Friday, April 26, 2013

"Televangelist" of Indulgences

The "Televangelist" (for lack of a better term) of indulgences was Johann Tetzel. If TV had existed in the 1500's this man surely would have been a major player in the world of TV evangelism.
His claim to fame is his success in peddling indulgences for the Papacy & its fund raising scheme was a major motivation for Luther to rise up in opposition to it.
Indulgences were a way for the living to pay for their relatives to get an early exit from the mythical place called purgatory.
Tetzel was known to not even tell the people to repent. Just donate the money and that's it. He was highly successful, mostly from his speaking skills. Once he said "Don't you hear the voices of your walking dead parents"?

....but the unjust knoweth no shame.
Zephaniah 3:5

The DISPICABLE act of selling Indulgences $$$$$$$
 
Here is how the website Catholic Bible 101describes Indulgences
"So what are indulgences anyway? They are basically credits for the Church Militant (us here on earth) and the Church Suffering (the poor souls in purgatory) from the spiritual storehouse that is the Catholic Church. Saints throughout history have offered up their sufferings, mortifications, alms, and good works as capital in the Church’s spiritual warehouse. And it is all there for OUR benefit. The Church teaches that you can also add your present sufferings to this repository, by “offering it up”. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in #1471 the following:

"An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints."
"An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin." The faithful can gain indulgences for themselves or apply them to the dead."