Talk:Justification by faith alone (G.G.)

Historical note about selling indulgences

It's inaccurate to state that the Church sold "forgiveness for money". Indeed, a handful of corrupt priests had done so in efforts to raise money for the construction of Churches, financing the Crusades, and so forth. But often, when this information had reached the ears of Bishops, warrants for arrest of the offending priests were issued. Yes -- corruption existed in the Church. This is admitted fully. But the Church does not claim to be perfect in act, which would be absurd. It claims to be infallible only on questions of faith and morals; in other words, on questions of doctrine. The criminal actions of isolated individuals (who were condemned by the Church) do not speak against the Church as a whole.

-- Very respectfully, AmericanCatholic

I agree with AmericanCatholic's point... First, the Church was certainly not "selling forgiveness". Technically, some corrupt clergymen were selling indulgences, not forgiveness. An "indulgence" is when the Church, through the infinite merits of Jesus, grants a remittance from the temporal punishment due to a sin, the guilt of which has already been forgiven. In order to gain an indulgence for a sin, the sin must already be forgiven. An indulgence applies to the concept of Purgatory, not our eternal salvation. Second, the Church claims infallibility only in certain of its teachings, never its actions. The Church is, as AmericanCatholic pointed out, full of sinners too who sometimes make mistakes. I'm going to write an essay on Faith Plus Works (God willing), so I won't go into the finer points of Grove's arguments right now -- P.B. Pilhet / Talk 20:47, 12 April 2010 (UTC)