your COMMENT: “I don’t recall that it was the early church fathers who were crucified on the cross for the forgiveness of sin. When they are, they can make the rules. Until then, I prefer Scripture to the early writings of the church.
You are right, it was Jesus that died on the cross for our sins (original sin so that we could be with God in Heaven). And Jesus taught His early followers by oral preaching and he entrusted His Apostles and successors to:
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19
Jesus did not command them to go write a book, but in the oral tradition of the time, instructed them to Baptize and Teach what they were taught. It was many years later the the New Testament was written and many more years before the Bible became commonly available in written form.
So you can thank the early church fathers that you have the written Bible and that passed on the teachings of Jesus in oral practice of preaching and writings. You seem to imply that the Bible is the only source of Truth from God. Can you provide the authority that all of God’s Truth is contained in the Bible? Can you provide the authority on whom can interpret the Bible?
You taught, “You are right, it was Jesus that died on the cross for our sins (original sin so that we could be with God in Heaven).” When you added ‘for original sin’ you opened a chasm that I will now ask you to elaborate upon, because I intend to show how your belief is catholic, but not Biblical, in that Jesus died for all my sins, not just my inherited original sin nat5ure. Give it a try, explain your innuendo.
Could you please show us where in Scripture the phrase *original sin* is found?
And where in Scripture God tells us that Jesus only died for our sin nature?
What about the rest of our sins?
Didn’t Jesus die for those too?
No, we can thank the HOLY SPIRIT for the Bible.
2 Timothy 3:14-17 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
You seem to imply that the Bible is the only source of Truth from God. Can you provide the authority that all of God’s Truth is contained in the Bible? Can you provide the authority on whom can interpret the Bible?
Jesus.
John 8:31-32 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Jesus said that we would KNOW the truth.
Could you please show us somewhere in Scripture where God tells us it is necessary for someone to *interpret* God's word for us?
And a few other questions...
If people cannot interpret the Word itself correctly then how can the those in any one church claim to be able to do that?
Is there an interpretation of the interpretation?
And just where can we find said interpretations of Scripture that the Catholic church claims is necessary to understand Scripture?
If people cannot interpret Scripture correctly themselves, then where does the Catholic church get off claiming THEY can? On what basis?
And if people cannot interpret Scripture itself correctly what makes anyone think that those same people can correctly interpret the interpretation?