Posted on 10/27/2013 5:25:55 AM PDT by NYer
There are 38 questions + a few bonus questions. I have split them into two separate posts of 20 and 18 + bonus questions. In case you missed it, here is the link to Part 1. Are you ready?
21. Who in the Church had the authority to determine which books belonged in the New Testament canon and to make this decision binding on all Christians? If nobody has this authority, then can I remove or add books to the canon on my own authority?
22. Why do Protestant scholars recognize the early Church councils at Hippo and Carthage as the first instances in which the New Testament canon was officially ratified, but ignore the fact that those same councils ratified the Old Testament canon used by the Catholic Church today but abandoned by Protestants at the Reformation?
23. Why do Protestants follow postapostolic Jewish decisions on the boundaries of the Old Testament canon, rather than the decision of the Church founded by Jesus Christ?
24. How were the bishops at Hippo and Carthage able to determine the correct canon of Scripture, in spite of the fact that they believed all the distinctively Catholic doctrines such as the apostolic succession of bishops, the sacrifice of the Mass, Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist, baptismal regeneration, etc?
25. If Christianity is a “book religion,” how did it flourish during the first 1500 years of Church history when the vast majority of people were illiterate?
26. How could the Apostle Thomas establish the church in India that survives to this day (and is now in communion with the Catholic Church) without leaving them with one word of New Testament Scripture?
27. If sola Scriptura is so solid and biblically based, why has there never been a full treatise written in its defense since the phrase was coined in the Reformation?
28. If Jesus intended for Christianity to be exclusively a “religion of the book,” why did He wait 1400 years before showing somebody how to build a printing press?
29. If the early Church believed in sola Scriptura, why do the creeds of the early Church always say “we believe in the Holy Catholic Church,” and not “we believe in Holy Scripture”?
30. If the Bible is as clear as Martin Luther claimed, why was he the first one to interpret it the way he did and why was he frustrated at the end of his life that “there are now as many doctrines as there are heads”?
31. The time interval between the Resurrection and the establishment of the New Testament canon in AD 382 is roughly the same as the interval between the arrival of the Mayflower in America and the present day. Therefore, since the early Christians had no defined New Testament for almost four hundred years, how did they practice sola Scriptura?
32. If the Bible is the only foundation and basis of Christian truth, why does the Bible itself say that the Church is the pillar and foundation of truth (1 Tim. 3:15)?
33. Jesus said that the unity of Christians would be objective evidence to the world that He had been sent by God (John 17:20-23). How can the world see an invisible "unity" that exists only in the hearts of believers?
34. If the unity of Christians was meant to convince the world that Jesus was sent by God, what does the ever-increasing fragmentation of Protestantism say to the world?
35. Hebrews 13:17 says, "Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you." What is the expiration date of this verse? When did it become okay not only to disobey the Church's leaders, but to rebel against them and set up rival churches?
36. The Koran explicitly claims divine inspiration, but the New Testament books do not. How do you know that the New Testament books are nevertheless inspired, but the Koran is not?
37. How does a Protestant know for sure what God thinks about moral issues such as abortion, masturbation, contraceptives, eugenics, euthanasia, etc.?
38. What is one to believe when one Protestant says infants should be baptized (e.g., Luther and Calvin) and another says it is wrong and unbiblical (e.g., Baptists and Evangelicals)?
Where does the Bible . . .
. . . say God created the world/universe out of nothing?
. . . say salvation is attainable through faith alone?
. . . tell us how we know that the revelation of Jesus Christ ended with the death of the last Apostle?
. . . provide a list of the canonical books of the Old Testament?
. . . provide a list of the canonical books of the New Testament?
. . . explain the doctrine of the Trinity, or even use the word “Trinity”?
. . . tell us the name of the “beloved disciple”?
. . . inform us of the names of the authors of the Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John?
. . . who wrote the Book of Acts?
. . . tell us the Holy Spirit is one of the three Persons of the Trinity?
. . . .tell us Jesus Christ was both fully God and fully man from the moment of conception (e.g. how do we know His Divinity wasn't infused later in His life?) and/or tells us Jesus Christ is One Person with two complete natures, human and Divine and not some other combination of the two natures (i.e., one or both being less than complete)?
. . . that the church should, or someday would be divided into competing and disagreeing denominations?
