[aMorePerfectUnion]

"Once again we are treated to an outstanding example of shallow Bible Christianity...This superficial thinking that comes from an absence of serious theological study is evident...Are we here in kindergarten logic? This is the kind of foolish reasoning that would get one kicked out of class in elementary introduction to either logic or theology...Over and over again, what we keep getting here is sophomoric interpretations on a cascade of scriptural citations let loose by followers of a heresy without any of the coherence of the great theologians...Challenging Bible Christians to the soaring heights of theological discourse is perhaps not fair. But surely it must come as a surprise when they cannot even assimilate the scholarly work of their own leading Protestant scholars...Maybe Elise, metmom etc all need to spend some serious study time before embarrassing themselves with the commentary they offer."

"For a post which accuses others of lacking substance, the above is a whole lot of nothing. Simply insulting people is not "the deep end of the pool." You claim the logic isn't up to the level of an introductory course. Ironic (or hypocritical, if you prefer) given your post is a textbook example of ad hominem arguments, in particular, guilt by association. "

The "shallow end of the pool" appears to be occupied by someone posting empty slogans and unsupported claims...

[Steelfish]

The contradictions in these responses are apparent on their face. First we are told that there is no such thing as a “Protestant belief.” Although each one of the contrarian posts in essence gives his/her variant of scripture. kayaker is kind. He calls “Catholics” cultist. I wonder what term he’d use to describe the vapid rot spewed by the likes of David Koresh, Joel Osteen, Billy Graham and the rest of the crowd? Compared to this mudslide of “Protestant” beliefs the term cultist would be embraced by the early Church fathers, the saints, and martyrs who followed Petrine authority for eleven centuries before the heresy unleashed by the Reformation of 1517 that, like a cancel cell, has self divided itself into some 30,000 sects and is still keeps subdividing itself. We have seen so-called mainline Protestant and Evangelical denominations ordaining married gay and lesbian pastors as apart of their interpretation of scriptural warrant, and sections of their congregations heading for the hills. Renowned essayist Hillaire Belloc explained this well in his book, The Great Heresies when he wrote that unlike other heresies, Protestantism spawned “a cluster of heresies.” Iscool, elsie, metmom do their usual things. The let loose a selective cascade of scriptural interpretations. Apparently they believe these quotes undermine Petrine authority and the ONE Credo and teachings of the Catholic Church. Let’s take an example offered by Iscool. It is too simplistic to merit a response. He quotes: Mat_15:9 “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Christ was referring here to the Pharisees. But never mind. Maybe iscool wants us to believe that Christ spoke not to “men” but to “aliens” when Matthew records in 28:19 the Great Commission given by Christ “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” This authority is to men but not to any and all men who think they can crack open the pages of the Bible and each offer their own and contradictory interpretations of the word of God. Types like Billy Graham, Joel Osteen, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, David Koresh and the local Foursquare Church pastors (First AME; First Baptist: First Methodist: First etc.) all need to stay at home and not become false preachers. The Great Commission is confined to Peter and his successors. Not to every “Bible Christian” from Joel Osteen to Jim Jones. Take another piece of shallow rot from metmom who plucked this out from an unknown blog to undermine Petrine authority: “Jesus said that Peter was *petros*(masculine) and that on this *petra*(feminine) He would build His church.” And, aMorePerfectUnion chastises me for calling Bible Christians shallow? Quite apart from the works of Augustine, Aquinas, Newman, and Benedict, it appears somehow that the early Church fathers missed this. Maybe the blogger knows something more that St. Irenaeus and St. Ignatius. “It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known to us throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors down to our own times, men who neither knew nor taught anything like what these heretics rave about” (Against Heresies 3:3:1 [A.D. 189]). In the year 110 A.D., not even fifteen years after the book of Revelation was written, while on his way to execution St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote: “Where the bishop is present, there let the congregation gather, just as where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic church”. The Church believes that when the bishops speak as teachers, Christ speaks; for he said to them: “He who hears you, hears me; and he who rejects you, rejects me” (Lk 10, 16). smvoice naively inquires from me: "I find this post of your interesting. Could you tell me the “ONE TRUTH” that Christ taught?" A good place to start is to go check the Catholic Catechism and the Credo. Much of this sophomoric confusion comes form a failure to understand the Church’s doctrine based on scriptural text, sacred tradition, and ritual. Is the Bible the sole “teaching from God?” No. The Bible itself states that there are “oral” teachings and traditions that are to be carried on to the present-day (2 Thessalonians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 11:2; 2 Timothy 2:2; Romans 10:17; 1 Peter 1:24-25). These teachings are what the Catholic Church considers “Sacred Apostolic Tradition.” This type of “Tradition” never changes because it was passed down by the Apostles’ themselves. It is not the same as the man-made traditions condemned in Scripture. The man-made traditions condemned in Scripture were those of the Jewish Pharisees what Iscool quotes in Matthew 15:9 In fact, as Christians, we are supposed to disassociate ourselves from persons who do not follow Apostolic Tradition (2 Thessalonians 3:6). If oral tradition is not to be followed, why did St. Paul state that Christ said something that is not recorded in the Gospels (Acts 20:35)? St. Paul must have “heard” this saying, not read it from any Gospel or “Scripture,” thereby, proving that there were many things Christ said that were not recorded in the Gospels (John 21:25) and were passed on orally among His disciples instead, but were just as valid as anything written since St. Paul himself used one of these oral passages in one of his own epistles. Besides it is the word of God that must be preserved as part of the Great Commission to "Go forth and teach.." Did the early Christians have the Bible as we know it? No. The Bible as a whole was not compiled until the late 4th century and then it was compiled by a Catholic saint (St. Jerome) at the request of a Catholic pope (St. Damasus I). So how were the early Christians saved if they did not possess the entire written "Word of God" to follow His teachings? Well, naturally, they were the Body of Christ and were taught through “oral” teachings by the Church, not by writings. Here’s what Martin Luther, the primary progenitor of Protestant heresies was forced to admit. In his “Commentary On St. John,” he stated the following: We are compelled to concede to the Catholic Church “that they have the Word of God, that we have received It from them, and that without them we should have no knowledge of It at all.” This Petrine did not dissipated eleven centuries later with the advent of the heresy of the Reformation. Fortunately, a number of Lutheran and Evangelical theologians who have converted to Catholicism have discovered what the shallow Bible Christians on this thread are yet to grasp and indeed keep sadly embarrassing themselves. How do we know the Catholic Church is the ONE true Church? Hear it from a convert who was raised as a fundamentalist in Bob Jones University. http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/how-do-we-know-it’s-the-true-church