This is ALWAYS the response, isn't it? "Show it to me in the Bible!" "Okay, here it is ..." "LOL ... That passage doesn't mean that"
ALWAYS. ALWAYS.
Hear this, loud and clear: You have NO, NONE, ZERO, NADA authority to tell ANYONE else what the Bible means, and that's according to your own theology!! ... if you apply it consistently.
If you don't have to accept that the Pope can tell you what Scripture means, then logically I don't have to accept that you can tell me what Scripture means, either.
This is of course the fundamental flaw at the root of sola scriptura. Who gets to decide what the hard passages mean? You think you ought to get to decide what the hard passages mean for you, but I'm under no compunction to recognize your authority to decide that for me, am I? Of course not. Denying the Papacy in principle does not mean that you then get to appoint yourself to the office that you just rejected.
And, BTW, you're completely wrong about Revelation 12. The son is an individual, the dragon is an individual, and the woman is also an individual.
So you think Mary is coming back to earth to be persecuted and protected?
Revelation 12:13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Brilliant post, I’ve been trying to put into words exactly what you wrote for some time.
It’s also exactly why, with rare exception, I don’t let myself get sucked into a Bible verse war. It’s absolutely useless.
Exactly as useless (and unstable) as a chair with only one leg.