Protestants should at least concede a point which Martin Luther, their religion’s founder, also conceded, namely, that the Catholic Church safeguarded and identified the Bible: "We are obliged to yield many things to the Catholics – (for example), that they possess the Word of God, which we received from them; otherwise, we should have known nothing at all about it." (21)
21. Commentary on John, chapter 16, as cited in Paul Stenhouse’s Catholic Answers to "Bible" Christians (Kensington: Chevalier Press, 1993), p. 31.
“Protestants should at least concede a point which Martin Luther, their religion’s founder, also conceded, namely, that the Catholic Church safeguarded and identified the Bible: “We are obliged to yield many things to the Catholics – (for example), that they possess the Word of God, which we received from them; otherwise, we should have known nothing at all about it.” (21)
This Pentacostal agrees. I also understand why, in the dark ages and medieval church, sacraments were necessary—many priests were not literate and something that could be memorized and repeated over and over preserved portions of the Word until God’s Word was released again on the world. I believe God’s plan used the Catholic Church, even the comfy power structure it became, to preserve the Word thru a time when it could have been swallowed in paganism. I also believe I will spend eternity on God’s new Earth with many Catholics.
At the same time, the Bible, translated into ordinary languages and distributed via printing press was a time-bomb (preserved by the Catholic Church) that went off in their own hands. There’s a reason the Catholic Church fought translation of the Bible from Latin so vigorously.
Sola Scriptura, imho, goes too far. The Holy Spirit is still with us and guides us. But scripture is a standard that is immutable and all revelation and “tradition” must be judged against scripture. The Bible, imho, shone the light on much of the pagan and political dross that accumulated after the church became part of the State post Constantine. The empirical evidence of history is overwhelming that the Catholic Church has been an institution lead by men, not by God’s infallible representative on Earth.
Ducking now :)
Obviously Martin Luther changed his mind when he got a little more educated about it...