You write “Thank God for Luther!”. Then it is Luther who is infallible? You did not touch the fundamental question here: How can I be sure that I am interpreting a particular passage of the Bible according to God and not according to my own subjectivism or according to someone else’s subjectivism or opinion?
You did not offer a solution to the problem that I wrote below:
“There are thousands of independent protestants groups in the USA. Just about all of them claim to have the same God, the same Jesus and the same Bible, but they end up interpreting many fundamental passages in very contradictory ways. Did Jesus, the Son of God, not know that this would happen? Did Jesus not offer a solution to this confusion before He ascended into heaven? Is every Christian an infallible interpreter of the Bible and infallibly led by the Holy Spirit? If that is true, why are there these fundamental differences?”
BEFORE 1930 ALL MAINLINE PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS WERE IN ACCORD WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH that the use of artificial birth control was a grave evil and a serious sin. When the Anglican Church changed its stance in 1930 (Lambeth Conference) the other protestants churches quickly followed suit while Pope Pius XI reaffirmed the Church’s constant teaching on this grave evil in his encyclical Casti Cannubii (1930). When the Anglican Church first approved the use of contraception in 1930 it was only for serious reasons and only for married people who have been generous for life. However, by providing an opening for contraception, the qualifying phrase “for serious reason” was quickly ignored. Subsequently the use of contraception was viewed as virtuous behavior, and even the silent holocaust of abortion has become a private ethical choice of birth control. The unborn, unwanted babies no longer have any legal protection; they are now ripped to pieces after they are brutally murdered. BABIES DO NOT CHOOSE TO DIE! Is this not a good example of the slippery slope? The former Hippocratic oath for health care workers read: “I will administer no abortafacient to a pregnant woman.” The original Hippocratic oath acknowledged that abortion was a form of doing violence not only to the child but to the woman as well.
Thus, regarding the use of contraception, if I am a sincere Christian and I want to discover the will of God, am I to follow the followers of Luther according to you?
I truly believe that if a person is sincere and lives the Our Father, “THY will be done”, and not “MY will be done”, God will not deceive this person and this person will find the true will of God even if this person discovers that he has to change his life and thus carry the cross of Christ. But if a person does not have this humility of sincerity, he will end up deceiving himself, taking the easy way, and interpreting the Sacred Scriptures while eliminating the cross. Such a person who has willing deceived himself by not seeking the Truth outside of his own head, does not want to be with the Truth outside of his head and will associate himself only with those in agreement with himself. Thus when this person dies, he will willing throw himself in the eternal place where there is not the Eternal Immutable Truth. No one is forced to seek the Truth Who is God (Jn 14:6), and God will not force anyone to be with Him here on earth nor for all eternity.
As I wrote below: “In heaven there is room for one God not two!” Someone once said that above the gates of hell is written the title of the song (Frank Sinatra): “I Did It My Way”!
They are made using the lessor sign < followed by p, then the greater than sign >.
Just as Christ was crucified and buried 2000 years ago, so too His Body, the Church, will be crucified and buried in this period of the “great tribulation” (Mt 24:21). Only after this, when it seems that the Church is totally dead and buried, when Satan and his very numerous followers seem to have total victory, then the “Woman clothed with the sun” (Rev 12:1) will crush the head of the “great red dragon” (Rev 12:3), the ancient serpent (Gen 3:15), and the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph (Fatima, 1917) and there will be the Resurrection of Jesus with His Body, the purified Church!
You do realize you have serious doctrinal problems in your post as I've already noted.
Will you admit this and remove these?
Further, will you accept the challenge I've put before other Roman Catholics none of whom have accepted thus far.
Will you:
Throw away your scapular and/or miraculous medal?
Will you throw away your "statues" of Mary?
Will you cease kneeling before these "statues" of Mary and praying before these and lighting candles to these "statues"?
One does not have to be infallible to discern evil. The evil that had crept into the RCC was appalling to Luther. At one time he loved the Roman church until he saw its sordid side. God spoke to him. God called him. The Church was in serious error.
How can I be sure that I am interpreting a particular passage of the Bible according to God ?
#1 It is MY soul at risk and God gave me a brain to think and a heart to be moved by the Holy Spirit.
#2 I would NOT trust a church whose history is bloodstained with martyrs they tortured and burned.
#3 God left us an Example in the life of Jesus Christ. Live as He lived. Follow His example.
#4 Gal 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Nothing in the Gospel about praying to Mary (Mariology), rosaries, Popes, indulgences or statues. Jesus alone is our intercessor.
#5 The Gospel is simple. And I don't worry about thousands of independent churchs preaching something different about minor issues and I don't see why that would bother you. It sure doesn't bother me.