I was converted from Catholicism to Christ at the age of 19.

[vichlopet]

Vichlopet, I’m curious. Have you read the entire Bible cover to cover? How many times? How often do you read Scripture? How much Scripture do you read per session? Do you possess any qualifications that we should know about which enable you to interpret Scripture better than any other reader?

I’ve read the bible several times cover to cover, and I read daily at least 2 chapters. I spend at least 10 hours a week doing subject studies. As far as my qualifications to interpret Scripture better than any other reader, no.

2 Peter 1:20
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

1 John 2:27
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

 

[Gamera]

That’s what I figured.

What is “what you figured?”

 

[Glorfindel]

Greetings to you, I am indeed sorry you felt the Church offered little to you. I am almost 40 and am converting to the Catholic Church, it has, thus far, been my experience that the Church is an aid rather than an obstacle in INCREASING my faith in the Our Blessed Lord and Savior. Pax.

 

[Gamera]

I’ve read the bible several times cover to cover, and I read daily at least 2 chapters. I spend at least 10 hours a week doing subject studies. As far as my qualifications to interpret Scripture better than any other reader, no.

Okay, good. I asked because we sometimes get visits from people who want to explain to us Catholics what the Bible “really means” who discover to their horror that we know the Bible much better than they do. So don’t feel singled out, I’ve asked that of many new posters.

Under your view, then, we can just keep reading the Bible (we don’t need you to explain or interpret it for us) and that is all we need in order to understand Jesus. Is that accurate? Because I too have read the Bible cover-to-cover and continue to read it daily (one chapter per night with my wife), and to my reading it wholly supports Catholic doctrine (I’ve also read the Catechism of the Catholic Church cover-to-cover so that I know what the Church actually teaches, not just what someone says it teaches).

2 Peter 1:20
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

Amen! That’s what the magisterium is for.

 

[CatsAndDogs]

1 John 2:27
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

Here’s the Navarre Bible commentary on 1Jn-2:27:

1Jn-2:27. The anointing (cf. note on 2:20) refers to the Holy Spirit, who acts on the faithful by instructing them “about everything”. Our Lord had said this would be so: “the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things” (Jn 14:26).

The apostle does not mean that the faithful have no need of the Magisterium of the Church (the very fact that he is writing to them shows otherwise); what he wants to make quite clear is that their true teacher is the Holy Spirit (he it is who guides the Magisterium in its teaching, and he also acts in the soul of the Christian, helping him or her to accept that teaching). “If his anointing teaches you everything, it seems that we [pastors] are toiling to no purpose; why so much shouting on our part …]? This is the marvellous thing. The sound of our words is striking your ears, but the Master is within. Do not think that it is a question of somebody learning from a man; we can attract your attention by the power of our voice, but if he who does the teaching is not within, all our sermons will be in vain” (St Augustine, In Epist. loann. ad Parthos, 3, 13).

 

[vichlopet]

Greetings to you, I am indeed sorry you felt the Church offered little to you. I am almost 40 and am converting to the Catholic Church, it has, thus far, been my experience that the Church is an aid rather than an obstacle in INCREASING my faith in the Our Blessed Lord and Savior. Pax.

Thanks, but I don’t think that the RCC had little to offer me: but rather, it has nothing to offer me. The RCC has a Jesus complex. If I love Jesus I will love her, if I recieve Jesus I will receive her and so on. When a catholc says you need the church they are actually saying the church is Jesus. This is another Christ.

 

[vichlopet]

Here’s the Navarre Bible commentary on 1Jn-2:27:

1Jn-2:27. The anointing (cf. note on 2:20) refers to the Holy Spirit, who acts on the faithful by instructing them “about everything”. Our Lord had said this would be so: “the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things” (Jn 14:26).

The apostle does not mean that the faithful have no need of the Magisterium of the Church (the very fact that he is writing to them shows otherwise); what he wants to make quite clear is that their true teacher is the Holy Spirit (he it is who guides the Magisterium in its teaching, and he also acts in the soul of the Christian, helping him or her to accept that teaching). “If his anointing teaches you everything, it seems that we [pastors] are toiling to no purpose; why so much shouting on our part …]? This is the marvellous thing. The sound of our words is striking your ears, but the Master is within. Do not think that it is a question of somebody learning from a man; we can attract your attention by the power of our voice, but if he who does the teaching is not within, all our sermons will be in vain” (St Augustine, In Epist. loann. ad Parthos, 3, 13).

This interpretation of I John 2:27 is a true sign of a cult. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have their “Magisterium”, and the Mormons have theirs. Many Evangelical churches have theirs as well, they call them Greek and Hebrew scholars. Only this elite group of mystical gurus can know the truth…this kind of thinking is of the Devil himself. Let’s stick to what the verse actually says.

 

[maurin]

This interpretation of I John 2:27 is a true sign of a cult. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have their “Magisterium”, and the Mormons have theirs. Many Evangelical churches have theirs as well, they call them Greek and Hebrew scholars. Only this elite group of mystical gurus can know the truth…this kind of thinking is of the Devil himself.

And look how he has tricked you and lead you and so many countless others away from the voice of the True Shepherd…by leading you away from His Church He founded.

 

[vichlopet]

And look how he has tricked you and lead you and so many countless others away from the voice of the True Shepherd…by leading you away from His Church He founded.

Well if the word of God tricked me than I’m glad to be tricked. By the way the voice of the True Shepherd is found in the pages of a book not in some golden temple full of idols.

