Absurd. Where in the Bible do you get this stuff? I'd love to see chapter and verse on that, because I've read the New Testament through and through, and I've never heard of any such thing mentioned, or even claimed, by any Pretestant teacher I've ever heard preach. You'd think that after 50 years I woiuld have heard that radical notion at least once!
Has some man just made these things up as he went along?
John the Baptist said he was unworthy of loosening Christ's shoe-latchet. Kind of an odd thing to say for someone who "never committed the least personal sin in his entire life, not even a single, semi-deliberate venial sin", wouldn't you say?
I mean, the Baptist may not have been guilty of the sin of Pride, but it sounds like he had something more than just "original" sin on his mind when he made that statement.
No, sir. John the Baptist, like Mary, you, me, and every Saint whoever lived, was aught but a sinner who committed sin. His righteousness, just like mine, is as filthy rags compared to Christ. Mary and others may have been blessed, but none but Christ have been sinless.
Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Yes, I've definitely read that one.
I truly do not understand the impulse to extrapolate extraneous doctrine and add it to what is actually there in the New Testament.
As a Protestant, I find it wholly unnecessary, and I'm not trying to antagonize Catholics, but to embrace such doctrines, and, furthermore, be stridently dogmatic about them, in the utter absence of any logical scriptural basis, is just misguided, IMHO.
Even if such doctrine doesn't provide a stumblingblock to one's Brother or oneself, to stridently insist that such questionable conclusions are immutable Truth is just not reasonable.
Regardless, Peace be with you.
“I truly do not understand the impulse to extrapolate extraneous doctrine and add it to what is actually there in the New Testament.”
It’s the impulse of Satan, who blinds the minds of the unbelieving. Jesus plainly rebuked Satan with Scripture, asked his challengers “what does the Scripture say?” and declared “...the Scripture cannot be broken...” Anyone who pooh-poohs Scripture or arrogantly invents his own add-ons is in grave danger.