Ralph, ALL you need is the Spirit.
John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit & the Father will send Him in My Name & will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.
- It is the Spirit that bears witness.
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Then I have a question for you =). Was Jesus speaking to you or was he speaking to his apostles? If he was speaking to everybody why did Saint Paul had to answer questions and correct the Corinthians in his first set of letters. I shall give three scriptural quotes and bring them together at the end of the post.
I urge you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree to what you say , and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose. For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers, by Chloe’s people, that there are rivalries amoung you. I mean that each of you is saying, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Kephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? ( 1 Corinthians, 1: 10-13)
I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. Therefore I sent to you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.(1 Corinthians 4: 14-17)
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.
Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are ill and infirm, and a considerable number are dying. If we discerned ourselves, we would not be under judgment; but since we are judged by [the] Lord, we are being disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that your meetings may not result in judgment. The other matters I shall set in order when I come. (1 Corinthians, 11: 23-34)
Notice that in all three quotes, from different chapters of 1 Corinthians (quoted from the New American Bible if you need to check the text), Saint Paul, or Paul to those who refuse to use the title, talks about teaching, admonishing, instructing, and handing down what Christ has done, taught, and what it means. Sounds like the people at 1 Corinthians needed someone to teach them.
Look here at the first quote, Saint Paul speaks about being in agreement, of one mine and one purpose. He is talking about staying true to the proper teaching. How can I say this so certain? Because if everyone has one understanding and the next two quotes he tells them again what the proper teachings are. To understand that this is a repetition of previous teaching, noticed he said he has already “handed” and that he already “sent Timothy” who is his successor because he has more places to evangelize to.
And here at the second quote, Saint Paul calls himself their father, whom they do not have many but they certainly have more than one: “fathers”. He tells them to imitate himself since he imitates Christ. In other words he is saying *learn from me, I am your role model. *
Now the third and final quote is long, and I intended it to be so. The most important part is how he emphasizes the teaching of the Real Presence: “this is my body” “for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself”. This is very important and is the core of Catholic teaching at Mass. Now another important part is the communal meetings. Notice they come together to remember Christ’s life, death, and resurrection in the last paragraph. He talks about when they come together they eat. However, if they are not worthy to partake of the body of Christ, then they should eat at home before coming least they are hungry and bring judgment upon themselves for joining at the communal meal. And lastly, the start of the quote, Saint Paul reiterates for a third time in these few chapters of 1 Corinthians that he is passing on a teaching he received from the Lord, and that he will correct the less important matters when he returns to them.
This should show clearly the value of fathers in Christ and teachers of the faith. This should also show clearly some of the claims made by Jack Chick are unfounded.
[As an aside: The important matters mentioned in 1 Corinthians up to Chapter 12 includes the Real Presence, who should be celibate, who should not try to be celibate without God’s providence, sexual sins, under whose jurisdiction the various groups are, and that they do not bring claims and lawsuits (ie disputes) among each other. He sums up the last issue by reasserting to them that those those that are in keeping with the truth should judge their own group and worry not those that have committed apostasies-- they have fallen away and it is for God to Judge those groups. ]
, not that I would be attacking nonChristians, sheesh we have to be so careful about how we word things today!! )