ECF's did they follow current doctrine?

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myfavoritmartin,

Whenever you read the Church Fathers, be sure to ask yourself a few questions:
  1. Am I reading this sentence out of context? As with the Bible, it is best to read at LEAST 6 sentences or verses before and after to see what it is exactly that the author is trying to say.
  2. Who is this author writing to, and what is the purpose of the writing?
No Church Father believed in Sola Scriptura. There was no definitive canon until 382 A.D.

With that being said, if you’re that confident that you can refute anything Catholics throw at you, you should have no problem looking at Catholic websites instead of downplaying them.
Whenever YOU read them you should do this…
Why look at a Cath web site it is not unbiased.
 
Very good Mannyfit75; Here are some writings regarding the sufficiency of scripture…
Are ya ready?

Jerome
“When, then, anything in my little work seems to you harsh, have regard not to my words, but to the Scripture, whence they are taken.” - Jerome (Letter 48:20)
“I beg of you, my dear brother, to live among these books [scripture], to meditate upon them, to know nothing else, to seek nothing else.” - Jerome (Letter 53:10)
“When Paula comes to be a little older and to increase like her Spouse in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man, let her go with her parents to the temple of her true Father but let her not come out of the temple with them. Let them seek her upon the world’s highway amid the crowds and the throng of their kinsfolk, and let them find her nowhere but in the shrine of the scriptures” - Jerome (Letter 107:7)

That should get the wheels spinning.
Let’s see if Jerome really thought that Scripture is sufficient:

Don’t you know that the laying on of hands after baptism and then the invocation of the Holy Sirit is a custom of the Churches? Do you demand Scripture proof? You may find it in the Acts of the Apostles. And even if it did not rest on the authority of Scripture the consensus of the whole world in this respect would have the force of a command. For many other observances of the Churches, which are do to tradition, have acquired the authority of the written law (The Dialogue Against the Luciferians 8 A.D. 382]).

I would say that the quote you took from him were out of context.
 
Let’s take one from Augustine that you posted to prove the sufficiency of Scripture.

Augustine
"In order to leave room for such profitable discussions of difficult questions, there is a distinct boundary line separating all productions subsequent to apostolic times from the authoritative
canonical books of the Old and New Testaments. The authority of these books has come down to us from the apostles through the successions of bishops and the extension of the Church, and, from a position of lofty supremacy, claims the submission of every faithful and pious mind…In the innumerable books that have been written latterly we may sometimes find the same truth as in Scripture, but there is not the same authority. Scripture has a sacredness peculiar to itself." - Augustine (Reply to Faustus the Manichaean, 11:5)

What authority is it that determined this canon? Certainly it is not Scripture.

If you insist.

"Such then in number and importance are the precious ties belonging to the Christian name which keep a believer in the Catholic Church, as it is right they should … With you, where there is none of these things to attract or keep me… No one shall move me from the faith which binds my mind with ties so many and so strong to the Christian religion…* For my part, I should not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church." ***— St. Augustine (354–430): Against the Epistle of Manichaeus called Fundamental, chapter 4: Proofs of the Catholic Faith
Just incase you missed the main focus of the post. 😉
 
Whenever YOU read them you should do this…
Why look at a Cath web site it is not unbiased.
I DID do this last year. This is the reason why I converted to Catholicism. It is so absolutely clear that there was no true Church but the Catholic Church for centuries upon centuries of Christianity.

Not only are Catholicism’s beliefs completely scriptural, but they are historical as well.

You cannot take the follow Church Father’s beliefs out of context. Such would be impossible:
Asking Mary and the Saints to pray for you
Apostolc Succession
The reality of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons
The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist
Confession to a Bishop/Priest
etc.

If you want to believe the Catholic Church overtook real Christianity, which went underground sometime around the late 90’s or early 100’s, fine, but don’t take the Church Fathers out of conext. They were undeniably Roman Catholic, and often used that very term since the early 100’s.

Praise God for his ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, and APOSTOLIC Church!
 
I DID do this last year. This is the reason why I converted to Catholicism. It is so absolutely clear that there was no true Church but the Catholic Church for centuries upon centuries of Christianity.

Not only are Catholicism’s beliefs completely scriptural, but they are historical as well.

You cannot take the follow Church Father’s beliefs out of context. Such would be impossible:
Asking Mary and the Saints to pray for you
Apostolc Succession
The reality of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons
The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist
Confession to a Bishop/Priest
etc.

If you want to believe the Catholic Church overtook real Christianity, which went underground sometime around the late 90’s or early 100’s, fine, but don’t take the Church Fathers out of conext. They were undeniably Roman Catholic, and often used that very term since the early 100’s.

