R
robgrassley
Guest
Now that you have gone past the sola scriptura code by drawing off other texts to prove some obscure point, I’ll take this opportunity to bring some others sources to the table as well. We can not accept the bible alone and not look at every available piece of written literature which supports or denies biblicle teaching. The Early Church Fathers were instructed by the Apostles. Paul and John both make it quite clear that everything wouldn’t be written down. Well in this case it was written down and your denying what was written by trying to stick a round Catholic peg into a square Protestant whole. Here are some very early writting in which they make it abondantly clear what the implications of the Matt. scripture at hand means. We can’t put our fingers in our ears and say “the bible alone” if there is clear evidence outside the bible which gives us an understanding of what exactly the apostles were teaching the first Christians. They didn’t write an infallible book and teach infallibly. Look at the byproduct of they’re teaching:
Pope Clement I (WHO WAS TAUGHT BY ST. PETER, THE APOSTLE ST. PETER!!!)
"Owing to the sudden and repeated calamities and misfortunes which have befallen us, we must acknowledge that we have been somewhat tardy in turning our attention to the matters in dispute among you, beloved; and especially that abominable and unholy sedition, alien and foreign to the elect of God, which a few rash and self-willed persons have inflamed to such madness that your venerable and illustrious name, worthy to be loved by all men, has been greatly defamed. . . . Accept our counsel and you will have nothing to regret. . . . If anyone disobey the things which have been said by him [God] through us *, let them know that they will involve themselves in transgression and in no small danger. . . [A.D. 80]).
Hermas
“Therefore shall you [Hermas] write two little books and send one to Clement [Bishop of Rome] and one to Grapte. Clement shall then send it to the cities abroad, because that is his duty” (The Shepherd 2:4:3 [A.D. 80]).
Ignatius of Antioch (IGNATIUS WAS TAUGHT BY JOHN *THE APOSTLE JOHN!!!)
“Ignatius . . . to the church also which holds the presidency, in the location of the country of the Romans, worthy of God, worthy of honor, worthy of blessing, worthy of praise, worthy of success, worthy of sanctification, and, because you hold the presidency in love, named after Christ and named after the Father” (Letter to the Romans 1:1 [A.D. 110]).
“You [the church at Rome] have envied no one, but others you have taught. I desire only that what you have enjoined in your instructions may remain in force” (ibid., 3:1).
Dionysius of Corinth
“For from the beginning it has been your custom to do good to all the brethren in various ways and to send contributions to all the churches in every city. . . . This custom your blessed Bishop Soter has not only preserved, but is augmenting, by furnishing an abundance of supplies to the saints and by urging with consoling words, as a loving father his children, the brethren who are journeying” (Letter to Pope Soter in Eusebius, Church History 4:23:9 [A.D. 170]).
"Today we have observed the Lord’s holy day, in which we have read your letter [Pope Soter]. Whenever we do read it [in church], we shall be able to profit thereby, as also we do when we read the earlier letter written to us by Clement*
