Posted on 05/07/2010 10:01:45 PM PDT by Salvation
This website surveys the origin and development of Roman Catholic Christianity from the period of the apostolic church, through the post-apostolic church and into the conciliar movement. Principal attention is paid to the biblical basis of both doctrine and dogma as well as the role of paradosis (i.e. handing on the truth) in the history of the Church. Particular attention is also paid to the hierarchical founding and succession of leadership throughout the centuries.
This is a set of lecture notes used since 1985 to teach the basis for key doctrines and dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. The objectives of the course were, and are:
The course grew out of the need for the authors to continually answer questions about their faith tradition and their work. (Both authors are active members of Catholic parish communities in the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia. Dr. Robert Schihl was a Professor and Associate Dean of the School of Communication and the Arts at Regent University. Paul Flanagan is a consultant specializing in preparing people for technology based changes.) At the time these notes were first prepared, the authors were spending time in their faith community answering questions about their Protestant Evangelical workplaces (Mr. Flanagan was then a senior executive at the Christian Broadcasting Network), and time in their workplaces answering similar questions about their Roman Catholic faith community. These notes are the result of more than a decade of facilitating dialogue among those who wish to learn more about what the Roman Catholic Church teaches and why.
The teachings of Roman Catholic Christianity about the role of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, are some of the most misunderstood and exaggerated beliefs dividing the Body of Christ. Before presenting the teaching of the Church about Mary, there are some important givens or assumptions to be stated about the Church, Mary and the Bible.
The official teaching of the Church has never considered beliefs about Mary to be in any way equal in importance to truths about God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit. Vatican Council II expressed it best when the Council Fathers wrote:
The truths about Mary are important because they are still truth, since they are based in the Bible. But they are not central to the primary gospel message of our salvation through Jesus Christ. As an example of the basic gospel message without Mary, we have only to look at the writings of Paul. In Pauline theology, Mary is mentioned only once, and not even by name.
Roman Catholics believe that the understanding of the Church about Mary, as about all Christian truth (e.g., the understanding of the Trinity) deepens and becomes more accurate over the centuries under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
When the Catholic Church appears to teach "new doctrines" about Mary, it is often a statement of truth against some current errors or a clarification of truths that have always been taught and believed by Christians through the centuries. The Church believes that handing on these truths participates in the admonition of Paul.
Consequently, two fundamental criteria guide the teaching authority of the Catholic Church as it seeks to discern what are the authentic beliefs about Mary which Jesus through His Holy Spirit would have us know:
This is the classic example of Rome's private interpretation...There is nothing in this sentence that makes the claim that Peter is the rock that the church will be built on...And then to follow scripture, the church was NOT built on Peter...
Act 15:13 And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me:
Act 15:19 Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
Act 15:20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
You can't twist the scripture enough to make it mean what you want it to mean...That's why your religion invented it's own tradition; to make things that are unbiblical equal to the scriptures...
If there was a man in charge, it clearly was James...And James says to stay away from blood...But your tradition trumped that God breathed command as well...
As the church started and was revealed that the church would engulf the entire world of Gentiles, Peter went off into obscurity and Paul was the man Jesus picked to spread the Gospel of the Grace of God...
But yet, Paul made it crystal clear that no one was to follow him or hold him in high esteem...He was a servant, not a pope...
There is no church of Peter any more than there is a church of James, or Apollos...There is no pope...The church belongs to Jesus and Jesus is the Head...We Christians are the body...The Vicar of Christ is the Holy Spirit...
One of the most beautiful things about Mary is that she was present in the room with the cowering Apostles when the Holy Spirit came upon them. It is really quite important: she was a lowly woman in a time when women were not very valuable, yet her adopted son, John, must have brought her into their hiding place. She was a witness, if nothing else, to the Pentecost.
Clearly, the Apostles, those closest to Christ, gave honor to Mary, as His mother. We should do no less.
Mary was there at the birth of our Savior, and she was there at the birth of our Church. She was also the catalyst for His first miracle and the beginning of His public ministry and mission. She stood at the foot of the Cross and never abandoned Him. His last thoughts were of her safety and well being. He gave her to the Apostle He loved the most.
All these things show us the value Christ placed on Mary. Truly, Christ did not leave us orphans (as He promised) because he left us His own mother.
There is no “private interpretation” of Sacred Scripture by the Catholic Church.
http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p1s1c2a3.htm
II. INSPIRATION AND TRUTH OF SACRED SCRIPTURE
105 God is the author of Sacred Scripture. “The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”6
“For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.”
106 God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. “To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more.”
107 The inspired books teach the truth. “Since therefore all that 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.”
