Prove to me the Bible is true… Is this an individual challenge? Or may anyone participate? If the latter, may I offer my viewpoint with a minimal amount of consternation and contempt and a maximum of love and kindness–both of which are kind of foreign notions considering the subject at hand: Is there an infallible standard which man has not corrupted? This has been the bone of contention for 16-17 centuries–it is still going. It is also a pivotal point of Truth–what did God say? What does man say about what God said?
Allowing the doctrines of man alongside the Truth of God’s Word implies that man has a problem with what God has revealed in His Word. It is somehow inadequate or untrustworthy. So we have volumes of what learned men say God might have said and what God might have meant, adinfinitum.
For those of us unable to make it through Oxford, Cambridge and/or Vatican U, how does one sort through all of this? See John 3:5, in context. All of this is a futile exercise in religious semantics if one has not the spiritual discernment which accompanies being “born from above”. Nicodemus, a right reverend doctor of divinity did not understand. Jesus chided him for being so high and so dumb.
This should be enough to get the “light” saber slashing.
Peacefully,
James Least
The problem isn’t with God’s Word. The problem is how men can misinterpert God’s Word… Remember when Satan tempted Jesus in the desert- He used Scripture. Remember Peter’s talk about how false teachers will twist Scripture?
The issue here is how is God’s Word rightly divided. Any can claim the Holy Spirit’s guidance, but you also have good Christians with right hearts, getting into some serious disagreements about how Scripture should be taught.
You say that we Catholics are following men’s doctrines. But I want to point something out to you. Scripture is Tradition. Jesus didn’t come down from Heaven and hand the apostles a book and say this is Scripture. Now he came down from heaven, died, rose again, and left the Holy Spirit to his apostles. With the statement that He would be with them forever, and guide them through all time. Some of these apostles and their followers wrote down their accounts, and wrote letters. The Church throughout the centuries, and once again we as Catholics, believe guided by the Holy Spirit, codified these as Scripture along with the Old Testament.
I want to point out that there was a debate in Jesus’s time between Scripture only, and Scripture and Tradition. Between the Pharisees and the Saducees. The Saddacuees used Scripture only to deny things like the Resurrection. The Pharisees accepted oral tradition and rejected the Saducees arguments on that basis.
Jesus very much sided with the Pharisees on this and told the Saducees that they don’t understand Scripture.
Big Tradition for Catholics is pretty much if the Church has taught something one way throughout time. I.e the Church has strongly taught Real Presence in Communion, and has interpeted Jesus words literally, than that’s the way we will continue to interpert those verses. Its not up for discussion. Its how we have indentified false teachers like Arius, who have attempted to argue things like Jesus isn’t God. We’ll know Arius, your wrong we’ve always taught Jesus was God-get away from us. If there’s something that leads to a major disagreement than a Church council as accordance with Scripture is called. We trust the Holy Spirit to guide that Council as He’s promised to do.
Once again what I’m going to point out to you is that HOW we Catholics choose to divide the Word of God is very Scriptural. Scripture after all is clear about someone coming to you with a Gospel other than the one you have claimed.
Its far more Scriptural than everyone going to Scriptures coming with their own conclusion and then seperating, which is what we see with Protestantism. Scripture after all is clear that we are suppose to be in agreement.
In the end for me its about following Jesus, and recognizing that no I Rebecca am not the be end and end all. That I don’t have to lean on my own understanding. That God has sent His Spirit to us Christians throughout all time and the Holy Spirit just doesn’t say one thing one century and another throughout. Its about trusting Jesus that his promise to never leave us or forsake us is true.
I guess at the end we Catholics can be wrong about things (we Catholics certainly have done some bad things in the past, in the name of our faith.)… But the heart of Catholicism, I think is correct and humble. This is a faith that has been passed down to us for 2,000 years. This is the faith we received and we will stand and fight for that faith, till the end of days.
