Protestants form their opinions about how Christianity is to be practiced by reading a translation of a translation of a translation (from spoken Aramaic to hand-written Greek to printed English). The earliest nearly complete biblical manuscripts in the original Greek that are available to us date from the fourth century. There are no original “autographs” in the sacred author’s own handwriting. The Catholic Church made every copy of the Christian Scriptures that exists and continued to copy them by hand, by candlelight – arduously, painfully, carefully – for fifteen centuries, until the printing press was invented.
The Catholic Church was present when the Apostles walked this earth and learned her doctrines and practices from them – not from words written on a page. In fact, she herself wrote the New Testament that Protestants love to quote.
Protestants get so confused by the words because they lack the compass for navigating them and learning their true meaning – the context of the*** oral*** teaching of the Apostles. The Church that wrote the NT alone knows what the words in it mean.
Protestants have a passion for parsing words. It’s a waste of time. As former Presbyterian pastor and biblical scholar Dr. Scott Hahn says, Protestants read the menu while Catholics enjoy the meal.
The arguments made on this thread are ludicrous. You who belong to organizations no older than 487 years – and most of them date from the 20th century – try to tell the 2,000-year-old One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church who learned from the very lips of the Apostles how she ought to give the Eucharist to her members. And you don’t even believe in the Eucharist!
The Church had already been offering the Holy Sacrifice and gving Holy Communion to the faithful for about a quarter of a century before the first words concerning the Eucharist were ever written in what is now called the New Testament: 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 and 11:23-30. St. Paul was reminding the Corinthians of what he had already taught them orally, not teaching them new doctrine. The Catholic Church was nearly 70 before St. John ever wrote his Gospel, with its teaching about the Eucharist (Chapter 6). St. John taught the Church orally for nearly three-quarters of a century before he ever wrote a word.
May you all recognize the Truth. Jesus didn’t leave us a book; He left us a Church and said it would never fail, that he would be with it always. The Church wrote the NT and produced the Bible, guided by the Holy Spirit.
The NT is not an instruction book in Christianity. It is the record of the spiritual life of the newborn Catholic Church – the New Israel – during the first 100 years of so of its life.
Jesus is present to us through His Church now. The Holy Spirit
guides the Church now. The Church cannot teach error in matters of faith or morals. We have Christ’s guarantee. World without end, Amen.
JMJ Jay
It does bother me a little that we don’t get it, though, but only since the parishes I’ve been to since being at school (three over four years) all offered both.
God Bless
God Bless