Indulgences In The Bible An Church Fathers

[MyRdmrLvs]

“indulgences” simply put; IF you believe Jesus suffered,was crucified, died and was buried, resurrected from the dead after 3 days? From this action one is saved from eternal damnation, then you believe in “Indulgences”.

IF you believe in praying for a love one who is ill or on a death bed, through the sacrament of extreme unction “anointing of the sick” then faith in indulgence is not that far, because confession, penance, almsgiving, prayer, fasting are all intertwined with the salvation work of Jesus Christ from forgiveness.

Now comes the difficulty; Indulgences are not for the unbelievers. Baptism brings the unbeliever into the Kingdom of God. Indulgences are for the believers, who have already been forgiven from their confessed mortal sins.

An indulgence removes either partial or all (plenary) temporal punishment due to sin. Indulgences can be applied to both the living believer and the deceased believer. Let me explain.

If one would allow me here; I will attempt to simplify it by a laymans example.
Consider a beautiful calm pond, which represents the World. If you throw a stone in the middle of the pond it breaks the perfection of the peace, the stone represents ones sin. The splash lasts a little while because the sin was confessed and forgiven. What follows from your sin in society can affect many others unknowingly, this effect (temporal punishment) are represented in the ripple effect from your sin in the world. Yes, God has forgiven you of your confessed sin. But the ripple that you have no control of from your sin, due to the natural laws of punishment are still in motion. Indulgences become a short bank to cease the ripple partially, or totally.

You see, when King David sinned, God forgave King David after he confessed his sin. But the waves of punishment from the natural law still remained, thus his first son died.

Thank God for Jesus blood, this temporal punishment can be removed from an indulgence. Without the blood of Jesus Christ, and his authority he placed in his Church by giving her the Keys of God’s Kingdom on earth, with the power to forgive sins, and bind and loose. Indulgence for the Saints, Martyrs, and believers is very biblical and an ancient practice.

Just because God has forgiven our confessed sins, doesn’t mean that our sin in the world did not or could not affect others unknowingly. Indulgences removes all doubt.

The world needs to excercise this gift from God in indulgences.

Peace be with you

this is a pretty good explanation. What do you say about paying money for an indulgence or to get a loved one out of purgatory?

 

[Gabriel_of_12]

QUOTE=MyRdmrLvs;6368086]this is a pretty good explanation. What do you say about paying money for an indulgence or to get a loved one out of purgatory?

The alms giving, the confession of sins, the monetary giving, the offering, the tithe, and penance all of these are given and recieved for the glory of God. “Answer” the giving and receiving becomes affective according to the disposition of the giver and the reciever of the gifts. God knows the heart of the giver and reciever.

Your question does not pertain to the graces of indulgences. Your question pertains to an abuse of an indulgence. To answer correctly you would need to give a real example of your question? Outside of this reality, your question would remain in hear say and does not address any situation in particular.

The greatest gift one can give for another is to lay ones life down for another; Indulgence does this, but not in a physical way, but from an eternal reality that supersedes the natural law which convicts us, and demands a death.

Peace be with you

 

[Linda_Marie]

this is a pretty good explanation. What do you say about paying money for an indulgence or to get a loved one out of purgatory?

Gifts of money or monetary donations to the Church are no longer enriched with an indulgence. This practice was stopped 500 years ago when it became apparent that some unscrupulous people were abusing it.

Gifts of money to build a cathedral or just to keep the Church running are gifts from the fruit of one’s labour and a good thing to do. Attaching indulgences to the gifts of a person’s surplus was a way to encourage people to be generous. Some people began selling them so the practice of enriching monetary gifts with an indulgence was stopped to keep this abuse from continuing. Selling indulgences was never approved by the Church.

To look at indulgences another way, a person owes a certain amount of tax. A tax deduction reduces the amount owed. A donation to a church building project qualifies as a tax deductible expense. In the same vein, a donation to a church building project was enriched with an indulgence.

We owe a debt for the temporal consequences of our sins. This debt won’t keep us from being saved but it must be purged before we may enter heaven. An indulgence reduces what must be purged. The Church has the God-given power to grant this in her power to bind and to loose.

