With over 33,000 competing Protestant interpretations of the Bible since Protestantism began in the 1500's...?

Question

How does a non-Christian who knows nothing about the Christian faith decide where to go to be instructed by someone with authority to authentically interpret the Bible?

I'm speaking as someone who used to be in this dilemma as a non-Christian. It was an easy choice once I decided to trust completely in Jesus and once I found out by process of elimination that the Catholic Church is the only one that is 2,000 years old and was founded by Jesus.


Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He replied, "How can I, unless someone instructs me?" So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him.
- Acts 8: 30-31
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Answer 1

Private interpretation of biblical doctrine is not the same as personal reading of the Bible for spiritual growth. The Catholic Church continues to protect the doctrinal interpretation of scripture as a matter beyond the decision of individual readers, but at the same time, in the strongest language encourages the personal, private reading and study of the sacred texts. If the inspired word is read in a spirit of faith and prayer, the Holy Spirit will protect from error and lead the reader to God's true message for his or her life.

The critical word here is "authority." Who has the authority to decide the proper doctrinal interpretation of scripture passages? Many Christians maintain that that this authority belongs to the individual believer. Catholics maintain that this authority was given by Jesus to his followers as a group under their proper leaders; in other words, the authority to decide what is the saving truth and what is the norm of Christian living revealed by the Bible is vested in the Church with its appointed leaders.

An example may help to focus the point at issue. In chapter 13 of John's Gospel, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper. Most gospel readers probably interpret "washing one another's feet" as a symbol of service to others, an encouragement to love in action, or humility in doing good to others. "I do not need to wash feet literally to fulfill the command of Jesus; I do it by serving others. Fine, but who tells you to interpret the text this way? There is nothing in the reading itself to indicate that Jesus did not mean a physical washing of physical feet. Your authority for reading the text that way is not coming from the Bible but from outside it.

The Catholic admits this. The Bible does not interpret itself but needs an authentic interpreter. This, for the Catholic, is the community of believers, the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit through its leaders.

Peace and every blessing!

Answer 2

To counter some incorrect statements made so a techniques: a million) The divinity of Jesus grow to be created on the council of Nicaea in the 300 and sixty 5 days 325. The early Christians believed that Jesus grow to be the SON of God, no longer that he grow to be God himself. 2) The Catholic church grow to be no longer one and united until eventually protestantism. In 1054, the leaders of the Roman Catholic and the Greek Orthodox church homes the two excommunicated one yet another (the excommunications weren't lifted until eventually 1965). yet there were different "substitute concept systems" in the previous that: see Arianism, Nestorians, Monophysites. 3) Luther is credited with commencing the Protestant Reformation circa 1517. This had no longer something to do with divorce or the English King Henry VIII. The separation of the Church of britain from the Catholic Chruch did no longer commence until eventually approximately 1533.

Answer 3

Error, the Catholic church is not the only one that is 2,000 years old. The christian gnostics go back just as far if not further and the two systems were competing even during Jesus’ time (do some research on the development of Christianity before making such claims). Now to your question, I agree with you in some ways. Catholics enjoy a consistent doctrine and they don’t have to interpret anything, on the other hand, Protestants don’t have to rely on the opinions of others, BUT, they are relying on the NT which was complied by the Catholics in the first place, so they’re basically Catholics anyway. But the Protestant world is a mass of confusion with their thousands of denominations (and each one is right and guided by the holy spirit) and they must admit they have a serious problem.

Answer 4

You can't. There are new Christian denominations and many of them are going to become mainstream religions. First, it was Protestants and Orthodox, then the Anglican church. Now we have Mormons, Jehovah's witnesses, Pentecostal, and Seventh-day adventists. A person who wishes to convert to Christianity can't know the authenticity of the bible. They will be confused unless they trace the churches to its roots: the Catholic church.

Answer 5

Start by getting yourself a good study bible, such as the NIV Study Bible or the MacArthur Study Bible. I use a Thompson's Chain Reference bible, but own many other versions. Then get the Strongest Strong's NIV Concordance so you can look up words occurring in all verses of the bible. This is a great tool for person, word, or thematic studies and is an important part of proper biblical hermeneutics.

