“You claim I’ve been led astray “by “fools and slanderers,” who have concealed the truth”, and that I “ have had no free choice to follow the true Church which Jesus, himself, founded”
Actually, I didn’t say that.
“and you don’t consider that an attack on my beliefs?”
Woah, woah, woah. Flag on the play.
We were talking about attacks on protestants, not attacks on protestant theology. No changing the subject in midstream, slippery sam.
I will concede that those words are an attack on protestant theology. They are not an attack *on*protestants*. I am under the impression that attacks on ideas are in bounds here.
“Did Jesus establish priests? No. There are no priests mentioned in the NT except for Jesus as High Priest”
So, your position is that Our Lord has had no influence on human events since the ascension? Nor the Holy Spirit, nor God Himself? If it ain’t in the Bible, it didn’t happen? God is prevented from establishing a priesthood, now or ever, because it’s not in the Bible?
“There is no mention of indulgences, and the entire tenor of the NT rejects the concept completely and totally.”
Indulgences, yes, that’s such a big part of Catholicism. A few hundred years ago there were many corrupt men within the Church. Everybody knows it. And it has nothing at all to do with the character of the Church herself.
“Further, Jesus Himself described the extent of the OT. Why should we look to a Church Council in the 1400s when we have the words of Jesus?”
You haven’t been reading along, have you?
“Its doctrines are divorced from the plain meaning of scripture”
Not at all.
“which is why the Catholic Church opposed vernacular translations”
Nonsense. If vernacular translations have taught us anything, it is that they are a door through which error enters—some inadvertent, some malicious.
“because wherever they appeared, people started noticing the huge divide between the Catholic theology and the scripture.”
When they appeared, the power structure in England had a vested interest in ensuring that the “approved translation” would create that impression.
“If vernacular translations have taught us anything, it is that they are a door through which error enters—some inadvertent, some malicious.”
Ah yes...trust the Pope, not the Word of God. That pretty well sums up Catholic theology - trust men, not God’s Word.
But what did Peter write?
19 We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Why?
2 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories.
Jesus gave the Canon of the Old Testament, and the scripture - “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for EVERY good work.” - is the “breath of God”.
The introduction of priests, offering a sacrifice of Jesus, is completely contrary to the clear teaching of the New Testament. There were none, and the New Testament makes it clear that we have a High Priest, Jesus, and that ALL believers are priests who offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise and good deeds - but no one sacrifices Jesus:
“11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16 “This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”
There are no more sacrifices to be given, for the Word of God says “this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins”, and “by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy”. It is not like the Old Testament, when priests were needed, because the Holy Spirit now lives within us:
“This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”
As Jesus said:
“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me...When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment...But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
At the once for all sacrifice of God, the veil was torn, from top to bottom.
23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
26 Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever...
24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. 25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to [Peter] in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.
19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
The Priesthood of the Catholic Church is a continuation of the Priesthood of Aaron & the Old Testament. It makes men happy, but it defies the will of God. For God has replaced a human priesthood with the priesthood of Jesus Himself. The Word of God is clear: The sacrifice of Jesus was “once for all”, not to be repeated and not a perpetual on-going sacrifice. It is also clear that the Old Covenant has been replaced, and God Himself dwells in us: “ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”
Immanuel. “God with us”.