3d. A rule of Faith, or a competent guide to heaven, must be able to instruct in all the truths necessary for salvation. Now the Scriptures alone do not contain all the truths which a Christian is bound to believe, nor do they explicitly enjoin all the duties which he is obliged to practice. Not to mention other examples, is not every Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday and to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile work? Is not the observance of this law among the most prominent of our sacred duties? But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.
The Catholic Church correctly teaches that our Lord and His Apostles inculcated certain important duties of religion which are not recorded by the inspired writers. For instance, most Christians pray to the Holy Ghost, a practice which nowhere is found in the Bible.
We must, therefore, conclude that the Scriptures alone cannot be a sufficient guide and rule of Faith, because they cannot, at any time be within the reach of every inquirer; because they are not of themselves clear and intelligible even in matters of the highest importance, and because they do not contain all the truths necessary for salvation.
James Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers, p. 111
2 comments:
because they are not of themselves clear and intelligible even in matters of the highest importance
The papacy "are not of themselves clear and intelligible even in matters of the highest importance"
I'll take the Bible any day over the RCC teachings. And, yes, the Bible DOES contain all the information necessary for salvation.
The gospel writers themselves would have disagreed with these statements made by Roman Catholic officials: "but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." (John 20:31)
Catholic authorities disparage Scripture, but then proceed to dress their true attitudes with malevolent sounding assertions. Rome is the guardian of the truth. It compiled the books of the Bible. Rome gives infallible interpretations in order to prevent heresy.
There are literally millions of people who are unable to sense the utter arrogance in all of this. They simply do not understand how cultic the Roman Catholic hierarchy is. It does not matter how old a religious system is. This behavior is authoritarian.
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