Praise God for his ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, and APOSTOLIC Church!
Amen! I did the same thing in 1999-2000, and came into the Church in 2001. 👍
 
Confessions book 6

Then Thou, O Lord, little by little with most tender and most merciful hand, touching and composing my heart, didst persuade me- considering what innumerable things I believed, which I saw not, nor was present while they were done, as so many things in secular history, so many reports of places and of cities, which I had not seen; so many of friends, so many of physicians, so many continually of other men, which unless we should believe, we should do nothing at all in this life; lastly, with how unshaken an assurance I believed of what parents I was born, which I could not know, had I not believed upon hearsay -considering all this, Thou didst persuade me, that not they who believed Thy Books (which Thou hast established in so great authority among almost all nations), but they who believed them not, were to be blamed; and that they were not to be heard, who should say to me, “How knowest thou those Scriptures to have been imparted unto mankind by the Spirit of the one true and most true God?” For this very thing was of all most to be believed, since no contentiousness of blasphemous questionings, of all that multitude which I had read in the self-contradicting philosophers, could wring this belief from me, “That Thou art” whatsoever Thou wert (what I knew not), and “That the government of human things belongs to Thee.”
 
Confessions book 6

Then Thou, O Lord, little by little with most tender and most merciful hand, touching and composing my heart, didst persuade me- considering what innumerable things I believed, which I saw not, nor was present while they were done, as so many things in secular history, so many reports of places and of cities, which I had not seen; so many of friends, so many of physicians, so many continually of other men, which unless we should believe, we should do nothing at all in this life; lastly, with how unshaken an assurance I believed of what parents I was born, which I could not know, had I not believed upon hearsay -considering all this, Thou didst persuade me, that not they who believed Thy Books (which Thou hast established in so great authority among almost all nations), but they who believed them not, were to be blamed; and that they were not to be heard, who should say to me, “How knowest thou those Scriptures to have been imparted unto mankind by the Spirit of the one true and most true God?” For this very thing was of all most to be believed, since no contentiousness of blasphemous questionings, of all that multitude which I had read in the self-contradicting philosophers, could wring this belief from me, “That Thou art” whatsoever Thou wert (what I knew not), and “That the government of human things belongs to Thee.”
Right, it was the Holy Spirit working through the Church, (as the author of this quote you just posted states elsewhere as well. 😉 )
Side note bright fonts arent necessary.👍
Then why do you use them? 😉 😉
 
Confessions book 6

Then Thou, O Lord, little by little with most tender and most merciful hand, touching and composing my heart, didst persuade me- considering what innumerable things I believed, which I saw not, nor was present while they were done, as so many things in secular history, so many reports of places and of cities, which I had not seen; so many of friends, so many of physicians, so many continually of other men, which unless we should believe, we should do nothing at all in this life; lastly, with how unshaken an assurance I believed of what parents I was born, which I could not know, had I not believed upon hearsay -considering all this, Thou didst persuade me, that not they who believed Thy Books (which Thou hast established in so great authority among almost all nations), but they who believed them not, were to be blamed; and that they were not to be heard, who should say to me, “How knowest thou those Scriptures to have been imparted unto mankind by the Spirit of the one true and most true God?” For this very thing was of all most to be believed, since no contentiousness of blasphemous questionings, of all that multitude which I had read in the self-contradicting philosophers, could wring this belief from me, “That Thou art” whatsoever Thou wert (what I knew not), and “That the government of human things belongs to Thee.”
Again, you’re taking this out of context and looking too much into this. Augustine studied Philosopher until he rejected the Pagan philosophies and embraces Christianity after randomly reading some passages from the Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Here, Augustine shows us that the books are authoritative, but he does not state that the scripture was the ONLY authority. Augustine goes onto say how people should believe in Scripture, which has been given to us by God Himself. Again, there is nothing here contrary to what Catholics believe and have always been taught.

So was Augustine Catholic? Let’s see:

“”[T]he custom [of not rebaptizing converts] . . . may be supposed to have had its origin in apostolic tradition, just as there are many things which are observed by the whole Church, and therefore are fairly held to have been enjoined by the apostles, which yet are not mentioned in their writings" ~Augustine, On Baptism, Against the Donatists, ca. 400 A.D.

“But in regard to those observances which we carefully attend and which the whole world keeps, and which derive not from Scripture but from Tradition, we are given to understand that they are recommended and ordained to be kept, either by the apostles themselves or by plenary [ecumenical] councils, the authority of which is quite vital in the Church” ~Augustine, Letetr to Januarius, ca. 400 A.D.

So what myfavoritmartin, was Augustine confused??? If you want, I can continue to post dozens of quotes in context that prove that Augustine was thoroughly Catholic in every sense of the word.
 
Mar,

Just in parts. You have yet to make a point on this thread.
Sure I have, my point is this… you guys use ECF’s to make a case and that is dishonest because in most cases you take their words out of context, an argument can be made that some of their theology is closer to protestant than Roman Cath.

That in mind you should read through my post again
 
Sure I have, my point is this… you guys use ECF’s to make a case and that is dishonest because in most cases you take their words out of context, an argument can be made that some of their theology is closer to protestant than Roman Cath.

That in mind you should read through my post again
I don’t think your arguments won the reasoned assent of anyone in this forum.
 
If you wish we can move to another topic with the ECF’s, as their are many who know auggie better than I.
 
Sure I have, my point is this… you guys use ECF’s to make a case and that is dishonest because in most cases you take their words out of context, an argument can be made that some of their theology is closer to protestant than Roman Cath.

That in mind you should read through my post again
Have you ever read the Church Fathers or are you just copying and pasting from anti-Catholic websites? Becuase if you did read the Church Fathers, you can overwhemlingly see they are Catholic, period.
 
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