There are all sorts of absurdities in every church, in every tradition. In Roman Catholicism, for example, one still finds the sale of indulgences. It wasn't just Tetzel five hundred years ago; in 2008 to 2009 Pope Benedict XVI issued indulgences again. In fact, it's interesting to note that he did so for the "Year of Saint Paul." The Vatican website reported the following:
The gift of indulgences which the Roman pontiff offers to the universal church truly smoothes the way to attaining a supreme degree of inner purification. Supplicants who do this will be granted the full indulgence from temporal punishments for his or her sins, once sacramental forgiveness and pardon for any shortcomings has been obtained. The Christian faithful may benefit from the plenary indulgence, both for themselves and for the deceased, as many times as they fulfill the required conditions, but without prejudice to the norm stipulating that the plenary indulgence may be attained only once a day.
The statement then discusses the conditions that include: penance, Communion, making a pilgrimage to the papal Basilica of St. Paul, devoutly reciting the Our Father and the creed, adding pious invocations in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and prayers for the supreme pontiff's intentions. According to the papal decree, if Roman Catholics do this, "in a spirit of total detachment from any inclination to sin, they may receive time off in purgatory up to a full plenary exoneration."
In five hundred years, what has changed? This is exactly why the Reformation took place. There are indeed remnants of truly orthodox Catholic with genuinely biblical faith and practice in the Roman Catholic Church, but as a total structure the flaws go right to the foundation. In terms of authority, Rome teaches that Scripture and tradition are two tributaries of a single source of revelation. That's why the Magisterium’the teaching office of the church’can invent sacraments, forms of worship, and even dogmas that it acknowledges aren't found in the Bible.
In terms of the gospel, Rome teaches that salvation is by grace alone, at the first, at least. And from then on, it's a cooperative venture. As you cooperate more and more with this grace, doing good works, you hope to merit your final justification. And the merit of Mary and the saints will help too, Rome says, in this process of justification. It's amazing, all the effort that Rome spends to reject the possibility of Christ's righteousness being imputed to us through faith alone, while it teaches that Mary's righteousness can be imputed to us. Regardless, you'll still need some finishing touches on your sanctification before entering Paradise, so the fires of purgatory will be your way station depending on your merits and temporal offenses. There's not a shred of biblical evidence for this either, of course; but as I said, none is needed. The church has the authority to create its own dogmas.
Until there is an agreement on the gospel’which requires the Roman Catholic Church to repent of its errors as defined at the Council of Trent and many councils since’we can only say with the apostle Paul that if he or anyone else preaches another gospel other than the one he preached concerning the free justification of sinners through the imputation of Christ's righteousness, let him be eternally condemned. "If I," Paul says, "or an angel," and we can only add, "or a pope."
