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Myth #6...
The catholic church is the final authority on all matters biblical

The Catholic Church's authority is not a myth, unless you consider the Bible to be a myth too. See Matthew 18:15-19, for example. Christ tells his disciples that an offending Brother does not hear the church, he will be treated as an outsider who is lost. And at that point, gives authority to His Apostles (and by implication their successors) by saying, "Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heavenl and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven." (Matt. 18:18).

It's clear in this passage from Matthew that the Church must have been a visible, tangible entity established in a hierarchical fashion. Otherwise, how would anyone have known to whom the wrongdoer should be referred? If the Protestant definition of "church" were correct, then the wrongdoer would have to "hear" each and every believer who existed, hoping that there would be unanimity among them regarding the issue at hand. The inherent absurdity of this scenario is readily apparent. The only way we can make sense of Our Lord's statement here is to acknowledge that there was a definite organization, with positions of authority readily identifiable, to which an appeal could be made and from which a decisive judgment could be had.

God bless.

“The Catholic Church’s authority is not a myth, unless you consider the Bible to be a myth too.”

Your comment is weak logic,
based upon a false premise,
using wrong deductive hermeneutic interpretation,
resulting in a wrong conclusion, and
wrapped in subtle, unnecessary sarcasm.

“It’s clear in this passage from Matthew...”
It is not anywhere near “clear”.

The verses you cited, Mat 18:15-19, are contextually about church discipline, and not about establishing CATHOLIC Church authority. Any attempt to claim such is WAY out of context, and quite nearly, a clever, albeit manipulatively false, teaching.

Jesus’ reference in the verses you cited is to the authority of two believers in disciplining a sinning brother. It is in the light that one person pointing out a brother’s sin might be in error, or percieved by the sinning brother to be in error. If so, then two believers in agreement, confronting the sinning brother have more credability and there is less chance of error as they together see the sin for what it is and are able to make a clear discerning presentation of the matter. Two believers together are a stronger testimony toward the sinning brother, than one brother alone. If there is no repentence, then, LASLTY, the church...the ecclesia...the gathering of believers...is an even stronger testimny and responsible for not allowing willful sin to be tolerated within the body. But NOWHERE is the ecclesia claimed to be the CATHOLIC church. Nowhere. (Except in the teachings of the catholic church, interestingly enough)

It has NOTHING to do with being anywhere near an admonition that the Catholic church is the fianal authority on Biblical truth. The term CATHOLIC isn’t even in the verses! Please, review your logic and your study inductively, rather than deductively.

According to your logic as applied to those verses, anyone, including the Lutheran, Methodist, Mormon, Nazarene, Jim Jones, or Banch Dividians could attemnpt to claim that same church authority, where it is not given.

So I stand upon my myth #6.
The Catholic church is not the final authority on biblical truth. For to claim so is to claim that all other, non-Catholics are apostate and sitting under apostate doctrine and apostate teaching. Are you ready to claim such a statement?

respectfully,
w