Differences Between Christianity And Protestant Beliefs

A major 16th century movement initially aimed at reforming the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, the Reformation was begun by a German monk named Martin Luther who challenge the Catholic Church’s doctrine by posting his 95 Theses on a church door. He did this because he was appalled that the church was selling indulgences, which were written letters that assured people’s salvation, in order to build a new Basilica in Rome under Pope Leo X. Martin Luther argued that the Bible, not the pope, was the central means to discern God’s word and was the only thing capable of giving salvation.

The time of the Reformation sparked a lot of religious controversy and the Protestant churches were the child of which the controversy bore. In writing the 95 Theses, Martin Luther tried to abandon or lessen the excess ideas and doctrines that provided an obstacle to the main focus, which was God. His ideas detracted from the focus of possessions, and more unto faith. As a result of the break from the Catholic Church, the Protestants had many divergent ideas, like how Protestants believed in 2-3 sacraments, no veneration of saints, the simplicity of Protestant churches, and the biggest idea, the Eucharist. The Catholics had the beliefs of 7 sacraments, complex churches, veneration of saints, and transubstantiation. All these differing ideas helped shape the protestant church and what was then the Protestant

12. ’98 Compare and contrast the Lutheran Reformation and the Catholic Reformation of the sixteenth century regarding the reform of both religious doctrines and religious practices.

The Reformation started with the ideas and concepts of Martin Luther, all explained in his Ninety-Five Theses. Luther believed that God’s gift of faith was freely given to the unworthy, and the righteousness is passive and is not active or based on our good works or deeds. These ideas clashed with the Roman Church, which in turn created the “Indulgence Controversy.” To raise money to help rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Leo X issued the offer of indulgences as a penance for parishioners to buy. This penance acted as a way to pay as a remission of temporal punishment due to the sins of the person whose guilt has already been forgiven. Luther caught wind of the issue of indulgences happening within his own church and went ballistic

For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church has been at the center of controversy because of its powerful influence spanning the globe. The Catholic church has experienced many reformations, most of the movements had to do with their beliefs and policies. The Catholic church believed that by doing good works and living a selfless life one would enter the kingdom of God; while others like the protestant John Calvin, had different ideas of what constituted salvation. For instants, he believed that having faith would be enough to enter in to the kingdom of God. Calvin rebelled against the Catholic church and formed a different religion, which opened the door for other to express their beliefs of what doctrines they would follow. After many centuries,

The reformation encompassed a period where individuals contended with religions due to the individual’s interpretation. Ones interpretation of the scripture during the reformation had the capability to revolutionize churches as with Martin Luther’s own interpretation of the scripture. During the time of Martin Luther, the Catholic Church exploited the paranoia of its followers with the selling of indulgences. “Indulgences began as monetary gifts of charity as an expression of gratitude in exchange for forgiveness .” As time progressed the church began to sell indulgencies for those wishing to spend less time in purgatory. The low point for indulgences occurred when the church issued them for the dead. As illustrated, the living and the dead

The Protestant Reformation partook so much of past and future theology that it may best be viewed as a transition between the medieval and modern periods in church history. As such, it was a significant break with the past. One of the most remarkable aspects of the Reformation’s break with the past was its emphasis upon the Scriptures as the sole source of authority and rule of faith in the believer’s life. This was a radical departure from the medieval attitude that tradition, as well as the Scriptures, as interpreted and promulgated by the Roman Catholic hierarchy is the rule of life. Although the early Reformation leaders did not fully appreciate or apply the implications of their principles, the effect of their movement was to unfetter

The history of the Protestant Reformation reformed and changed Christianity immensely. The Magisterial Reformers, Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin, the Anabaptist, and the Roman Catholic Church individually restrained their particular doctrine concerning the three solas. So much corruption and abuses that was happening to the people caused by the Roman Catholic Church, Godly leaders with visions and boldness decided to take action. "From such quarters came the conviction that it was necessary to return to the sources of the Christian faith, and that this would result in a reformation of existing doctrine and practice" (Gonzalez, J. L. 2010, Chapter 1). Leaders like Martin Luther and John Calvin initiates a movement to change the

“Martin Luther wrote his “95 Theses” and challenged the church on the sale of indulgences in 1517”. Martin Luther argued that “the church’s rituals did not have the power to save souls and denied priests had any spiritual power” (Green). “Luther translated the bible into German and for the first time allowed common people to read the Bible without priests. This eventually lead to different opinions between people and their ideas about salvation and created different branches of protestant churches such as the Anabaptists, Calvinists, and other denominators Puritans, Quakers, Methodists, and Baptists”

