“Where
do you go to find the truth about life’s most critical issues?”
I go to Jesus, the eternal Word of God, who
always was and who will always be. I go to Jesus who never taught that he, the
eternal Word, can be constrained or limited to what is written on the finite pages
of inspired Scripture. I go to Jesus who established a Church upon Peter,
calling him the rock, not Scripture. (I haven’t yet found a translation
that reads “You are Peter, but Scripture is the rock upon which I will build my
church.”) I go to Jesus, who declared the Church, not Scripture, to be the
court of final appeal in Matthew 18:18. I go to Jesus, whose Church—not
Scripture—Paul declared to be “the pillar and ground of the truth.” (1 Timothy
3:15)
I go to Jesus the eternal Word of God,
who speaks through both inspired Scripture and through His inspired
Church, with the Church being primary, as the Scripture clearly shows.
I have articles on the multiple
fallacies of Sola Scriptura elsewhere on this blog if you’d like to read more.
“Possibly
the most important question the Son of God ever asked was addressed to Peter:
“Who do you say that I am?”
Peter’s answer did not come from
himself—Jesus clearly says that God spoke the answer through
Peter: “Blessed are you,
Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father
who is in heaven.” (Matthew 16: 17). God the Father Himself revealed an essential
truth directly through Simon; he did not get this insight through Scripture. If
someone can read this, and the verses that immediately follow, and still
proclaim that the Word of God is revealed no place else other than the printed pages
of Scripture, that person is impeded by serious blockage. (Even the book where we read
this, the Gospel of Matthew, is not declared by Scripture to be Scripture, but
by divinely inspired men outside of Scripture.)
For more commentary on
Peter’s answer to Jesus’ question, read “One True Church: What the Bible Tells
Us” elsewhere on this blog.
“The apostles had only two successors—Matthias who was
chosen by the apostles and Paul who was chosen by Christ. Catholic bishops do
not meet the qualifications for apostleship given in Acts 1:21-26.”
I address the multiple
fallacies of this argument in “The Truth About Apostolic Succession,” posted
elsewhere on this blog.
“Do you really believe Catholic priests have the power
to call the Lord down from heaven every day?”
No. Jesus does this
himself through a human instrument who has no such power of his own. The
wording of the Mass makes this point explicit when responses are directed not
to the priest personally, but to his spirit, whom Jesus is working through.
I have three articles
about the Biblical truth of the Eucharist elsewhere on this blog if you’d like
to read in more detail a response to this question.
