At what point in history did you become the authority about me and what I believe?
… you cannot rely on your church to tell you what a specific verse means since it has never infallibly interpreted the Scriptures.
I don’t have to rely upon my Church to tell me infallibly what the Bible means. My beliefs are not built upon the Bible alone.
Nor do I have a problem with the Church because they have not published a exhaustive and infallible Bible commentary. Why? Because Catholics take a different view of Scripture than Protestants. We don’t believe that each and every verse has one and only one meaning fixed for every century. We also don’t believe that Jesus, the true Word of God, meant to include his deposit of faith in only written form, apart from the authority of apostolic tradition handed on by the authoritative teaching of the Church.
Catholics instead take the view of Scripture expressed by
St. Ephraim of Syria, which he taught over 1000 years before the heresy of Protestantism was even invented in the 16th century…
**St. Ephraim the Syriac, 4th century:***Lord, who can grasp all the wealth of just one of your words. What we understand is much less than what we leave behind. Like thirsty people who drink from a fountain, for your word, Lord, has many shades of meaning, just as those who study it have many points of view. The Lord has colored his word with many hues, so that each person who studies it can see in it what he loves. He has hidden many treasures in his word, so that each of us is enriched as we meditate on it. The word of God is a tree of life that from all its parts offers you fruit that is blessed. It is like that rock that is open in the desert, which from all its parts gave forth a spiritual drink. He, who comes into contact with some share of its treasure, should not think that the only thing contained in the word is what he himself has found. He should realize that he has only been able to find that one thing from among many others. Nor, because only that one part has become his should he say that the word is void, empty, and look down on it. Because he could not exhaust it, he should give thanks for its riches. Be glad that you are overcome and do not be sad that it overcame you. The thirsty man rejoices when he drinks, he is not downcast because he cannot empty the fountain. Rather let the fountain quench your thirst, than have your thirst quench the fountain. Because if your thirst is quenched and the fountain is not exhausted, you can drink from it again whenever you are thirsty. But if, when your thirst is quenched, the fountain also is dried up, your victory will bode evil for you. So be grateful for what you have recieved and don’t grumble about the abundance left behind. What you have received and what you have reached is your share. What remains is your heritage. What at one time you are unable to receive, because of your weakness, you will be able to receive at other times, if you persevere. Do not have the presumption to try to take in one draft what cannot be taken in one draft. And do not abandon out of laziness what you may only consume little by little.
*[St. Ephraim, cited by Dr. Scott Hahn, *The End: A Study of the Book of Revelation, (St. Joseph Communications, audio series)]
Asking other Christians in this world to pray for you is right and proper since the Scriptures teach this.
Correct. And the Scriptures teach that death does not separate us from Christ, so the saints and angels in heaven are Christians too, still part of the same body of Christ, and still interceding in prayer for us. The ridiculous claim that they are somehow “off limits” because they are in heaven is absurd and entirely unsupported by any passage of Scripture. It would be really impressive if you could convince your fellow Protestants of this claim, but it appears your so-called “Scriptural” arguments are simply too weak to make a compelling case even among Protestants.
What seems to upset the antagonists against Catholicism (and Orthodoxy, and even some Protestant scholars), is that in attempting to be consistent with a flawed “Bible alone” epistemology, you can’t provide a single chapter and verse of Scripture which denounces this ancient Christian practice. Not one. And, yet you ironically claim it is somehow prohibited. That’s obviously inconsistent. We don’t accept your flawed Protestant “traditions of men” as proof. If Protestantism was in any way consistent, it would only quote chapter and verse and leave out their absurd interpretation.
I can see how that can be frustrating for you, but your dissent is of no concern to faithful Christians of every century who request Mary’s aid since even before the Christian Bible was even canonized.
I applaud those Protestant pastors (e.g. C. Dickson, N. Ward,) who admit that praying the Rosary is a pious Christian practice. I even applaud the Protestants who, perhaps in their ignorance, request Mary and Joseph “lend their aid” when they sing “Angels we have heard on high.” Whether they know it or not, they are praying to saints.
