"Obey your superiors and be subject to them, for they keep watch as having to render an account of your souls; so that they may do this with joy, and not with grief, for that would not be expedient for you." (Hebrews 13:17)Martin Luther, the originator of the false man-made doctrine of Sola Scriptura and its accompanying individual interpretation of Holy Scripture, obviously avoided that verse, and many others as well. Sola Scriptura, or Bible only, means, "if it is not in the Bible, I will not believe it".
I have just shown that, even if it is in the Bible, some will not believe it if they choose not to.
I will show many more verses as examples of Scripture ignored by non-Catholics in this text.
Martin Luther was definitely disobedient to his superiors, the authority of the Catholic Church, of which he was a member. Show me from where Luther's self proclaimed authority came?
He was an Augustinian monk, and was not a Bishop. He had no authority at all. He blatantly ignored more verses from Scripture which plainly tell us wherein the final authority lies, and it did not lie with himself, but with his opposition, the Catholic Church.
"If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." (Matthew 18:15-17),Clearly, this is GOD given authority to His Church, from words spoken by Jesus Christ Himself.
These verses were clearly ignored by Martin Luther.
He also ignored the lessons taught to us in the Old Testament:
"Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman; and they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all men that were on the face of the earth. And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out. And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward. And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses; he is entrusted with all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in dark speech; and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed;..."(Numbers 12:1-9)
Here is another set of verses on the same theme, these again ignored by Luther:
It is rather lengthy for this post, but please read of the rebellion of Korah and his followers against the authority of Moses. Pay particular attention to the ending of those who refused to submit to the authority of GOD's Father Figure on earth. It isn't pretty. (Numbers 16:1-35)
Those who deliberately ignore the errors of those who have gone before us in recorded history are doomed to repeat them again.
Dispensation of authority by GOD over His flock is the same today as it was then. GOD is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Apparently Luther did not know this or he ignored the fact.
He had no GOD given authority whatsoever, so he claimed he was his own authority so to speak. Luther had written many pamphlets and had them printed and distributed all over Europe.
In his pamphlet titled "The Papacy at Rome", of 1520, he claimed his own authority by 'twisting' Holy Scripture in a futile attempt to justify himself. Here are some excerpts from that pamphlet:
"It is to this church, to the believers, that Jesus gave the keys."
Sorry Luther, but you were wrong:
The only place where Jesus gave the keys to anyone is in Matthew 16:19 and He gave them to Peter and to him alone. The Greek word used in this verse for 'you' is singular, second person.
"The keys belong to the whole church and to each of its members."
Sorry Luther, but you were wrong again:
See the note regarding the previous remark made by Luther. The keys are the singular teaching authority of the Church, and if everyone had a set as Luther had claimed here, then each and every person automatically became his or her own pope. Isn't that exactly what happened in Protestantism with each person interpreting Scripture for himself?
By making this statement, each and every member of his movement thought they had a set of keys and thus became his or her own infallible discerner of Holy Scripture. "What feels good for me must be the truth", is what his statement means. A central authority or "Supreme Court", a final discernment of Holy Scripture in Protestantism was non-existent from the very beginning. This is a clear violation of yet more verses of Scripture.
"First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." (2Peter 1:20-21)
See? Luther was really saying to the world that he and his followers will reject the teaching of GOD and accept instead the teaching of man, namely his. Now that places him in violation of yet more verses,
But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men". (Acts 5:29)
"If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of GOD is greater...". (1John 5:9)
The pamphlet, "The Papacy at Rome", was written early in the game, 1520, and it is obvious that Luther was trying to convey to his followers that he had some sort of authority in order to justify his movement to separate from the Catholic Church. However, he obviously failed to do so, and thus quickly moved on to the next and much more destructive stages.
Even at the time it all began in 1520, the Catholic Church was the longest lived institution on earth, having been in existence for almost 1500 years. The Church rested upon a sturdy three legged support with one leg being Holy Scripture, a second holy Apostolic tradition, and the third the Pope and Magisterium, the teaching authority.
