Martin Luther had a strong belief that the church should not cross roles with government. He also believed that the government should not have control over who can believe what and the government should not have control over the teachings of the church. According to Martin, the purpose of government is to do everything else that the church can’t do. For example punishing criminals and organizing an army. Martin had a great belief that the common people should not have to rely on a priest to be able to reach God but to have all able to reach God on their own. This will eventually be called the priesthood of all believers which states that all can reach God with the Bible which was translated to German, and through prayers. This was only made possible because of the printing press which could mass produce bibles, before it took up to 6 months to a year to make a bible.
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This later caused an issue of people interpreting the bible differently and started the branching of different religions that can tie back to the catholic religion.
Martin’s intentions were not to start a new religion but to help fix the catholic religion. His big idea was to change the views on Salvation. The catholic religion required the believers to make sacrifices for their loved ones and themselves to keep them from going to hell and reduce their time in purgatory. They did this sometimes by giving money to get a piece of paper from the Pope stating that their loved ones have less time in purgatory and giving them a sense of relief. Martin believed that just with faith the doors of heaven are wide open for them. According to Martin, “He has suffered and risen again for you, that, believing on Him, you might by this faith become another man, all your sins being remitted, and you being justified by the merits of another, namely of Christ alone” (Luther 2). Martin is basically saying that just having love for the religion believing in Christ and God that is good enough you don’t need to pay anyone to have less time in purgatory you just need to believe. Also Martin explains “I greatly fear that few or no colleges, monasteries, altars and offices of the church are really Christina in our day – nor the special fasts and prayers on certain saints’ days. I fear, I say, that in all these we seek only our profit, thinking that through them our sins are purged away and that we find salvation in them. In this way Christian liberty perishes altogether “. He explains that the church tells the people to do things to honor the saints and they make the people think that through the church is the only way to get salvation but it’s not true. That we need them in order to be entered into the gates of heaven and only by them all of this is possible and still making profit from the people who honestly believe. All these views changes his political views because he no longer believed in the state and church becoming one because it leave with the people with no power. They are in command of both the Pope and the King.
This later caused an issue of people interpreting the bible differently and started the branching of different religions that can tie back to the catholic religion.
Martin’s intentions were not to start a new religion but to help fix the catholic religion. His big idea was to change the views on Salvation. The catholic religion required the believers to make sacrifices for their loved ones and themselves to keep them from going to hell and reduce their time in purgatory. They did this sometimes by giving money to get a piece of paper from the Pope stating that their loved ones have less time in purgatory and giving them a sense of relief. Martin believed that just with faith the doors of heaven are wide open for them. According to Martin, “He has suffered and risen again for you, that, believing on Him, you might by this faith become another man, all your sins being remitted, and you being justified by the merits of another, namely of Christ alone” (Luther 2). Martin is basically saying that just having love for the religion believing in Christ and God that is good enough you don’t need to pay anyone to have less time in purgatory you just need to believe. Also Martin explains “I greatly fear that few or no colleges, monasteries, altars and offices of the church are really Christina in our day – nor the special fasts and prayers on certain saints’ days. I fear, I say, that in all these we seek only our profit, thinking that through them our sins are purged away and that we find salvation in them. In this way Christian liberty perishes altogether “. He explains that the church tells the people to do things to honor the saints and they make the people think that through the church is the only way to get salvation but it’s not true. That we need them in order to be entered into the gates of heaven and only by them all of this is possible and still making profit from the people who honestly believe. All these views changes his political views because he no longer believed in the state and church becoming one because it leave with the people with no power. They are in command of both the Pope and the King.