How does the Catholic faith explain these verses?

Question

"And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." Matthew 23:9

Their priests are called Father.

"..in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving" 1st Timothy 4:1-4

The priest is not supposed to marry and they can't eat meat on Fridays.

According to this verse, they have departed from the faith.

rukidding,

The one true church was started by Christ upon his death. The Catholic church was formed over 500 years later. That makes it impossible to be the true church.

BigPappa,

The entire verse reads
Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

The epistle that is mentioned is the Bible, it is not the creed books that men have written.

"Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men," Mark 7:7-8

churchmusicgirl,

..you will find Jesus warning people not to give their leaders (religious or not) that which is reserved for God.

Exactly my point. Father, in religious aspects, is reserved for God

For all to read:

http://www.bible.ca/cath-why-I-left.htm

Answer 1

I'm doomed!! I use to call my Father, Father.

Answer 2

Yes, our priests are called father, but because they are a spiritual advisor and sacrament-performer, and that is a term of respect. That is different than the father forbidden in the Bible; that passage is more along the lines of the first commandment.

They're still not supposed to marry, and that hasn't changed. The thing that might be confusing you is that if a man is already married and he wants to become a priest, some dioceses will allow that with Rome's permission. Still, those men are few and far between.

I don't know about the eating habits of priests... I've never heard any of them say anything about it either way. But does it really matter? No. You might recall the verse in which Peter says that it is not what enters the mouth that defiles a man but what leaves it.

Answer 3

I suppose you just call your male parent "dad," right? Semantics, my friend, that's all it is. Additionally, we can eat meat on Fridays. Where've you been? Not eating meat was a practice of sacrifice to remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross each Friday. I guess that would be a terrible thing to do. Indeed, we are charged with still doing something to remember the Lord's sacrifice each Friday, but it has not been limited to not eating meat. I

If you are truly interested in why priests are not allowed to marry, you can contact me and I will be happy to explain it. However, I think this is merely a condemnation. I think it might be better for you to remove the plank from your own eye, first.


Catholics rely on the Bible as the Word of God as well as tradition since they accept the truth of the Bible as having been written to explain the world around them in the Old Testament and to evangelize certain audiences in the New Testament. Certain occurrences were omitted in the New Testament as unimportant. The writer decided that based on how best to convince the reader of the central truth. God did not dictate the Bible to it's writers but, rather, inspired them.

How do you explain that Saint Paul told many in his epistles that they should not marry, whether or not they were ministers of the faith? How do you explain the inconsistencies of the Bible or how slavery and incest were acceptable within it? How do you explain that the Catholic Church as been around for over two thousand years and most evangelical churches, if not all, have not existed for even 25 years yet?

The fact remains that the Catholic Church is the one true church and it is you, not I who have strayed from the faith.

Answer 4

If we followed the verse from Matthew literally, we would not be able to call the men who sired us "Dad," "Daddy," "Papa," "Father," etc. If you put the verse back into context, you will find Jesus warning people not to give their leaders (religious or not) that which is reserved for God.

The letter from 1st Timothy was written by a human man to a specific group of people who were experiencing a specific event at a specific time. While the epistles can all be good guidelines and teaching guides, they were not written to be universal teaching documents.

Answer 5

Then why do Protestants call their biological father “father”? It says not to call anyone on earth “father” does it not? BTW, those Catholics made your NT didn’t they? They picked & chose the books of the NT, no? Oh, and where in your NT does it say that the NT is “the word of God” or anything about “sola scriptura”?. You hypocrites! Actually Catholics are far closer to original Christianity and Protestantism is a new religion and didn’t exist before Luther, right? I’m sure the world was waiting two millennia for the real Christianity (Protestantism). Having said that the Catholics are not perfect either since they (Romans) hijacked the original Christian religion which is gnosticism ,hehe.

