yes that is very true , the faithful were indeed warned about the great apostacy. and yes it did infiltrate the congregations, and it came from men in the congregations, just as the bible foretold.
From where I stand, following an unbroken tradition of continuous and undifferentiated teaching ... it is you who are the apostate ... you have set up a rival congregation. The real saints are the ones who work from within, to make things right, who, motivated by love, bear with the faults of their neighbour (Am I without fault?) and not the ones who set themselves up in opposition.
the bible really is the word of God and always comes true. and in the 4th century the finalizing of the great apostacy was declared.
You link two statements together where no actual link exists ... this is your tradition, not the Bible's.
"Jesus saith to them: But whom do you say that I am?
Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God." Matthew 16:15-16.
Christology was founded on verses such as this, and others, that demonstrate the divinity of the man ... Jesus Christ is 'true God, and true man' as we confess, and theology is still unpacking the meaning of that credal statement ... but we believe as His followers believed.
And there are those, who cannot or choose not to believe, who choose to qualify, to condition and limit that belief, to determine the Bible according to themselves. It is an indisputable fact that Catholic and Orthodox believe in the Absolute Truth of Scripture, absolutely. Your doctrines, like so many other, make that Word provisional ...
... do not be mistaken, you are free to believe as you will, but please do not try and tell me I am in error ... because I will refute you.
"And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church... "
If you believed the Bible, you would believe that statement. If you believed that statement, you would love his Church for His sake.
"and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
You have no faith in Him if you walk away.
"And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven."
This is a clear commission entrusted to Peter and his successors ... the Church ... as the Bible clearly demonstrates. It is you who declare that what that Church 'binds on earth' is apostacy, so you're saying that Jesus was wrong.
but now in the last days the true knowledge is abundant indeed, and falsehood is very clear to see.
Indeed it is. There are those who love the Church that He founded, for all her faults, and those who rail against it.
and the spurious words that were added to the bible have been revealed and done away with.
According to the very recent opinions of those with a very limited knowledge of the language of the Bible, and no sense of its time and place.
It is an inescapable fact that the Bible was written by the people, inspired by God, but written by men. It was not a Book that Abraham stumbled across on his travels, nor was it a manual Our Lord left at His ascension.
The Sacred Scriptures are the witness of the believing community, that others might come to know the truth, and that error might be refuted, but the community — the Tradition — was there before the Scripture, and those Scriptures rightly belong to the community, it is they who received and accepted them as accurately reflecting what they have witnessed, what they have been told, and what they believe ... and what they have come to know. If you want to understand the truth of Scripture, you enquire of the community to which it belongs, or you make it up for yourself.
For there are three witness bearers, the spirit and the water and the blood, and the three are in agreement. 1 John 5:7-8
Amen! The Spirit is the Holy Spirit, the Parclete, and the water is the confession we make in Baptism, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and the blood is the Eucharist ... of He Who Went Before to overcome death and draw all men to Himself.
That is what the Apostles preached. That is what I believe. That is what the first Christians believed. I profess the same belief as them. Much as you would argue otherwise, the evidence is that the Creed was not composed in some back room by a cabal in the fourth or any other century, the Creed is founded on the words of the Baptismal Rites that were instituted at the very outset ... before some of the Scriptures were even written.
The great Council of Nicea in 325 was not the idea of the Emperor Constantine, nor of some 300 bishops who decided "now for something completely different" ... the Council was called to settle a dispute that was raised by the laity who lived and worked in the docks, the simple laity and the faithful of the Church, who listened to a gifted preacher (Arius) and said ... "Wait! This is not what I was taught, this is not what I believe! This is not the oath I took at my baptism!" And took their complaint to the Bishop...
The Symbol of Nicea, the profession of faith, was based on those baptismal words, and affirmed what the faithful believed.
Thomas
