Monday, July 14, 2014

7 Reasons We Need the Church and the Bible

Q. What's the deal with you Catholics. Don't you know listening to the Church is just listening to the traditions of man! If you want to be a better Christian, don't listen to the Church, listen to Jesus! Read the Bible, that is all a Christian needs.

A.  
I appreciate your comment. Your opinion is widely held in the Protestant world, but there are a few small things you might be overlooking.

1) Jesus didn't write a book, He founded a Church (cf. Matt 16:18). 

2) In fact, He never even commanded His disciples to write a book (or anything else for that matter) and most of them didn't. Instead, Jesus commanded them to celebrate the Eucharist (cf. Lk 22:19) and to make disciples of all nations (cf. Matt 28:19), all of which Jesus wants in His One Church (cf. Jn 17:20-23). 

3) This Church He founded is a visible body (cf. Col 1:24). It is His Body (ask yourself was Jesus' Body invisible?) not His Spirit or Soul. Bodies are visible. You can touch them and easily identify them. These characteristics must be true of Jesus' Church if it is His Body.

4) This Church teaches with the very authority of Jesus (cf. Lk 10:16). His Church isn't just for fellowship, it is empowered with His authority, both on Heaven and Earth (cf. Matt 18:18).

5) Indeed, this Church Jesus founded is the very "pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Tim 3:15). That's right, the Church, not the Bible, is the pillar of the truth, according to the Bible.

6) This Church Jesus founded continues to exist (cf. Matt 16:18) and is lead by the successors of the apostles (cf. Acts 1:12-26). That's right, the apostles were empowered by Jesus to choose other men to become apostles (what they called "Episkopos" (elders) which is translated into English as "Bishop").

7) Finally, while reading the Bible is a great practice (I recommend daily Scripture reading for all Christians), you have to realize it was never meant to be read and privately interpreted. The Bible was written by Jesus' Church for Jesus' Church, by the People of God for the People of God. Reading it in opposition to "listening to a Church" is itself a "tradition of man" and is explicitly condemned by the Bible (cf. 2 Pet 1:20). Remember it was the Church (the Catholic Church) that, as a matter of historical record, decided which books belonged in the Bible. If it wasn't for the Church, the Catholic Church, you wouldn't even have a Bible to read.

All of this isn't to say the Bible is less important than you think it is. It is more important. So important, in fact, that God gave us not just a book, but the author of the book as an infallible teacher to guide His people through the centuries. Let's not drift into false dichotomies, "Bible vs. Church". It's not an either/or, it's both/ and. In fact, if you get rid of the authority of the Church, you'll soon find yourself without much of a reason to trust Scripture either.

3 comments:

  1. We've been arguing this stuff AD NAUSEUM for 8,500 years (but Ken Hamm won't admit that) - SFB : Since Farming Began.
    The BelieberHeads (see purty-boy Justin) and the NON-beliebers (see Pinhead Gillette razor bank Teller entertainer dude, friend of Glenn NUTTER Beck (no relation to Jeff) are about as FAR FROM REALITY as Jim Jones, David Koresh, and Charlie Manson - way beyond "dead wrong" - more like EXTINCTION WRONG (pronounced ewwww!!)

    Since farming, the FAST TRACK to Paternalistic MAYHEM, we have done little else but WORSHIP AB Testosterone - AB RA HAM IC S - we are rarely far from a. "is it a boy, is it a girl? who cares? MORE IS BETTER! + b. The REAL SUN GAWD (only eclipsed by the MOON, which is almost totally responsible for ALL LIFE ON ROK #3) - RA - the RAW DEAL from the Book of the Dead Pharoahs (which starts with the two male characters - gen + head) like PhD (gen + head + DEI aka Daylight - see RA! DUH!!) + HAM - humans are rarely more than INCHES away from Bacon Vodka or Bacon ANYTHING, aren't they? + IC - Illiteracy at the SPEED OF LIGHT + S is for Satan/System/Science/Synergy/Soliloquy/Samhain/Superman/etc et al blah blah woof woof - ALL those NAUTI ideas that human structures - particulary GOV-MINT aka RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS (same dealio) LOATHE and wish to see BURIED somehow... we are SUCH a GENIUS SPECIES after umm, WHAT percentage of 4.5 BILLION YEARS have we even known that we evolved from the SEA? I don't think homer gomer can count that many decimals to the right of the ZERO...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I stopped smoking that stuff years ago, Steven.

    ReplyDelete