rcwitness;11973525]
good word
Something I have trouble coming to terms with, is why (from their own point of view) do Protestants accept or reject any of the books/epistles which the Church canonized?
Thanks rcwitness; Authority and Liturgy is the simple answer. When Protestantism tries to remove the canon outside of it’s original place The Liturgy. When the reformers separated the bible from the Liturgy, they placed the bible outside of it’s original Apostolic form. When they made their clarion call “Sola Scriptura”. It is from this man made doctrine which introduced chaos among the denominations of Protestantism and biblical self interpretations apart from the Apostolic Sacred Traditions and practices including Jesus teachings about the authority of the Apostolic Church.
We can go into their reasons to justify their theological changes from the Apostolic sacred Traditions and biblical practices. They begin justifiable, but their actions and conclusions become political and secular with religion attached to them.
Isn’t it true that Pope Damasus commissioned the ‘collecting’ or ‘bringing together’ the writings in order to recognize which books had ‘universal’ authority and divine inspiration?
Wow, I want to answer that in the positive. Pope Damasus does not do this upon his own. The Pope can only hand down what was handed down to him from Peter and the apostles. We can’t isolate each Pope on his own, when it comes to the Apostolic Sacred Traditions and biblical revelations of Jesus who reveals them to Peter and the Apostles.
Was Pope Damasus instrumental in bringing about the canonized books, yes. But it is the Popes presiding in Peter’s Chair which binds and looses them on earth, when Jesus binds and looses them in heaven. When Peter speaks, all fell silent, that’s biblical.
Then, after the Church under the authority of the pope’s comission and final say (not that he alone contributed to the task) had fullfilled this task of forming the ‘Bible’, Protestantism takes that Bible and uses it to teach against a unified Communion under the office which God used to form that Bible
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Peter and all his apostolic brethren canonized the bible. This only means that the Pope and the Apostolic successors used a measuring standard to authenticate and prove the bible books were God breathed or Inspired. Remember it was the Roman Emperor Constantine who financed the Church to council in order to settle the disputed books in liturgy, after the persecution laws were finally lifted throughout the Empire. The Apostolic Successors were able to move about freely and celebrate Mass in public.
Protestantism Isolated the bible from it’s Apostolic Liturgical setting, and self proclaimed the bible to have it’s own authority to preach and teach outside of the Apostolic teaching office of the Church and Liturgy. This is a huge irony of events, as you stated that pits the bible against it’s own teaching office the Catholic Church who canonized the bible books.
This is in no way a slight against Protestant devotion and genuine faith in Scripture, but a struggle to understand how Protestantism can come to the doctrines which contradict the authority that produced their ‘sole authority’ :shrug
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The false notion of protestant freedom poisoned the religious atmosphere with freedoms being experienced from social, secular, politics and geography (new worlds). This poison tried to infect change into the Church were Christ Himself established as Rock which is not subject to Change.
When the America’s were discovered , Protestant freedom was abused on every level. That one Pope proclaimed to the Church, “Beware of that poison, which they are calling freedom in the America’s”.
In regards to the OP, as I questioned from an earlier post, when did Protestantism gain the authority and power to reject or rename an Inspired book of God? The abuse of freedom to add to God’s word, (alone), remove from God’s Word, separate God’s Word from His divine Liturgy, and thrive on a false notion of emotional self freedom enlightenments instead of God’s presence who is the Light.
For the life of me, I don’t see how educated and religious most Protestants are, cannot distinguish the difference from What belongs to God does not subject itself to change and what belongs to Caesar is always changing.
False freedom say’s; Oh yes I can change what God has ordained, because I am a child of God and God loves me, and I don’t need any pope or bishop teaching me what Jesus said and taught, when I got part of a bible that I can read for myself what God say’s.
I’m left shaking my head today when I learn of a protestant who are looking to convert again, into an Orthodox Church to find the True Church, when they have it right in front of them, from which they left. The grass is not greener on the other side of the imaginary line of schism, for we are all part of the same mystical body of Jesus Christ the Catholic Church.
Peace be with you
