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To: ealgeone
Why are there so many competing denominations and cults claiming to go by scripture alone?

The answer, and the remedy:

Here, it may be, someone will ask: ‘Since the canon of Scripture is complete, and is in itself abundantly sufficient, what need is there to join to it the interpretation of the Church?’ The answer is that because of the profundity itself of Scripture, all men do not place the same interpretation upon it. The statements of the same writer are explained by different men in different ways, so much so that it seems almost possible to extract from it as many opinions as there are men. Novatian expounds in one way, Sabellius in another, Donatus in another, Arius, Eunomius and Macedonius in another, Photinus, Apollinaris and Priscillian in another, Jovinian, Pelagius and Caelestius in another, and latterly Nestorius in another. Therefore, because of the intricacies of error, which is so multiform, there is great need for the laying down of a rule for the exposition of Prophets and Apostles in accordance with the standard of the interpretation of the Catholic Church.

"Now in the Catholic Church itself we take the greatest care to hold that which has been believed everywhere, always and by all. That is truly and properly 'Catholic,' as is shown by the very force and meaning of the word, which comprehends everything almost universally. We shall hold to this rule if we follow universality, antiquity, and consent. We shall follow universality if we acknowledge that one Faith to be true which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is clear that our ancestors and fathers proclaimed; consent, if in antiquity itself, we keep following the definitions and opinions of all, or certainly nearly all, Bishops and Doctors alike.

(Vincent of Lerins, Commonitoria, around AD 417)

13 posted on 08/18/2018 6:17:14 AM PDT by Campion
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To: Campion

Ok.....please provide the list of those beliefs the article asserts are believed everywhere.


14 posted on 08/18/2018 6:28:39 AM PDT by ealgeone
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To: Campion
You're citing this guy??

For the Semi-Pelagians of whom Vincent was a leading spokesman, St. Augustine of Hippo was a dangerous innovator teaching contrary to tradition. The Commonitoria is now generally admitted to be an indirect attack on Augustine, who is not named but to whom the work alludes. In the Commonitoria Vincent tries to provide a valid criterion for orthodoxy and, in doing so, enunciates the classic formula for traditional doctrine: “What is believed everywhere, at all times, and by all.” Most of Vincent’s other works are lost.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Vincent-of-Lerins

15 posted on 08/18/2018 8:18:57 AM PDT by ealgeone
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