Continued…
I also came to realize that the supposed new and improved one legged stool, fell to the ground and shattered into many pieces. Individual interpretation of Holy Scripture immediately resulted in squabbles and splits, which eventually gave way to the titanic fracture we see today in Protestantism. Martin Luther separated from the Catholic Church in 1521 and immediately there were squabbles between him, Zwingli, his fellow reformer from Switzerland, and Thomas Munzer. In that same year, Munzer broke away and formed the Anabaptists. John Calvin separated in 1536 and formed Calvinism. John Knox parted company and formed the Presbyterian’s in 1560. John Smith started the Baptist church, and John and Charles Wesley started Methodism in 1739… By 1600 there were over 200 splits. By 1900, there were over a thousand. Now there are thousands of splits in the Body of Christ. The splits are continuing to this very day with an estimated “3-5” new splits every week. Furthermore, all of the major Protestant churches are splitting within themselves. All of this fanaticism was caused by the man-made doctrines of Sola Scriptura and individual interpretation of Holy Scripture, both of which were started by the reformers, in my humble opinion, and absolutely, sin played a big role in it. Martin Luther lamented when he saw the damage that individual interpretation of Scripture had done to his Protestant movement. The one legged stool of Protestantism was in a state of disarray almost intermediately. It has now shattered into thousands of pieces, and there is no one in the Protestant world who has the authority to put the pieces together again for the simple fact that the bible is their only authority, but, no doubt, Jesus has the power to keep the whole thing together. Eventually, I came to realize that a stool needs three legs to stand firm. It cannot stand on one for long. As soon as the winds of change rise, another church pops up, adding just another split to Jesus’ Mystical Body, no doubt causing Jesus to shed tears. The Bible clearly says to keep the traditions of GOD and the Apostles, and to condemn the keeping of man-made traditions, as shown above. I always thought it was strange that Protestantism condemns the keeping and preservation of all traditions by the Catholic Church, while at the same time, turning to and following two man-made traditions of their own making.
Jon, I agree with you regarding sin, and that sin is the cause of all the division. After all, Satan, (who is the father of lies and a sinner from the very beginning) - has a plan and that is to divide Jesus’ Mystical Body and ultimately conquer Jesus, but we all know how this battle will end, thank God! The question is not who (for we already have that answer) - but what is the root cause of all of this chaos? Surely it was the implementation of the false doctrine of Sola Scriptura, and with it, the private interpretation of Holy Scripture, again, forbidden in 2Pet 1:20 and 2Pet 3:16. Since the inception of this new man-made doctrine, all Christians regardless of denomination, can freely interpret the “Constitution of GOD’s Law”, the Holy Bible, as they see fit, bringing upon themselves splits, disunity, infighting, and chaos. In my opinion, it would be a very strange thing if GOD had given us an inerrant and authoritative book, but failed to give us an authoritative, infallible interpreter for it? Not that I am giving any of the fallible, sinful and errant CC leaders sole credit for this miracle; we have the holy Spirit Who is guiding Jesus’ established church in perpetuity, to thank for that!
How God does this without affecting the free will of these sinful, fallible people, I will never know!
Martin Luther played a pivotal role in my conversion when he said things like:
*“We are compelled to concede to the Papists that they have the Word of GOD, that we received it from them, and that without them we should have no knowledge of it at all.” *
I am pretty sure that you agree with ML’s statement, but I have yet to run into a protestant who would agree with ML. Nowhere in Scripture is it written that Scripture itself is the Christians sole authority, nor does it say it is “self Sufficient,” as so many non-Catholics insist, including my former Pastor and my sisters pastor. Martin Luther looked around and lamented when he saw the damage that Sola Scriptura and private interpretation of Holy Scripture was doing to his reformation, and made the following remarks. By this time, Zwingli, had run in this direction, Munzer in that direction, Calvin in yet another direction etc., all of them scattering the sheep and taking their flock with them:
*“Noblemen, townsmen, peasants, all classes understand the Evangelium better than I or St. Paul; they are now wise and think themselves more learned than all the ministers.” Walch XIV, 1360. quoted in O’Hare, Ibid, 209.
“We concede – as we must – that so much of what they [the Catholic Church] say is true: that the papacy has God’s word and the office of the apostles, and that we have received Holy Scriptures, Baptism, the Sacrament, and the pulpit from them. What would we know of these if it were not for them?” Sermon on the gospel of St. John, chaps. 14 - 16 (1537), in vol. 24 of LUTHER’S WORKS, St. Louis, Mo.: Concordia, 1961, 304.
*
Most non-Catholic churches declare that the Holy Spirit is teaching them the truth, and who am I to suggest otherwise? However, there can be only one truth regarding any one doctrine - right? Since the advent of Sola Scriptura and individual interpretation of Scripture, everyone claimed/claims to be guided by the HS, How can the Holy Spirit be in each of the hundreds of churches, teaching all of them opposing viewpoints? Why would He do it?
