Solo said:
I understand your position that Roman Catholics do not need the scriptures and have done well enough without them for 1500 years, but God's Word has been with mankind from the beginning.
No, the Old Testament has always been with Catholics and taught to Catholics. The New Testament was compiled in the late 4th Century. The technology of the printing press was not available until the 16th Century, so bibles in native language and dialects were not accessible to every Christian until then.
The Catholic Church has always taught and read from the bible and is bible based. The only thing that differs is that unlike some groups which believe that the bible is the only source of information, Catholics (and other Christians) believe Tradition and the Church to also be a possible source of truth. After all, the Gospels themselves are based on Tradition.
It was written by scribes in Hebrew as the current old testament which Jesus quoted out of quite often, and the new testament was written by those apostles that personnally knew Jesus and ministered to the masses after pentacost in the first century. All people could have had these scriptures during the dark ages had the Roman Catholic Church released them to the laity instead of murdering those that published it such as Wycliff and Tynsdale.
That's completely baseless. In fact, the Church actually saved the bible during the Dark Ages by maintaining the bible by hand writing it, the only way the bible could be created. Books were terribly expensive, constantly stolen and plundered by raiders.
The Church could have just as easily ignored the bible and locked the texts away to be turned into dust during the Dark Ages. Instead, the Church maintained them and read from them. Your notion that the Church wanted to keep the bible away from people is totally absurd. The Church had bibles maintained and read from at Mass and liturgies, they could have just as easily gathered them up and destroyed them. Not only that, it was in this supposed evil 4th Century of the Church that the Church actually put together the Gospels and letters you call the word of God and declared them such. If you think Satan is controlling the Church, then apparently you think Satan was spot on when it came to declaring which texts were inspired and which were not.
Christianity flourished in the first century, second century, and third century in spite of satan's attack on the believers that held the testimony of Jesus. Even when satan reversed his way of operating and took control of the orthodox church of the day by having the Roman Bishop proclaim supremacy over all believers, there still were believers such as the anabaptists that had the scriptures. The Roman Catholic Church did not exist in the first four hundred years of the body of Christ.
I'm not sure where you are getting your history from, but you are completely wrong. the Anabaptists were founded in 1521 (they were originally polygamists, btw), not the 3rd or 4th century.
The Catholic Church did indeed exist from the time of the Apostles. They established churches and Sees throughout the world with a direct line of successors. With what Pope, tell me, did the Church change? With what Patriarchs did the Church change?
Your understanding of history is completely off- what language did these time traveling anabaptists speak and where are their supposedly preserved bibles?
Peter would tell you that Christ is the Rock (I Peter 2:7-8)....(Acts 4:8-12). He would tell you that Matthew 16:18 refers to Christ Himself (Matt. 16:16; I Cor 10:4) as the Rock upon which the Church is built. Peter is but a stone in the Church of Christ, as are all born again Christians (I Peter 1:23; 2:5). All Christians are given the Scriptures (keys) to to declare the remission of sins by faith in Jesus Christ (Matt. 16:19, Matt 18:18; Luke 24:45-47; Acts 10:43). COME GIVE YOUR HEART TO CHRIST TODAY!
From
The Confusion of the Popes
You are mistaken. Here's what Matthew 16:18 says:
"And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
The verse refers to Peter as the rock. The statement "that thou art Peter" makes absolutely no logical sense unless Christ is referring to Simon (now called Peter, meaning rock) as the rock, as a means also to explain why He changed his name.
Why reason does Christ tell him that he is Peter? Was Peter unaware at the time that he was Peter? Did he suffer head trauma and forget? No, it means you are Peter, meaning rock, and upon this rock I will build my Church.
