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?
I just wonder how you get away with it?
I don't recall that there's any forum rules against posting information someone else doesn't agree with or doesn't like.
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Accepting such a statement would destroy every word that Yeshua said during his Earthly ministry.
Yeshua held only the scriptures, as he would say “it is written” before each and every answer when he was questioned.
Not so hard to find. All you have to do is look in your very own Catechism of the Catholic church. They call her the Mediatrix. Jesus is the ONLY mediator between God and man. If she is called the Mediatrix, then someone is giving her the attributes of the redeemer.
From the Catechism of the Catholic church....
http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p123a9p6.htm
969 “This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation .... Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.”510
Names of God from the Bible. Compare them to the names given to Mary in the above prayer.
Jesus
Hope (our) - 1 Timothy 1:1
Counselor - Isaiah 9:6
Advocate - 1 John 2:1
Mediator - 1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 9:15, Hebrews 12:24
Holy Spirit
Comforter - John 14:26
Helper – John 14:16
This is worship of Mary if ever there was.....Attributing to her the attributes of God is idolatry.
Here's a link to a keyword search to the word *write*.
http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=write&version=ESV&searchtype=all&bookset=1
It's an obvious ploy to bolster their claim that they needed to write things down themselves because nobody else was literate enough to do it but them, and therefore the whole world is obligated to the Roman church for having Scripture today, as if without them, Scripture wouldn't exist.
What a bunch of nonsense.
God proved Himself perfectly capable of preserving His word when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found
by her manifold intercession
I guess when Jesus gets tired Mary picks up the slack.
And here’s a link to a keyword search of the word *write* in the NT. Reading some of these passages, it is obvious tht the people in those days were literate.
http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=write&version=ESV&searchtype=all&bookset=2
OTOH, Scripture teaches that Jesus and the Holy Spirit intercede for us.
I'll take them over Mary, thankyouverymuch.
Romans 8:26-27 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Hebrews 7:25 Consequently, he (Jesus) is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
>> “speaking of stupidity....they didn’t have a pen, they didn’t know how to write, they didn’t know anyone who could read,.the VAST majority of people then were illiterate....in the high 90% catagory.” <<
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If this statement isn’t the very definition of stupidity, I can’t imagine what is!
Israel is and always has been the most literate nation on Earth, yet they all seem to want to declare them illiterate, so that the myth of a non-Hebrew origin of the writings of the “New Testament” can be more easily foisted upon the ignorant.
Every time one reads the words “being interpreted” in a NT scripture, one is reading irrefutable proof that the writer of those words is not the original author of that scripture.
Those words stand out in Matthew, Mark, John, and Acts, showing that the Greek manuscripts of each of them is a translation, not the original language.
This is what it is all about.
>> “All of these “religions” share the belief that their savior was born of a virgin.” <<
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The reason for that is the same reason that the meanings of the names of the stars and constellations is the same regardless of the culture, location, or language.
They all came out of Babel where they all originally spoke the same language until Yehova confused them and scattered the people. By the time of the tower of Babel, the fact that the savior would be born of a virgin had been known for over 1000 years just like the creator’s naming of the stars and constellations.
>> “Consequently, he (Jesus) is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” <<
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Without permission from his mommie?
He is setting a vewey bad exampo!
Catholics are the original Christians. The rest of you are johnny come lately possers.
The apostles were the first Christians, the corruption your referring to came later
So in your view every Christian religion that believes that the savior was born of a virgin is pagan, is that what you are saying?
Catholics came about 300 years after the original, and set out to crush the original worship and replace it with pagan prayers to dead humans, and other such anti-scriptural nonsense.
>> “So in your view every Christian religion that believes that the savior was born of a virgin is pagan, is that what you are saying?” <<
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Nice deliberately deceptive strawman!
Same question I ask the Mormons; Give me an exact date?
I am using your criteria, if it is a straw man it is yours.
A posser was historically a tool used for possing or mixing laundry while hand washing it. Possers come in various forms, there is usually a vertical pole with a handle bar at the top but the base can be conical, with three (or more) legs or sometimes a flat disk. As hand washing has been replaced by electric and mechanical washing machines, words and implements used for hand washing have fallen out of common use
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