"If God commands me under pain of eternal damnation to believe all that He has taught, He is bound to give me the means to know what He has taught. And the means that God gives me must have been at all times within the reach of all people - must be adapted to the capacities of all intellects, must be an infallible means to us, so that if a man makes use of it he will be brought to a knowledge of all the truths that God has taught. "
More COMMON SENSE.
"Christ did not say, "Sit down and write Bibles and scatter them over the earth, and let every man read his Bible and judge for himself." If Christ had said that, there would never have been a Christianity on the earth at all, but a Babylon and confusion instead, and never one Church, the union of one body. Hence, Christ never said to His Apostles, "Go and write Bibles and distribute them, and let everyone judge for himself." That injunction was reserved for the Sixteenth Century, and we have seen the result of it. "
Did I say common sense? Well it cannot be stressed enough. COMMON SENSE. The Catholic position re sola scpritura and private judgement and the place of the Church MAKES SENSE.
Thank you for posting, Theresa. Normally, a thread such as this would expand to multiple postings by the protestants, citing scripture. It has been up for nearly a day, now. Notice the silence?!
Of course, there is that annoying little historical FACT that all Scriptural, Traditional, and Historical evidence affirms that James and not Peter was the "president" of the ruling Jerusalem Council.
Peter himself did not believe in Petrine Supremacy; rather, Peter submitted to the Authority of James, whom he called "the Lord and Bishop of the Holy Church".
These facts are readily evidenced in Scripture, of course, where we see that Peter reported to James (Acts 12: 16-17) and submitted to the edicts of James (Acts 15: 19-20) and deferred to James (Acts 21: 17-19) and feared James (Galatians 2: 11-14). Some "Pope"!!
These are the facts of the case. And they are undisputed.
But, hey -- why let a few obnoxious little FACTS get in the way of your favorite MYTH?? In America, you are blessed with the Religious Freedom to believe whatever you want -- even an imaginary "petrine supremacy" which has no basis whatsoever in historical fact, and was rejected by Peter himself. Ya'akov Ha Tsedek and the Destruction of the Jerusalem Temple