Roman Catholic Beliefs- Part 5- The only true Church?- 1 of 5
Part 5 of "Cathechism Chat"
Jesus said, "I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10 last half - Douay Version)
I'll be discussing more indepth concerning the 'only true church' in these next few articles. I'll be speaking mainly to the Catholics again but this subject seems to confuse a lot of groups like Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, The Way International, The Church of Christ and many more like them. Going to 'A Cathechism for Adults' by William J. Cogan in Lesson 16:The Church-- Question 1 says this,
"1. Did God intend that the Bible alone should be the guide to salvation?
A. No, because certain things in the Bible can be misunderstood, and because the Bible does not have everything God taught.
v. "This, then, you must understand first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation." [2nd Peter 1:20].
v. "There are certain things difficult to understand, which the unlearned and the unstable distort, just as they do the rest of the Scriptures also" [2nd Peter 3:16]. "
There are so many things that can be said here but a lot of it will have to wait until we get on the subject regarding 'the Bible' but the cults seem to think if they add their books, magazines, dogma or whatever else to help you understand the bible then everything is okay. But as time goes on we begin to see all the contradictions, changes that come to the surface because of their extra literature but they seem to want you to ignore that and just keep blindly following them. Jesus said something about the blind leading the blind, they both fall into the ditch (Ck. Matt. 15:14) Jesus was talking about the religious leaders leading others astray.
Now we are going to talk about the two verses that the Catholic Church used, just quoted and tie many others in with them. Using 2 Peter 1:20, We don't want to build a doctrine by using just one scripture, the word will come together, we don't need a private interpretation. So let's study the word as a whole. In other words what one prophet, apostle or man of God says will line up with the bible. If that isn't the case then that particular man or woman isn't sent by God. I'll expand on this answer by the time that I get to question #2 in this catechism book. But first, let me speak a little on the second verse that they used in question #1 and that being 2 Peter 3:16 which says, "There are certain things difficult to understand, which the unlearned and the unstable distort, just as they do the rest of the Scriptures also." I see by reading this verse that the unlearned are the ones who are not being taught by the Spirit of God through the word of God and because of this they take certain things and make them mandatory for their people like forbidding certain people to marry, commanding to abstain from eating meats whether certain days of the week or all week long, it doesn't matter, it just isn't of God. (Ck. 1 to Timothy, Ch.4:1-3) Bringing the beauty of the Lord's Supper down to cannibalism because the carnal mind (fleshly wisdom) can't understand the things of God because it is an enemy with God (Ck. To the Romans, Ch. 8:6,7). To crucify Jesus over and over is completely paganism, he died once for all time for the sins of the world and it will never need to be repeated (Ck.To the Hebrews, Ch. 7:24-28) and if you do want a sacrifice again, you sure don't want an unbloody one. By reading To the Hebrews Ch. 9:22, very good I see without the shedding of blood there is no remission, (forgiveness) [of sins] also check vs 24-28 of that same chapter. This particular passage also shows that there is no need for a bunch of priests to confess our sins to, all Christians have one high Priest forever (Jesus Christ the Righteous) [Ck. 1 of St. John Ch. 2:1] and as far as priests are concerned, the Lord made all Christians, priests (Ck. 1 to Peter Ch. 2:9).
Okay, now question #2,
"2. What did Jesus do to make sure that His teaching would never be misunderstood?
A. He established a church.
v. "The house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and mainstay of the truth" [1st. Timothy 3:14]"
And this certainly isn't the truth. Let's go to the word. In The Acts Ch. 17:11, we see that the Bereans were more noble than those at Thessalonica in that they searched the scriptures to see whether the things that they heard from Paul and Silas were true. Then going To the Galatians, Ch. 2:14, I see that Paul reprimands Cephas who is Peter for not walking uprightly in the truth and Peter has supposely been a pope for about 8 years at this particular time. I also see by reading the word that Paul makes the wrong decisions at times too! In The Acts Ch. 15:36-46, Paul wasn't operating in a spirit of forgiveness towards John Mark but I see that he repented because in 2 to Timothy Ch. 4:11, he realized that Mark was profitable for the ministry. So once again we see that we need a foundation more stable than it being men. What is that foundation? God's word (the bible) teaching us truth by his Spirit, of course. Check out scriptures like St. John Ch. 8:32; Ch. 14:26; Ch. 16:12- 15; Ch. 17:17; Psalm 119:9-11; Prov. 3: 5,6; Prov. 6:22; Prov. 30:5 to name a few.
Remember, Jesus said that he (the Holy Spirit will teach us, look to him for guidance). This is just part 1 concerning 'the only true church' and the part that it plays in these days. So far we've seen that the church makes mistakes, they're people. That God is leading his people by his Spirit through his word. That Peter was supposedly by Catholic doctrine, a pope for about 8 years when Paul reprimanded him. So we see that religion doesn't have the answers that mankind so badly needs, only Jesus does, come to him today. Popes, priests, and kings, or whoever, we all need Jesus. He is calling people to himself. He loves you ever so much and that isn't a bunch of words, He proved it by going to the cross and he won't stop there, He wants to help you in every way (Ck. To the Romans Ch. 8:32).
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