When a Catholic makes the personal application to read the Scriptures

[SIA]

I have known many Catholics who have at one point or another made the decision to truly apply themselves to reading the Holy Scriptures. In a few of them, it caused them to question their faith and to actively pursue answers from their parish priest or other clergy. In most of them, they ended up leaving the Catholic church. If the inspired Word of God when studied and meditated upon ultimately casues one to leave the church that they are attending, who is anyone to tell them that they are wrong for doing so. Jesus tells us that the truth will set us free.

 

[LilyM]

I have known many Catholics who have at one point or another made the decision to truly apply themselves to reading the Holy Scriptures. In a few of them, it caused them to question their faith and to actively pursue answers from their parish priest or other clergy. In most of them, they ended up leaving the Catholic church. If the inspired Word of God when studied and meditated upon ultimately casues one to leave the church that they are attending, who is anyone to tell them that they are wrong for doing so. Jesus tells us that the truth will set us free.

And which book did the Devil quote from when he was trying to tempt Jesus to sin again? Wasn’t ‘Where’s Waldo’, that’ for sure Doesn’t scripture describe ITSELF as a ‘two edged sword’ (ie can be an instrument of destruction for the wicked and ignorant), and also as a book containing ‘passages difficult to understand’ that people can ‘twist to their own destruction’?

Look, people regularly read the Koran or the Hindu Gitas or Buddhist writings - or ‘the God Delusion’ by Richard Dawkins for that matter - and as a result leave Protestant Christianity too - the mere fact they do so isn’t evidence that their behaviour or beliefs are correct.

 

[ralphinal]

SIA,

I make it a point to study scriptures for 20-30 minutes daily. At work, it is almost only the NT that I look at. When I do so at home or alone in Adoration at Church, it is generally the OT and usually an extra hour or so a week. This has made me MORE certain of my Catholic Faith, not less.

I do not disagree that Catholics would be well served to study the Bible. There is no doubt about that. However, many, many Catholics HAVE read the Bible and studied it, and they have not left. Do you not think that the pope has read and studied it in depth?

In the end, what you are saying is a subjective thing. Some people read it and they see one thing. Others may read it and see something else. You cannot say that in reading the Bible, Catholics will be lead out of the Church. Neither history nor experience makes that a universally true statement.

 

[SIA]

And which book did the Devil quote from when he was trying to tempt Jesus to sin again? Wasn’t ‘Where’s Waldo’, that’ for sure Doesn’t scripture describe ITSELF as a ‘two edged sword’ (ie can be an instrument of destruction for the wicked and ignorant), and also as a book containing ‘passages difficult to understand’ that people can ‘twist to their own destruction’?

Look, people regularly read the Koran or the Hindu Gitas or Buddhist writings - or ‘the God Delusion’ by Richard Dawkins for that matter - and as a result leave Protestant Christianity too - the mere fact they do so isn’t evidence that their behaviour or beliefs are correct.

Are you saying that it is impossible for these folks to have been given the discernement by the Holy Spirit to properly interpret those tough passages?

 

[cthulhubryan]

I have known many Catholics who have at one point or another made the decision to truly apply themselves to reading the Holy Scriptures. In a few of them, it caused them to question their faith and to actively pursue answers from their parish priest or other clergy. In most of them, they ended up leaving the Catholic church. If the inspired Word of God when studied and meditated upon ultimately casues one to leave the church that they are attending, who is anyone to tell them that they are wrong for doing so. Jesus tells us that the truth will set us free.

Fascinating. Very interesting supposition. However, as a devout and well educated Protestant I can tell you that it was through a very disciplined study of Sacred Scripture than led me home to Rome.

 

[LilyM]

Are you saying that it is impossible for these folks to have been given the discernement by the Holy Spirit to properly interpret those tough passages?

If they don’t defer to the proper authority - the only one which was GUARANTEED the unfailing guidance of Holy Spirit by Christ (ie the Catholic church, the one founded upon the Apostles and their successors) - in their ‘discernment’, then yes, it’s impossible.

The Ethiopian properly discerned and understood scripture BECAUSE he was guided by proper apostolic authority - the Apostle Phillip. He acknowledged that he wouldn’t properly understand them properly without seeking that (earthly) authority to guide him.

