“You have no authority to interpret Scripture.”
I have no choice but to do so. Without interpretation, scripture is meaningless.
And it frankly is not that hard. Yes, real belief is invariably followed by a changed life. That is because of the indwelling Holy Spirit. But we are justified by faith - by believing the promise of God.
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
For God So Loved the World
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
It is the great shame of the Catholic Church that it spent centuries trying to hide scripture, and now insists on twisting the obvious to suit its magical rites performed by unscriptural ‘priests’.
“God gave the gift to interpret Scripture to the Church, not
every person reading the Bible.”
“11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”
“16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. “
I was having breakfast with a Catholic priest and my sister and brother in law. We got on the subject of "favorite Bible verses". I said mine was Ephesians 2:8&9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.". The priest looked at me and said, "Hmmm...that sounds Protestant to me." In the Catholic Douay-Rheims, it is translated as, "For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God; Not of works, that no man may glory.". I was shocked that he seemed unfamiliar with the verse.
I think this is likely why the Roman Catholic Church denied the "laity" to read the Bible for so many centuries and why even some priests were not all that familiar with it either. When I read John 10:27-30 for the first time and saw Jesus' own words saying that he GIVES TO ME ETERNAL LIFE AND I SHALL NEVER PERISH, it was enough to know right then and there that I was in the wrong church. God most certainly DOES expect us to study His word and he gives us His Spirit to lead us into all truth.
You have no authority to interpret Scripture.
“I have no choice but to do so. Without interpretation, scripture is meaningless.
And it frankly is not that hard. Yes, real belief is invariably followed by a changed life. That is because of the indwelling Holy Spirit. But we are justified by faith - by believing the promise of God.”
~ ~ ~
You mention two heresies. You will accept them probably up until the Great Warning. God will show you and you won’t
believe them anymore...I pray. The Great Warning could
happen in 2013? God only knows...
The fruits of “Private Judgment”, everyone can interpret Scripture, are error and division. You’re all inconsistent in your interpretation of your lone authority, the Bible. If that isn’t true...
Explain all the splits in Protestantism by the thousands since 1517, one every week. God the Holy Spirit is not confused, telling one person one meaning of a verse and the next another meaning.
The Church canonized Scripture so isn’t it logical, God
would also give her the gift to interpret Scripture?
The second heresy, we are not justified by faith alone,
belief alone. The only place ‘faith alone’ is written
in Scripture is James 2:24. Read it, it says we are
not saved by faith alone. Good thing, they stopped Luther from throwing out the Book of James.
Search, type in Catholic Apologetics first if you have a question on a verse. Many of the tough verses in the Bible, the Douay-Rheims have a footnote, there’s your correct interpretation.