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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: allow whoever wishes to believe in Christ, and take bodily
tribute and obedience from Christians.
The Pope, however, prohibits this faith, saying that to be
saved a person must obey him. This we are unwilling to do,
even though on this account we must die in God s name. This
all proceeds from the fact that the Pope has wished to be
called the supreme head of the Christian Church by divine
right. Accordingly he had to make himself equal and superior
to Christ, and had to cause himself to be proclaimed the head
and then the lord of the Church, and finally of the whole
world, and simply God on earth, until he has dared to issue
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