 

[Soutane]

I have known many Catholics who have at one point or another made the decision to truly apply themselves to reading the Holy Scriptures. In a few of them, it caused them to question their faith and to actively pursue answers from their parish priest or other clergy. In most of them, they ended up leaving the Catholic church. If the inspired Word of God when studied and meditated upon ultimately casues one to leave the church that they are attending, who is anyone to tell them that they are wrong for doing so. Jesus tells us that the truth will set us free.

I read Holy Scripture all the time and it has done nothing but reinforce my Catholicism.If you have unchatechised Catholics who are Catholic in name only and they read Holy Scripture in little pieces or segments without reading it in totality they may certainly fall prey to error and confusion.

They were obviously not paying attention at mass where 3 separate readings of scripture occur at each mass…In 3 years they will have heard the whole Bible.Go figure.

Reading Holy Scripture without an infallible interpreter(The Magisterium)Is just asking for trouble,or even worse having a very fallible non-Catholic with an obvious or perhaps not so obvious agenda interpret it for you.

 

[Ignatius]

I have known many Catholics who have at one point or another made the decision to truly apply themselves to reading the Holy Scriptures. In a few of them, it caused them to question their faith and to actively pursue answers from their parish priest or other clergy. In most of them, they ended up leaving the Catholic church.

Sorry, but this is BALOGNA with a capital B.
The Mass is about 80% straight out of the bible. Psalms, Proverbs, Canticles, Prophesies, Epistles and Gospels. Every single Catholic gets a heavy dose the the Holy Scriptures every week, proving your contention to be false. So, your contention is BALOGNA!

 

[dzheremi]

Are you saying that it is impossible for these folks to have been given the discernement by the Holy Spirit to properly interpret those tough passages?

In supposing that they have, can I ask you how you would know that it is the Holy Spirit providing the discernment? It seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy, doesn’t it? No Christian - Catholic or otherwise - would claim that the Holy Spirit would lead them to a wrong interpretation, so what about those folks who read the Bible and go the other way, from Protestantism or any other religious philosophy to Catholicism? This is why I am wary of ascribing ANY discernment to the Holy Spirit alone, not because the power to grant it does not exist, but because man’s own predispositions often tag along. “The Holy Spirit made me do it” sounds and awful lot like “the Devil made me do it”. Discernment still involves your own personal value judgments, and I’m sorry but I refuse to believe that the Holy Spirit forces certain people to Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, etc. You can reject divine guidance as well as accepting it.

In my personal experience in coming to the Church, prayers for discernment were usually answered not with definitive “road signs”, if you will (e.g., this church is wrong/right, so you need to do ____), but with an increase in the willpower and courage needed to stay when I really wanted to leave, to ask hard questions when it would have been easier or more advantageous to stay silent, to let go of presumptions inherited from my religious background, etc. It certainly wasn’t like Paul en route to Damascus, seized by a message directly from the Almighty. I guess that’s why I’m always surprised by Protestant claims that the Holy Spirit told them to flee the Church. You’d think if the message in Sacred Tradition and Holy Scripture were so consistently and loudly anti-Catholic, we wouldn’t still be here, but…well, here we are. Staying put, thanks.

 

[Soutane]

Sorry, but this is BALOGNA with a capital B.
The Mass is about 80% straight out of the bible. Psalms, Proverbs, Canticles, Prophesies, Epistles and Gospels. Every single Catholic gets a heavy dose the the Holy Scriptures every week, proving your contention to be false. So, your contention is BALOGNA!

I tried to give a reasoned response as above,but believe me Bubba that’s what I was thinking.I think his arguement is of the “so when did you stop beating your wife” variety or is it a strawman arguement?Whatever it is it’s BOGUS and Sia knows it but much more importantly WE know it.

Hey lurkers don’t be taken in by this non-arguement and baldfaced assertion.

 

[ralphinal]

Guys,
Notice that SIA did not say that this would be true for everyone. His assertion is that it is true for most Catholics that he knows, and he is saying that it would be true for more.

