According to Roman Church doctrine, the saints throughout history had amassed an overflow of good works, and this excess of “holiness,” which had been deposited in the Church’s treasury, could be sold as indulgences. (An indulgence is a payment made to the church that provided the giver a forgiveness of sin and curtailed the length of time spent in purgatory.) This doctrine is a contradiction of the truth and sufficiency of Scripture that states we have all come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). To raise the astronomical sum of money required to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in grand style, the pope authorized the selling of licenses for the sale of indulgences. The licenses to sell these indulgences were sold in each district of the Holy Roman Empire to the highest bidder.
The typical indulgence peddler went from town to town in a grandiose procession that involved the cross, beating of drums, waving of flags and banners, and pealing of church bells. In each town these peddlars sold indulgences in the cathedral, and proclaimed to the illiterate masses that never before had the splendor of heaven been so widely available for so little. Previous generations of poor who could not afford the high price of indulgences earned them by fighting in foreign crusades.
Each sin had a particular price and, of course, the rich paid more for their indulgences. Each payer received a letter of absolution from the Roman Church. Indulgences were even sold for future sins and for the dead, to help them exit purgatory sooner. The peddler would often declare: “At the very instant the money rattles at the bottom of the chest, the soul escapes from purgatory!”
Many people were stunned at the excesses that were committed by these indulgence peddlers in their over-the-top attempts to recoup their significant investment. But far worse than the commercialization of the church was the impact such activities and practices had on European morality. People were engaging in gross immorality believing that they had already paid in advance for forgiveness. Even Martin Luther was distressed to see some of his own congregation indulging in such egregious behavior.
The underlying crisis that Luther confronted in 1517 confronts the church in the 21st century, but manifests itself in different forms: Christology is in crisis and the Gospel is in crisis because people refuse to believe in the power of the word of God. Luther once wrote:
“For though we had the bones of all the saints or all holy and consecrated garments upon a heap, still that would help us nothing; for all that is a dead thing which can sanctify nobody. But God’s Word is the treasure which sanctifies everything…”
In many of today’s church sanctuaries, worship services have been replaced by felt-needs programming, which for all intents and purposes, is the modern-day equivalent of the bones of the saints. The unchurched, when given a choice, will shy away from attending when the message is about sin and redemption; however, they may come to church for financial management advice, marital counseling, positive upbeat messages and music, or learning how to relate to their teenage children. There’s nothing wrong with churches offering such programs—particularly when presented from a biblically Christian perspective. However, displacing or sacrificing the practice of communal worship and biblical exegesis for such programming places the emphasis on man, rather than the collective worship of God.
So, now as in 1517, the new method, the new program, the new technique, the new music, the new technology fails to supplant the power and the sufficiency of the truth as found in the Gospel.
