Well, yeah ... that is, after all, his exact job description.
And here is the difficulty, one Christian Protestant may say that, or even a whole Seminary may teach that, but that is their teaching.
Fine ... but when their teaching is different from that of the Catholic Church it implies that one or the other teaching is incorrect (assuming, of course, that either is correct in the first place).
Given that churches are intended to prevent the accumulation of false teaching -- which we know takes place -- it seems to me a fundamental responsibility of any church to point out false teaching when it finds it. That's never easy to do, of course, because human frailties keep getting in the way of things.
A lot of blood has been spilled in the name of correcting false teaching -- it comes as a result of people being more concerned about their rules, than about the real Gospel message. We see that at work on this and similar threads, not to mention the world at large.
BTW, all of this is part of the reason why I avoid “religion”.
Which is really just another way of saying that you're your own denomination, on the same level as Baptists or Catholics.
“Which is really just another way of saying that you’re your own denomination, on the same level as Baptists or Catholics.”
I’ll thank you not to put words into my mouth if you please.
That's it exactly. Churches (and by this, I mean local New Testament churches, not denominations or organisations) are the pillar and ground of the truth. And each individual Christian and church member has the responsibility to stand up for the truth of Scripture.
This is why, far from shying away from religious debates and controversies, I think these are a GOOD thing, and in fact are necessary for a vital spiritual walk. The problem of religion arises not when controversies appear, but when people decide that they'd rather resort to violence when they cannot argue the matter scripturally and reasonably. People forget what Hamilton said (in a bit different but equally relevant venue,
"In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution."