Perhaps Coco may be forgiven for thinking that indulgences had ceased after 31 October 1517 following the posting by Martin Luther of his 95 theses at Wittenberg five hundred years ago, but what do we find? Not only are indulgences still available, there are some who think that even our governments should provide them.
Would you, dear Reader, like permission from your government to break the laws without fine or penalty for four years? You would be free to do whatever you wished, at whatever cost to anyone else, and get away with it. But hold on a moment, if you may obtain such an indulgence from your government, may not another, and another? What then? The other does something that affects, damages and hurts you, and now you have no redress. Is this really a good idea?
But one water company thought that they might just be able to get away with it. Thames Water moves step closer to nationalisation after government objects to rescue deal is a BBC report upon the rejection of the offer from those who feared they may lose the whole of their investment. They stood to lose £20. In effect what they said was, we will write off £10, and put another £10 (but only £3 today) into the business providing you do not fine us for anything we do wrong over the next four years. Well, that gives them enough time to take ‘their’ money (£23) out before the time is up up by way of dividends, management charges and whatever other lawful means there may be, before they throw in the towel. In the meantime, and beyond, who shall pay for all of those unlawful actions for which they shall not have been fined over the next four years?
Coco thought that the internal projections could look like this, which takes no account of interest costs on either the old loans or the new loans:
| Projection (each year) | repair work | repair work |
|---|---|---|
| Charges to customers | 100 | 100 |
| Direct costs | -85 | -85 |
| Fees | -8 | -8 |
| Repairs | -0 | -10 |
| Fines (for not doing repairs) | -0 | -0 |
| Profit/loss | 7 | -3 |
| Taxation (covered by losses) | -0 | -0 |
| Distribution to owners | -6 | -0 |
| Added to/Taken from reserves | 1 | -3 |
| Over four years | ||
| Amount taken by owners | 24 | 0 |
Of course the real-world numbers are much bigger than these.
But coming back to Luther, he rightly saw that indulgences are a very bad thing. There are some who claim, as Paul1 tells us, that the teaching that Christ died on the Roman cross for our sins gives us the right to sin as much as we want to do. But no, such is anathema to the work of our Saviour. He died for our sins that we may be put right with God and be changed, given new hearts with which we love God and keep his commandments.
Oh let it be so for you, dear Reader! Do not seek an indulgence, but rather seek the Maker of heaven and and earth through his Son, Jesus Christ, through whom2 you may have the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in his name.
- Romans 6:1-4 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. ↩︎
- John 1:11-13 [Jesus] came to his own, and his own did not receive him, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. ↩︎