Both Protestants and Catholics are Christians; they just differ in certain areas much like the two topics that are about to be discussed (ExploreGod Web). First, was the Catholic Church and from there branched off the Protestants due to different ways of wanting to do things. Martin Luther’s 95 Theses are what started the Protestants to branch off from the Roman Catholic Church as a whole. Two of the significant differences between the 16th century Protestant religious doctrines and the doctrines of the Catholic Church were the views on indulgences and where the power of Christian authority lies.
The first significant difference involves indulgences. Indulgences are supposed to …show more content…
He saw problems in the way that the church ran things and decided to speak out on it. In the 95 Theses are a series of questions, concerns, and debates (Martin Luther Web). Martin Luther posted these on the church doors as a notice of a diet, also known as a council meeting. Now Martin Luther of course was not the first to question the doings of the church, however it was certainly his fuel that sparked the fire in the Church’s separation (Reformation Web). His theories are also the basics to the Protestantism ways of …show more content…
Martin Luther then hid out, but used his time wisely (Martin Luther Web). He took into his own hands interpreting the bible. He also translated the bible into German, which took him 10 years to do (Martin Luther Web).
In this time of self-interpretation is when Martin Luther gained the deeper meaning of how important it is that individuals interpret the bible on their own. Thus being how he came to his conclusion and his theories that the main focus of the religion is not the church, nor showing good works, or showing righteousness, but by having faith (Backman 17). He saw that there was no way to please God through materialistic ways. As opposed to having faith and knowing within yourself, which is how it was supposed to be, paying to be forgiven did nothing (Martin Luther Web).
The significance of both of the differences is that they go hand and hand for why the Protestants and Catholic Church are divided. With the differences in authority it is clear to see why the idea of indulgences would be rejected as well. Because of the belief that faith alone is enough, paying indulgences would make no difference. These differences are what started the separation and lead to many other