The fundamentalist tradition is basically anti-intellectual. The very methods the early Church fathers used to select which books should be discarded and which ones included and who argued and prevailed against the early heresies were done by deep and painstaking historical inquiry, theological debates, oral tradition, and ritual, all guided by the Holy Spirit. The set of books in the Bible did not fall from the skies. The Petrine authority did not suddenly come to a screeching halt.
Thus if we you do not accept these same sources of theological inquiry (that illustrious Catholic scholars, saints and martyrs of every age as well as prominent Evangelical theologians who converted to Catholicism use to validate their beliefs) then maybe you just got to go find yourself your own Bible.
Wait a minute! Maybe you folks just did that. Freed from the constraints of Petrine authority it allows you the freewheeling license to do a David Koresh, Jim Jones or a Rev. Moon, Billy Graham, or just your very own. Get some followers and soon you can do what Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses have done.
Well actually, each of the 35, 000 sects by offering a different interpretation have indeed put out as many versions of the Bible. Some have gone out of business like the Dutch Reformed Church.
This is precisely the Biblical anarchy that follows a denial of Petrine authority. Very soon every street corner has it Foursquare Church, AME, First Chapel; First Calvary: First Baptist; First Methodist, Reformed this, Reformed that..etc etc with each of these self appointed pastors playing street theologians waving passage of “their” Bible interpretations to Opray Winfrey-type congregations like Joel Osteen and his “prosperity” gospel or Rick Warren and his circus-like born again (and again and again) baptisms.
This is the tomfoolery theology of street theologians not unlike Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
The Catholic Credo is for all times, in all places, across all continents, the one truth of Christ never changes studied by students of theology in universities across the world embracing into its fold such intellectual giants like John Henry Newman or even America’s foremost Lutheran scholar and author, the late Richard Newhaus or Francis J. Beckwith President of the Evangelical Theological Society with 2400 Protestant denominations with a Catholic calendar for all to observe on the dates for Christmas, Good Friday, Easter Sunday based on early historical research and religious tradition.
Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem;
Creatorem caeli et terrae.
Et in Jesum Christum,
Filium eius unicum, Dominum nostrum;
qui conceptus est
de Spiritu Sancto,
natus ex Maria virgine;
passus sub Pontio Pilato,
crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus;
descendit ad inferos;
tertia die resurrexit a mortuis;
ascendit ad caelos;
sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis;
inde venturus est
iudicare vivos et mortuos.
Credo in Spiritum Sanctum;
sanctam ecclesiam catholicam;
sanctorum communionem;
remissionem peccatorum;
carnis resurrectionem;
vitam aeternam. Amen.
In English:
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ,
his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived
by the power of the Holy Spirit,
and born of the Virgin Mary,
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
He descended into hell.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
he will come again
to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen
Didn't you get the memo?
It's 50,000 now.
No; WAIT!!!
It's 80,000 now!!
You are SUCH a namedropper!
Well so what...even IF every word you stated was true...Jesus has a rightful solution.....
....”if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”.......Acts5:39
And still no infallible evidence that the apostles taught the assumption of Mary.
Simply a matter of opinion.
Besides, even if it is....
SPIRITUAL TRUTHS ARE SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED
1 Corinthians 1:18-31 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 2:1-16 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Nobody can intellectually reason their way to God.
No, an intellectual view would require proofs and veracity of evidence. If there is anything on earth that is anti-intellectual, it would be the Roman church.
The very methods the early Church fathers used to select which books should be discarded and which ones included and who argued and prevailed against the early heresies were done by deep and painstaking historical inquiry, theological debates, oral tradition, and ritual, all guided by the Holy Spirit. The set of books in the Bible did not fall from the skies.
The very same painstaking inquiry went into the Protestant canon, which, as time has gone by, has become more defensible than the canon of the Roman church.
The Petrine authority did not suddenly come to a screeching halt.
That assumes an authority not in evidence.
Thus if we you do not accept these same sources of theological inquiry [...]
I will happily do so - All you have to do is PROVE it's veracity... Which you cannot. Especially in this day... It is akin to stubbornly insisting that Columbus discovered the Americas - That tradition, like your own, has no basis in fact, and the evidence available denies it ANY veracity at all.
Well actually, each of the 35, 000 sects by offering a different interpretation have indeed put out as many versions of the Bible.
LOL! Maybe if you keep using that number (already disproved time and again)...
Some have gone out of business like the Dutch Reformed Church.
The Dutch Reformed is not out of business - In the Netherlands it merged with several others to become something new (The Protestant Church of the Netherlands), which btw, has already grown a fork returning to Reformed orthodoxy, but it is still very strong in Africa and America.
This is precisely the Biblical anarchy that follows a denial of Petrine authority.
Again, assumes a fact not in evidence.
Very soon every street corner has it Foursquare Church, AME, First Chapel; First Calvary: First Baptist; First Methodist, Reformed this, Reformed that..etc etc with each of these self appointed pastors playing street theologians waving passage of “their” Bible interpretations to Opray Winfrey-type congregations like Joel Osteen and his “prosperity” gospel or Rick Warren and his circus-like born again (and again and again) baptisms.
So what? At least Protestants have a means to retain orthodoxy - An orthodox Presbyterian knows better than to go to Presbyterian USA and will find refuge in Presbyterian PCA or OPC, while PCUSA is dying on the vine. The monolithic Roman church has all of the same, from extreme liberalism all the way to extreme orthodoxy, all under one roof, claiming to be 'the same thing'. That is *not* a feature.
This is the tomfoolery theology of street theologians not unlike Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Baloney.
The Catholic Credo is for all times, in all places, across all continents, the one truth of Christ never changes studied by students of theology in universities across the world embracing into its fold such intellectual giants like John Henry Newman or even America’s foremost Lutheran scholar and author, the late Richard Newhaus or Francis J. Beckwith [...]
LOL!
[...]with a Catholic calendar for all to observe on the dates for Christmas, Good Friday, Easter Sunday based on early historical research and religious tradition.
Yes, another 'historical research' which has been roundly disproved. Everyone knows Christmas is not Yeshua's birthday. Good Friday is equally false, as is Easter, ALL unsanctioned by YHWH by the way, and all tied by rite and date to paganism. Try again.