If you read the Handbook of Indulgences, you will see that all the actions which are enriched with indulgences are things that help us to spend more time in prayer, or in helping those in need, bringing us closer to Christ and helping us to follow Christ more closely.

 

[MyRdmrLvs]

Gabriel_of_12:
The alms giving, the confession of sins, the monetary giving, the offering, the tithe, and penance all of these are given and recieved for the glory of God. “Answer” the giving and receiving becomes affective according to the disposition of the giver and the reciever of the gifts. God knows the heart of the giver and reciever.

Your question does not pertain to the graces of indulgences. Your question pertains to an abuse of an indulgence. To answer correctly you would need to give a real example of your question? Outside of this reality, your question would remain in hear say and does not address any situation in particular.

The greatest gift one can give for another is to lay ones life down for another; Indulgence does this, but not in a physical way, but from an eternal reality that supersedes the natural law which convicts us, and demands a death.

Peace be with you

So was Luther right when he protested the indulgences of his day? Were indulgences being abused? If so why didnt the pope say so and put a stop to it?

 

[MyRdmrLvs]

Gifts of money or monetary donations to the Church are no longer enriched with an indulgence. This practice was stopped 500 years ago when it became apparent that some unscrupulous people were abusing it.

Gifts of money to build a cathedral or just to keep the Church running are gifts from the fruit of one’s labour and a good thing to do. Attaching indulgences to the gifts of a person’s surplus was a way to encourage people to be generous. Some people began selling them so the practice of enriching monetary gifts with an indulgence was stopped to keep this abuse from continuing. Selling indulgences was never approved by the Church.

To look at indulgences another way, a person owes a certain amount of tax. A tax deduction reduces the amount owed. A donation to a church building project qualifies as a tax deductible expense. In the same vein, a donation to a church building project was enriched with an indulgence.

We owe a debt for the temporal consequences of our sins. This debt won’t keep us from being saved but it must be purged before we may enter heaven. An indulgence reduces what must be purged. The Church has the God-given power to grant this in her power to bind and to loose.

If you read the Handbook of Indulgences, you will see that all the actions which are enriched with indulgences are things that help us to spend more time in prayer, or in helping those in need, bringing us closer to Christ and helping us to follow Christ more closely.

was this stopped in the “counter reformation”?

 

[SonofMonica]

was this stopped in the “counter reformation”?

Yes. This is from Session 25 of the Council of Trent.​

CONCERNING INDULGENCES

THIRD DECREE

On the fourth day of December.

Whereas the power of conferring Indulgences was granted by Christ to the Church; and she has, even in the most ancient times, used the said power, delivered unto her of God; the sacred holy Synod teaches, and enjoins, that the use of Indulgences, for the Christian people most salutary, and approved of by the authority of sacred Councils, is to be retained in the Church; and It condemns with anathema those who either assert, that they are useless ; or who deny that there is in the Church the power of granting them. In granting them, however, It desires that, in accordance with the ancient and approved custom in the Church, moderation be observed; lest, by excessive facility, ecclesastical discipline be enervated. And being desirous that the abuses which have crept therein, and by occasion of which this honourable name of Indulgences is blasphemed by heretics, be amended and corrected, It ordains generally by this decree, that all evil gains for the obtaining thereof,-whence a most prolific cause of abuses amongst the Christian people has been derived,-be wholly abolished.

But as regards the other abuses which have proceeded from superstition, ignorance, irreverence, or from what soever other source, since, by reason of the manifold corruptions in the places and provinces where the said abuses are committed, they cannot conveniently be specially prohibited; It commands all bishops, diligently to collect, each in his own church, all abuses of this nature, and to report them in the first provincial Synod; that, after having been reviewed by the opinions of the other bishops also, they may forthwith be referred to the Sovereign Roman Pontiff, by whose authority and prudence that which may be expedient for the universal Church will be ordained; that this the gift of holy Indulgences may be dispensed to all the faithful, piously, holily, and incorruptly.