Teaching from the Bible

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I see in Acts Chapter 8, an instance where the Spirit used Philip to teach/ proclaim the good news from the bible.

The Spirit said to Philip, “Go to that chariot and join it.” Sp Philip ran up to the chariot and he heard the man reading the Prophet Isiah. He asked, “Do you really understand what you are reading?” The Ethopian replied, "How can I, unless someone explains it to me?

I know it is possible that a person reading the bible on his own can come to the knowledge of the truth because nothing is impossible for God.

Is there any instance in bible though that indicates someone who has come to the knowledge of the truth without guidance/teaching but by just reading scripture alone?
 
I can’t think of such an occasion, although the Old Testament records a couple of occasions when a “rediscovery” of the Word brought about a repentance and renewal of faith of the people. (2 Kings 22, Nehemiah 8 . . . I think there is at least one other that I am forgetting).

For the most part, for the vast majority of people, the possibility of “reading the Bible” in solitude didn’t exist until after Gutenberg. That Ethiopian was one very wealthy, educated guy.

But the consistent teaching of the NT is precisely what is illustrated in his story - that the Word needs to be opened to the listener - by Jesus, after the Resurrection, and then by the Apostles to whom He gave the promise of the Spirit’s teaching.
 
=livecharity;6316608]I see in Acts Chapter 8, an instance where the Spirit used Philip to teach/ proclaim the good news from the bible.
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The Spirit said to Philip, “Go to that chariot and join it.” Sp Philip ran up to the chariot and he heard the man reading the Prophet Isiah. He asked, “Do you really understand what you are reading?” The Ethopian replied, "How can I, unless someone explains it to me?
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I know it is possible that a person reading the bible on his own can come to the knowledge of the truth because nothing is impossible for God.
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Is there any instance in bible though that indicates someone who has come to the knowledge of the truth without guidance/teaching but by just reading scripture alone?
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That seems to me an impossibility?

Unless one teaches in acordance to the Understanding of th CC, one has to be wrong?
 
NHInsider said:
I can’t think of such an occasion, although the Old Testament records a couple of occasions when a “rediscovery” of the Word brought about a repentance and renewal of faith of the people. (2 Kings 22, Nehemiah 8 . . . I think there is at least one other that I am forgetting).
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And yet, these Jews misread all the signs that pointed toward Jesus.

The Boreans in Acts would be a an argument that people read the Scriptures to come to the truth. It’s incomplete, however, because the Boreans used the Scriptures to verify what they were hearing from the Church, via Paul
 
But why would God make this a ‘possibility’ (and f**or extremely few people **especially considering, as was noted, that in **the history of Christianity so far, **the ability of most people to read the Bible, along with the availability of the Bible as in affordability, was so tiny?) such that people think it the norm, or claim that since it is 'possible’, that they don’t need the ‘norm’ that Scripture itself indicates–the Church?

I surely would not want to risk my own limited brain and my ‘perception’ that “The Holy Spirit is telling me X” (especially when X is something that the Church does not uphold, or is something ‘new and different’) and trust that God somehow is telling me this ‘something new’ because I’m so special that I don’t **need His Church. **

I mean, an examination of Church history doesn’t exactly show that when people are questioning Church teachings that they were proven correct, does it? (I am talking actual teachings like the Trinity. . . I am not talking about things like ‘indulgences’ which some people taught incorrectly. )

I mean, look at the people who taught that Jesus was ‘two beings’. They ‘read into that’ from Scripture and ‘The Spirit’ but they were wrong.
Same with the ones who taught that Jesus wasn’t ‘equal to the Father’. They ‘read that in Scripture’ and "got it from the Spirit’ but they were wrong.

So why and how did people start to think that ‘reading from Scripture and the Spirit’–but contradicting the Church–would suddenly go from being wrong to being right?
 
NotWorthy said:
And yet, these Jews misread all the signs that pointed toward Jesus.

The Boreans in Acts would be a an argument that people read the Scriptures to come to the truth. It’s incomplete, however, because the Boreans used the Scriptures to verify what they were hearing from the Church, via Paul
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Not a great example even with this proviso.

Remember that the Bereans, after their careful study of scripture, nonetheless got upset with Paul’s preaching and drummed him out of town :eek:

So obviously whatever insights they gained from scripture weren’t sufficient to enable them to accept ALL of what the Holy Spirit was trying to teach them through Paul.
 
For the Bereans, scripture meant the Old Testament. They checked nothing against or in the New Testament.
 
LilyM said:
Not a great example even with this proviso.

Remember that the Bereans, after their careful study of scripture, nonetheless got upset with Paul’s preaching and drummed him out of town :eek:

So obviously whatever insights they gained from scripture weren’t sufficient to enable them to accept ALL of what the Holy Spirit was trying to teach them through Paul.
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I think you’ve got the wrong incident. The Bereans did not drum Paul out of town. Weren’t they Jews from the previous town?
 
NotWorthy said:
I think you’ve got the wrong incident. The Bereans did not drum Paul out of town. Weren’t they Jews from the previous town?
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Since when did Jews living in one Greek town (Thessalonica) have any authority in another town (Berea) to drum anyone out?

Towns were independent states, each with their own separate government. It’d be like Canadians crossing the border into America and trying to tell Americans they have to drum someone out of the US.

