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So which church do you believe today carries the truth and is the so called pillar and foundation of it? There are so many that disagree. Personally, I have left one church and been visiting many different ones. None has impressed me as being the highest authority of incontrovertible truth.Addressing the OP
God is the highest authority, and God chooses to speak through His Church. YES HIS CHURCH. "The church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth." Now the Church speaks through Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition (such as the Ecumenical Councils, etc.)
Seriously?!?
Definition of irony: person who claims to belong to the Catholic church-- the church that slaughtered thousands of people (or more) over the centuries because they refused to accept that only the Catholic church, not laypeople, could interpret Scripture-- claiming that individual laypeople are the highest authority of deciding what Scripture means.
Not trying to be mean, Vicomte13... just wondering if you really understand what the Catholic church teaches on the matter. Judging by your statements above, you are a hardcore protestant in what you believe.
Most excellent piece of knowledge. Thank you.To quote your own words back at you, scripture needs interpreting. For what ought to be obvious reasons, there was no word meaning "church" circa 30 AD, when Jesus would have been speaking. Εκκλησια means no more than a community, or assembly of believers.
That's a fair counterpoint, assuming that Jesus' words were accurately recalled by John writing 60 years after Jesus left, but I don't see those words about faith in spiritual leadership validating the perfection of all scripture. Moses was himself a reformer of previous beliefs and practices of those under his command. There is NO surviving scripture which predated Moses.
Jesus didn't come to earth to reform the errors of his children's pre-school years, he came to broaden our understanding of the Father manifested in his life; making the way of salvation more clear. Jesus respected the faith of the children of Israel no matter how primitive or inaccurate those histories may have been as preserved in the scripture.
John 5.46-47
46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?
Jesus condemns the religious leaders of his day for the words of scripture not dwelling/working in them. He then says this is why they do not believe him. This is in no way a teaching to discourage the study of scripture. Can you really be so shortsighted to think that God does not want us to study his words?
What is Christian faith about, being a little professor of the Bible? Or is it loving God and living in the Spirit?
The Eastern Orthodox Bible (EOB) is the best single translation of the New Testament in English. It uses the correct manuscript, and it correctly translates the Greek idiom.A lot of translations are actually awful. ESV, RSV, KJV are all good. NIV and NRSV belong in the trash. And the "Message" translation is horrendous.
The conscience is the highest authority on earth. God is the highest authority ultimately. The bible is our guide.
Saying bishops in the first place would have avoided the confusion as the Church has multiple meanings to different people. Do you also hold to a select line of bishops having this authority or do all religious leaders have this higher authority? Would you state what church you follow that has this position?
Also, why do you bother saying the Bible says bishops are the higher authority? If bishops were actually the higher authority, than bishops would just declare it and no one would doubt it. Does not authority comes from higher to lower?
Note that the apostles never claimed to be inerrant or the highest authority. In fact scripture points out errors and disagreements in the apostles. Further, the apostles never stated that the hierarchy they established had the same authority as what Jesus gave them directly. You must concede that the authority conveyed from Jesus to be higher than by the apostles.
The concept of scripture being the highest authority on God's truth is based on a process of elimination. The elimination is that there is no other entity on earth that was given authority to speak for God. Therefore since scripture is our record on earth of God's word, it is supreme, not by self declaration but by process of elimination.
No, it's Catholic.
CCC 1782
Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. "He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters."53
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a6.htm
The Bible is not the absolute authority of incontrovertible truth. There is no such thing; that authority belongs ONLY to God, and he does not take kindly to us setting up idols and plating them with gold, not even Bible shaped ones.
I guess you missed the part of the question for something physical on earth today; something that we may use to learn what God wants us to learn.
Seriously?!?
Definition of irony: person who claims to belong to the Catholic church-- the church that slaughtered thousands of people (or more) over the centuries because they refused to accept that only the Catholic church, not laypeople, could interpret Scripture-- claiming that individual laypeople are the highest authority of deciding what Scripture means.
Not trying to be mean, Vicomte13... just wondering if you really understand what the Catholic church teaches on the matter. Judging by your statements above, you are a hardcore protestant in what you believe.
The Eastern Orthodox Bible (EOB) is the best single translation of the New Testament in English. It uses the correct manuscript, and it correctly translates the Greek idiom.
What might the "correct" manuscript be? And what makes it correct? Modern translations are made from a critical edition of the Greek New Testamnt, commonly the Nestle Aland one, and that will have been put together by textual critics, collating a vast array of manuscript evidence.
The Patriarchal Text.
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