Answer 6

that's ordinary. Terestrial refers to life on earth. Terra (or terra firma) is latin and Greek for "earth". So Terestrial is a life type made out of flesh able to residing on earth. Celestial refers back to the celebrities, the textile heavens. (interior the Bible 3 heavens are spoke of: earth's ecosystem the place there is air and birds fly...that's the inheritance of logically adequate, airplane pilots.....then there is the heaven of area the place many stars, planets, asteroids, comets, and so on are: the logical inheritance of astronauts or celeb trekkers....the third and maximum heaven is the residing house of spirit creatures who have not got flesh and bones Luke 24:39 and is the place Jehovah God and his son Jesus and the people chosen to be judges pass stay as spirit creatures with the angels...a million Cor. 6:2, 3, 15:50) Mormons have faith you are able to desire to be righteous or reliable adequate to get to a minimum of one or the different and in case you're no longer reliable adequate, you survive the earth. As a Catholic (or some previous Protestant faiths), you do no longer comprehend that the Bible teaches a pair of righteous new earth the place the animals do no longer consume meat and play with people and all and sundry reliable and undesirable who've ever lived get resurrected back to earth to learn Bible certainty. Isaiah sixty 5:17-sixty six:a million, Matthew 5:5, 6:10, Isaiah 11:6-9, Psalm 37 (be conscious vs 29), seventy 8:sixty 9, Eccles. a million:4, Psalm 148, extra.... I easily won't be able to fathom that a Catholic church could settle for a seminary degree from a Mormon college. The theologies are incredibly diverse much extra so than between Catholic and mainline Protestant. i'm one among Jehovah's Witnesses. I easily have a level from a Baptist seminary before before I ever heard of JWs. Debbie

Answer 7

Here's what they say about Fathers (It's a stretch):

The word Father is used in the New Testament to mean a teacher of spiritual things, by whose means the soul of man is born again into the likeness of Christ: "For if you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, by the gospel, I have begotten you. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ" (1 Corinthians 4:15, 16; cf. Galatians 4:19). The first teachers of Christianity seem to be collectively spoken of as "the Fathers" (2 Peter 3:4).

They have no Scripture to back up there fasting of meat besides Papal decree.

Answer 8

Jesus founded a church, not a bible, and he gave sweeping and unqualified power and authority only to his church, not the bible.

There was only one Christian church continually in existence for the first 1500 years of church history. It was the Catholic church, and no other. The very same Catholic church that exists today, with Jesus Christ as its' head.

We have the promises of Christ on which to rely for that.

Have you plucked out your eye and cut off your hand yet? If not, you better get out your bible and read that section VERY CAREFULLY!

You're the one who has departed from the faith.

Answer 9

You are probably a fundamentalist:
You can't just take one verse and reject the rest. Check this out:
Paul regularly referred to Timothy as his child: "Therefore I sent to you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ" (1 Cor. 4:17); "To Timothy, my true child in the faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord" (1 Tim. 1:2); "To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord" (2 Tim. 1:2).

Lookey at that Paul is his father...
From here:
http://www.catholic.com/library/call_no_man_father.asp

The second is a silly arguement. No one forces the priests (of the Latin Rite) to give up marriage, they give it up for God of their own accord. There are a few who betray their oaths and thus, are not longer able to practice as priests under most circumstances. The Latin Rite calls for priest to be "one like Jesus." Thus, male and celibate.

Let's see who departed from faith...

"I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions, just as I handed them on to you. " 1 cor 11:2

Look at that, there are many Christian sect who have left Catholicism and made up their own traditions to replace the ancient Traditions of the Catholic church.

Easy with the context my friend.

Answer 10

If you are truley a Catholic then you already know the answer; it's the same answer they give for any question you have
1. It's faith
2. Just because.
It's worse than dealing with a 2 year old.
They don't have the answers so they don't try to explain anything.

Answer 11

I agree with you. The Catholic Church HAS departed from the true path that Jesus Christ has set up. They are a false religion and the whore of the Earth.