Charlie Bit Me

The original clip:






A guy played the clip into an autotune mic (not sure what that is, but it sure sounds cool):

Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences

Commonly known as the 95 Theses by Dr. Martin Luther.

I just finished reading it and here are my thoughts:

"36. Any Christian whatsoever, who is truly repentant, enjoys plenary remission from penalty and guilt, and this is given him without letters of indulgence"

"37. Any true Christian whatsoever, living or dead, participates in all the benefits of Christ and the Church; and this participation is granted to him by God without letters of indulgence."

He's basically saying 'those letters of indulgence the pope gives you are worthless'

Although, there is "38. Yet the pope's remission and dispensation are in no way to be despised, for as already said, they proclaim the divine remission."

'Remission' means 'pardon' or 'forgiveness'.

So he didn't quite say they were worthless, but just about. And I can imagine the church officials were plenty mad.


"86. Again: since the pope's income to-day is larger than that of the wealthiest of wealthy men, why does he not build this one church of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the money of indigent believers?"

'Indigent' means 'impoverished'.

That had to hurt, he's kinda implying the pope is greedy.


"89. What the pope seeks by indulgences is not money, but rather the salvation of souls; why then does he not suspend the letters and indulgences formerly conceded, and still as efficacious as ever?"

'Conceded' means 'acknowledged'.

'Efficacious' means 'Producing or capable of producing a desired effect'.

I'm not exactly sure what this one means. But it struck me, before I knew what those two words meant, as saying the pope should do away with the letters and indulgences since they weren't achieving the means the pope wished.


"90. These questions are serious matters of conscience to the laity. To suppress them by force alone, and not to refute them by giving reasons, is to expose the church and the pope to the ridicule of their enemies, and to make Christian people unhappy."

That leaves no option but for the church officials to answer the questions.



The truth is, you should just go and read the whole thing. it's only about four one-sided 8 1/2 by 11 pages. It's really good, and there's alot more in them that struck me. But there's just too much, and I have a hard time wording my thoughts, so I only gave a few.

Grace

I reworded John Newton's poem 'Amazing Grace' about a year and a half ago, to see if I could make my mind see it in a new light. Although it made me really think about the words, it definitely wasn't an improvement:

Amazing Grace

John Newton

Amazing grace (how sweet the sound)
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind but now I see

It was grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

Through many dangers, toils and smares
I have already overcome
It was grace that led me safe thus far
And grace will bring me home

When we've been there a thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we first begun

There are actually more verses in the poem, but this is all they put in the hymn books, which is where I was copying it from.

Grace
Susannah B.

Oh, how beautiful that word 'grace', sounds - amazing that it saved a wretched person like me!
I was lost and alone but it found me, I was in deep darkness but now I stand in the brightest of lights. Grace taught me fear of the Lord and grace freed me from fear of men, grace was especially wonderful in that first hour after i put my trust in God. I have passed unscathed through dangers, difficulties, and snares aplenty already, it's grace that has brought me safely this far and it's grace that will bring me safely home. Now, when the earth has been around for ten thousand years, those who've found grace have just as much time to praise God as Adam and Eve did.


It served it's purpose fine, but it isn't good at all. even I see that. As hard as it was to keep from rewriting the rewrite, I succeeded (apart from fixing a few spelling mistakes). And the last word really should be 'do' not 'did'.

Works

If you think what I do, you think there's no such thing as salvation by works.
We all want to think there's something we can do that controls whether we go to Heaven, but the truth is that we have zero control whatsoever.

I've always looked at it in this way:
Salvation by works is impossible because it undermines our need for Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. Why would we need Christ to sacrifice himself for us if we control our own salvation by good works?

A few weeks ago at church it was put to me in this light:
God is totally just and righteous, He made Law and He judges us according to it.
If I have sinned (which I have, we all have), and I say to God on judgment day, "OK, God, I know I did all this bad stuff, and I deserve to got to Hell, but look at all these good works I've done. I did this good stuff so you should let me off the hook."
If God was to listen to me and let me into Heaven, he would be taking a bribe.
Only corrupt judges take bribes, since God is incorruptible and I've broken the law, my works don't get me any closer to getting into Heaven.

We are saved by God's grace and through our faith.
Works are just a side-affect, if you will, of our faith.
There are works in our lives because God tells us to do good works, and we have faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, and we have a desire to obey God.