This will be my last post on this thread -it’s been great conversing with you all. May God show you the right path as you work to not only follow Him, but to really get to know Him personally, as your personal saviour. God bless you.
When you post to a Catholic forum, you are going to get a defense of Catholic doctrine and practice. If you want someone to agree with your defense of Sola Scriptura, then you will have to visit a protestant forum. Statements like “rituals and made-up dogmas” will not fly on a Catholic forum. If you are sincerely seeking enlightenment, fine. Attacks on the Church and it’s practices and beliefs will only serve to perpetuate this "Catholic/Protestant argument. Logic and history are not on the side of Protestantism. Only the Catholic Church possesses the fullness of Christian truth.
To be honest with you, I’m not looking for affirmation. What Catholics believe is up to them, but they shouldn’t kid themselves. If the Scripture can’t stand alone, it is worthless. If it needs tradition to be complete, it violates what it says about itself. I don’t “attack” just because I disagree. I think there is a sad truth that, when a person feels they have lost ground in a discussion, the natural defense is to become a “victim” - thus the “Catholic bashing” bandwagon.
As for logic - it most definately is on the side of Protestantism. This is one of the great differences between Catholics and Protestants - when running up against logical problems, Catholics will inevitably claim that key tenets of their faith are “mysteries”.
“en arche en ho logos, kai ho logos en pros ton theon, kai theos en ho logos.”
In the beginning was the “word”, not “tradition”. The logos is logic. God doesn’t expect us to follow Him by turning around everytime something gets difficult - and calling it a “mystery”.
For centuries, Catholics discouraged the reading of scripture because of the obvious incongruities with Catholic teaching. The Magisterium has had hundreds of years to come up with answers to these Biblical problems, but that’s all they have done - come up with answers - but not necessarily the right ones. Many of those answers are in confllict with Scripture, but are believed by millions anyway.
I leave you with these points that I hope will come to mind when you continue your studies:
“Come now, let us reason together,”
says the LORD. Isaiah 1:18
(there is no room for “mystery” when reasoning out, and working out your salvation)
One more thing - when Paul was addressing the Bereans, and he noticed they measured everything he was saying against the Scriptures, he commended them. He didn’t say “Uh, wait a minute, you should really consider what Peter had to say about this.” And he didn’t suggest that they should turn to their tradition for help. He also didn’t suggest that they merely continue in ritual and be comfortable there. He advocated the Scriptures as the ultimate source of truth - God breathed.
The fact is it takes work to not be a Catholic, to search the Scriptures, and to seek after God. I sometimes think that Catholics won’t see the truth, because they are too comfortable where they’re at. They take solice in their belief that history backs them up, and they believe that they have the “fullness of the faith”. It’s the same thing the Jews thought of themselves as they led Christ up the hill at Calvary.
One more point to ponder:
The Roman Catholic Church is the largest body of Christians on earth. More than one out of every six people on the planet is Roman Catholic. Don’t take comfort in this…
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” [NASB-U]
Few who find it.
