First of all,
When reading Sacred Scripture, you have to consider the author’s intent, his message, and in the same Holy Spirit in its then and its intent today.
We also have to realize that there are senses of Scripture – the literal sense…like God created everything in 6 days…There is the spiritual sense to Scripture and from this second sense, we have 3 sub’s…allegorical…recognizing the significance of the Jews crossing the Red Sea and Christ being a bridge through baptism for our union with Him, the moral sense of Scripture, and the angogical sense of Scripture that reflects on our eternal signficance…who we are, where we are going, our heavenly aim.
Then we have to deal with the issue of language in Scripture…Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic.
We must be attentive to the analogy of faith, its coherence and in the whole plan of revelation. I hear Protestants share, I experience the Lord with them, but there is so, so much they do not have as well as the beautiful culture of the liturgical year.
So to get the deal right, in other words, to know that what we are receiving comes from the One True God through His Spirit…we must be attentive to the Whole of Scripture. We must read the Bible in its content and unity in the light of the teachings of the Church, --the Sacred Tradition-- this coming none other than from the Oral Tradition of Jesus Christ Himself to the Apostles, to the Church Fathers, to the bishops and the succession of the laying of hands.
In essence, Jesus Christ is not only prophet and King, He is Eternal Word…the Word Made Flesh Who dwelt among us!!!
You should not give a come back without looking at any historical references of which I gave you. So many Christians think there was some big gap between the early church and the 1500’s…so we in essence had no shepherds…thus, Christ did a lousy job.
The Christ I believe in did not found a 5% church with interpretations based on bias and whimsy. And you cannot perceive the tremendous damage Sola Scriptura has done to Christianity and our populations, our families…
Christ instituted His Church, He gave not one apostle, an individual, but 12, and they had their followers who they chose and knew would not deceive them and create new heresies…
Open your heart and soul and start reading ancient Christian history, the beginnings of the Mass, the first reference coming from St. Justinian around 150 a.d. Where did the word sacramentum come from…? What happened around this word? Have you seen the pictographs in the catacombs…
Think that the Breaking of Bread of the Eucharist gave new Life to its believers, formly enslaved by the ancient Roman life, coming to life in the tombs of the dead in the very heart of Rome…both magnificent and evil, whose effects we see today.
You cannot condemn what you do not know. If our Masses and saints and beliefs were fake, we would have died out long ago…consider the Code of Hammurabi many theists refer to…and it died out long before the 10 commandments.
Check out
Hebrewcatholic.org and see why they are becoming not only believers in Christ, but in His church…the Jews. Read Roy Shoeman’s book, ‘Salvation is from the Jews’…they experience they are more Jewish now in the Catholic church than before…
I don’t think we can dialogue without you studying history more.
Blessings!