Just one chapter from the Bible is all one [sorta] needs to read in order to understand that being Catholic is the key to being unified.
Yes, all of the Bible is great for learning about salvation history. Yes, all of the Bible is great for learning how Jesus is also the Christ. Yes, all of the Bible is great for recognizing the papacy. Yes, all of the Bible is great for learning the fundamentals of the Gospel. But all of that information is accessible by listening to the Church as well! However, in a synergistic way, because the Bible is a product of the Church, it is part of the means in which we do in fact listen to the Church (Zing!).
The seventeenth chapter of John shows us that Jesus’ wish is for his Church is to be unified.
John 17:21: I pray… that they may all be one.
But Jesus also tells us how that unity is achieved! And interestingly, it’s all part of the same prayer!
John 17:18: As you [= Father] sent me into the world, so I have sent them [= apostles] into the world.
John 17:20: I do not pray for these only, but also those who believe in me through their [= Apostles] word…
Obedience to the hierarchy’s teachings equals obedience to Jesus’ teachings, and such obedience is how Jesus intended for his Church to be unified.
Protestant assumptions often include the belief that unity is a result of obeying the scriptures. However, the self-evident display of Protestant disunity (groups that “see” different “things” in the scriptures) proves that what is needed is a voice that is at least as authoritative as the scriptures to interpret the scriptures. Hmmm… it’s almost as if Jesus built a Church–the Catholic Church!
And why is Jesus’ wish for unity important?
John 17:23: …that they may be perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
The truth is that all Protestant sects listen to different voices and add chaos to the world, while the Catholic Church is the voice that Jesus was speaking of. The Catholic Church is the plumb line of orthodoxy–the means in which Jesus can say:
Luke 10:16: He who hears you hears me.
…so that…
Mathew 28:20: I am with you always
A most excellent post, Czar. How did we as Protestant Christians, not see that there was truly NO UNITY in the way we proceeded to live out our “biblical Christianity” by way of our own multitudinous interpretations? There has to be an outside authority. The bible is not a “wireless blue tooth speaker” direct from heaven, instead it is “silent” until opened and read under the inspiration by the Holy Spirit by the Church that put it together .
But the Catholic Church is like a wireless Blue tooth enabled speaker with a direct connect to heaven, promised that way by Christ himself. (BTW, I can see some great photoshop opportunites Commisar in these thoughts)
I was talking to another convert yesterday, and he asked me the same same kind of question. That is, “How did we not ever see how illogical sola scriptura is?” I answered, “We DID see it! That’s why we’re now Catholic.”
Thanks, Russ.
You’re back. I like.
Thanks.
I’m just one Czar, but I’ll do what I can:)
“The Church is the plumb line of orthodoxy…” Great phrase! As an adult convert to The Church from a Congregational background, your words ring True. Thanks!
Welcome home, Lorraine!
Great post! Just reading the Book of Acts reveals to us an organized visible Church that held councils, ordained bishops and priests, and had a central unity in faith. Definitely no the sola scriptura model of Protestantism. I hope more Christians take unity seriously, and soon. Frankly, I think the divided Body of Christ only worsens the world, and look at the rampant rise of secularism, soulless materialism, and Islam in once strong Christian nations as the proof.
For Protestants, yes it is a complete rejection of the denominational anarchy and an embrace of the Catholic faith. The Vatican should be cautious, however, in meting out to the Orthodox the “Canossa treatment.” The divisions in that situation are faults on both sides.