not leave the catholic church: he left a sect of it.
Failure to understand that difference is at the heart of any number of these sectarian squabbles.
“...Luther and his minions decided to break away from that church......after 1,500 years of being CATHOLIC.”
I might add, in response to the above, that it was not Luther who left the catholic church, rather it was the [Roman] Catholic Church that left the apostolic teachings on faith and salvation.
In the same way, Conservatives aren’t leaving the Republican Party: the Republican Party is leaving us.
When any church falls into heresy (as the Roman Catholic Church has done in the past), it is best to admit it and fix it rather than persecute those who point it out and leave the church because of it.