“For the Roman Catholic, the church is ultimate truth and authority, not Scripture. Whereas the Roman Catholic Church affirms the full inspiration of Scripture, it is not the only truth or ultimate and final authority. The ultimate and final authority is the church.”
A very long read but I have to ask (any Catholic) how accurate the above statement is. Do you really place your beauracracy above the Lord?
>>Do you really place your beauracracy above the Lord?<<
Nope, not at all.
If the Vatican said, it’s okay to kill your neighbor, (which they wouldn’t but it’s the only example I can come up with) then we would say NO WAY.
I had a problem for a long time with Romans 9:13-21. I prayed for wisdom but still came to the conclusion that I could do everything right, yet God could condemn me in the end (much like the Muslims, I found out)
It took a Catholic Bible study to set me straight.
I don’t trust my own thoughts about it. I did pray for wisdom, that the Spirit would show me the way, and He did, straight to Catholic Bible study. I would rather leave it to much more scholarly men than myself.
And I have to add that I am going to see “Ironman” for Mother’s Day so if you don’t get an answer back, please don’t think I’m ignoring you!
We need to distinguish between the concepts of "only truth" and "ultimate and final authority." Catholic reject the idea that the Scriptures are the "only truth" because we believe that the Holy Spirit continues to reside in the Church and protects its teachings from error. But this does not place Tradition above Scripture but with it. Thus Scripture and Tradition together are the "ultimate and final authority." For the Catholic there is no contradiction between Scripture and Tradition. When we disagree with Protestants on Scripture it is not because we are placing Tradition over Scripture but because we disagree with their interpretation of what Scripture means. Indeed, it is more a disagreement over conflicting traditions than it is a disagreement over the authority of Scripture. However much Protestants claim they are relying on Scripture alone, in truth they are relying on a particular tradition of interpretation of Scripture.
Do you really place your beauracracy above the Lord?
How would you react if I were to ask you if you placed the Bible above the Lord? Catholics look to Jesus Christ above all else. Where we differ with Protestants is that we see him acting through the Church (which includes the both Scripture and Tradition) and not just through the Bible alone.
The statement is a mischaracterization. Catholic theology is pretty straightforward on this point. The magesterium (or traditional teaching of the church) can only clarify interpretation of scripture, and never contradict it. So where the author states that "the church is the ultimate truth and authority, not scripture", it seems (and perhaps one of our Roman Catholic friends can verify that I am not misstating this) an accurate statement would be that "scripture is the ultimate authority, but that individual and diverse interpretations of scripture cannot be correct, and only where there is continuity of tradition and teaching from the time of the apostles can the fullness of interpretation be relied upon."
“Do you really place your beauracracy above the Lord.”
No. I do place it above your beauracracy, however.