Looking over my 90 years, I realize I have never made any progress in good times. I only progressed in the hard times.
Malcolm Muggeridge

Indulgences

Indulgences

INDULGENCES

BASIC R.C. BELIEF The remission in whole or in part of the temporal punishment due for sins which have been forgiven. The gaining of these and other credits is necessary because the Sacrament of Penance doesn’t fully satisfy for punishment due.

To gain an indulgence, one must be in a state of grace (free from mortal sin) and perform whatever work is required for the indulgence. The remission is made by applying some of the Treasury of Merit which the Church possesses. The indulgence is a transfer of merit from one to another and offers a lessening of Purgatory.

Plenary indulgences remit all temporal punishment; partial indulgences remit a portion of this punishment.

The application of indulgences to departed souls is admitted by Catholic writers to be of recent date.

The misuse of indulgences to finance St. Peter’s was one of the first Roman Catholic practices attacked by Martin Luther.

An indulgenced prayer is one which, when recited, gains an indulgence.

POST VATICAN II More progressive Roman Catholics today are not so strictly bound to practice the gaining of indulgences, though many think it will help them on the road toward Heaven.

The encyclical INDULGENTARIUM DOCTRINA (1/1/67) gave new laws concerning indulgences. Determining the value of partial indulgences using days and years is abolished. The number of plenary indulgences has been reduced, and they are no longer to be attached to things and places. Paul VI admitted some misuse in the past, but re-affirmed the basic Roman Catholic concept of indulgences as outlined in the definition above. CHRISTIAN COMMENT INDULGENCES by Alex Dunlap

We oppose the R. C. doctrine of Indulgences for the following reasons:

  1. It is utterly impossible for any person to make satisfaction to God for sin. Only the satisfaction rendered by Christ in His obedience and death satisfies the justice of God (Hebrews 7:24-28; I John 1:9; Isaiah 53:11.)
  2. Indulgences are productive of evil in that they embolden men to sin, because they believe them to be an easy ways to escape from sin’s consequences. It is commonly received by Catholics themselves that as long as they attend Mass, confess to a Priest, and perform the prescribed penance, that they can do anything they desire. This may not be the teaching concerning Indulgences, but it is the fruit of it.
  3. Indulgences are nothing more than simony – selling the free mercy of God and making merchandise of the precious blood of Christ. Acts 8:18-24; Jude 11.
  4. Peter, the first Pope according to Romanists, foretold this mark of apostasy, that “false teachers should bring in damnable heresies, denying the Lord that bought them, who through covetousness should make merchandise of you; whose judgment now for a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. II Peter 2:1-3.
  5. Salvation, the forgiveness of sin, and the remission of sin cannot be earned by human merit, or bought or sold for money.
  6. Christ never granted or sold Indulgences to any one.
  7. The Scriptures no where teach that there is a treasury of human merit, which can be put to the account of another, like the transfer of a bank account.
  8. Since no such treasury exists, it naturally follows that the granting of Indulgences by a Pope or anyone else is absurd, deceptive, and a vain delusion.
  9. Indulgences blind the consciences of men to the “exceeding sinfulness of sin” and its dreadful consequences; causes them to ignore their responsibility to God, and the only way to escape from condemnation through true repentance toward God and faith in the perfect merits of Jesus Christ. Php 3:78-9
  10. The Apostles and early churces never heard of Papal Indulgences, never granted any, and would have scoffed at the idea had it been suggested to them.
  11. Whoever grants Indulgences usurps the place of Almighty God, who alone can pardon and forgive sin, and remit the punishment due to sin.
  12. Indulgences insult the Lord Jesus Christ by offering a counterfeit substitute for His eternal and perfect satisfaction.
  13. Indulgences have caused untold scandal in the world, and have brought undeserved shame, ridicule, and contempt on true Christianity.
  14. Indulgences have cruelly robbed and deceived the poor and left them, with a false hope, to die in their sins.
  15. Indulgences are but another addition by the Papacy to the system of “Sacramental” salvation.
  16. It is utterly impossible for any human being to remit the temporal punishment due to sin, all Catholic claims to the contrary notwithstanding.
  17. Christians are not redeemed in whole or in part by the sufferings of holy men or Saints, but by the precious blood of Christ alone (Titus 2:14; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 9:12; I Peter 1:18,19; Romans 5:9).

Every Christian should keep in mind forevermore that only God can forgive sin, or remit any part of the punishment due to sin. He alone is the Redeemer and Judge of His people.