We have mentioned that the role of the Church as interpreter of Divine Scripture is necessitated by the inarticulateness of God.
There are things that God wanted us to know, so he dictated the Bible. But for some reason, God wasn’t able to explain things in a way that humans could easily understand.
Omnipotent in every other way, God needs help from really smart humans, Catholic priests, to figure out what He was trying to say in the Bible.
Baltimore Catechism #2, Question 10.
So, why is it that Catholic priests, headed by the Bishop of Rome, have the sole authority to interpret the Bible? Well, the Bible says so, at least according to the Pope.
Jesus supposedly said the peter/rock/church thing in Matthew 16. This is where Jesus said the bound-on-earth/bound-in-heaven thing. I’m sure Matthew just forgot to write down the except-for-Galileo part.
For its first three hundred years the Church was disorganized and disagreed on even the most basic question, Who was Jesus? Readers of Gore Vidal’s Julian, or of Wikipedia’s entry on “Arianism,” (not Aryanism), know that for the first three centuries there was violent disagreement about the trinity. Arianism asserted that God created Jesus.
If Jesus is truly God, he always existed, that is, he pre-existed Adam and Eve. Since Jesus’s role of redeemer wasn’t necessary until after the Fall, that means the Fall was predestined.
It’s a problem.
Things got so messy that the Roman Emperor had to step in and force an agreement. The question still isn’t settled, at least for Unitarians.
So God is unable to communicate clearly with us. And God isn’t very good at establishing a church. Even after two thousand years doctrinal and jurisdictional disputes within Christendom just won't go away.
When you throw in the blood shed in wars between his followers, Jesus, whatever He might have been, wasn’t much of a Messiah.
There are things that God wanted us to know, so he dictated the Bible. But for some reason, God wasn’t able to explain things in a way that humans could easily understand.
Omnipotent in every other way, God needs help from really smart humans, Catholic priests, to figure out what He was trying to say in the Bible.
Baltimore Catechism #2, Question 10.
Q. How shall we know the things which we are to believe?
A. We shall know the things which we are to believe from the Catholic Church, through which God speaks to us.
So, why is it that Catholic priests, headed by the Bishop of Rome, have the sole authority to interpret the Bible? Well, the Bible says so, at least according to the Pope.
Jesus supposedly said the peter/rock/church thing in Matthew 16. This is where Jesus said the bound-on-earth/bound-in-heaven thing. I’m sure Matthew just forgot to write down the except-for-Galileo part.
For its first three hundred years the Church was disorganized and disagreed on even the most basic question, Who was Jesus? Readers of Gore Vidal’s Julian, or of Wikipedia’s entry on “Arianism,” (not Aryanism), know that for the first three centuries there was violent disagreement about the trinity. Arianism asserted that God created Jesus.
If Jesus is truly God, he always existed, that is, he pre-existed Adam and Eve. Since Jesus’s role of redeemer wasn’t necessary until after the Fall, that means the Fall was predestined.
It’s a problem.
Things got so messy that the Roman Emperor had to step in and force an agreement. The question still isn’t settled, at least for Unitarians.
So God is unable to communicate clearly with us. And God isn’t very good at establishing a church. Even after two thousand years doctrinal and jurisdictional disputes within Christendom just won't go away.
When you throw in the blood shed in wars between his followers, Jesus, whatever He might have been, wasn’t much of a Messiah.
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