By his own actions in his separation from the one legitimate Church founded by Jesus Christ, Luther lost the one leg of authority, as he could not claim the Papacy and the Magisterium for himself. Secondly, since he formed his own church, he could not claim Catholic Apostolic tradition. Since he could not claim Apostolic tradition either, he lumped it in with man made tradition and thereby condemned all tradition. In doing so he violated still another verse of Holy Scripture,
"So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter." (2Thessalonians 2:15)
Once again, the teaching of GOD in Holy Scripture is superseded by the teaching of man.
17 comments:
The Protestant bible lacks seven books and a little more than the Catholic Bible has: Tobit, Baruch, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach (also known as Ecclesiasticus), First and Second Maccabees, seven chapters of the book of Esther, and over fifty verses in the third chapter of Daniel.
These books and parts of books are commonly known to Catholics as the Deuterocanonicals, and to the Protestants as Apocrypha (false scriptures).
These books were taken out of the Protestant bible by Martin Luther and other Protestant reformers. They included ideas which the reformers did not like, so were presumptuously rejected and removed. For example, Luther did not like Maccabees, which included passages which said that it was wholesome to pray for the dead, so the book was done away with.
These people took out these books; books that had been in the Bible for over one thousand years and were declared and reaffirmed to have been inspired in five different councils.
Among the snags that Sola Scriptura hits that this paper has discussed are: Sola Sciptura presupposes universal literacy and universal access to a Bible; the Bible alone is our sole rule of faith, when Jesus himself gave teaching authority to the apostles to pass down teachings on faith and morals and when the Church clearly existed before the Bible.
The absence of the printing press alone made this belief unimaginable for people in over three-fourths of Christian history! It is not the Bible but the Church which is the pillar of truth, as stated in 1 Timothy 3:15: "...if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth."
Truth, what is it?
The definition of 'truth' is 'opposite of error'. Truth means it is conformable to fact. It is correct.
Truth in action, is when the human conscience agrees with the intellect. Truth is 'ONE'. There can be only one truth, (John 17:17-23).
JOHN 17:17-23:
17 Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.
18 As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.
19 And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.
20 "I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
21 so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.
22 And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one,
23 I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.
Any variation in the one truth is not truth at all, but error.
So how do you test for the truth? I have already given you the answer in the first paragraph. You have to look for error, and you have to see if the truth is conformable to fact. Here are some guidelines. Consult your conscience as you follow these pointers...
1. Have you felt uncomfortable (conscience speaking) with some Bible verses that do not seem to conform to the teaching of your Church? All of Scripture is harmonious and it all should fit together like a giant picture puzzle.
2. When you do question some teaching, do you get definitive answers every time?
3. Do you get meaningless or nebulous answers that don't make sense?
4. Are you absolutely sure that you are in the Church that Jesus Christ founded? He only founded 'A' Church in Mathew 16:18. That verse does not say 'Churches'. I am reminded of 1 Cornthians 10:12, "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall."
5. There are over 33,800 different Christian sects in the world today. How can you be sure you have chosen the right one?
6. Remember, 'TRUTH IS ONE', so how can there possibly be 33,800 different Christian Churches, all teaching that ONE TRUTH?
7. If all those Churches taught the same truth, then there would not be 33,800, but only one. What does an examination of conscience say now?
8. That means there have to be 33,799 Churches teaching error. If that is the case, then there are 33,799 Churches on the 'wide path' and only one on the 'narrow'. I don't like those gambling odds of 1 in 33,800. Does that bother your conscience?
9. Most all Churches claim to be the Church of truth. Who do you believe? Which one is right? Which Church does the Bible say is the Church of truth?
10. The Church of truth is spelled out in the Bible. It is the only Church that was given the authority, the one in whom the Holy Spirit dwells forever, John 14:15-17.
