Replies

It is important for Protestants to understand some basic facts. Contrary to the modern belief that the Bible is a “blueprint” or “textbook” which explains how a church should be structured, it is a product of the Catholic Church—a compilation of writings that reflect a structure that was already present. As such, the “Bible alone” has no reason to provide fine details of proper ecclesiology; however, proper ecclesiology is detectable. Shortly after Jesus’ resurrection, the Catholic Church wrote lots of letters. The Catholic Church discerned which of those letters were inspired. By the end of the fourth century (Councils of Hippo A.D. 393 and Carthage A.D. 397) the Catholic Church finalized the “table of contents” of the Scriptures and called the entire body of writing “the Bible”. In other words, the Bible would not even exist if the popes and the hierarchy did not exist.

Scripture existed outside the Catholic church and was Scripture long before the Catholic church was around to give it its stamp of approval. Scripture does not need the corrupt, immoral leadership of Catholicism to validate it. It stands on its own as the God breathed, Holy Spirit inspired word of God.

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say,...? is always the work of Satan.

And it's staggering to think that Satan is STILL getting so much mileage out of impugning the word of God.

1.2 billion ~~strong~~ gullible.

1.2 billion gullible is what concerns me, that’s a lot of people being misled.

I think the Catholic church will be the end times church revelation talks about, watch for Islam being brought into the fold at some point. That’s just my thoughts on it.

I do know it’s a dangerous thing, like JW, Mormonism, and any of those cults that say they follow the bible, but use their own versions and then they also make up their own rules.

"Scripture existed outside the Catholic church and was Scripture long before the Catholic church was around to give it its stamp of approval. Scripture does not need the corrupt, immoral leadership of Catholicism to validate it. It stands on its own as the God breathed, Holy Spirit inspired word of God."

The Catholic Church examined and compiled the scriptures, sifted out the false gospels, and preserved the holy word from every form of attack centuries before Protestantism came on the scene.

If not for the Catholic Church, neither you, me, or anyone would have the scriptures.