Being the Apostles received from Jesus Himself the authority to preach and that it has only been passed down thru the Catholic Church. Where do protestants receive their authoirity?
2007-04-04 05:59:48 · 25 answers · asked by tebone0315 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Where is the authority to claim Protestants can rightly interpret the Bible?
2007-04-04 06:14:29 · update #1
Good question !
Ignorant and illiterate answers..............especially Dumilina.
The Bible plainly teaches that Christ established a divine society, when He gave the Apostles the power to teach (Matt. xxviii. 19; Mark xvi. 15), to govern (Matt, xviii. 18; John xx. 21), and to sanctify the souls of men (Matt, xxviii. 20; John xx. 22; Luke xxii. 19). Christ's true followers are to accept their teaching (Mark xvi. 16), obey their commandments (Luke x. 16; Matt, xviii. 17), and to use the divine means of sanc-tifkation (John iii. 5; vi. 54) which Christ instituted.
The Church is a divine society, divine in its origin, and supernatural in its end and means. It is, therefore, unfailing and perpetual, always opposed by the world as was Christ, her divine Founder, and always conquering her enemies, as Christ once won the victory of the Resurrection through the seeming failure of the Cross.
Christ did not say, "Sit down and write Bibles and scatter them over the earth, and let every man read his Bible and judge for himself." If Christ had said that, there would never have been a Christianity on the earth at all, but a Babylon and confusion instead, and never one Church, the union of one body. Hence, Christ never said to His Apostles, "Go and write Bibles and distribute them, and let everyone judge for himself." That injunction was reserved for the Sixteenth Century, and we have seen the result of it. Ever since the Sixteenth Century there have been springing up religion upon religion, and churches upon churches, all fighting and quarreling with one another, and all because of the private interpretation of the Bible.
Christ sent His Apostles with authority to teach all nations, and never gave them any command of writing the Bible. And the Apostles went forth and preached everywhere, and planted the Church of God throughout the earth, but never thought of writing.
2007-04-04 06:10:59 · answer #1 · answered by cashelmara 7 · 3⤊ 5⤋
Protestants (myself being one of them) do not believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the direct descendent of the early Church; we believe Catholics incorporated many teachings and commandments of men that were not imposed by Jesus. To Protestants, the Roman Catholic claim that it's the first, true and only church is unsubstantiated; instead, we believe the Roman Catholic Church represents a later (not earlier) form of adopted worship.
So to us, our authority to preach and teach comes from the very same source that Roman Catholics believe they get theirs: the great commission.
While we all can agree to disagree (and even ask challenging questions to try and understand each other), fighting among ourselves isn't what Jesus wished when He prayed that we would all be one.
2007-04-04 14:06:56 · answer #2 · answered by Suzanne: YPA 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The Pope is a christian, and the Catholic denomination is a well-organised one, usually preaching the gospel, sometimes rather ritualistic. But ultimately the head of the Church (that is, all saved by Christ) is Christ. He has a living union with His Church through the Holy Spirit - John 15.
Certainly its advisable for a preacher to be trained, and every denomination will have training. Some areas will be a lot better than the Catholics (e.g. healing), but the Catholics have good training in some areas of minstry I would imagine.
If we are talking legitimacy of a particular church denomination, I think the orthodox one has the best claim, since Paul's teaching was most extensive and was mainly to Greek churches !
That whole idea of one individual pushing himself over others is a subject of 1 Corinthians. Apollos is not better than Paul, Paul is not better than Cephas (Peter) ... they are all God's servants to minister the message to the Corinthians.
2007-04-04 13:34:35 · answer #3 · answered by Cader and Glyder scrambler 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Just because the Catholic Church claims all authority comes thru them doesn't make it true. Protestants receive their authority from the Bible.
2007-04-04 13:12:40 · answer #4 · answered by tooyoung2bagrannybabe 7 · 3⤊ 2⤋
I would say they receive it from God atleast the Holy Spirit should be leading. If the Holy Spirit isn't leading then they are in the wrong business. It doesn't matter whether a person is Catholic or Protestant, unless they feel the call comes from God then they don't need to be priest or preachers. Remember when Christ died many things changed. The Catholics believe in praying through Mary, we as protestants believe you can go directly to God. We believe that because when Christ died there was an earth quake and the veil to the temple was torn into thus allowing anyone to enter.
2007-04-04 13:06:41 · answer #5 · answered by grandmabonnie 3 · 2⤊ 3⤋
Why do you assume the Catholic Church is the inheritor of Jesus Christ's authority?
I challenge you to re-think this assumption. It is built upon centuries of propaganda.
What constitutes a church according to the Bible itself? The answer will definately not be the Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant 'church' as they love to call themselves.
2007-04-04 13:45:05 · answer #6 · answered by realchurchhistorian 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
By God through Jesus Christ. The scriptures clearly say that we are to bring the Gospel to the world, there is no problem with that, is there? And as the scriptures say, we are in temple of the Holy Spirit. What earthly organization, whether religious or not, has the authority over God? I would say none.
2007-04-04 13:19:14 · answer #7 · answered by Christian Sinner 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
If we are ALL creations of the one god, why do we need to be given authority by another human being? God exists within each and every on of us. Each one of us knows if we are being truthful or not. If you feel god within you and speak from that place in truth, you have the authority. The catholic church, I'm sorry to say has been more about fear and controlling the masses than spreading the true message of god for a really long time now.
I know. I went to catholic school for 8years. Nuns priests and all. It's all about shame, fear, hell, guilt and never being good enough. I really don't think that's the true message of god.
2007-04-04 13:06:48 · answer #8 · answered by siddartha360 2 · 1⤊ 3⤋
Jesus gave the authority to His disciples... who is basically anyone who follows Him and Him alone. Jesus did not start a 'denomination' of a church... he started a faith based following....
the 'religious' are the ones who pushed to have him crucified... never, did Jesus say that the religious were the holy ones.... so I will take that as the whole religion itself is not what we are to follow, but Christ alone
and thru Him we have the authority to share the Good news of the bible ...
my authority comes from Jesus alone
2007-04-04 13:08:46 · answer #9 · answered by livinintheword † 6 · 3⤊ 2⤋
Jesus. Text of Matt.28:19
2007-04-04 13:07:54 · answer #10 · answered by jefferyspringer57@sbcglobal.net 7 · 3⤊ 2⤋