 

[Trishie]

Dear friend, in the Catholic Church I seek and find Jesus.
And if the Sacraments were man made, that man is Jesus, who is both God and man. They are His gift to us.

God bless you, Trishie

 

[sandusky]

No, it isn’t my reasoning, it isn’t what I think or believe at all. You’re the one who stated that since Catholics believe one can lose salvation by bad works, Catholics must believe they can earn salvation by good works. That is your reasoning. I’m the guy who disagreed.

That’s right; if you can lose your salvation because of your works, then your’s is a salvation not of grace, but of works.

 

[RobHom]

This interpretation of I John 2:27 is a true sign of a cult.

**26 These things have I written to you, concerning them that seduce you. 27 And as for you, let the unction, which you have received from him, abide in you. And you have no need that any man teach you; but as his unction teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie. And as it hath taught you, abide in him. 28 And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be confounded by him at his coming. 29 If you know, that he is just, know ye, that every one also, who doth justice, is born of him.

The meaning of that passage is here…and it says nothing about “cults”…it talks about “false teachers”, “heretics”, etc.

27 “You have no need”… You want not to be taught by any of these men, who, under pretence of imparting more knowledge to you, seek to seduce you (ver. 26), since you are sufficiently taught already, and have all knowledge and grace in the church, with the unction of the Holy Ghost; which these new teachers have no share in. **

But yet…despite the fact that you posted this previously…:

**
2 Peter 1:20
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
**

You try to tell us that 1John 2:27 is a true sign of a cult? Seems you deny the truth in 2Peter 1:20… or was this some “revelation” imparted upon you by someone less who is a false teacher who doesn’t know what 1John 2:27 means?

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have their “Magisterium”, and the Mormons have theirs. Many Evangelical churches have theirs as well, they call them Greek and Hebrew scholars. Only this elite group of mystical gurus can know the truth…this kind of thinking is of the Devil himself. Let’s stick to what the verse actually says.

Yes, you should stick to what the verse “actually says” and not your opinion as to what it says. Bottom line: Lacking a Magestirium of learned scholars with in depth knowledge of “scriptures”…all you are doing is guessing or “hypothesizing” as to what a scripture says. Further, when you take a snippet out of context and stand it alone…you are committing a tremendous act of falsehood… I believe its called “False Teaching”…because by taking out of context puts it in a different meaning…or rather you are trying to give it a different meaning than it actually has.

I take it you are a “Magestirium” of one?

 

[Gamera]

Thanks, but I don’t think that the RCC had little to offer me: but rather, it has nothing to offer me. The RCC has a Jesus complex. If I love Jesus I will love her, if I recieve Jesus I will receive her and so on. When a catholc says you need the church they are actually saying the church is Jesus. This is another Christ.

Jesus called the Church “me” when He said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Acts 9:4.

The Church isn’t “another Christ.” According to Scripture, the Church is the Body of Christ.

 

[Gamera]

That’s right; if you can lose your salvation because of your works, then your’s is a salvation not of grace, but of works.

But that isn’t what I believe. I believe I am saved by grace, just as the Catholic Church teaches. That isn’t salvation by works.

 

[Pixie_Dust]

Thanks, but I don’t think that the RCC had little to offer me: but rather, it has nothing to offer me. The RCC has a Jesus complex. If I love Jesus I will love her, if I recieve Jesus I will receive her and so on. When a catholc says you need the church they are actually saying the church is Jesus. This is another Christ.

Actually, it’s Scripture:

Matthew 16:18 And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church,

**The Church is the Body of Christ. **

Ephesians 1:22-23 And he (God the Father) put all things beneath his (Jesus) feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
Colossians 1:18 He is the head of the body, the church.
Colossians 1:24 He is the head of the body, the church.

 

[Gamera]

Well if the word of God tricked me than I’m glad to be tricked. By the way the voice of the True Shepherd is found in the pages of a book not in some golden temple full of idols.

Oh dear. What “golden temple full of idols” would that be?

 

[RobHom]

That’s right; if you can lose your salvation because of your works, then your’s is a salvation not of grace, but of works.

Obviously you choose to pick and choose which part of the Bible you believe in as opposed to the entire Bible? Are you one of these people who “worships” Paul and the Bible as your Gods?

 

[Gamera]

This interpretation of I John 2:27 is a true sign of a cult. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have their “Magisterium”, and the Mormons have theirs. Many Evangelical churches have theirs as well, they call them Greek and Hebrew scholars. Only this elite group of mystical gurus can know the truth…this kind of thinking is of the Devil himself. Let’s stick to what the verse actually says.

Do you deny that Jesus instituted certain people to be leaders and teachers in the Church? The fact that there exist false teachers, does nothing to discredit true teachers.

 

[sandusky]

But that isn’t what I believe. I believe I am saved by grace, just as the Catholic Church teaches. That isn’t salvation by works.

It’s either grace, or works.

Under grace, one doesn’t lose salvation on the basis of bad works, or sin; that loss of salvation can only occur in salvation by works—IMO, you’ve been hoodwinked by your magisterium, and you don’t even realize it.

 

[Gamera]

It’s either grace, or works.

It’s grace. How many times must I repeat it?

Under grace, one doesn’t lose salvation on the basis of bad works, or sin;

That makes no sense whatsoever. What is your source for that claim?

that loss of salvation can only occur in salvation by works—IMO, you’ve been hoodwinked by your magisterium, and you don’t even realize it.

Yeah, I’m real gullible.