 

[wisdomseeker]

I have known many Catholics who have at one point or another made the decision to truly apply themselves to reading the Holy Scriptures. In a few of them, it caused them to question their faith and to actively pursue answers from their parish priest or other clergy. In most of them, they ended up leaving the Catholic church. If the inspired Word of God when studied and meditated upon ultimately casues one to leave the church that they are attending, who is anyone to tell them that they are wrong for doing so. Jesus tells us that the truth will set us free.

free from what? from Jesus Church?

i know you put a lot of emphasize in reading the Bible. but that is because you dont have the True Church. you dont trust your churches because you know they are false. they dont teach the Truth.
for us Catholics we dont have to worry about that. we believe what Jesus said. " I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." do you see the Church was taught by the Master Himself and His Apostles. so She cannot err. the Church wrote the NT therefore She knows exactly what the Book teaches. She put them together. dont forget that. the Church was before the Bible. your beliefs came years after the Bible came to be.

you are like the prodigal son. remember the story? he taught if he could just have his money he would no longer need his father. well we know what happened after. so as with you. you think because you got a hold of Book, you think you dont need the Church.

as for you, you must continue to read and read and read…read on…you might have the Book but you will never have the understanding to which was given only to the Church built by Christ.

"And I say to you, you are Peter, and UPON THIS ROCK I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH."
Matthew 16:18

 

[Roman_Catholic_1]

I have known many Catholics who have at one point or another made the decision to truly apply themselves to reading the Holy Scriptures. In a few of them, it caused them to question their faith and to actively pursue answers from their parish priest or other clergy. In most of them, they ended up leaving the Catholic church. If the inspired Word of God when studied and meditated upon ultimately casues one to leave the church that they are attending, who is anyone to tell them that they are wrong for doing so. Jesus tells us that the truth will set us free.

I will repeat what I have always said, my daily Scripture reading strengthens my faith.

God bless

 

[puzzleannie]

I have also known literally hundreds of Catholics who have applied themselves to serious bible study and have grown much closer to Christ and his Church, so I guess I am not understanding the question. If someone is predisposed to doubt and dissent, no doubt they will find what they are looking for in the bible if that is a reason to leave the Church.

 

[jmcrae]

I have known many Catholics who have at one point or another made the decision to truly apply themselves to reading the Holy Scriptures. In a few of them, it caused them to question their faith and to actively pursue answers from their parish priest or other clergy. In most of them, they ended up leaving the Catholic church. If the inspired Word of God when studied and meditated upon ultimately casues one to leave the church that they are attending, who is anyone to tell them that they are wrong for doing so. Jesus tells us that the truth will set us free.

The best Bible classes I have ever attended are the ones put on by the Catholic Church.

Right now in our Bible class at my parish, we are studying the life of St. Paul.

 

[Ilroy]

Are you saying that it is impossible for these folks to have been given the discernement by the Holy Spirit to properly interpret those tough passages?

Christ NEVER promised that the Holy Spirit would guide individuals through private interprtation. He did, however, promise that the Holy Spirit would guide His Church to ALL truth etc., etc., etc.

 

[SIA]

.

Reading Holy Scripture without an infallible interpreter(The Magisterium)Is just asking for trouble,or even worse having a very fallible non-Catholic with an obvious or perhaps not so obvious agenda interpret it for you.

Where do you get the notion that only the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic church can properly interpret Scripture?

 

[SIA]

Christ NEVER promised that the Holy Spirit would guide individuals through private interprtation. He did, however, promise that the Holy Spirit would guide His Church to ALL truth etc., etc., etc.

That’s right. And who is his Church?

 

[SIA]

The best Bible classes I have ever attended are the ones put on by the Catholic Church.

Right now in our Bible class at my parish, we are studying the life of St. Paul.

Keep studying St. Paul, you may have a revelation.

 

[Apryl]

I have known many Catholics who have at one point or another made the decision to truly apply themselves to reading the Holy Scriptures. In a few of them, it caused them to question their faith and to actively pursue answers from their parish priest or other clergy. In most of them, they ended up leaving the Catholic church.

You really know of Catholics who left the church upon reading scripture?

I do know of a few folx who left the church (mostly, it’s all one family. The parents were devout Catholics, and the children have all left the church).

I find it very hard to believe that any one would truly open up the Word, and esp if they ask a priests, wind up outside of the church.

I guess it can happen, but let’s be real: the Scripture points TO the Catholic church!

Now, if you have some one that doesn’t like the church, and wants to find fault with the church, that, too, can be found in the Bible… but it takes some work, and it also takes some not knowing the answers to the questions raised.

But no, I don’t think it’s wrong to read the Bible. I have never been told it was wrong to read the Bible, or to look for answers.

For me, every time I tried to doubt the church, the Bible pointed me right back to the center of it!