cont. from prior post
It is the church “that is the pillar and bulwark of the truth.” It is the Church that wrote down the New Testament, guarded it, protected it from error and corruption, handed it down through the ages, and properly interpreted it for the faithful. The more than two thousand years of Christian witness and testimony of the Catholic Church is more reliable than any other interpreter of scripture.
It is as Paul points out in Eph 3:10, “through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.” Notice Paul never says that it is through scripture alone and individual interpretation. In fact Peter tells us, " First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation,"[see 2 Peter 1:20]
Peter even goes on to say that, “So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. **There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.”**Peter 3:15-16] Paul even instructs Timothy to tell certain individuals at Ephesus not to teach because they were teaching false doctrines. In Eph 4:14 Paul warns the believers, " so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles." Moreover, in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 Paul says, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.”
If you don’t believe what the historical church has always taught you have fallen into one of the above traps. I find Peter’s warnings especially pertinent. He warns us that Paul’s teaching can be difficult to understand and that the ignorant and unstable twist it and the rest of scripture to their own destruction. Peter does not say that the Church is ignorant or unstable. The church is the pillar and bulwark of the truth. But the ignorant and unstable don’t think they need to listen to Peter, James, Paul, any of the other apostles, or the church. They don’t know that they are ignorant but they are. They think they can do it on their own and that they know better.
Martin Luther thought he knew better and look what happened. He even admitted later that his teaching of scripture alone, “produced as many interpretations as there are heads.” Well, here we are in 2004 and there are literally thousands of Protestant denominations and the number is growing larger all the time. In the midst of all of this, the Catholic Church still prevails and has remained faithful to the gospel and unwavering in its teachings since the day of Pentecost.
Ozzie, one last thing. If you really want to know if Jesus is present in the Eucharist study John 6, study the last supper, study 1 Corinthians 10 and 11, and then get a book like The Lambs Supper written by Scott Hahn. Beyond that there is a wealth of other Catholic materials that will take you deeper into this truth. Once you’ve done this study, pray for God’s grace to see the truth. He will not disappoint you, and you will come to the realization that He wants to give you more than you ever thought or imagined.
