Why did Paul in Acts 17:11 tell the common people of the Berean Church to search and examine the scriptures to see if what he was saying was true? How could they have possibly done that if the people couldn’t interpret or understand the scripture for themselves?
They were interpreting the Jewish scriptures, since the Bible hadn’t been canonized yet, and the writings we know as the Bible weren’t well circulated yet. Also, I would assume, they would have taught those Jewish scriptures orally. I doubt many people at that time were literate. The ones who were, taught the others the scripture by reading or proclaiming it to the others. Kinda like the Catholic church does today during Mass, come to think of it.
Or, if the Catholic Church was already established, all Paul would have needed to say was …“what I say goes and interpret your scripture as such”.
Actually, at the Jerusalem Council, everyone did demur to Peter as the authority to make the decision. Also, St. Clement wrote letters to the Corinthians that they listented to as authority just like they had Paul’s letters. Clement wasn’t an apostle, but he was the Bishop of Rome at the time.
But that’s not what is done. He tells them to examine the scriptures to validate what he is saying is true. God gave us scripture (and long before 1500ad or even 500 ad) so we could be warned when false teachers are present.
There are many false teachers who use the Bible in our day to proclaim their falsehood.
Why read scripture if you can’t understand/interpret it? Since your ultimately trusting your clergy that they have intrepreted scripture correctly, you yourself, can’t really test anything against scripture as you claim.
Catholics are free to read and interpret all day long, for personal edification. . .they just can’t go out and make up a new doctrine that contradicts existing teaching and promote it. . .like the prosperity gospel.
Rome can twist and manipulate the scriptures all day long and you have no way of knowing its true. What a great way to deceive.
And you’ve never heard a Protestant twist scripture? I was protestant for many many years. . .and every church believes and preaches something a little different.
And yes we can intrepret the Bible based on 1 Corinthians 4:2…“we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience”. Therefore, if you test (which according to your logic, you yourself ultimately can’t) all of scripture with Rome’s intrpretation of John 20 you run into all kinds of problems trying to harmonize God’s perfect Word.
Again,
If the Bible did state that the disciples received this authority then why don’t you ever see them exercise it? You don’t find Rome’s style of confession anywhere in the Bible or the early church. Can you explain that?
Yes, this can be explained. Many Many books have been written on the subject. This question comes up a lot. The name for it is “development of doctrine.” Which is not the same thing as a “change” of doctrine.
Why would such a critical issue take so much time to evolve in the church?
When you plant a tree, do you expect it to grow?
You never hear one disciple say “the conventional way to be forgiven is thru a priest…especially with grave sins”.
For many years the followers of the Way thought Jesus was coming back within their lifetime. In fact any day. The idea that they might have to live a very long time without sinning wasn’t on their minds.
I just ask you to think for yourself on these issues just as the Bible tells us we have the ability to do…And, as Paul told the Berean Church to do. Always in love.
