Problems in Medieval Catholicism

[sparow]

Was the Reformation necessary? You bet it was. Here's a very brief review of some problems in Medieval Catholicism which to some degree still exist in the RCC today:

1. The importance of the Sacraments was exalted over the importance of preaching God's word. The seven sacraments (so called) were considered to be the arteries of the body of Christ and the way that the faithful would receive God's grace. The problem is that the sacraments were mechanical. Participants need not understand them, they need only participate in them in order to receive grace. This leads to our next problem.
   
   
2. The church assumed that parishioners were mostly incapable of understanding the Christian faith. Therefore Christian faith must be mechanical. The Bible was not translated into the common language. Mass was said in Latin. Parishioners understood not a word. And often times clergy did not even understand what they were saying. What mattered was not understanding. The unwashed masses were probably incapable of understanding. What mattered was the rituals themselves. Hence an exalted view of the sacraments.
   
   
3. Justification was thought to be a process, not a definitive act of God. Justification was seen as God infusing his righteousness into us and slowly making us more righteous whereby we would eventually become totally justified and thus merit salvation. The problem with this is that it leads to the natural question - "have I become righteous enough to merit salvation?" Those who took this most seriously would obsess themselves with a fearful and minute examination of conscience. This later took the form of confession of sins to a priest along with the priest questioning the parishioner to help them examine their conscience and expose all kinds of sin. But in this system there is never any rest or peace because our sin is unfathomable.

So, in short, the Church took the place of God. Only she could dispense God's grace through her acts (sacraments). She robbed God's people of God's word by effectively denying them the Bible (Latin Mass, no common translations). She made the people of God enslaved to clergy in order to gain a faulty assurance of their own salvation.

So was the Reformation needed? You bet it was. Is it still needed? You bet it is. Many of these issues still persist in Catholicism today.

With all churches having doctrines and traditions of men, some more than others. Catholicism differs from the rest is it claims authority to change the Law; the others while accepting a changed law do not claim to have changed it by their own authority.

Jeremiah 13:23 (NKJV)
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.

 

[SolomonVII]

With all churches having doctrines and traditions of men, some more than others. Catholicism differs from the rest is it claims authority to change the Law; the others while accepting a changed law do not claim to have changed it by their own authority.

Jeremiah 13:23 (NKJV)
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.

I don’t think that is an accurate description. The Church does not have the authority to change the Law,or truth, but only the authority to better describe what has always been taught. Various other churches consciously opt out of old teachings that they feel have become antiquated. When it comes to ancient understanding of truth, Catholicism is very limited in introducing change.

 

[sparow]

I don’t think that is an accurate description. The Church does not have the authority to change the Law,or truth, but only the authority to better describe what has always been taught. Various other churches consciously opt out of old teachings that they feel have become antiquated. When it comes to ancient understanding of truth, Catholicism is very limited in introducing change.

I always expect a Catholic to defend the Catholic Church. The Reformation changed the RCC; it had to appear to change to stop the exodus.

The history of the RCC changing the Sabbath to Sunday is still available for all to see; this is changing the Law. The RCC teaches that the Law is abrogated, this is also the Law changed; and the RCC has it's own ten commandments that are different to the Bible, Past claims of the Papacy is that it has the authority to do this and that no authority for changing the Law is found in scripture. The Presbyterians on the other hand have the Westminster confession which contains the Biblical Ten Commandments; they keep Sunday because a document was found that said Christians kept Sunday; that the Law be abrogated was not a consideration for them at that time.

A number of things you have said places us on different pages; the scriptures cannot become antiquated, their languages are dead and cannot change, translations can.

Prophesy takes us right through to the end of time, it cannot be antiquated; we have the beasts, the gold head, the silver chest, the bronze middle and the iron legs and feet. This beast was complete when Jesus came, but the stone cut without hands has not destroyed that beast yet so it has been with us for 2000 years. Rome is the transport system that move the beast around and the RCC is the State Church of Rome; all this fulfilling of prophesy is God engineering so the RCC has no choice in the matter. Because the RCC is intrinsically linked to Rome it is on the wrong side of a line. There is that part of prophesy where God says, "come out of her my people"; this may have been what the reformation was about, but it will happen again in the future.