Holy Spirit Leads Us In Truth

Commenter: What the teachings of R.C have done is put God in a box, they have single handedly taken away His grace and His omnipotence. This removal of his grace and power is only limited to the confines of R.C.

Response: If the Catholic Church could do that wouldn’t it be more powerful than God?

Commenter: I know that God is big enough, powerful enough and loving enough to offer me all of His grace, and through His Holy Spirit I am taught.

Response: Yes, God can do anything He chooses to do. I assume your meaning is that you do not need the Catholic Church b/c God can work outside of it if He wants to. And I agree. However, when the Israelites were in the wilderness and the LORD sent serpents to bite them He also prescribed a remedy for the deadly snakebites. Moses lifted up a bronze serpent on a pole and told the people to look at it and they would be saved. What would have happened if Moses had said, “That is not necessary. God can heal them without me going to all that trouble.” Or what if some of the people dying of snake bite said, ” I don’t need to look at the snake Moses is lifting up. God can heal me without it.”

God is not bound by anything He does not bind himself by. But it is wise for us not to disobey through philosopy and empty deception. Col. 2:8. I hope you would follow the Truth even if it led you to the Catholic Church.

Q. Do you really believe that God would leave the world with the most important set of documents which teach us about Him, and not give us the ability to understand?

A. Of course we can understand. But understanding scripture as we read it and accurately interpreting it are two very different things. What I am saying is that individuals are not free to make up their own beliefs and Christian religion based on their own private interpretation. 2 Peter 1:20-21

We believe God provided for His people an even greater safeguard than merely being able to understand Sacred Scriptures. He gave us Scripture and the gift of an infallible authority to ensure the correct interpretation of those Sacred Scriptures according to the Faith of the Apostles.

Commenter: 2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”

Response: This is Paul an apostle and bishop writing to Timothy bishop of Ephesus. Based on the context this is not an absolute command for everyman. It is good for all of us to do but not incumbent upon us as it is upon the Shepherd of the Church of Christ.

Commenter: John 16:12-15… All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

Response: Jesus is speaking to the Apostles. This is not meant for everyman based on the context.

Commenter: 1 Cor. 2:10 & 12 but God has reveled it to us by his Spirit…..We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

Response: Of course.

Commenter: 2 Peter 1:20-21 Above all you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Response: I agree completely that Scripture is not a matter of private interpretation.

Commenter: John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13…But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into ALL truth.

Response: In a general sense of course the Holy Spirit guides us. But the HS does not guide every single individual who prayerfully sits down to read scripture into ALL TRUTH. If He did all Christians who base their faith solely upon the Bible would believe EXACTLY the same thing. Protestant see themselves as heirs of the Apostles and nothing less and so take these verses to apply to themselves, absolutely. But the reality of this belief is doctrinal chaos +40,000 different sects.

Catholics, on the other hand see the Pope and Bishops only, as direct the heirs of the Apostles. Therefore, this promise is to the Shepherds of the Church NOT to every single individual. And this has brought unity of doctrine. And anyone is able to see what the Church officially teaches in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Comment: It is by the authority of God’s own word and his Holy Spirit that I claim the ability to interpret scripture for myself. You, if you are in Christ and Christ is in you, are also able to do so.

Response: I assume you would use some of the above verses, with which I would have to disagree. But I wonder, then do you then believe that anyone who interprets Scripture differently than you must not be led by the Holy Spirit, since our God is NOT a God of confusion? I Cor. 14;33