What many Christians feared that if they were excommunicated?

Answer 1

The problem stemmed from the way in which the Church (and even today a few members of te Roman Catholic Church which is the remnant of the church after the various schisms because of corruption in the Church) interpreted Matthew 16; 18-19 where Christ tells Peter:

"And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

For some members of the Church (and even a few Catholics today) this provided 'evidence' that it was their church (ie the church based at Rome where Peter is said to have been executed) and no other church that controlled heaven. This is, of course, a nonsense as the original Greek inflections makes it clear that Jesus is not talking of Peter personally, nor any of his successors, but that entrance into heaven is based on Peter's rock-like great faith, insight and loyalty - despite his many shortcomings. Here Jesus was confirming that it was the ordinary Christian - those who accepted Jesus as Lord, who were, in life, unwaveringly loyal to Jesus despite their inadequacies and shortcomings - who would be the ones to hold their own 'keys' to heaven. This is backed up by Paul's wonderfully insightful corroborating evidence in Romans 9 - that we are saved through God's grace alone, and not on the whim of a man-made institution.

However for some in the Church this claim that the Church owned the rights of entry into heaven was sufficient to cause corruption and their own aggranisement. Therefore, to the ordinary person in the street, who, often being illiterate, could not even read the scriptures to find out for himself, being excommunicated from the Church meant not only his removal from an organisatiomn but his very damnation to hell for eternity at his death. However, nothing was further from the truth and, saved by grace alone, they would have been welcomed into God's love and care no matter how they offended the 'Church'. But they weren't to know this, and were kept in the dark by a corrupt Church hell-bent (literally) on controlling those whom should have been in its loving care.