Who has the Authority to Interpret Scripture?

[francisdesales]

And since Paul tells us not to engage in stupid and foolish arguments...

Which is what this has become.

Please excuse me as I bow out of this discussion, as it has reached its end for me. I have said enough for any lurker reading these posts. You are just in denial, trying to explain away Scriptures that clearly show Paul and John calling themselves a "father". Catholic priests are no different - they serve the role of spiritual father - without replacing God in heaven. If you choose not to listen to another's point of view, then I bid you goodbye.

 

[hacim]

1 Corinthians 4:15, "For in Christ, I became your father through the gospel." That means that Paul heard directly from Christ, unlike anyone who knew Jesus and therefore was the first one to pass along what Jesus told him through the Spirit. The disciples all heard and saw Jesus speak, Paul did not. So he was the first one to be directed by Christ only by the Spirit. That does not mean that Paul has become our personal father, which is precisely why Paul never told anyone to call him 'Father." So contrary to what you claim, Paul never disobeys Jesus.

No you do not do the same thing that Paul and John did because they never told us to call them 'father' which would be directly disoebying Jesus. So your attempt to prove Jesus wrong in Matthew 23;9, has again, failed.

So it's obviously you who has a problem with Matthew 23;9, Matthew 1;25, Deuteronomy 18:11, Exodus 20:4, Leviticus 26:1, Colossians 2:8, Luke 1:47, Deuteronomy 4:15 and many more scriptures as well.

And since Paul tells us not to engage in stupid and foolish arguments, it is indeed a stupid argument to claim that Jesus tells us to go ahead and call our religious leaders 'father' that Mary and Joseph never had sex, that we are supposed to carve statues of men and women, bow down, and pray to them. Those all directly contradict the bible. My beliefs do not.

So it is another false statement to say that I don't believe the bible. I therefore will no longer engage in conversations with people who change the bible into the opposite of what it says, then personally attack others for believing it as written. That's Satan at his best.

But Paul did not hear directly from Jesus and the Gospels were not written by Paul but those who heard directly from Christ.....Paul is an apostle whose only experience of Jesus was with the resurrected Jesus....not the same context as you 'just like anyone who knew Jesus"...... but you take his letters too far.....Paul does not say somehing like this....I am your father but don't call me Father as I am just your spiritual father. Jesus does not want you to call anyone 'father' but I am speaking your father in faith only......that is non-sensical

I call my father 'dad' and "Abba" is a father, a dad, even daddy......

Heidi, Paul was a father in the faith to his faith communities....this is wholly scriptural

And when Jesus founds His church [which is a part of His kingdom] he grants authority to the church leadership and he quotes Isaiah......do you know how the people are to call that authorized leader.....?

Just a question......

Why is Abraham called Father?

 

[dadof10]

Scripture does not teach that only priests can interpret scripture, that anyone on earth is our Holy Father let alone that this "holy Father' on earth is the only one who can interpret scripture. :

Neither does the Catholic Church. I don't know where you're getting these foolish ideas, probably through foolish people.

Here's an excersise, Heidi. If I wanted to find out what your church taught, would it be fair to go to your pastors enemies and ask them, take what they said as what he truly taught and ignore everything that anyone loyal to him said? What if these "enemies" lied about doctrine X, you told me they lied, that your pastor didn't teach doctrine X at all, and I still chose to believe them? Would that be fair? Would you say I had an agenda?

Get Catholic teaching from Catholic sources, then comment. BTW, Dave Hunt and Lorraine Boettner are not Catholic sources.

 

[fcs25]

:-D With protestantism you have your choice of over 20000 different denominations with all of them claiming to be the correct church.Under Catholicism you have {one} Church that has existed for almost 2000yrs.Take your choice.God is not stupid!!!!

 

[Devekut]

Hey Fcs25,

Discussions about Catholicism have been happening on this board for sometime, I don't think those kind of "hit and run" attacks are really successful arguments. Both sides of this debate have used little cute sayings that we think are self-evident facts. Actually, what we need to do is present evidence and make arguments.

In this case, Protestants are aware of their many denominations, but many do not have a problem with that. What would seem useful to discuss then is the nature of Church in terms of visible unity and what scripture might say on that matter. Another discussion point would be evidencing that Catholic beliefs stem back as far as Apostolic times (which I firmly believe, personally).

I don't want to chastize you, but I don't think what you said will be taken by anyone other than Catholics as evidence of anything and is thus not really conductive to our learning here.