Romans 3:9-10
“What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin As it is written
'There is no one righteous, not even on;
There is no on who understands”
No man on this earth is Righteous, NOBODY is without sin. Although I hold true that the pope is a Great man of God and extraordinarily faithful in his relationship with God, he is absolutely not infallible. He is not all knowing. To suggest that the pope is never wrong not only defies history and the MANY reversed papal decree’s and corruption within the Vatican, it is blasphemy in the highest order. Forgive my harsh tone but it is absolutely offensive to me to suggest that a man, a sinner, is infallible. There is only one who is truly infallible and the is God. People can be wrong and often are. I my self know that I am not always right, but this is the Word of God, not something i just made up. Justify to me, either biblically or otherwise, how the pope is never wrong and Ill consider it carefully. I understand that not all catholic doctrine comes from the bible, but you do hold the bible to be the infallible word of God do you not? if a doctrine is in direct contradiction with the infallible word of God then how can it possibly be justified?
Peace be with you my brothers and sisters in Christ,
Brendan M
Campus Missionary
Brendan hope this helps carfully consider what I have to say and please consider it to be charitable as well
You are gambling your salvation on whether or not you have interpreted the Bible correctly? Is that what the Bible says to do? How do you know you’re not one of those Peter is talking about in 2 Peter 3:16 when he says, **“There are some things in them [Paul’s letter’s], which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.” **
Peter says there are ignorant, or unlearned, folks out there interpreting scripture in such a way that it leads to their own destruction. Doesn’t that give you pause? How do you know you’re not one of those he’s talking about? And, where does the Bible say that each individual, reading the Bible on their own, has the authority to decide true and false doctrine? Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” And, Proverbs 12:15, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes…”
How does the Bible say we are to decide the “spirit of truth” and the “spirit of error”? Do you know? Is it by individually reading scripture?
No! 1 John 4:6 tells us how we are to discern the spirit of truth from the spirit of error…by listening to the leaders of the Church. **“We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” **
The popes are not perfect. They do make mistakes. They do sin. However, the doctrine of infallibility states that when a pope speaks as the head of the Church, to the entire Church, in the areas of faith and morals, he cannot teach error.
if I told you that you can know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error by listening to what I have to say, not by reading the Bible, would you think that I was saying I was infallible?
Afterall, I would be saying that by listening to me, you can know truth and error. Didn’t Jesus not only give the disciples His authority, but didn’t He also say to them,** “Whoever hears you, hears Me. And whoever rejects you rejects Me?**”
Did He say that to His disciples or not? Wouldn’t you think that would mean they were infallible in what they taught?
After all, if they weren’t infallible, then if they taught error, Jesus’ words would mean that the people would be hearing Jesus teach error. “Whoever hears you, hears Me.” And, again, isn’t the ability to know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error…isn’t that essentially the gift of infallibility when it comes to teaching?
Jesus tells Peter in Matthew 16, and then Peter and the other disciples in
Matthew 18 that whatever they bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven and that whatever they loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.
Don’t you think that to be rather significant? From the early Christians on, this authority to bind and loose has been applied to the authority of the Church - in having the authority to pronounce on matters of faith and morals, and in having the authority to forgive or retain sins (see also John 20).
But, even if you can give me a good scriptural reference to refute those meanings, can you not admit the fact that if they are endowed with the authority to bind or loose something on earth and that it will be bound or loosed in Heaven, that God probably protects them from binding or loosing error?
hopw this helps