11. "But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest, for they have been performed in GOD", John 3:21. This verse says it all.
12. If you haven't found truth then you haven't found GOD.
Some Christians claim, "The Bible is all I need," but this notion is not taught in the Bible itself. In fact, the Bible teaches the contrary idea (2 Peter 1:20–21, 3:15–16). The "Bible alone" theory was not believed by anyone in the early Church.
It is new, having arisen only in the 1500s during the Protestant Reformation. The theory is a "tradition of men" that nullifies the Word of God, distorts the true role of the Bible, and undermines the authority of the Church Jesus established (Mark 7:1–8).
Although popular with many "Bible Christian" churches, the "Bible alone" theory simply does not work in practice. Historical experience disproves it. Each year we see additional splintering among "Bible-believing" religions.
Today there are tens of thousands of competing denominations, each insisting its interpretation of the Bible is the correct one. The resulting divisions have caused untold confusion among millions of sincere but misled Christians.
The Sufficiency of Scripture and Catholic Tradition
The majority of non-Catholic Christians who view the Bible as the sole authority on matters of faith and morals also believe in the sufficiency of scripture to bring the individual Christian to salvation.
The doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture states that an individual Christian, by opening the Bible and reading the words on the pages, will have enough information to be able to figure out how to make it into heaven.
The sufficiency of scripture presupposes it's completeness and therein lies a major difference between Catholics and non-Catholics; the former insist that not everything Christian is explicit in scripture and the latter insists as a matter of dogma, that everything Christian must necessarily be.
There are also many other things which Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not thin the whole world would contain the books that would be written. (John 21:15)
In the closing sentence of the Gospels, St. John tells us that only a very small portion of what Jesus did was actually written down.
He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during fourty day and speaking about the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)
St. Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles, that during a forty day period between the Resurrection and the ascension, Jesus appeared to the apostles and taught them about the kingdom of God. What exactly Jesus said about the kingdom of God though, is not stated - at least not explicitly.
From these two passages, we see that the Bible clearly states, beyond a shadow of a doubt in fact, that it does not contain everything Jesus did nor everything he said. Therine lies another glaring difference between Catholics and Non-Catholic Christians; the former believe that as Jesus is God, everything he did and said while among us as a human being, whether written in the Bible or not, is important.
The latter however, must necessarily believe that only the small portion of the things which Jesus did and said, that which has been recorded in the Bible, is important.
Catholic apologist Mark Shea:
Material sufficiencymeans that all the bricks necessary to build doctrine is there in Scripture.
However, it also teaches that since the meaning of Scripture is not always clear and that sometimes a doctrine is implied rather than explicit, other things besides Scripture have been handed to us from the apostles: things like Sacred Tradition (which is the mortar that holds the bricks together in the right order and position) and the magisterium or teaching authority of the Church (which is the trowel in the hand of the Master Builder).
Taken together, these three things -- Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium -- are formally sufficient for knowing the revealed truth of God.
. . . those who hold to the formal sufficiency of Scripture warn darkly that setting Scripture in the context of Sacred Tradition will inevitably put Scripture under the Church.
The fear, in fact, is that to admit the revelatory nature of Sacred Tradition will necessarily subjugate Scripture to merely human agendas.
(in Not by Scripture Alone, edited by Robert A. Sungenis, Santa Barbara, CA: Queenship Pub. Co., 1997, chapter 4: "What is the Relationship Between Scripture and Tradition?," 169-210; quote from 181-182)
Michael,
a response to your post at Dr. Kent Brandenburg's What is Truth has been given. You can comment or I can let you know the next time the topic of universal vs local church comes up. Dr. Brandenburg also has a another site called jackhammer. Thank you for stopping by.
Michael, you've been quite willing to visit mine and other people's blogs and post irrelevant material in the comments section, so you won't mind if I do the same for you.
Please stop this practice. It is not Christlike, loving, nor persuasive. It's just annoying. And it's not going to earn you any points with God.