From the time Christianity began to the time of the Protestant Reformation, for about a millennium and a half, there was only one sect of Christianity: Catholicism. After the Protestant Reformation, however, different Christian denominations sprang up in many parts of Europe. The Protestant Reformation’s beginning is most commonly associated with Martin Luther’s beliefs and his protest of the wrongdoings of the Catholic Church. Before the Reformation, the Catholic Church was more interested in raising funds for its leaders and keeping political ties healthy rather than the spiritual enhancement of the Christian people. There were problems with Catholic leadership years before during the Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism, in which there were multiple popes as a result of political rivalries between regions. These two events greatly depreciated papal authority for years to come, and although many people still practiced Catholicism, their confidence and trust in the Church was never completely restored. Luther protested the sale of indulgences, the belief that the Church’s interpretation of the Scripture was the only right interpretation (that people should read the Bible themselves), and the corruption of the Catholic clergy. Catholics believed that, by purchasing an indulgence, a soul could escape from purgatory; the leaders of the Catholic Church took advantage of this belief in order to receive more revenue. Since the start of Christianity, the Catholic Church

They granted,”indulgences,” to give absolution.A person named Johann Tetzel started to sell these indulgences to make money for the renovation of St.Peter’s basilica of Rome. Since Luther greatly believed in salvation by faith in God, he disliked the deeds done by Johann.He did not believe in purgatory.The Catholic Churches had people believing that purgatory was a place where people have to work off their sins.They had to wait for years to be entered heaven.Therefore, people bought indulgences from Johann so the people in purgatory could be entered into heaven faster.He hated how Johann was selling these indulgences. He then created the,” Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,”or known as the 95 Theses.This document was about the ninety-five things that were wrong with the Catholic Church.This document, later, would become the basis of the Protestant Reformation. These were given out to the people in Germany

Religion has been altered and developed throughout history. Christianity developed based on the Jewish Torah, also known as the Old Testament in the bible. Likewise, Christianity itself has evolved over the centuries. In order to survive, it has had to change and adapt. Not only have many religions and branches of Christianity become extinct over the centuries, but Christianity has also had to merge with the cultures of other religions. For example, Christmas was not originally a Christian holiday. It was once called Yule, a religious festival observed by ancient Germanic people which is now better known as Christmas as it underwent Christianized reformulation, with a tradition of cutting down and decorating trees long before Christ was born. A noteworthy change that I will focus on in this essay is the Catholic Reformation. However, whether this reformation can be simply called the Catholic Reformation is a question that needs to be adressed. The Catholic Reformation, also known as the Counter Reformation, was the period of Catholic revival that began with the Council of Trent and ended at the close of the Thirty Years ' War. The Counter Reformation was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. I believe that the Catholic Reformation would be better described as the Counter Reformation because it was a comprehensive effort composed of four major elements: ecclesiastical or structural reconfiguration, religious orders, spiritual movements, and political

Even after the Councils of Trent there was still a lot of authority placed on the importance of the Church and the Church continued to encourage believers to do good works in order to aid one in receiving salvation (“Council of Trent”). Lutheranism is only one of the multiple Protestant denominations that formed as a result of the the Protestant Reformation and while several of the qualms it had with the Catholic Church were shared among other denominations, the Catholic and Protestant disagreements were broad and varied with each individual denomination (“Reformation”).

The Renaissance was a time where individuals questioned numerous aspects of European culture and society, which have collectively broadened the worldview from medieval to modern. As such, a new wave of theological thinking emerged from the dissent of the late Medieval church, and this is commonly known as the Reformation. Martin Luther is often credited as the “Great Man” whose Ninety-Five Thesis – a provocative set of questions targeting the Church – set in motion the pivotal process of religious change, known as Protestantism. The radical change from medieval Christianity to modern Christianity is often confined to the ideas of two important men: Martin Luther and John Calvin. It is also important to note the vastness of time that the Renaissance dominated compared to the short period within 1517 to 1559 that these two reformers lived. Yet without them, without the challenging and convincing religious arguments and questions they put forward – justification by faith alone, the doctrine of double –predestination—the religious change as seen in the sixteenth century, as well as even the name of the movement could’ve been very different.

The attendant effects of Martin Luther’s reformation in the early period of the sixteenth century occasioned by his posting of the 95 theses that raised objections to some of the then prevalent practices of the Roman Catholic Church eventually led to a significant breakaway from the church of a relatively more liberal Christian sect known as the “Protestant”. It is worthy of note however that the Roman Catholic Church tried albeit unsuccessfully to placate the breakaway by instituting a “counter-Reformation” but this only achieved a cleansing of the church internally without achieving much in its most important mandate to prevent the protestant breakaway. Consequently, Europe was enmeshed in bloody religious war largely between forces loyal to the papacy in Rome and those who sympathized with the runaway protestant movement. As a result, the Roman Catholic Church invariably began to lose its pole position in the scheme of things in an already divided Europe.