Do you have a problem with Mickey or with the Church’s teaching of Mary’s perpetual virginity?
Most Protestants do have a problem with the Church’s Marian doctrines, although they don’t have a leg to stand on in their rebuttals. Both Scripture and history attest to that fact. They reject every Catholic doctrine which is not explicitly revealed in Scripture. And they reject the Apostolic teaching authority of the Church Fathers and the Popes and Bishops of the Magisterium. Protestants will keep telling us: “If it isn’t in the Bible, I won’t believe it”. Yet Catholic doctrines do find scriptural support, even if it is only implicit. No teaching of the Catholic Church is irreconciled with the Scriptures. Jesus promised to guide his Church to all truth until the end of time when he gave Peter the keys to the kingdom and assured his apostles that the gates of hell would not prevail against her. In their defence of the false principle of ‘sola scriptura’ Protestants will refer to 2Tim 3:16-17: “All Scripture is inspired by God, and useful for teaching, for reproving, for correcting, for instructing in justice; that the man of God may be perfect, equipped for every good work.” But they fail to notice that verse 16 says “all” Scripture, not “only” Scripture. Now what does Paul mean by “all” Scripture? What Scripture did he refer to, and what Scripture was available to Timothy as early as A.D.65-66? The earliest Gospel, that of Luke, was written shortly before A.D. 70 along with Mark. But these two Gospels were not in use at the time Paul wrote his letter to Timothy. :nope: During the first century the Scriptures used by the early Christians was the Old Testament: the Jewish Septuagint. There was no New Testament for centuries until the Council of Carthage gathered the 27 Books which comprised the original Holy Bible in A.D. 397. So if Protestants accept 2Tim as the authority for ‘sola scriptura’, then they have to throw out the New Testament and make do with the Old. Further, if they cling to 2Tim, then they are in the awkward position of having to accept the Old Testament Books Luther rejected as Apochrypha. What Paul and the other apostles taught at the time of their letters and gospels about Jesus was primarily done orally and according to Sacred Tradition, not the New Testament. The Bible could not possibly have been the sole sufficient source of divine truth at the time. Nor does the NT teach us that Tradition must be discarded once the texts have been compiled and made canon. On the contrary, Paul tells Timothy in verse 14 of all places: “But do you continue in the things you have learned and that have been entrusted to you.” He is telling the Bishop to hold on to Tradition, that which has been taught apart from the NT texts which were not yet completed.
“I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions, just as I handed them on to you.”
{1 Corinthians 11:2}
‘Sola Scriptura’ is neither scriptural nor historical: the false concept originated with Luther, a defrocked Catholic priest, 1500 years after Jesus founded his One, Holy, and Apostolic Church. :yup: His erroneous doctrine created the ‘everyone for himself’ syndrome for Bible interpretation. Each individual could now claim “The Holy Spirit told me.” But the Bible explicitly tells us that such private interpretation cannot realistically be done: Acts 8:27-39; 2Pet 1:20; 3:16-18. Belief in ‘sola scriptura’ is the primary reason for the fact that there are several orthodox and heterodox groups on top of innumerable splinter groups which disagree with each other on many essential doctrinal points. What they do entirely agree on comes from the Apostles Creed of the Catholic Church. But there can only be one truth for all Christians. That is why Jesus promised to send the Paraclete to his Church: a unity of faith, like that which exists in Catholicism. All Protestant groups claim to have the truth, despite their differences. Which of these groups can honestly know that they have the true faith, unless each one has a different Holy Spirit or the Paraclete is revealing numerous truths at odds with each other? The doctrine of ‘sola scriptura’ is evidently a false doctrine of men. It’s a human tradition in Protestantism. Those who rely on this false principle to dispute the Church’s Marian doctrines don’t have a leg to stand on.
“Let us note that the very tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the beginning, which the Lord gave, was preached by the Apostles, and was preserved by the Fathers. On this was the Church founded; and if anyone departs from this, he neither is nor any longer ought to be called a Christian.”
St. Athanasius,’ Letter to Serapion of Thmuis’ (A.D. 359)
Pax vobiscum
Good Fella