Strongest Strong’s Concordance:
http://www.amazon.com/Strongest-Strongs-Exhaustive-Concordance-Bible/dp/0310233437/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0766306-2581655?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173733217&sr=8-1

To learn how the books of the bible came to be assembled as such see: http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/canons.stm

Catholic and Episcopal bibles have the same number of canonical books. The Catholic and Episcopal bibles include what Protestants consider as non-canonical books, known as the Deuterocanonical books (Catholic) or the Apocrypha (Episcopal). Catholics consider the Deuterocanonical books as part of their biblical canon, while Episcopalians consider the Apocrypha to be of historical and educational value.

When scholarly St. Jerome was asked to translate the apocryphal books into Latin by Damasus, the Bishop of Rome, he did so only under protest. This was because he knew his Hebrew text well and also that they were not authentic parts of the Jewish Canon. Hence, although Jerome could discern their (at best) secondary status, he did translate these books for the Latin Vulgate. Today they also appear in Roman Catholic versions such as the New American Bible and the Jerusalem Bible, and usually in such ecumenical versions as the New English Bible, the Revised English Bible, and the New Revised Standard Version.

Even the Roman Catholic Church did not officially recognize the Apocrypha as canonical until the Counter-Reformation Period (1500's). One reason that the Vatican did this was that a few of her teachings, such as praying for the dead, are found in the Apocrypha. Actually, the Apocrypha is largely Jewish literature and history, and not directly relevant to Christian doctrine. While not considered inspired by Protestants, some of these books are worth reading from a cultural and historical viewpoint, after one has a firm grip on the inspired books of the Hebrew Canon.

Many versions of the bible existed before the King James and the advent of mass printing.
See: http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/

For an analysis of the various translations of the bible see:
http://faith.propadeutic.com/questions.html

For accurate translations of the bible at the literal level use the NASB or ESV translations.

If you run across what you think is a biblical contradiction, please study the two sites' content below for a comprehensive list of so-called biblical contradictions.

http://kingdavid8.com/Contradictions/Home.html
http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/bible.htm

Accuracy of bible:
http://www.carm.org/questions/trustbible.htm
http://www.carm.org/demo2/bible/reliable.htm



NIV Study Bible:
http://www.amazon.com/Zondervan-NIV-Study-Bible/dp/0310929555/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0766306-2581655?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173733274&sr=8-1

Thompson Chain-Reference Bible:
http://www.kirkbride.com/index.html

MacArthur Study Bible:
http://www.amazon.com/MacArthur-Study-Bible-Revised-Updated/dp/0718018990/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/002-0766306-2581655?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173733445&sr=8-3

Answer 6

Protestants falsely set up the Bible in opposition to the authority given by God only to the authentic and LIVING church, and when an apparent conflict exists, they simpy reintepret scripture, according to their own whims.

What a system!

Answer 7

The Catholic Church is the richest organization in the world---therefore, the most corrupt. It is based on the traditions of man---not Jesus. I would not go as far as to say that they aren't correct in certain areas---like stigmata and exorcisms, but it is idolistic. God is a jealous God and His first commandment is to have nor worship no other gods before Me. Why do Catholics pray to the Blessed Mother first? Why do they believe that only priests can issue the sacraments which are necessary in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? John 3:16---that's our direct line to God, through His Son---not confession in the church with a few hail Mary's. Split a piece of wood and I am there. Lift a stone and you will find Me. Don't need an ostentatious display of wealth to worship. Take it from me, I am the Devil, it's a blessing and a curse at the same time, but I earned it through stigmata.

Answer 8

Go to an authority who understands the bible from a scholarly and historical standpoint, not someone who wants to advance their religious views. You'll get a less biased opinion by a secular study of the bible as opposed to a spiritual one, which can have many versions.

Also, the Catholic Church was not founded by Jesus. The books of the bible were written decades after his death, and a select few were pieced together in the second century A.D. in the late Roman empire, by a group of male council members.

History is more revealing than myth.

Answer 9

Simply put, they need to look for authority. The Catholic Church has it and everybody else doesn't.

Answer 10

The Catholic Church was founded by Jesus? Really? So Saint Paul had nothing to do with it?