]
Not misinterpreting scripture and the cc is fallible! With Matthew 23:9, I am saying that I believe that Jesus meant that you are not to call any man on earth Father(upper case used to emphasize that God is Father, not father) Of course I had anearthly father, but God and only God is my Holy Father, not the pope or any other catholic priest! This is the respect that God deserves!
God chooses to reveal Himself through the Church… Any and all Churches.
He does not personally reveal himself… He comes to us “through” the buildings
priests, the Bishops, the Sacraments and yes even the Pope…
When God revealed his “law” to man, God personally used fire and wrote
the ten commandments on the two tablet of stone… but when it came
to the New Testament he used the Holy Spirit to “inspire” men to convey his
messages to us…
Catholics do not stop at Salvation through a intellectual “belief” in the Name of
Jesus… we understand that Salvation is a process we are to engage in towards
our “sanctification” to become Christ through the Sacraments… We do not beleive
that our only christian responsibility is to just go around saying we are saved…
We are to receive our christian growth through the gifts of the Holy spirit through
the Sacraments of the church… and in order to do this, we must see the help
of the church and her Priests… We consider the church and the priests as
our spiritual growth fathers… and not the father of our life which is how God
becomes our father… he is the father of our souls… and the church is the father
of our sanctification…
Jesus choose 12 men to create a church… to receive, proclaim and to protect
his truths He wishes to reveal to the world until the end of time.
Notice very carefully I wrote 12 “men”…
I imagine you have a church building, you have men for ministers, you have
a group of men/women who will pray for you… who will provide a “place” for
lost people to be able to come and find the Truth of God…
Or are you saying that there isn’t any need for people to be involved in the
Kingdom of God here on earth… That God will just reveal his truths through
some magic communication without sharing those chores with the Church
(believers) on earth?
Then why did Jesus say… “He who hears you… hears me?”
There is far more in God calling you than to just save your soul…
He has some work for you to do in His work on earth… He wants
you to live your faith to the point that lost people will find Him
in you and to bring them to this truth… I feel the best place
for those lost souls is to come to a church where they can
find fathers for their salvation which includes helping them to
connect with the Grace of God for the gifts and fruits of the
Holy Spirit… there is far more going on with your salvation then
to just pluck you out of this world and put you in Heaven…
You yourself have received the power to be one of the Sons or Daughters
of the Kingdom… and you are called to be part of God’s work here on earth…