An Excerpt from Luther’s 95 Theses

Tonight we discussed 9 of Luther’s 95 Theses in theBOX. We finished watching the film last week and had some good discussion tonight. Here are the nine we read through:

21.
Therefore those preachers of indulgences are in error, who say that by the pope’s indulgences a man is freed from every penalty, and saved;

28.
It is certain that when the penny jingles into the money-box, gain and avarice can be increased, but the result of the intercession of the Church is in the power of God alone.

32.
They will be condemned eternally, together with their teachers, who believe themselves sure of their salvation because they have letters of pardon.

36.
Every truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without letters of pardon.

75.
To think the papal pardons so great that they could absolve a man even if he had committed an impossible sin and violated the Mother of God — this is madness.

79.
To say that the cross, emblazoned with the papal arms, which is set up [by the preachers of indulgences], is of equal worth with the Cross of Christ, is blasphemy.

82.
To wit: — “Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the sake of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a Church? The former reasons would be most just; the latter is most trivial.”

86.
Again: — “Why does not the pope, whose wealth is to-day greater than the riches of the richest, build just this one church of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the money of poor believers?”