future sins for, again, they relate only to the remission of temporal
punishment remaining after past sins have been forgiven.
The abuses relating to indulgences in the time of Martin Luther involved
almsgiving for the construction of the new St. Peter’s Basilica. The giving
of alms especially for the service of God is a meritorious work in itself and
a worthy condition for the granting of an indulgence. There was no outright
selling of indulgences, though one could gain that surface impression. For
this reason the Council of Trent radically reformed the practice of granting
indulgences and in 1567 Pope St. Pius V abolished all grants of
indulgences in return for alms.
Second objection: “Indulgences are a waste of time for we do not
have to do any penance as temporal punishment as Christ paid all
debt for sin when he died on the cross.”
Only since the advent of Protestantism has anyone thought the system of
penance and indulgences to be a waste of time. As the ex-Protestant
convert James Akin explains:
“The system of penance goes back beyond the middle ages, through
the patristic age, through the New Testament, and into the Old
Testament. It has been part of the religion of Yahweh since before
the time of Christ, it was part of the religion of Christ and his first
followers, and it has been part of Christianity ever since. It was not
until the rise of Protestantism that anyone in Christendom thought to
deny it.”¹
The meritorious value of Christ’s death on the Cross was infinite and
superabundantly sufficient for the redemption and freeing of humanity
from both the eternal damnation of hell and any additional temporal
punishments. That being the case, why then are Christians required to do
penance to remit temporal punishment for sin? One reason is that God can
choose and has chosen to leave owing a debt of temporal punishment, even
after the eternal penalty for sin has been remitted. For example, man suffers
under the temporal punishments of labor, pain, sickness and death to this
day even though the redemption has taken place and spiritual sonship has
been restored through baptism. Also, King David was afflicted with the
1
Doing Penance, Internet Website, 1/20/99.
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