Do Follow the Berean Example?

[Fair_Lady]

“As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.” Acts 17:10-12

Do you follow the Berean example and test what you hear from your church teachers against the scriptures?

 

[Byzman]

Yes…I do! It sure is a good thing that whatever comes from the Magisterium is pure Gospel!

 

[FightingFat]

Yes, always, I am an avid Scripture scholar and am eager to refer to context and meaning in studying Scriptural basis for teachings. I don’t think that’s always true of those who today refer to themselves as Bereans though. They seem to use Scripture to argue and dissent, a bit like Satan in Luke 4!!

 

[allenirvan]

Taken from “This Rock March 1997”

When Protestants use this passage as a proof text for the doctrine of sola scriptura, they should realize that those in question were not Christians; they were Hellenistic Jews. There was no doctrine of sola scriptura within Jewish communities, but the Scriptures were held as sacred. Although the Jews are frequently referred to as “the people of the book,” in reality they had a strong oral tradition that accompanied their Scriptures, along with an authoritative teaching authority, as represented by the “seat of Moses” in the synagogues (Matt. 23:2). The Jews had no reason to accept Paul’s teaching as “divinely inspired,” since they had just met him. When new teachings sprang up that claimed to be a development of Judaism, the rabbis researched to see if they could be verified from the Torah.

If one of the two groups could be tagged as believers in sola scriptura, who would it be, the Thessalonians or the Bereans? The Thessalonians, obviously. They, like the Bereans, examined the Scriptures with Paul in the synagogue, yet they rejected his teaching. They rejected the new teaching, deciding after three weeks of deliberation that Paul’s word contradicted the Torah. Their decision was not completely unjustified from their scriptural perspective. How could the Messiah of God be cursed by hanging on a tree like a common criminal, publicly displayed as one who bore the judgment of God? What kind of king and Messiah would that be? This seemed irreconcilable to them (see Simon J. Kistemaker, Acts [Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1990], 614).

so YES! I do follow the “Berean example” - as all Catholics should.

 

[poetryforjesus]

Yes I do! I rejoice to see the spirit of the gospel is the same with the spirit of our Sacraments and church teaching.

I do not read the Bible in order to look for some specific wording. I read the Bible, hear it read during Liturgy, hear it preached by my priests, and see it lived out by the people around me and by the Saints before me. I see the unity of faith in every aspect of Catholic tradition, doctrine and practice (Bible a central part of all this).

Thank you for the survey.

 

[Myqyl]

Absolutely! It was an extensive study of Scripture that brought me back to the Catholic Church.

God bless and thanks for asking.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Surely. We are blessed to live in a time where Scripture is readily available, we have the education to be able to read and to understand, and with the Internet, public libraries, etc., the sources to be able to put true and accurate context in our understanding of Scripture and Christian history and thus to be able to test our Church teachings thoroughly and expeditiously.

 

[estesbob]

“As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.” Acts 17:10-12

Do you follow the Berean example and test what you hear from your church teachers against the scriptures?

Of course-fortunately Catholics have 2,000 years of teachings and traditiion that also verifes what the Church tells us. The advantage of that is we dont get thousnads of different and often contradictory answers to the “test” as are Seperated Brtheren do.

 

[JRKH]

“As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.” Acts 17:10-12

Do you follow the Berean example and test what you hear from your church teachers against the scriptures?

This question is not amenable to a simple - yes/no answer.

First look at what the passage actually states, as to the time and condition of Paul’s hearers.
These were people who were not yet converted. He preached, they checked (and asked many questions I’m sure) and were converted.
In this regard, yes, I checked the Church agianst Scripture before I returned.

Now - That I have accepted and been converted, do I check everything? No. Why? because in my inital check I found that The Church is Christ’s Church and that her teaching is sound. If there are teachings where it is unclear, I give teh “benefit of the doubt” to The Church for the teachers are better educated than I.

Peace
James

 

[MarcoPolo]

What is interesting about the Berean example is that they were considered more noble than some of the Thessalonians. And what is interesting about the Thessalonians is that Paul went to them and also preached from the Scriptures—and the Thessalonians also consulted the Scriptures to test Paul’s teaching—but some of the Thessalonians decided Paul’s interpretation was wrong! (Acts 17:1–9). The Bereans were willing to accept the new revelation of Christ. The Thessalonians would not accept anything new outside that which constituted Scripture for them!

So both the Bereans and Thessalonians went to Scripture. That’s not what made the Bereans more noble. What made them more noble is accepting what Paul said as the word. Paul himself said the oral teaching of he and the apostles constituted the “word of God.” (1 Thes 2:13).

 

[Desertsailor]

Why should I check the bible for everything the Church teaches? I don’t have time. Besides that I’m not arrogant enough to think that I can understand everything in the bible. Everything isn’t in the bible.
How many people in this world have time to devote their lives to studying the bible and comparing it to what the Church teaches. Not only that no one has the authority to say the Church is wrong about anything. How many scholars spent how many years developing the catechism?

 

[Evan]

Since the Berean’s were checking the teachings of Paul against the OT, I would say I almost always check (if I am going to check) against the teachings of Christ or the Apostles. SO I never rely on the OT to determine if Christ’s teaching is correct. I trust him as the Son of God to have more authority than even the OT.