nice post on a bad day :) thx.
Then I would say that your biblical education was sorely lacking and very little effort was placed on apologetics.
Sadly, Christians (meaning both Catholic and Protestant) often neglect this important area of scripture, tending only to feed “milk of the word” to gain new believers. And for want of attention, the “meat of the word” gets neglected. Until someone else comes along with some new “insight” and sways those not ground in their faith, biblical understanding, and historical facts.
Amazing what you can find in the Bible if one actually READS it.
I would recommend to everyone to get a copy of the Chronological Bible and faithfully and prayerfully read it EVERY day.
That way you don’t miss anything and you’ll be surprised by nothing.
Almost as if a veil had be taken away. Like it says in 2 Corinthians 3.
Seeing that it took Protestant lives burning at the stake to print the Bible in english and distribute it to the masses, one now wonders if the Word shows that the same Protestants should now convert to the Roman Catholic Church?
Um...I’l pass. I grew up Catholic and it was the Protestant church that showed me what salvation was. The Catholic church only offered ritual.
Then there was ....That ole Martin Luther...never read the New Testament until he was preparing for his Doctorate in Theology....not that church either...
Well what church....the one in 2009? Must be that one cause the other churches are a bit flawed....I should have said charred.
Written by a person who has a shallow familiarity with
the Bible. One example.
The author makes 1 Timothy 3: 14-15 into a defense
of the Church over the Bible. By doing so, he is
implying the passage is referring to the Catholic
Church.
Unfortunately for this view, it completely misses
that the context of I Timothy 2:1-4:5 is instructions
concerning THE LIFE OF THE LOCAL CHURCH - not the
Catholic Church.
This is one more posting that attempts to say, the
Catholic Church is the only one, see! It would be
far better to simply go to God’s Word and accept
what it says without all the theatrics.
best,
ampu
The author complains about variations in interpretations, and then bases his whole premise on another variation of interpretation. Rather inconsistent, if you ask me...a pastor and retired evangelical Army chaplain of 30 years.
Peter wasn’t a Catholic.
“The Church!? Not the Bible? This alone sent my mind and essentially my whole life reeling...”
He sure panics easily! The Church is the “pillar and buttress of the truth”...but not truth itself. And what is truth? “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” - John 17
“Verses 16-17 were the texts I and others had always turned to buttress our belief in sola Scriptura, so to this I quickly turned my attention. Among many things, three important things became very clear, for the first time: (1) when Paul used the term scripture in this verse, he could only have meant when we call the Old Testament. The New Testament canon would not be established for another 300 years! (2) All scripture does not mean only scripture nor specifically what we have in our modern bibles. And (3), the emphasis in the context of this verse (vereses 14-15) is the trustworthiness of the oral tradition Timothy had received from his mother and othersnot sola Scriptura!”
Why yes, Paul was specifically referring to the Old Testament, which he preached out of at every synagogue before he preached to Gentiles. Unless the writer believes the NT is NOT scripture, it applies to the NT as well. And Paul’s letters were also accepted as authoritative from the beginning. The oral teaching is what he also put in writing - even the Catholic Church doesn’t pretend there is a separate ‘sacred tradition’ passed down in whispers from Bishop to Bishop for 2000 years. That is NOT the meaning of ‘sacred tradition’! As Peter put it, “I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, 14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.”
And notice what Paul told the Ephesian elders: “ I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” The WHOLE counsel. He didn’t leave anything out - but Purgatory, Indulgences, Priests, Transubstantiation - not there!
And so it goes. I hate to break the news to this guy, but John Calvin wrote commentary on every one of these verses. They are NOT ones Protestants ignore, nor are the ones that Protestants come up with bizarre, unjustified interpretations of...we just don’t feel the need to synchronize our interpretations with 2000 years of developing ‘sacred tradition’, which makes our job much easier.
A ‘Wow’ Post!
Bump for later Sunday reading.
bumpus ad summum