We’re continuing our discussion of Catholicism’s view of Biblical Authority. In this lesson we’ll go further with the idea of Magisterium, the Council of Trent and what the Catholic church teaches about interpreting Scripture.
During the live broadcast, please tweet any questions and comments to @PreacherNorm. We will begin the live stream at a little after 7pm Central.
After the live broadcast, feel free to post your questions and comments in the comment section below.
[youtube http://youtu.be/zzdyJF-e6Xg]
They say the Pope is infalable and Christs representive on earth .Where do they find that at in the Binle.I do not know how anyone Catholic could lesson to this lessons and stay Catholic.Great informative lesson .Thank u Preacher Norm
I am enjoying this series of lessons. And I appreciate your answering my questions in the video..
About the 1505 document from the Roman Catholic cardinals to Pius III. Were you able to gain access to an original of said letter? if so, could you perhaps scan/post it?
The reason I ask is that, in the course of my online searches, I have seen claims that said letter is actually a 19th century forgery (apparently, one of many floating around at that time) and that no one who has attempted to find the source in the “National Library of Paris” has been able to locate such a document.
I’m sure you’ll deal with this more in further detail in future lessons, but I wanted to ask more about the “Scripture Alone” (SA) principle (with which I myself am sympathetic–but have some serious questions).
You cited a number of passages as evidence that the apostles taught SA, but when they were still alive, preaching and teaching, their ORAL teaching was just as authoritative as the written, was it not (2 Thess 2:15)? So when said epistles were being written and sent to the earliest Christians, SA would not/could not have been in effect AT THAT TIME.
So, the question is, when/how did SA “kick in”? Presumably, it would be following the death of the last apostle, after the last book of the New Testament was written. But the question persists, just exactly WHEN and HOW did this play out?
And when/how would all the Christians throughout the expanse of the Roman Empire have “gotten the memo”, so to speak, on this?
In an earlier lesson, you cited the letter of Clement to the Corinthians, noting his reference to a number of New Testament books. But the fact remains that there was MAJOR disagreement over several NT books which persisted for centuries.
And, as far as I can tell, there were few, if any, among these earliest Christians that used the 39 book Old Testament that is used by many today (it seems they used a longer canon–and in their writings, they cited books such as Sirach, Wisdom, etc, as Scripture right along with Isaiah, Ezekiel, etc.).
Finally, with respect to 1 Cor 4:6 and the “above what is written” statement as evidence for SA, I have heard this verse cited before in this regard, but it is problematic for a couple of reasons:
a) The aforementioned fact that the still living apostles were still, at that time of said writing, giving authoritative ORAL teachings of divine origin, equally binding on the consciences of the Christians who received them.
and
b) If you actually look at the context of said verse. It appears that the “what is written” being referred to are the references just a few verses earlier in the previous chapter, in 1 Cor 3:19-20, where Paul cites Job 5:13 and Psalm 94:11 in making his point.
Thus, whether or not SA is true, it does not seem that 1 Cor 6:4 even addresses the issue.
Anyway, I thank you again for your time and I hope that you will discuss some of these points further in your upcoming lessons.
John, I’ll be answering your questions and comments in tonight’s Bible class. Be sure to tune in.
I am not a roman catholic but I think this letter from the cardinal to pope pius is not genuine (from a little research I did). Do you have strong evidence of the authenticity of this letter? I am for truth and we should always use researched documented facts and verify the sources before presenting them. God Bless you
I addressed this matter in the 10/3/12 Bible class video.