Beth,
As a Catholic, I have studied the Bible at Mass throughout my entire life. That is 54 years.
I think the great fallacy and bias is that fundamentalists think we oppose the sacred Word of God, do not make use of it, and some are even shocked we have our Bible readings at Mass, and have been doing so for 2,000 years.
You can’t study the Bible alone because if you do, you will never the history of faith. You are using the bible without people, divorced from those who laid down the foundation of the church, to the believers, and to their descendents to whom they dutifully and with great courage in the face of persecution and death passed on the true faith in Jesus Christ through the sacraments of His blood and nurtured by the Word of God.
Excuse me!!!
So if you are using the Word of God as the standard, then what standard are you in heaven using??? It missed out on ours that we have had since the time of the Apostles.
Anyone can hear the reading of Scripture for 200 years and never enter the Kingdom, so reading the Scripture does not equal salvation. It is only the repentant heart coming to God with nothing to offer and begging for His forgiveness for one’s sins against Him and turning from thoses sins and asking Him to have mercy on your soul and to teach you His ways so one can live by His truth.
The history you receive is a revisionist history in my opinion, for example, their is no succession or Catholic priest mentioned in the earliest of church history, which is described in the Acts of the apostles. Many of the church fathers during the first 3-4 generation believed in a faith alone by grace in Christ, taught predestination and other doctrines dispised by your church.
The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
This is but one example of many that could be shown; yet over time many traditions have evolved that were never part of Scripture or the earliest church.
Chapter I.-The Salutation. Praise of the Corinthians Before the Breaking Forth of Schism Among Them.
The Church of God which sojourns at Rome, to the Church of God sojourning at Corinth, to them
that are called and sanctified by the will of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, from Almighty God through Jesus Christ, be multiplied.
Owing, dear brethren, to the sudden and successive calamitous events which have happened to ourselves, we feel that we have been somewhat tardy in turning our attention to the points respecting which you consulted us;(2) and especially to that shameful and detestable sedition, utterly abhorrent to the elect of God, which a few rash and self-confident persons have kindled to such a pitch of frenzy, that your venerable and illustrious name, worthy to be universally loved, has suffered grievous injury.(3) For who ever dwelt even for a short time among you, and did not find your faith to be as fruitful of virtue as it was firmly established?(4) Who did not admire the sobriety and moderation of your godliness in Christ? Who did not proclaim the magnificence of your habitual hospitality? And who did not rejoice over your perfect and well-grounded knowledge? For ye did all things without respect of persons, and walked in the commandments of God, being obedient to those who had the rule over you, and giving all fitting honour to the presbyters among you. Ye enjoined young men to be of a sober and serious mind; ye instructed your wives to do all things with a blameless, becoming, and pure conscience, loving their husbands as in duty bound; and ye taught them that, living in the rule of obedience, they should manage their household affairs becomingly, and be in every respect marked by discretion.
Chapter II.-Praise of the Corinthians Continued.
Moreover, ye were all distinguished by humility, and were in no respect puffed up with pride, but yielded obedience rather than extorted it,(5) and were more willing to give than to receive.(6) Content with the provision which God had made for you, and carefully attending to His words, ye were inwardly filled(7) with His doctrine, and His sufferings were before your eyes. Thus a profound and abundant peace was given to you all, and ye had an insatiable desire for doing good, while a full outpouring of the Holy Spirit was upon you all. Full of holy designs, ye did, with true earnestness of mind and a godly confidence, stretch forth your hands to God Almighty, beseeching Him to be merciful unto you, if ye had been guilty of any involuntary transgression. Day and night ye were anxious for the whole brotherhood,(8) that the number of God’s elect might be saved with mercy and a good conscience.(9) Ye were sincere and uncorrupted, and forgetful of injuries between one another. Every kind of faction and schism was abominable in your sight. Ye mourned over the transgressions of your neighbours: their deficiencies you deemed your own. Ye never grudged any act of kindness, being “ready to every good work.”(10) Adorned by a thoroughly virtuous and religious life, ye did all things in the fear of God. The commandments and ordinances of the Lord were written upon the tablets of your hearts.(11)
As for writting posts that include scripture, that is what I do when I need to explain things to people who only believe in scripture. You must realize that Beth ignores anything by the ECF or declarations from our Church, which I completely understand on her part. Why should she? That’s not part of her belief system.