Who has the Spirit?

[hlgomez]

Here’s a short story of two Protestant pastors belonging to the same denomination.

Pastor A: I read the Bible last night and the holy Spirit has spoken to me that divorce is ok. He leads me to this verse in the Bible (the pastor showed it to Pastor B).

Pastor B: That’s not what the holy Spirit says when I was meditating this morning. Look at this verse in the Bible (Pastor B showed Pastor A the verse in the Bible).

Pastor A: I’m sure the holy Spirit said that. I could hear his voice clearly speaking into my heart. I know that it’s true!

Pastor B: I also have the holy Spirit, I know that he is speaking to me the truth in my heart!

And on and on the story goes. In the end they didn’t agree. Pastor A ends up establishing another “Church” because he believes that the Spirit is with him, while Pastor B is adamant of his position and also believes that he has the Spirit with him. BTW, they both have the same Bible and both are Bible alone believers—no-no to Church authority to interpret Scriptures since they can interpret it by themselves.

The question is: Who was guided by the holy Spirit?

 

[Apologia100]

Answer, neither of them. They were guided by their own intellect and emotional bent. Both of which are VERY unreliable guides to the Truth.

 

[Shibboleth]

Something cannot be “A” and “not A” the people should have understood this and meditated together on the issue.

People as sinners are imperfect conductors of the Holy Spirit. That means that you can read the Bible with the Holy Spirit guiding you and still misunderstand things and get things wrong. All people are fallible, the Holy Spirit and the Bible might convey an inerrant message but the fallibility of the man still may lead them in the wrong direction.

The hardness of man’s hart is what allowed people to have the Laws of Moses on divorce. Did the hardness of the one readers hart also lead him to believe that divorce was also allowable?

I do not believe that everyone can interpret the Bible infallibly, I think that no one person can interpret the Bible infallibly.

 

[hlgomez]

My point is: protestants claim that the Bible is the sole authority, not the Church. So when it comes to interpretation, they will say ask the holy Spirit to interpret it for you. Really??? How can one be sure that the holy Spirit has interpreted it for him? In what way?

I remember a true story where a caller asks in one of the Protestant- run radio stations on who interprets scripture for one who doesn’t understand the Bible. The man said ( I don’t know if he was a pastor) to ask the holy Spirit to interpret it for him. The guy was puzzled because he was trying to know who is the right person authorized to interpret Scriptures. The guy keeps telling him to ask the holy Spirit. I wonder if that person looking for an answer has found the real answer-- that the Catholic Church is the one who can interpret Scriptures without errror.

Pio

 

[hlgomez]

I want to correct “it’s the Catholic Church, thru the Magisterium and the Pope, guided by the holy Spirit… who has the authority to interpret scriptures…”

 

[Writer]

hlgomez:

My point is: protestants claim that the Bible is the sole authority, not the Church. So when it comes to interpretation, they will say ask the holy Spirit to interpret it for you. Really??? How can one be sure that the holy Spirit has interpreted it for him? In what way?

I remember a true story where a caller asks in one of the Protestant- run radio stations on who interprets scripture for one who doesn’t understand the Bible. The man said ( I don’t know if he was a pastor) to ask the holy Spirit to interpret it for him. The guy was puzzled because he was trying to know who is the right person authorized to interpret Scriptures. The guy keeps telling him to ask the holy Spirit. I wonder if that person looking for an answer has found the real answer-- that the Catholic Church is the one who can interpret Scriptures without errror.

Pio

This is what happened last year in the Episcopal Church. The ordination of Bishop Robinson (an active homosexual) went against the Bible and the church’s own earlier pronouncements. The Episcopal leadership tried to weasel out of the issue by declaring that the Holy Spirit led them to this decision. I don’t know about you, but saying that the Holy Spirit would contradict Scripture seems to amount to blasphemy and an apparent belief in polytheism. As I wrote in a letter to the editor of CT, there may indeed have been a spirit at work, but it was certainly not the Holy Spirit.

Most Christians believe in the fallen nature of man, but Protestants (a group I am in the process of leaving) can’t accept the idea of church authority. It really amounts to an intellectual dishonesty. That’s one reason of many why we’re on the way to the Catholic Church.

 

[hawkeye]

hlgomez:

Here’s a short story of two Protestant pastors belonging to the same denomination.

Pastor A: I read the Bible last night and the holy Spirit has spoken to me that divorce is ok. He leads me to this verse in the Bible (the pastor showed it to Pastor B).

Pastor B: That’s not what the holy Spirit says when I was meditating this morning. Look at this verse in the Bible (Pastor B showed Pastor A the verse in the Bible).

Pastor A: I’m sure the holy Spirit said that. I could hear his voice clearly speaking into my heart. I know that it’s true!

Pastor B: I also have the holy Spirit, I know that he is speaking to me the truth in my heart!

And on and on the story goes. In the end they didn’t agree. Pastor A ends up establishing another “Church” because he believes that the Spirit is with him, while Pastor B is adamant of his position and also believes that he has the Spirit with him. BTW, they both have the same Bible and both are Bible alone believers—no-no to Church authority to interpret Scriptures since they can interpret it by themselves.

The question is: Who was guided by the holy Spirit?

None of them, Jesus condems Divorce.