O
Okinell
Guest
Some Protestants use the following: 2 Timothy 3:16-17. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Useful does not mean exclusivity.
Secondly, Christ/God/Holy Spirit gave use “The Church” and as time progressed and oral tradition became a written tradition and the library of the Church began to form. I think a great many CC’s and non CC’s forget all too often that most people of the early centuries of the Church could not read or write and the way that one could “pass on” our stories of Christ, etc. was only orally. Paper was very expensive along with many other writing implements. What has always been a quandary for me even during most of my life even as an Anglican/Episcopalian was that the Scriptures of Christianity were canonized by THE ONLY CHURCH AT THE TIME, the Roman Catholic Church. It was through the wisdom of our Church Fathers and the authority of the Church as enlightened by the Holy Spirit, that this was possible.
If you really delve into the early history of the Church and the study Luther’s 95 theses (and the 5 Solas) during that time in Europe you will plainly see that the real issue here was political because the ruling kings, princes, and aristocracy had gotten tire of being ultimately controlled by the Church, the Pope, and its Bishops. Politically, you could not disengage oneself from the the Pope and the Church’s ruling authority in order to achieve political/state autonomy without divorcing yourself from the Church. The sad part is that only thing you have left is the “manual”, so to speak, i.e., The Holy Scriptures/Bible. The tragedy here is that they threw the baby out with the bath water.
So for hundreds of years now all of Protestant Christianity has been struggling to find its way as it has had to reinvent the “wheel”. For some reason Protestantism puts more faith and sustenance into a local minister/preacher, who is just one individual, scholar, not a scholar, perhaps even not ordained, or trained to any degree, rather than read the great writings of the Fathers and great scholars of Christ’s true church that he charged to Peter.
Isn’t interesting how some of the most stalwart Protestant churches are now embracing our concept of Lent. Reflecting on self assessments, fasting, and recommitting oneself to the ultimate source the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Perhaps with the “arm” Pope Benedict has outstretched to some of the Protestant churches to rejoin Christ’s faithful, with God’s Grace, will find their way back home.
Secondly, Christ/God/Holy Spirit gave use “The Church” and as time progressed and oral tradition became a written tradition and the library of the Church began to form. I think a great many CC’s and non CC’s forget all too often that most people of the early centuries of the Church could not read or write and the way that one could “pass on” our stories of Christ, etc. was only orally. Paper was very expensive along with many other writing implements. What has always been a quandary for me even during most of my life even as an Anglican/Episcopalian was that the Scriptures of Christianity were canonized by THE ONLY CHURCH AT THE TIME, the Roman Catholic Church. It was through the wisdom of our Church Fathers and the authority of the Church as enlightened by the Holy Spirit, that this was possible.
If you really delve into the early history of the Church and the study Luther’s 95 theses (and the 5 Solas) during that time in Europe you will plainly see that the real issue here was political because the ruling kings, princes, and aristocracy had gotten tire of being ultimately controlled by the Church, the Pope, and its Bishops. Politically, you could not disengage oneself from the the Pope and the Church’s ruling authority in order to achieve political/state autonomy without divorcing yourself from the Church. The sad part is that only thing you have left is the “manual”, so to speak, i.e., The Holy Scriptures/Bible. The tragedy here is that they threw the baby out with the bath water.
So for hundreds of years now all of Protestant Christianity has been struggling to find its way as it has had to reinvent the “wheel”. For some reason Protestantism puts more faith and sustenance into a local minister/preacher, who is just one individual, scholar, not a scholar, perhaps even not ordained, or trained to any degree, rather than read the great writings of the Fathers and great scholars of Christ’s true church that he charged to Peter.
Isn’t interesting how some of the most stalwart Protestant churches are now embracing our concept of Lent. Reflecting on self assessments, fasting, and recommitting oneself to the ultimate source the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Perhaps with the “arm” Pope Benedict has outstretched to some of the Protestant churches to rejoin Christ’s faithful, with God’s Grace, will find their way back home.