Selling a Way out of Purgatory?

Summary

R.C. Sproul discusses Martin Luther's response to the Catholic Church's practice of selling indulgences, a system that claimed people could buy forgiveness for sins and release souls from purgatory. Luther was deeply troubled by this practice, seeing it as a corrupt manipulation of spiritual salvation that enabled sinful behavior. Motivated by pastoral concern, Luther wrote his Ninety-Five Theses to challenge the indulgence system, which quickly spread across Germany through student translations and the Gutenberg press, ultimately sparking the Protestant Reformation. The key takeaway is Luther's commitment to doctrinal integrity and his willingness to challenge religious practices he believed were unbiblical and exploitative.