This is simply false. The Bible as we know it is a direct result of the efforts and actions of the RCC.
Umm... there's this whole part called the "Old Testament", which the RCC certainly had no participation in. I would also point out that I find RCC claims to apostolic succession to be dubious at best, and even were it so, it does not make the Scriptures yours.
One does not "diminish" a thing by using it as it was intended. Rather, using the Bible, which Christ did not establish, to diminish the authority of the Church, which Christ DID establish, is nothing more that a byzantine replay of The Fall.
The Bible does not diminish the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, nor do Protestants. The Roman Catholic Church diminishes itself.
The Sabbath was made for man, not the other way around. The same goes for the Bible.
Yes, y'all felt the need to change the Sabbath too. I don't believe that was what was proper, or intended by Christ, in either case.
The Church prospered prior to the advent of the printing press [...]
Prospered by the weight of her boot on the neck of kings and peasants alike. Prospered by the sword and by the stake. That assuredly is *not* what Christ intended:
(e-Sword: KJV) Mat 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Mat 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Mat 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Luther may be accused of lighting the match (not really, Protestants go well back before him), but the printing press was the grass fire of Protestantism. That is what allowed Berean principles to assert themselves. It was the proof, you see, proof that the RCC had not taught what God had actually said.
[...] and it's [RCC's] existence does not now, nor has it ever, depended on a collection of documents; the Protestant rebellion however, does.
ROTFLOL! Do you think that if one could somehow stuff the genie of the printing press back in the proverbial bottle that the Protestants would come meekly back to Rome? Not now, not ever. We can certainly revert to verbal tradition (in the proper sense), just as easily as the Catholics can. Protestants will come, no doubt, but it is to Jerusalem that they will go. We will bow before the throne of Christ, not the throne of Rome.
Is it your position that Christ would change a single word that came before Him?
I don't understand the relevance of the question, particularly as a response to my assertion the Bible is not a living entity. If God was against Baal, Ashtoreth, and Tammuz; If He found it absolutely disgusting throughout the entirety of the Old Testament; If His anger rose up in Him against Israel for incorporating paganism into His Temple, why, oh why would the RCC adopt it into herself?
This picture shows a statue of Peter in St Peter's Basilica, whose toes have been nearly been rubbed clean off by millions upon millions of Catholic lips kissing his feet. KISSING THE FOOT OF A STATUE OF A MAN! What part of this escapes you guys?
Exo 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Exo 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
It is the apparent irreverence for the Holy Word which troubles me so, and it seems to be your assertion that it is "but a book" that allows you to act so cavalierly.
No, it's my position He instituted a Church with attendant authority and hierarchy to be His voice on Earth, not a book. Men would not abide by that so they gathered up their intellectual jewels and built themselves a philosophical golden calf.
Bah! We do not bow down to the Bible, nor do we serve it. we neither kiss it, or light candles about it, nor lay it in a bed of flowers. We consider it Holy for what it contains, we search it always, eagerly, even as the Bereans did to find out if "what it says is true"... We await it's revelations of God's prophecies coming true in our time. We seek out the words of our Father, our Lord and His apostles, to do as they have told us to do.
That does not include kissing Peter's statue's toe. that does not include bowing and praying to Mary or other dead people. That does not include falling prostrate before the pope, a mere man, and sinful creature, nor does it include suckin' on his ring. That is the way of calumny and confusion.
Pleading is not rebelling. It is the sin of the Reformation that they did not heed the witness of a David, but rather rebelled with the slander of an Absalom.
(e-Sword: KJV) 2Co 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
2Co 6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
2Co 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
2Co 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
Now that's some living Word if I've ever heard it!
Sorry folks, So much for image wrap!
I have no idea. What is the RCC?
Good thing the Catholic Church has not "adopted paganism into herself."
The Gutenberg Bible is a Latin Bible with 73 books, true or false?
They're not dead.
“Bah! We do not bow down to the Bible, nor do we serve it. we neither kiss it, or light candles about it, nor lay it in a bed of flowers. We consider it Holy for what it contains, we search it always, eagerly, even as the Bereans did to find out if “what it says is true”... We await it’s revelations of God’s prophecies coming true in our time. We seek out the words of our Father, our Lord and His apostles, to do as they have told us to do.”
Well said! Amen and press on!
Great post. But they don’t worship Mary, or Peter, or, or, or,....