Any further comments posted by you that are irrelevant to the subject on my blog will be summarily deleted.
Dear Esther,
I felt some pain reading your DIATRIBE ; I imagine you were RAGING over your fear, pain & shame.
Your PROCESS is not about me, but unresolved 'stuff' from your childhood.
Was your father a CONTROL FREAK?
Michael, Your comments to Esther indicate as an example how we all struggle against the flesh-both Protestant and Catholic-if you are truly born again.
Are you sruggling against the flesh, Scooter?
Thank God for Martin Luther. He had the faith and the relationship to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. I always tell my Catholic friends, and I have many, that if God had wanted any other books, most of which are a total contradiction to everything God teaches in HIS WORD, there is no Martin Luther who could have stopped Him. What is in there is what God wanted in there and to add to it would be as detrimental as subtracting from it.
Thanks for sharing your passion. Blessings!
I was having a conversation with my 21 year old son last week about false teaching. He has been reading a book which contains false teaching and attending a Bible study which has plenty of error. I know all too well God uses all of this for sharpening us and training us to recognize the genuine vs the counterfeit with precision. His comment to me was that he is aware of it but wants to come to his own conclusions. My response to him was that truth already has its own conclusion because it is an absolute and our limited intellect/mind cannot even begin to tap into its fullness. I explained to him that we need to seek after the revelation of the Holy Spirit which He gives not to all but to those who are truly His children and even more to those who are listening (12 disciples and the rest were taught in parables). I explained to him that once the Holy Spirit reveals TRUTH to our spirit, there is NOTHING that can alter that. You know that you know no matter how much the mind attempts to get in the way. You want revelation not just knowledge. An apple is an apple no matter how much someone else tries to call it an orange. This is knowledge and it is pretty solid, can you imagine spiritual revelation. There is no turning back from that.
I pray that all of US receive greater revelation from the Holy Spirit, in Whom lies all the fullness of all that we can only imagine with our limited minds. This truth; however, is absolute and very much intolerant. It makes no exceptions and bows to no idols such as trends, traditions, religions or again, man's limited mind. I pray truth reigns right here on this page.
Blessings to you today, Michael.
Dear One Heart,
Thank you for your thoughtful & insightful comments.
God bless you
Michael Gormley
Dear Michael,
I clicked on that "Sola Scritura" and read it. Oh my gosh! I have been believing that for 9 years. I didn't even ask myself why I was assuming that. I want to learn more. I guess I'm going to have to find a Catholic church where I live. I just feel I am very limited to what my mind can absorb over the internet. I think it will have to be that way for a while though. Can you share any videos with me now? I would have to fast and pray that my husband let me attend with the children. Maybe I could just go without telling him and then tell him later. I never actually asked him. He's less likely to mind if I go that route. I don't know. But I really want to keep learning. You may also email me angulovrose@hotmail.com and/or go to my blog. I must go now and make dinner. I'll be back to learn more tomorrow. I can't let it slip by. I got the phone # and address to a nearby Catholic church. I'll probably call them tomorrow. You know, more than anything, I think I am impacted by your zeal and willingness to show me scriptures. I thank you friend.I have much to learn. You know, it did bother me that I was always trying to learn and I felt I hit a dead end. It's funny how the Holy Spirit decided to land you on my blog. I have also been partially fasting for the last two weeks or so. I have been feeling allot of spiritual warfare as well for the past few weeks. There had to be a good reason. Anyway, sorry so long. Please respond with your thoughts.
God bless you
Rosemi
Dear Mrs A,
I felt some joy that you are showing an interest - prompted by the Holy Spirit - in Catholicism.
I imagine you will gain more insight by visiting a Catholic Church and talking with a Catholic priest.
I wonder if the video below might interest you!!
href=http://www.the4thcup.com/
I will listen to it out loud the first time while I am doing some chores. I am having guests over later. I think tomorrow morning will be a quieter morning to watch it again. Stuff like this deserves proper attention.
God bless you
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