108 Still, the Christian faith is not a “religion of the book.” Christianity is the religion of the “Word” of God, a word which is “not a written and mute word, but the Word is incarnate and living”. If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, “open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures.”
Looking forward to your explanation of how you “know” what’s in the heart’s of us who joyfully pray the prayers of the Sacred Liturgy in Mass.
The issue of Tradition has been clearly explained through Sacred Scripture in early posts. But to save you the time or backtracking, here you go:
Gospel according to Saint John
Chapter 21
Verse 25
25 There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.
2nd Thessalonians
Chapter 3
Verses 5-6
5 May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.
6 We instruct you, brothers, in the name of (our) Lord Jesus Christ,to shun any brother who conducts himself in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us.
2 Thessalonians
Chapter 2
Verses 15-17
15 Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.
16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace,
17 encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.
Peace :)
Amen!!!
Sorry, but it's the Catholic religion that is not a religion of the book...You're just barking the talking points your religion has prepared for you...
You must allow the Holy Spirit to open your mind to the scriptures...Reading a catechism which is claimed to be 'inspired' does you no good...The Holy Spirit will open YOUR mind to the scriptures and show you whether the catechism is truthful or not if you ask for His help...
It would be good for you guys to do an actual prayerfull study on the 'word or words' of God in the scriptures...
And if you think the written word of God is a dead letter, you've never read the scriptures as a Christian...
The bible has over 330 predictions about Jesus Christ that came true...Written separately by over 20 authors over a period of a couple thousand years...The mathematical odds are impossible...
There is no other book on the face of the earth, or heaven that is comparable...The bible as it stands is a dead book to you??? I pity you...
Your earliest church fathers were Christians of the book...Many of them stated that if you have something outside of scripture, stay away from it...
25 There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.
But he said he will tell your religion what those things were in 1500 years or so, eh??? Funny...He did however tell John right after that, that the scriptures were written so that you would know you have eternal life...
So the bible tells us we can know we have eternal life without knowing anything else Jesus may have said...But your religion says differently...
That 'dead' book reveals the apostasy in your religion...There's no question for us dead book believers as to why your religion has added it's unbiblical tradition to the mix of final authority...
Iscool, I’m going to share a passage of Sacred Scripture from the Gospel according to Saint Mark, Chapter 9:38-41
38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”
39 Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me.
40 For whoever is not against us is for us.
41 Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.
Peace be with you always. I forgive you for your disrespectful turn of phrase and your written contempt for the Catholic Church & it’s Teachings. In Jesus name, Amen.
With all my heart and soul, I believe the following to be true:
WE BELIEVE in one God,the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son He is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
O God, from Whom all good things do come, grant unto us, Thy suppliant people, that by Thine inspiration, we may think what is right, and under Thy guidance perform the same, through our Lord Jesus Christ..
O God, Who didst will that at the message of an angel Thy word should take flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary: grant that we, Thy suppliants, who believe her to be truly the mother of God, may be helped by her intercession with Thee, through the same Jesus Christ.
D early beloved: Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves, For if a man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass: for he beheld himself and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was. But he that hath looked into the perfect law of liberty and hath continued therein. not becoming a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work: this man shall be blessed in his deed, And if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation, and to keep one’s self unspotted from this world.
AMEN! AMEN!
At that time Jesus said to His disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in My Name, He will give it to you. Hitherto you have not asked any thing in my name: Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The hour cometh when I will no more speak to you in proverbs, but I will show you plainly of the Father. In that day you shall ask in My Name; and I say not to you that I will ask the Father for you: for the Father Himself loveth you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father and am come into the world; again I leave the world and I go to the Father.” His disciples say to Him: Behold, now Thou speakest plainly and speakest no proverb. Now we know that Thou knowest all things and Thou needest not that any man should ask of Thee: by this we believe that Thou camest forth from God.
INDEED.
AMEN! AMEN!
Is Jesus green and leafy?
John 10:7 Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.
John 10:9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.
Is Jesus rectangular and made from wood?
John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
Here He says His He is living bread and that His flesh is bread. That must mean that He is made of baked dough instead of muscle.
If the mass is to turn the Eucharist into the body and blood of Christ, then what is the white wafer that the priest uses? It's doesn't look much like flesh and blood to me.
” It’s doesn’t look much like flesh and blood to me. “
Not usually. What does that mean?
Again....AMEN!
It’s still white, round, and flat and tastes like cardboard.
(Sorry, that’s the closest I could ever come to describing its taste)
Just for the record, what IS the eucharist made from?
Bread. Wheat flour and water in the Latin Rite. The same plus yeast in the Eastern Rites.
You know, I never can recall being told that as a Catholic. Maybe they just presumed that it was a given that everyone knew.
Or if they did in First Communion class, likely I just forgot.
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