Question

Discuss the two main ideas—people are made right with God by faith alone, and selling indulgences is an abuse of church power.

Answer 1

The correct answer to this open question is the following.

You are asking to discuss the two statements.

1.- People are made right with God by faith alone.

This idea is contained in Romans 3:28.

The idea that is conveyed through Romans 3:28 is that one thing is the worship and obedience of God, and another thing is teh obedience of the law. One is divine, It is God's will. The other is from the Earth, the law that exists in every society.

So the focus of humans must be on God's will and do as his will. The law of men is important but it is not in the same category of divine law.

2.- Selling indulgences is an abuse of church power.

This is one of the most important critics Protestants made against the Catholic church.

Indeed it was one of the main claims Martin Luther refer to when he wrote his essay "95 Thesis," in which he accuses the pope of selling indulgences as one of the worst things of the Catholic church. Martin Luther was a German monk that initiated the Protestant movement that generated the schism in the Christian Church.