“So ultimately it comes down to a matter of scriptural interpretation doesn’t it?
Does one accept the teachings of the Catholic Church with its 2000 year history, the traditions accepted by the early Church Fathers, the doctrine of the Eucharist as analyzed and established through the centuries by eminent theologians from Augustine to Aquinas to Newman to Benedict as well as several leading Protestant theologians who have converted to Catholicism, the lives of saints, martyrs, and stigmatists who have lived and practiced the Catholic faith, and a faith with a consistent Credo that has spread to the four corners of the world
or
do we accept the mudslide of eclectic interpretations offered by every Tom, Dick and Harry, and pastor of every corner street Foursquare Church, street preachers like the Grahams, Schullers, Jim Jones, David Koresh’s; Jimmy Swaggarts, TD Jakes’s, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, or for that matter any person who cracks open the pages of the Bible and purports to offer a definitive interpretation, or like many of the mainline Lutheran, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian Churches whose pastors may be married homosexuals and lesbians, because of what “they” believe is “their” interpretation of the Bible.
The question answers itself”
Best reply of the month. But common sense is not in abundance when some have been brainwashed against Catholicism since birth.
Actually in addition to your many ones, it is another specious argument that has already been exposed as such, thus ignored, but apparently some have been brainwashed by Catholicism since birth
Oh?
Only TWO choices given?
Shame on you Catholics who want such a tilted playing field!
Bible Christians are no better than followers of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Mennonites. They think the Bible fell from the skies and automatically assembled itself into chapters and verses.
Despite the incontrovertible evidence that the selection of these books was approved by Petrine authority on the work of the early Church Fathers, their validity confirmed by the oral tradition, and their interpretation handed down by contemporaries of the apostles, these folks simply think they can each individually crack open the pages of the Bible and do a David Koresh, Jim Jones, TD Jakes, Al Sharpton, Joel Osteen, and yet they can’t figure out who is right and wrong by reference to authority.
They engage in circular reason by saying, the Bible is their “authority” as if the Bible self-interprets but this leads to individual interpretations that split into thousands of sects, which now includes mainline Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Evangelical Church who now as part of “their” Bible beliefs accept homesexual and lesbian pastors.