Fullness of Truth?

[underdog]

I have heard Roman Catholic Christians use the term Fullness of Truth. The Apostle Paul proclaimed that we all know in part. God is infinite and we are not. So, what’s this claim of Fullness of Truth that Roman Catholics proclaim since we all know in part?

1 Corinthians 13

The Way of Love

13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, [1] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; [2] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

 

[AshleyBelle]

I have heard Roman Catholic Christians use the term Fullness of Truth. The Apostle Paul proclaimed that we all know in part. God is infinite and we are not. So, what’s this claim of Fullness of Truth that Roman Catholics proclaim since we all know in part?

1 Corinthians 13

The Way of Love

13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, [1] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; [2] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Simply put… The “fullness of the truth” means, the Fullness of Christ

Christ is truth… And we know that He is the living Word. Everything He came to reveal has been given to His church…though we are always growing and learning about what He revealed to us.

The Church contains the fullness of the truth, because we fully accept Christ…truly, and not just symbolically, present in the Eucharist

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is the fullness of Truth. Jesus established One Church and Jesus established One Faith.

Men, over time, have separated partially from that One Church and have protested against that One Faith. Because they still acknowledge Christ as Savior, they are still part of His Body. An analogy might be to consider them as a sprained finger.

First, the sprain can be very slight, or very serious.
Second, the sprain is ‘internal’. . .not obvious on ‘sight.’
Third, the sprain does not physically separate the body part from the whole body.
Fourth, the sprain interferes to some degree with the function of the finger. . .anything from a slight difficulty with weakness to being almost useless.

Now the Catholic Church, being the One Church, possesses the fullness of truth. Those who are not baptized members of that Church yet identify as Christians are like the sprained fingers. Some of them believe almost all the great truths of the Faith. They would be like a sprained finger that had almost completely healed. . .perhaps just a ‘slight weakness’ now and again, but looking almost exactly like a healthy finger.
Some believe less of those truths, and indeed have gone so far as to repudiate those truths and to elevate falsehoods and claim the falsehoods are the real truth. They would be like the more severely sprained finger. Still part of the body, still capable of some kind of function, even if very limited or for a very short period of time, but damaged, possessing only a small fraction of the truth, nowhere near the fullness which would be perfect health and function.

And of course, even those healthy fingers can get a sprain if they, possessing the fullness of truth, deny some of it. (After all, Judas was one of the Twelve, and all the original Protestant founders were once Catholics. . .) And some of those ‘sprained fingers’ can, if they recognize and accept the fullness of Truth in the Catholic Church, become totally healed. . .

 

[Genesis315]

It’s the fullness of what God has revealed for us to know.

 

[underdog]

What would the Orthodox Church say to the Roman Catholic claim of Fullness of Truth?

 

[paarsurrey]

Jesus is the Word of God.

Hi

Jesus is the Word of God; John the Baptist (Yahya in Quran) is the Word of God. Both Jesus and John the Baptist were fullness of Truth, perfect men; that is why they both were selected by God Allah as Messengers Prophets of the Jews, in my opinion.

I love Jesus and Mary as I do love Buddha and Krishna.

Thanks

 

[Prodigal_Son1]

I have heard Roman Catholic Christians use the term Fullness of Truth. The Apostle Paul proclaimed that we all know in part. God is infinite and we are not. So, what’s this claim of Fullness of Truth that Roman Catholics proclaim since we all know in part?

My opinion of, and use of the phrase, fullness of truth applies to the knowledge God gave mankind through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Christ built His Church on earth and placed Peter over that Church. This authority is verified scripturally.

Mat 16:18 And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Mat 16:19 And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.

Individual Christians cannot make decisions to bind and loose on earth those things which Christ promised to make so in heaven.

Christ directed us to resolve problems in the Church.

**Mat 18:15 But if thy brother shall offend against thee, go, and rebuke him between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou shalt gain thy brother.
Mat 18:16 And if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more: that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand.
Mat 18:17 And if he will not hear them: tell the church. And if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican. **

We cannot take our brother to the universal Church as you desribe it to be a part of each of us individually.

Please note that Christ said, “…if he will not hear the Church…”

After Christ told us to resolve our problems in the Church, he reconfirmed the authority to bind and loose on earth with a promise it would be made so in heaven.

**Mat 18:18 Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven. **

If Christ meant all of us could bind and loose on earth, we’d all have to be of the same mind and judgement. Protestants are divided by many doctrines and beliefs. This scripturally goes against what St. Paul taught.

**Rom 16:17 I appeal to you, brethren, to take note of those who create dissensions and difficulties, in opposition to the doctrine which you have been taught; avoid them.

1Co 1:10 I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

Php 2:2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. **

The Church started by Christ, has the fullness of truth, according to man’s limited capacity. That truth was passed down through time until others split from the Church. Those that split didn’t not take everything with them. They took the parts that were convenient to their lifestyles or individual beliefs. While they took some of the truth, the lack a fullness of truth. The Church has 7 sacraments. How many does your “universal” Church of individuality have? How many do each denomination of Protestantism have? Are they all of the same mind and judgment on these things?

Let’s look at the Bible as an example. That’s only a part of the truth. Jesus taught through oral tradition which was passed through the Church. You cannot have the fullness of truth if you only have one without the other. This is also scriptural.

**2Th 2:15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast: and hold the traditions, which you have learned, whether by word or by our epistle.

2Th 3:6 And we charge you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother walking disorderly and not according to the tradition which they have received of us. **

St. Paul instructed those of the early Church to hold to the things he had preached to them, not written.

**Rom 10:17 Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ.

1Co 15:1 Now I make known unto you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received and wherein you stand.
1Co 15:2 By which also you are saved, if you hold fast after what manner I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.
**