Posted on 10/04/2005 4:28:28 PM PDT by MeanWestTexan
THE hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true. The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they should not expect “total accuracy” from the Bible.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
You were Welsh once, and gave it up? Well thank God you are still Catholic. I wouldn't hold it against them. The Church founded by St. Peter can't be so easily corrupted by a handful of wayward bishops.
my reply was to the author not you... 8^)
Was that approved by HQ?
I don't expect total accuracy from the Times. I don't even expect acceptable accuracy from the Times. If the Catholic Church is now saying that the sun doesn't orbit the Earth, then this should send the evangelicals into fits. The posts here will no doubt be funny and if experience is any indicator, they will turn anti-Catholic quickly.
The Bible is inerrant. That is what the Church teaches. But it is not literally true. This is a constant teaching of the Church. The Bible does not have to be literal to be true.
I don't know why anybody would be surprised. It's not like 99% of "Bible-believing" Christians today actually believe the Bible is 100% accurate. If they did, there would be a whole lot of "smitings" that aren't taking place now. Ever read the covenant law from Exodus 21-23?
This does NOT appear to be issued by the Vatican.
But you do understand the Jesus took the need to abide by those laws away when he came as the final sacrifice for sins? Todays Christians view the Bible in its whole context. Anyone can take one verse out of context and justify anything but that is just nuts.
The King James????? Thank God it wasn't the King James!!!
In Catholic grade school in the mid 50's before Vatican II the nuns who taught me encouraged us kids to read the bible on our own and as a family. It was not their fault we did not do it. As I recall the nuns read the bible to us every day in religion class. We had books on bible history too. By the time I was 12 I knew a gillion bible stories.. Noah, Abraham, Jonah, Joseph's coat of many colors, woman at the well, woman taken in adulatory, water in to wine and on and on and on. True I did not read the bible but at the Catholic schools I went to, when I think back, actually it was all bible all the time. You did not have to read it yourself. It was taught to you in workbooks, story sessions and and at mass. Yet you really did not think of it as B-I-B-L-E study. It was not called Bible Study it was called Religion class.
We also had catechism books but more than half of Catechism is rooted in the bible. Then there was mass practically every day, and mass has three bible readings. I don't understand Catholics who say they were never taught the bible in Catholic schools. I was bombarded with it. Then again I always got A's in Religion. Maybe they got D's!!!! :O>
Right. When Jesus spoke in parables, were all those stories exactly true? Probably not. If they weren't, was Jesus then lying? No, he was using a literary technique to teach. Same thing happens in the OT. I don't have a problem with that.
That's how the muzzies do it over at the ROP.
We are taught that God's word is eternal and unchanging, and then we are taught that....wait, He changed it!
Whatever. Poll those who say the Bible is God's inerrant word, and you will find less than 1% who can name a single member of the group of religious leaders who canonized our modern Bible. We don't even know who decided which books would be in the Bible, but we take it on the word of our parents and pastors that the Bible is God's word.
And further, I didn't take one verse. I took 3 chapters that form the basis of the covenant....a covenant that forms a large portion of the very foundation of Christian religious beliefs. Remember singing "Father Abraham" in children's church?
That's gloobie gook neothodoxy!
"The Bible is inerrant. That is what the Church teaches. But it is not literally true. This is a constant teaching of the Church. The Bible does not have to be literal to be true."
You believe this nonsense? The Bible is literally true from cover to cover.
That's what the bishops were saying, if you read the article. The Times over-dramatized it.
They're saying certain parts should not be cited as scientific or historical authority. Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as symbolism.
Of course the fundie anti-Catholic bigots will take the Times' bait ....
That is correct. I also told one of my Protestant friends that the Catholic Bible contains more books than the King James version. He cracked up when I told him that's where all the good stuff is!
The Catholic Church existed before the Bible. The Bible was intended to contains all the truth necessary for salvation. It was not intended to be a verbatim scientific history.
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