Protestants and parables

[catholictiger]

i don’t know if this is the majority of Protestants but i have encountered some that believe that the parables don’t carry much meaning becuase they aren’t literal… i don’t know what they think each parable means but i just know some parables that would support catholic teaching they just say oh its a parable so it means nothing.

another thing they do is they claim passages are parables even if they aren’t really parables

matthew 25 is a good example

im actually arguing a guy on a message board who thinks there is no hell. I thought it was pretty easy to show how this guy is wrong but its more difficult then i thought. This guy for some reason thinks that teh gospels don’t apply to us becuase he was only speaking to the jews and he mainly only spoke in parables and becuase parables aren’t literal then we should just ignore the gospels.

other examples include

when i bring up the bread of life and i am the bread and passages like that they say oh these are parables so you can’t take this a literal.

these are the only example i can think of anyone else have examples or know easy easy to rebut this

 

[JM3]

i don’t know if this is the majority of Protestants but i have encountered some that believe that the parables don’t carry much meaning becuase they aren’t literal… i don’t know what they think each parable means but i just know some parables that would support catholic teaching they just say oh its a parable so it means nothing.

another thing they do is they claim passages are parables even if they aren’t really parables

matthew 25 is a good example

im actually arguing a guy on a message board who thinks there is no hell. I thought it was pretty easy to show how this guy is wrong but its more difficult then i thought. This guy for some reason thinks that teh gospels don’t apply to us becuase he was only speaking to the jews and he mainly only spoke in parables and becuase parables aren’t literal then we should just ignore the gospels.

other examples include

when i bring up the bread of life and i am the bread and passages like that they say oh these are parables so you can’t take this a literal.

these are the only example i can think of anyone else have examples or know easy easy to rebut this

Perhaps an understanding of what a parable really is could help.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable

 

[catholictiger]

my big problem here is when Protestants claim something as a parable when it is more like a prophecy or retelling of an event

prod claim the images of judgments are parables rather then prophecies

 

[Cachonga]

catholictiger:

i don’t know if this is the majority of Protestants but i have encountered some that believe that the parables don’t carry much meaning becuase they aren’t literal… i don’t know what they think each parable means but i just know some parables that would support catholic teaching they just say oh its a parable so it means nothing.

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who would make this kind of argument, so I would say this is not how the majority of Protestants believe. I would also suggest that anyone who takes this sort of position does not practice Sola Scriptura. If they claim they do, I would remind them of 2 Tim 3:16 (“All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” RSV) and ask them why they don’t believe this applies to parables.

im actually arguing a guy on a message board who thinks there is no hell. I thought it was pretty easy to show how this guy is wrong but its more difficult then i thought. This guy for some reason thinks that teh gospels don’t apply to us becuase he was only speaking to the jews and he mainly only spoke in parables and becuase parables aren’t literal then we should just ignore the gospels.

In addition to what I’ve already said, I would suggest such an argument indicates that the person is not a Chirstian. If he rejects the gospels because they were addressed to Jews, remind him that Jesus was Jewish (born of the tribe of Judah, a descendant of David, circumcised the 8th day, observed the feast days, etc…). I would also remind him that the gospels do EXPLAIN many of the parables, so we (Christians of all ages) are not left in the dark as to their meaning.

when i bring up the bread of life and i am the bread and passages like that they say oh these are parables so you can’t take this a literal.

For myself, I would argue that the Catholic understanding of these passages is anachronystic and not in line with what the original authors and listners would have understood, but that is another topic.

 

[catholictiger]

update we are kinda grwoing away from scripture i still bring up well it says it in the goespels

im trying to bring the argument to tradition and the theory that for you to have a true meaning of scriptures you must take into account scripture tradition and you must have an authority on those two becuase without an athurity on scripture you could have 7 million different interpretations of scripture. Having an authority on scripture you will have one universal truth.