Paul's Passing Thoughts

Calvinist John Piper, and many other Calvinists as well, often quote St. Augustine and openly call him the father of Reformation doctrine. Augustine was a Catholic til the end, Luther’s doctrinal mentor, and was quoted by Calvin more than 400 times in his Institutes of the Christian Religion. It is not only common knowledge that Augustine was a neo-Platonist, we find the following in many church history books:

“Augustine, the Roman Catholic philosopher & apologist, declared prostitution as a necessary evil and soon thereafter the church had 100,000 prostitutes employed.”

Augustine was the Catholic “Doctor of Grace” and the undisputed father of the Reformation gospel. One of the many evils propagated with Church authority was safe-haven from civil prosecution when indulgences were paid to the church. In many cases, the indulgences could be paid in advance of committing a crime. The following describes the fees/pardon for each crime:

“The Catholic church under Pope John the 22nd,(1244-1334) established [the] practice of selling indulgences. Pope Leo X (1475-1521) published the list of indulgences.

Robbing a church —– $2.25

Burning a house ——- $2.75

Killing a layman ——- $1.75

Forgery and lying…….$2.00

Eating meat in Lent….$2.75

Ravishing a virgin…….$2.00

Striking a priest ……….$2.75

Robbery ………………….$3.00

Priest keeping a mistress…$2.25

Murder of parents or wife….$2.50

Absolution of all crimes…..$12.00”

Really, we should have a very easy ministry. We should only need, “By their fruits you will know them,” and “A little leaven leavens the whole lump,” and Wikipedia.

1. Judge them by what they say and do.

2. It doesn’t take much of what they teach to destroy a whole church.

3. Read Wikipedia, and then see number one and two.

As easy as one, two, three.

But oh well, it is what it is, so we carry on.

paul