. . . that Protestants can have an invisible unity when Jesus expected a visible unity to be seen by the world (see John 17)?
. . . tell us Jesus Christ is of the same substance of Divinity as God the Father?
And Judas was an apostle and God used Balaam’s donkey and Harrod and will use many evil nations to come against Israel to show His greatness. And your point was?
Like: Saints are the DEAD folks that the RCC has determined to be WORTHY.
They are in Heaven, right now, just awaiting your pitiful pleas to help out with getting your requests to Jesus.
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
Urp!
This wafer ain’t goin’ down to smooth!!
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Wow, are you trying to get me to crash "Free Republic" by extremely exceeding the storage capacity of the system by writing all of what you've written in the past that was not legitimately backed up by scripture? I would never want to do that to Mr. Robinson and to all the FReepers!
(And just to make it clear -- you do know that there is an obvious difference between "scripture" and "something backed up by scripture according to your frail, finite, limited, flawed human interpretations", don't you? That is the reason there are so many thousands of false denominations, and who knows how many misguided, error-prone, lone-wolf-self-interpreters of the Bible. The phrase, "only scripture is right" does NOT mean the same thing as the phrase "only things backed up by scripture AS I INTERPRET IT are right" -- there is an ocean of difference between those two phrases, because of fallen human nature, and the infinite capacity of humans to fool and deceive themselves.)
Let me just give you one quick recent example for now of something you falsely claimed which is unquestionably invalidated by the written word of God. In post #246, you made this excruciatingly obviously false claim:
"LOL Catholics are so funny! Only scripture is right."
Have you ever read the following in the scriptures?
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"Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name." John 20:30-31- - - - - - -
Now, unless you believe that when Jesus said and did all those other things which John 20:30-31 plainly says were NOT recorded in the scriptures, that somehow Jesus was saying and doing things which were NOT right, you can obviously see a clear example of why what you said in post #246 was completely untrue, that is, a completely grievous falsehood. There are many things that are "right" and truthful, but which are not contained in scripture.
(In the process of getting ready to head out the door right now, but I just wanted to make sure you get a chance to see this clear and obvious truth before I leave, and I urge you to prayerfully meditate upon it.)
“When we give or receive Christmas gifts; or hang green wreaths in our homes and churches, how many of us know that we are probably observing pagan customs...the god, Woden, in Norse Mythology, descends upon the earth yearly between December 25th and January 6th to bless mankind...But pagan though they be, they are beautiful customs. They help inspire us with the spirit of 'good will to men', even as the sublime service of our Church reminds us of the ‘peace on earth’ which the babe of Bethlehem came to bestow” (Externals of the Catholic Church, 140).
Taken from doesn’t equate to similar to. The RCC specifically says they intentionally took practices from the pagans. BIG difference.
Just following what scripture teaches.
2 Timothy 4:2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
Where is Jodyel?
Catholics have obviously been taught that citizens during the time of the apostles couldn’t read or write but the apostles wrote letters to them and Paul commended the Bereans for “searching the scriptures daily”.
Apparently you missed part of this.
See post #312
Oh no, I have both patience and teaching. If I didn’t have patience I would have given up on those who teach error long ago and I consistently use scripture to teach it’s truths. You see, it’s not my job to open people’s hearts. I simply put the word of God out there. It’s the Holy Spirit who opens hearts of those who God has called. I simply trust that the Holy Spirit knows who reads these posts that He has opened the heart of.
God didn’t say He took from the pagans. The RCC did say they took from the pagans. Huge difference.
You have been told the truth by me if you choose to ignore it, it is on you.
Wow! I had not seen all of those. Yet the FRoman Catholics here would insist that it’s Peter himself the RCC is built on. It’s stunning to watch the duplicity of thought in those who follow the RCC and within the RCC itself.
What a preposterous statement. First of all because something that Jesus did was not recorded in scripture surely wouldn’t indicate that what He did was not right. It does stand to reason that if the Holy Spirit saw fit to not include it in scripture He chose not to reveal it to us for a reason. Second, perhaps you would like to prove to us something that Jesus did that wasn’t recorded in scripture. Perhaps Catholics have some provable source other than hearsay?
Yeah, like you don’t know.
I rely on truth from scripture not what you believe as truth.
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