Martin Luther's Babylonian Captivity of the Church?

Martin Luther did believe that Catholicism was Babylon the Great, and that the Reformation was God's call to sincere people to "come out of her, my people". He exposed the evil of Indulgences, for example. That was bound up with the unbiblical teaching of Purgatory. Protestants got away from that, and other unbiblical practices and teachings. One of the Jehovah witness books had a picture of "The Seven Messengers to the Church" with drawings of St. Paul, St. John, Arius, Waldo, Wycliffe, Luther and Russell (there founder, as the 7th one). That's in "The Finished Mystery" 1918 p.64, Karatol edition.

Problem - Luther denounced Arius as a heretic who taught Jesus was a created angel. Another problem - ask Jehovah witnesses today if they would agree with that old idea and they would dismiss it, saying they've now got increased light on the subject and the 7 messengers mean something entirely different.

False religion can be identified in every century and it's still around today. But millions of Christians are aware of that and stick to the Bible to live as ambassadors of Christ and to keep out of Babylon the Great. But for Jehovah witnesses to claim they have done that while still teaching heresy is rich! Jesus is no more a created angel than praying for souls in purgatory will lessen there time in that non-existent place! And Catholicism still teaches a modern version of that. In 2000 indulgences were given to Catholics who performed good deeds like visiting sick or handicapped people, performing the rosary, or giving up alcohol for a day. Such indulgences were said to grant amnesty from some forms of divine punishment, to cleanse souls in purgatory before admission to heaven. They believe that although a sinner may be forgiven, works must be carried out to remove the guilt associated with sin. This claims that Christ’s death was only sufficient to unlock the door to Heaven – not to actually throw it open wide to all repentant sinners! They still have to merit entrance by working their way through purgatory! Indulgences are still available and always will be for as long as Catholicism teaches its false doctrine of purgatory. And Jehovah witnesses still teach doing lots of right things to stand a chance of surviving Armageddon, then they must keep doing all they're told to do during the millennium to hope to pass the final test. What's the difference between that and Indulgences? Stop listening to them and stick to the Bible - without the interpretations of Babylon the Great!

Unfortunately, the matter is not simple.   We should not expect such matters to be simple because the "road is narrow"!

Yes, Jesus was accused on being false but does not mean anyone who claims the truth but then is accused of being false is actually the truth?

If you truly want the truth, then seek it and you shall find.   

These are factors....

The Catholic Church history is abdominal.  A Pope kills another pope, papal orgies, incest, false accusation, pursuit of wealth and power, etc.  Some of this continues in the cover up of pedophile abuse!The Catholic Church teaching is confused and in many areas blatantly contrary to scripture.The Catholic Church claims to be the THE church of Christ but fails to recognise that the ONLY biblical examples of CHURCH is a collection of disparate churches 

There are clearly men of god, like Wigglesworth, Wesley, Spurgeon, etc that God ordained to work outside the Catholic Church who went on to establish churches

...but there is no way mainstream Christianity is held captive.   God's people are now and have always been able to establish a direct relationship with God, seek His will, follow His direction and bring Him glory.

The Jehovah's Witnesses are just as apostate as the pagan Roman Catholic cult. In fact, the founder of the JW's has been seen in hell.

http://www.divinerevelations.info/documents/rodolf...

We continued walking and the Lord showed me a white man whose hands were stretched out and the surprising thing about this man is that he had a very fine sword inside his tongue and this sword crossed through his head and was coming out of his body. His feet were grabbed by chains and his back was full of blades set in different positions in a way that no matter how he moved, he would be cut. When I saw this man in this condition, I told Jesus, “Lord, please help him. Do something Lord Jesus. Look at the horrendous pain that this man is going through.” The Lord asked me- “You don’t know who this man is? “No, Lord”, I said. I saw how the knives got through his skin and then through the bones and how they came out of his body. The man only screamed in agony.

The Lord told me, “judgment against this man has been established. Now I am going to tell you the identity of this man.” Because of that revelation, the Lord said ‘You will have to run from city to city because this will cause you a great persecution but I will be with you.” He went on to say “Rodolfo, this man is Charles T. Russell”. I said “Lord, who is he?” The Lord said that this man was the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I pleaded “Lord, please help him” and the Lord said: “No, Rodolfo”. And as the Lord moved his hands, immediately I saw that many souls were falling into hell in every way possible: they were falling head first, feet first, stomach first etc.

“Rodolfo, for that cursed man, all these souls are entering into hell. This man taught that God was only a God of love. The Bible says that God is a consuming fire. This man Charles Russell took the word hell from the Bible and he took out all the words sheol and Abadon. Also, he denied the deity of Jesus Christ and also denied the deity of the Holy Spirit and he put only the Word Jehovah in the Bible. He took out Jesus and the Holy Spirit. For this cursed man, all these souls are falling into hell.” (Revelation 22:18-19).

Then the Lord said: “I curse that man”.

Please Jehovah Witness that is listening to me at this moment, I don’t want to offend you. Get out of that sect and come to Jesus quickly. I don’t hate you and I don’t hate your religion either but you are in a farce. Come to Jesus. He is waiting for you with open hands. Charles Russell is in hell because he taught lies. Don’t follow his lies. When we left this place, these prison doors closed and caught fire and this man Charles Russell cried and screamed and cursed Jesus repeatedly because Jesus said “The judgment has been set for this man”.

1) Was Martin Luther right about how the Church was taken captive by Mystery Babylon.

I can't be sure

since

I don't know what Luther wrote about such things

but

given the author of Revelation's clear identification regarding what "Mystery Babylon" was (or is or will be)

it seems extremely likely that what you describe is directly contrary to what the Bible teaches.

2) Is mainstream Christianity still held captive to Mystery Babylon's doctrines and customs like Jehovah Witness has claimed for many years

No.

Jehovah's Witnesses definitely and directly contradict the Bible in their interpretation of "Mystery Babylon".

3) Many people throughout history have challenged official views of the Church such as with Galileo, Wycliffe, John Hus, Isaac Newton, and Michael Servetus and these were falsely accused of heresy until the churches were proven wrong.

Er...maybe you ought to review those people.

Several of them are still considered "heretics" from the point of view of Roman Catholicism

and

it is most certainly not true that "the churches were proven wrong" in those cases.

4) Is it human nature to dismiss the truth as false and heretical?

No.

5) Didn't most people of Noah's day also dismiss the truth as false?

Not as far as we know.

If they did, the Bible doesn't teach that they did.

6) Didn't the majority of people during Jesus day also claim Jesus was false?

No.

The majority of people during Jesus' day never heard of Jesus.

7) Didn't the people whom lived during Bible times also claim that the prophets YHWH sent to warn Israel also claimed to be false?

Ignoring the horrible grammar and sentence structure...

the Bible only records such concerning a FEW of the prophets.

For MOST of the (genuine) Biblical prophets, the Bible NEVER teaches that they were identified as false prophets.

People will always attack what God wills, for a wide range of reasons. The fact is, God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, founded one Church, said it was to remain one, and promised that one Church "The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth", and "Whatsoever you bind upon Earth is bound in Heaven", and "He who hears you hears Me". If that one Church ever taught anything untrue, Jesus Christ would become a liar, or at least a confused individual who didn't know what He was talking about.