In other words, it would have to be the choice of the US authorities to listen to the Canadians and act on their advice or not. And if they wanted to keep that person in the US, it’d be tough nails for the Canadians but they couldn’t do anything to force 'em.

So if Paul was drummed out, it was with the approval and co-operation of the Bereans, it stands to reason.
 
tweetymom said:
So was I.
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Another flippant rude answer.
He traveled with Jesus while Jesus walked this earth. You did not. The point to this thread is to provide and instance in the bible that indicates someone who has come to the knowledge of the truth without guidance/teaching but by just reading scripture alone? Philip came through knowledge of the truth through the guidance/teaching of Jesus by being with Jesus. Not just reading Scripture. He was able to instruct the Ethiopian who could read but not understand the Scriptures.
 
LilyM said:
Since when did Jews living in one Greek town (Thessalonica) have any authority in another town (Berea) to drum anyone out?

Towns were independent states, each with their own separate government. It’d be like Canadians crossing the border into America and trying to tell Americans they have to drum someone out of the US.

In other words, it would have to be the choice of the US authorities to listen to the Canadians and act on their advice or not. And if they wanted to keep that person in the US, it’d be tough nails for the Canadians but they couldn’t do anything to force 'em.

So if Paul was drummed out, it was with the approval and co-operation of the Bereans, it stands to reason.
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I don’t know. If I read Acts, I get the different opinion.
10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas to Beroea during the night. Upon arrival they went to the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These Jews were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with all willingness and examined the scriptures daily to determine whether these things were so. 12 Many of them became believers, as did not a few of the influential Greek women and men. 13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God had now been proclaimed by Paul in Beroea also, they came there too to cause a commotion and stir up the crowds. 14 So the brothers at once sent Paul on his way to the seacoast,
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From these verses, I see:
  1. The Beroeans Jews were more fair minded than the Thessalonians and many of them became believers.
  2. The Thessalonians stirred up the crowds.
Now, if the crowds were stirred up and causing a commotion, there may be nothing the fair-minded Beroean Jews could do to stop it. Isn’t this similar to the Jews who couldn’t stop the silver-smiths of Artemis riots in Ephasus?
 
adrift said:
Another flippant rude answer.
He traveled with Jesus while Jesus walked this earth. You did not. The point to this thread is to provide and instance in the bible that indicates someone who has come to the knowledge of the truth without guidance/teaching but by just reading scripture alone? Philip came through knowledge of the truth through the guidance/teaching of Jesus by being with Jesus. Not just reading Scripture. He was able to instruct the Ethiopian who could read but not understand the Scriptures.
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Thank yoi for your nice answer. I have been led by the Holy Spirit. God Bless you as you believe in what you do!
 
NotWorthy said:
I don’t know. If I read Acts, I get the different opinion.

From these verses, I see:
  1. The Beroeans Jews were more fair minded than the Thessalonians and many of them became believers.
  2. The Thessalonians stirred up the crowds.
Now, if the crowds were stirred up and causing a commotion, there may be nothing the fair-minded Beroean Jews could do to stop it. Isn’t this similar to the Jews who couldn’t stop the silver-smiths of Artemis riots in Ephasus?
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Uh huh. Pilate was also much more fair minded than the Jews around him who were baying for Jesus’ blood. In fact pious tradition is that Pilate later converted to Christianity like your Bereans. At the least we see that he believed in Jesus’ innocence.

The ‘fair minded’ Pilate did everything he could to placate the crowds and wasn’t responsible for their being stirred up. He had Jesus flogged first, hoping to placate them that way, and offered them Barabbas instead. Pilate also, for fear of rebellion, couldn’t get away with anything short of crucifixion.

So by your logic Pilate didn’t co-operate in Jesus’ death and bears no responsibility for it. And yet … he gave the order, of his own free will. And so every week in the Creed we say ‘He was crucified under Pontius Pilate’. We put the blame where it fairly and squarely lies, with Pilate among others. 🤷
 
tweetymom said:
Thank yoi for your nice answer. I have been led by the Holy Spirit. God Bless you as you believe in what you do!
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Yes were are all children of God and should respect each other’s answers even if they go against the true church of christ, The Catholic Church. Instead of fighting we should pray to unite all of us to be one Holy catholic and apostolic Church.
 
LilyM said:
Uh huh. Pilate was also much more fair minded than the Jews around him who were baying for Jesus’ blood. In fact pious tradition is that Pilate later converted to Christianity like your Bereans. At the least we see that he believed in Jesus’ innocence.

The ‘fair minded’ Pilate did everything he could to placate the crowds and wasn’t responsible for their being stirred up. He had Jesus flogged first, hoping to placate them that way, and offered them Barabbas instead. Pilate also, for fear of rebellion, couldn’t get away with anything short of crucifixion.

So by your logic Pilate didn’t co-operate in Jesus’ death and bears no responsibility for it. And yet … he gave the order, of his own free will. And so every week in the Creed we say ‘He was crucified under Pontius Pilate’. We put the blame where it fairly and squarely lies, with Pilate among others. 🤷
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We’re chasing a rabbit down a hole, but…

As you say, Scripture says that Pilot ordered Jesus’ execution. But Scripture DOES NOT say that the Boroean Jewish believers caused a commotion and riot. No, it says that the Jews (translate - Non Christian enemies of Paul) from Thessalonica stirred it up. And, Pilate had the authority to stop Jesus’ death. The Boroean Christians did not.
 
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