The Protastant Reformation Weakened the Christian Church

I will begin by addressing my opponent’s statement about "Moral Superiority". There is no such thing. There is God's morals set forth by His words and teachings, and then there is immorality. In other words, if you are not following the Word of God in your church, you have complete control over Europe, you are killing people that think otherwise, and you are disregarding the teachings of Christ, then you are not moral at all. Martin Luther was not a perfect person, but the point he was making is that the church was completely straying from the teachings they were supposed to be teaching, they were selling salvation, marketing hate, and killing in the name of Christ, all of which were wrong and non-Christian. Rebuttals and defense of my case: Argument 1: There was no accountability on the Catholic church! No one was powerful enough to question it because everyone who did was cut down. If you are admitting there was a corruption problem, then you are admitting something must be done. And you keep complaining about "Denominationalism". Christianity is the RELIGION. That is the belief. At the end of the day, there is no difference in the Christ-based belief of Catholics and Baptists, Methodists, or Presbyterians. This mindset is wrong. Christ did not say to do lots of things that lots of denominations do, but He definitely said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."(John 14:6) Yet the church sold indulgences. I argue that no amount of denominationalism is as bad for Christianity as SELLING SALVATION. Jesus told his disciples to refuse payment for doing miracles, and yet here salvation was being sold. This to me is the pinnacle of corruption. Argument 2: Again, there is no "moral superiority". There is moral superiority in the Bible. My brother, you misunderstand the meaning of the passage in Corinthians. Both of these are talking about being unified as a body of believers who are following Christ. The Catholic Church at this time was NOT following Christ. In any way. This is what Jesus has to say about corrupt religious leaders: Matthew 23 8-12, 27-28 "8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. 27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. " The only problem is you are assuming that the leaders of the church of that time had honest, goodhearted motives. They did not, and the very fact that they could sell salvation is proof of this fact. That is not a heart yearning after God. That is a corrupt, evil, self-seeking heart. 2 Corinthians 2:17 Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God. I honestly have lost all interest in this debate. It has turned into a religion debate, which I feel is a waste of our time as fellow Christians. The simple matter is, the Church of that time was evil and corrupt, with no hope of change. The protestant church strengthened Christianity by giving people true freedom to seek God. You ignore that they taught lies, the people had no way to read Gods word, sold salvation, and it is only because of the Reformation that people of the time got Bibles in languages they could read. //::On PROs Case::\\ Social weakness: "They do this mainly by spreading love and hope through the Gospel." 1) They were not teaching the Gospel 2) You keep talking about "prosperity preachers"... the bible warns of these. The Catholic church of that time falls under this category as well 3) On your question, obviously they should choose to spread the light around the world, but you dont need purchased salvation and unbiblical teachings to do this. Political Weakness: You keep saying it was a unity of believers. NOT IF THEY ALL HAD BOUGHT SALVATION! This is the POINT I am trying to make here that you keep ignoring. Yeah, the church was on a fast track to being a government. They stole money, lied, and killed people who didn’t agree with them, and refused to admit they were wrong or change. Spiritual Weakness: The ONLY REASON the Council of Trent was called was to Re-emphasize Catholic beliefs in the face of Protestantism. Strange that both of these reforms were disputed in the past and nothing had been done. "This denominationalism leads to unholy doctrines." The MOST unholy doctrine, is the selling of Indulgences. The Bible doesn’t discuss the need for Church accountability to any Higher Power except God, and we have examples of the Catholic leadership failing to keep the teachings of Christ. This was the true weakness to Christianity