- Maybe you have a “problem” with self designating self as the sole, authoritative interpreter of Scripture. If so, I agree! But there is only one that does that. It’s The Catholic Church. Read your Catechism # 85. You will find NOTHING like it form ANY OTHER than The Catholic Church (well, all the cults do but let’s keep this discussion focused on indisputable Christians).
- Maybe you have a “problem” with self declaring that The Holy Spirit only guides self and that there’s only one that infallibly follows that guiding: self. If so, I agree! But there’s only one that does that: The Catholic Church. NO OTHER (cults excluded again) that so claims either of these things.
- Maybe you have a “problem” with self declaring that self MUST be correct because self alone agrees with self alone. If so, I agree! I find ZERO relevance of self agreeing with self to self being correct. It’s true that The Catholic Church alone agrees with The Catholic Church alone so that The Catholic Church as a unity of just one: self with self. Clearly, all OTHER teachers have AT LEAST so much!!! Obviously, undeniably, it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with that teacher being correct. Obviously. It’s one of the silliest apologetics ever.
- To the point of this thread. I don’t like the expression: “Scripture interprets itself” (even though Lutherans occasionally use it). It’s misleading and not precise. Technically, Scripture CANNOT interpret anything. What this HERMENEUTICAL principle is referring to is what is more precisely called “systemmatics.” It’s used in all literary interpretation - not just of Scripture. If I’m reading one of Mark Twain’s books (which I haven’t done in many years, lol), and I come across some word or theme - say Indians. And I want to understand what MARK TWAIN means by that, systemmatics means I look to other places in his writings where this word and theme appears - primarily in the same book but perhaps going to other writings of his, as well. As all these are put together (“systemmatically” - hence the term), as we see them together - they, in a sense, clarify each other - and we get a fuller, more complete picture on this subject - from the author himself. THIS is what Protestants mean by “Scripture interprets Scripture.” My Catholic teacher insisted it’s actually a very helpful approach and that Catholics often use it, too.
Thank you.
Pax
I’ll do you several better:
I fully accept that the Catholic Church makes these breathtakingly outrageous claims else I would not be a Catholic.No other Church would DARE to make these claims but ours does because its author is Jesus Christ Himself,not a disgruntled King,nor a Saxon priest who suffered from scrupulosity,nor any of the other thousands of men who attempted to recreate God and His Church in their own finite empiracle image.
The apostles entrusted the “Sacred deposit” of the faith (the depositum fidei),45 contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, to the whole of the Church. "By adhering to [this heritage] the entire holy people, united to its pastors, remains always faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. So, in maintaining, practicing and professing the faith that has been handed on, there should be a remarkable harmony between the bishops and the faithful."46
The Magisterium of the Church
85 "The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ."47 This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.
86 "Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith."48
87 Mindful of Christ’s words to his apostles: “He who hears you, hears me”,49 the faithful receive with docility the teachings and directives that their pastors give them in different forms.
I certainly ascribe to #85 as it is fully supported in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.Please read #86 and #87 to understand the fullness of this statement which to you is obviously an outrageous claim.The Catholic Church as instituted and constituted by Christ is necessarily a Divine Institution and whose inerrant veracity and dogmatic infallibility cannot be compared to other “teachers” who are self described and self appointed and who have originated from the wellspring of error and heresy.
