The words of the Apostles are not worthless because they were written in Greek.
Missed my point. We should not need a dictionary to understand scripture. We have the Church to interpret, since no individual on earth is qualified to do so
by themselves. Scripture was written by members of the apostolic Church to be used
in conjunction with the oral Apostolic teaching. The prologue to Luke (
Luke 1:1-4) clearly states this. Theophilius learned nothing - zero, zip, nada, from Like’s Gospel. He learned the Gospel message from the authoritative oral Apostolic teaching. Here is the problem as I see it: Once you discard the Apostle’s teaching, and the authority which produced it, you are left with an arguably sufficient, but admittedly incomplete written record. Sacred Cliff’s Notes, if you will. Christ did not come that we might have sufficiency. He came that we might have life, and life in
abundance. More than the bible. Much more.
Christ says that man lives by
every word that flows from the mouth of God. However, the bible clearly tells us that it does not contain every word of God. Now what? In so many cases, things are simply made up. Divisions occur. Christ’s Body is weakened. The evidence surrounds us. Atheists make fun of it - and rightly so.
Jesus was called by many names in Scripture, the Good Shepherd, the Lion of Judah, the Bright and Morning Star, the Way, the Light, the Life, the Lamb of God. He used some of these terms Himself, but was he literally a lamb, a light, a shepherd? These were symbolic terms
Jesus was born in the city of bread. He was placed in a feed trough. He is the bread come down from heaven. His ancestors had manna from heaven - but it was not a symbol, they had to
eat it to have life! Jesus is the passover lamb. That lamb was not a symbol; you did not have to have faith in the lamb -
you had to eat it! Jesus’ proclamation in
John 6 was followed by
Matthew 26, which was followed by Paul writing
1 Corinthians 11, which is followed by nearly 2,000 years of unbroken Eucharistic presence in both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. If it is symbolic, Paul was insane to demand that we
discern the Body and Blood in the bread and wine. You do not get sick and die because of unworthy reception of a symbol. Wouldn’t that be superstition, or worse, idolatry?
First of all, there was neither a Catholic Church nor an Orthodox Church at the ascension.
There was a united Church that came to be known,
at the latest by 107, as the universal or Catholic Church. Katolikos in Greek. United and universal, as Christ intended and fervently prayed for.
My point is that you reject even the united Church, and you reject both of the Apostolic Churches in toto. You reject their authority, their apostolic teaching and their Sacraments, which Jesus Christ Himself instituted. You take their bible (91% of it, anyway) and, lacking Apostolic authority and teaching, are forced to
fill in the blanks or to
settle for less. You are free to do that, but you are missing so much that you cannot imagine it. As good and deep as your faith feels right now, there are foundational elements missing. What you are missing cannot come from the bible. It has to be lived, has to be received.
Finally, I know there is a kernel of anti-Protestant sentiment in the heart of every non-Protestant.
From your viewpoint, this makes sense. From the Catholic or Orthodox viewpoint, it does not. I do not have to justify my separation from any Church. And, there is the difference. I invite you, as my obligation of love to a brother in Christ, to set aside your notions about the Catholic Church and investigate it anew.
What I believe in my heart must make sense in my mind. Such as how do you square the third chapter of John with the sixth chapter. One says believe, be baptized and you will have eternal life. The other, according to you, starts putting conditions on that salvation. Eat my flesh and drink my blood to have eternal life, and by extension you have to belong to a church with Apostolic continuity that can confer the real presence, and you have to observe all the things taught there to be in good graces to be able to worship there, etc…
Do not get trapped into the error of “either/or” thinking1 The only “either/or” in faith is heaven
or hell. Everything else is “both/and”.
Both John 3
and John 6. Believe
and get baptized
and eat His Flesh
and drink His Blood.
I square it like this, John 3- to be saved you must believe in Jesus and be baptized; John 6 - This belief can’t be superficial, Jesus must become part of you, part of your being, inseparable from each other to be saved.
By eating that Flesh and drinking that Blood! Jesus commanded the Apostles to eat and drink. It was not a suggestion, and was a physical act, combined with their faith. Faith requires action, as the NT authors affirm. You are so close!
pretend to believe in the Holy Scriptures!
Let me guess, the Magesterium and Traditions.