• Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.

The Pope Is Not Not Infallible

Michie

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Feb 5, 2002
181,802
65,744
Woods
✟5,832,296.00
Country
United States
Gender
Female
Faith
Catholic
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Others

*Permission to post in full*​

An argument called ‘proof by contradiction’ seals the deal on papal infallibility.​


Many non-Catholic Christians make the claim that if papal infallibility were true, Scripture would explicitly teach it. Because Scripture fails to make an explicit pronouncement, they argue, it must have been foreign to the biblical authors. Although papal infallibility is in fact not explicit in Scripture, the biblical and historical data we do have make the infallibility of the pope quite clear.

To provide this proof, I will need to establish three points of argumentation.

Premise 1: The gates of hell will not prevail against the Church Jesus established.

Perhaps the most controversial part of this proof, we need to recognize that the Church Jesus established is infallible. This part of the argument does not actually require that the Church Jesus established be the Catholic Church. It simply requires that whatever Church he established be protected. This can be established through several Bible verses. The most common would be Matthew 16:18. We could also reference other Bible verses, such as 1 Tim. 3:15. If the Church is a pillar for truth, it must have some protections always to be such a pillar. Finally, Jesus tells his apostles in Luke 10:16, “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” This suggests that the apostles have the authority of Jesus while he is in heaven. If this is the case, the Church has certain protections from error.

Premise 2: Peter was the leader of the early Church during the time of the apostles.

Continued below.
 

jamiec

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2020
557
259
Scotland
✟61,607.00
Country
United Kingdom
Gender
Male
Faith
Catholic
Marital Status
Private
"Many non-Catholic Christians make the claim that if papal infallibility were true, Scripture would explicitly teach it."

That is a claim, and an assumption, for which there is no basis.

If that is claim is correct, why does Scripture not

- explicitly teach the doctrine of the Trinity ? For it never does so
- say, explicitly, that Jesus is God ? For it never says that.

A great deal of Evangelical doctrine is based on inferences from what Scripture says, & not on what it unambiguously asserts.

The Bible never asserts that God wills that there should be

  1. a collection
  2. of books
  3. 27 in number
  4. no more
  5. and no fewer
  6. complete with all their parts
  7. without additions
  8. that are identified
  9. and are God-breathed
  10. Holy
  11. Scripture
  12. to form a "New Testament"
  13. that is to be regarded as canonical
  14. in all matters of faith
  15. and of morals
  16. for all Christians
  17. everywhere
  18. for all time
  19. in addition to the Jewish Scriptures

Evangelicals believe, not one or some of those assertions, but every single one of them. As well as others. Even though there is nothing in Scripture to support any of them, let alone every single one of them. That is a lot of doctrines - not one of them in Scripture - that Evangelicals believe.

If the Evangelical doctrine about those writings is not found in Scripture, why must Papal Infallibility, or the Tri-Unity of God, be taught in Scripture ? And why do Evangelicals hold Catholic doctrine to a standard that their own doctrine fails to satisfy ?

There is no Biblical evidence that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah - unless one assumes, without any Biblical foundation for doing so, that the 27 NT books have all the qualities listed above.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0