Diego1618:
No scripture does not disagree with my statement. My statement disagrees with your “personal interpretation”. As a Catholic, I recognize that that my “personal interpretation” of scripture needs to be consistent with the Ancient Creeds of the Church and the way the faith has been understood by the Church Fathers, and understood by the Church down through the centuries.
Now as for Scripture interpretation, I think I already responded to your statement about 1 John 5:18 and from the Catholic perspective, your interpretation can not be reconciled to who the person of Christ is and it does not in anyway reject the notion that it is through Baptism that God gives us Grace.
And I interpret the scriptures in line with Catholic hermaneutic principles, not my own. For example, in the CCC, we read as follows:
CCC 124 “The Word of God, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, is set forth and displays its power in a most wonderful way in the writings of the New Testament” which hand on the ultimate truth of God’s Revelation. Their central object is Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son: his acts, teachings, Passion and glorification, and his Church’s beginnings under the Spirit’s guidance.
Note above, the central object of the Scriptures is the person of Christ and thus everything in the OT points to Christ and all the NT epistles should be interpreted with Christ as the reference point. The Catechism continues,
CCC 125 The Gospels are the heart of all the Scriptures “because they are our principal source for the life and teaching of the Incarnate Word, our Savior”.
CCC 126 We can distinguish three stages in the formation of the Gospels:
1. The life and teaching of Jesus. The Church holds firmly that the four Gospels, “whose historicity she unhesitatingly affirms, faithfully hand on what Jesus, the Son of God, while he lived among men, really did and taught for their eternal salvation, until the day when he was taken up.”
2. The oral tradition. “For, after the ascension of the Lord, the apostles handed on to their hearers what he had said and done, but with that fuller understanding which they, instructed by the glorious events of Christ and enlightened by the Spirit of truth, now enjoyed.”
3. The written Gospels. “The sacred authors, in writing the four Gospels, selected certain of the many elements which had been handed on, either orally or already in written form; others they synthesized or explained with an eye to the situation of the churches, the while sustaining the form of preaching, but always in such a fashion that they have told us the honest truth about Jesus.”
Paragraph 129 describes the principle of Typology, which is what the Church Fathers (e.g., St. Augustine) used when interpreting Sacred Scripture. The Catechism states:
CCC 129 Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of Christ crucified and risen. Such typological reading discloses the inexhaustible content of the Old Testament; but it must not make us forget that the Old Testament retains its own intrinsic value as Revelation reaffirmed by our Lord himself. Besides, the New Testament has to be read in the light of the Old. Early Christian catechesis made constant use of the Old Testament. As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.
The CCC reiterates the point made earlier about Christ being the reference point for the entire Sacred Scripture [OT and NT] as the Catechism states
CCC 134 All sacred Scripture is but one book, and this one book is Christ, “because all divine Scripture speaks of Christ, and all divine Scripture is fulfilled in Christ” (Hugh of St. Victor, De arca Noe 2, 8: PL 176, 642: cf. ibid. 2, 9: PL 176, 642-643).
CCC 139 The four Gospels occupies a central place because Christ Jesus is their center. So, the Sacred Scriptures and Sacred Tradition must be interpreted in light of the person of Christ, who by his incarnation, revealed God because of the incarnation, experienced the human condition, but was perfect and without sin.
Still, the Catholic Church uses the ancient Tradition of the Fathers relating to the Senses of Scripture [CCC 115-117], which are 1) Literal Sense, which all are based 2) Spiritual Sense, which includes the allegorical sense [Tree of good and evil], the moral sense and the anagogical sense. Typology is the key Biblical tool to come to the orthodox interpretation and allows us to see the Truths that God wants to teach with respect to Faith and Morals, which are what the Bible is about. As the CCC states {para 107}, the Scriptures teach Truth and quoting Dei Verbum from Vatican 2, “since therefore all the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures”
Again, the Catholic Church’s use of Typology makes sure we don’t make the Scriptures say something it not trying to say [i.e. things about physics, or mathematics, or economics, or modern science, or even geography] and that we interpret the scriptures with CHrist as the reference point. Typology thus is reading the Bible as a unified whole, with Christ as the Center. Thus the OT is pointing to Christ and Christ fulfills the old, and the NT epistles of St. Paul, James, Peter, have to be interpreted with Christ as the reference, and not the other way around as some Protestant doctrines seem to me at least, to start with St. Paul, and then try and reconcile Christ’s teachings in the context of what St. Paul wrote, which is incorrect from the Catholic perspective.
Regards
Believe me when I tell you.....It's not my personal interpretation. It's simply what the Apostle told us in Holy scripture. Let me show you the verse in translations other that Douay-Rheims:
Vulgate: [ John 5:18] 18 Scimus quia omnis qui natus est ex Deo, non peccat (does not sin) : sed generatio Dei conservat eum, et malignus non tangit eum.
King James: 18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
NASB: We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.
Well....the Vulgate, The KJ, The NASB as well as The Douay-Rheims all say..........."People who are born of God (born again) do not sin".
Your Church evidently....from what I understand, believes that all folks who have been baptized into your faith (post #22)..... are "Born again"! Now.....I don't know of any personally, but I'll bet that there are some folks on death row in some prisons in these United States that are baptized Catholics. I'll bet they're there because they sinned.
Now.....you folks can dance around this issue all you want, attempting to justify your interpretation by any means available.....but when John makes the statement That "Anyone born of God does not sin" it should be clear to you that he is not referring to baptism......but the resurrection. In fact the actual Greek in [John 3:3] says this: "Young's Literal Translation" Jesus answered and said to him, 'Verily, verily, I say to thee, If any one may not be born from above, he is not able to see the reign of God'.
Now.....kick me if I'm wrong, but this sure looks to me like [I Thessalonians 4:16-18] 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words. and......[1 Corinthians 15:50-54] 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed (born again), 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality (cannot sin), then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.