Does reading the Bible without a Priest or teacher create divisions and schisms in Christianity ?

Answer 1

Pastor Billy says: first off not all priests are bible scholars however a magisterium (authentic teaching authority) is required and that involves one which has apostolic succession back to Jesus and the apostles as first bishops. Reading the bible doesn't create division, false interpretation does.

read here what John Henry Newman had to say on this topic:

"To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant." John Henry Cardinal Newman
To justify its break from the Catholic Church, Protestantism has adopted the strategy of pitting the Holy Scripture against the Church. The result is a false dilemma whereby one is to chose between Holy Scripture and the "traditions of men"...the Catholic Church. Fifteen hundred years of Christianity and the working of the Holy Spirit were swept away with the cavalier and unbiblical charge that it is merely the "traditions of men."
Protestantism is the best example of following the "traditions of men." Virtually every Protestant church, denomination, sect and cult can be traced to some human founder(s) within the past 500 years. Whether it is Luther, Calvin, King Henry VIII, Wesley, Knox, Joseph Smith (Mormon), Russell (JW), Eddy (Christian Scientist) or any number cropping up to this very day, all Protestants follow the "traditions of men." Some, such as Lutherans, use the very name of their founder in their denomination name. Others closely identify with their founders, such as those who call themselves "Calvinists." All approach the Bible and interpret it in accordance with the "traditions of men" they have inherited

"I am going to inquire why it is, that, in this intelligent nation, and in this rational nineteenth century, we Catholics are so despised and hated by our own countrymen, with whom we have lived all our lives, that they are prompt to believe any story, however extravagant, that is told to our disadvantage; as if beyond a doubt we were, every one of us, either brutishly deluded or preternaturally hypocritical, and they themselves, on the contrary were in comparison of us absolute specimens of sagacity, wisdom, uprightness, manly virtue, and enlightened Christianity. I am not inquiring why they are not Catholics themselves, but why they are so angry with those who are. Protestants differ amongst themselves, without calling each other fools and knaves."

The point is that Fundamentalists are quite right in believing the Bible is inspired, but their reasons for so believing are inadequate because knowledge of the inspiration of the Bible can be based only on an authority established by God to tell us the Bible is inspired, and that authority is the Church.

And this is where a more serious problem comes in. It seems to some that it makes little difference why one believes in the Bible's inspiration, just so one believes in it. But the basis for one's belief in its inspiration directly affects how one goes about interpreting the Bible. The Catholic believes in inspiration because the Church tells him so--that's putting it bluntly--and that same Church has the authority to interpret the inspired text. Fundamentalists believe in inspiration, though on weak grounds, but they have no interpreting authority other than themselves.

Cardinal Newman put it this way in an essay on inspiration first published in 1884: "Surely then, if the revelations and lessons in Scripture are addressed to us personally and practically, the presence among us of a formal judge and standing expositor of its words is imperative. It is antecedently unreasonable to suppose that a book so complex, so unsystematic, in parts so obscure, the outcome of so many minds, times, and places, should be given us from above without the safeguard of some authority; as if it could possibly from the nature of the case, interpret itself.Its inspiration does but guarantee its truth, not its interpretation. How are private readers satisfactorily to distinguish what is didactic and what is historical, what is fact and what is vision, what is allegorical and what is literal, what is [idiomatic] and what is grammatical, what is enunciated formally and what occurs defter, what is only of temporary and what is of lasting obligations. Such is our natural anticipation, and it is only too exactly justified in the events of the last three centuries, in the many countries where private judgment on the text of Scripture has prevailed. The gift of inspiration requires as its complement the gift of infallibility."

The advantages of the Catholic approach are two: First, the inspiration is really proved, not just "felt." Second, the main fact behind the proof--the fact of an infallible, teaching Church--leads one naturally to an answer to the problem that troubled the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:31): How is one to know what interpretations are right? The same Church that authenticates the Bible, that establishes its inspiration, is the authority set up by Christ to interpret his Word.

Answer 2

So became the church in Corinth a "new" schism from the only in Jerusalem? How with regard to the only in Colossae? Or Galatia? apparently, you fairly don't be attentive to what you're speaking approximately. maximum church homes initiate while a house church turns into too super, then we "hive" off to initiate yet another. this is incredibly Biblical. it would be particularly tricky for all believers to fulfill in one construction, does no longer it? i be attentive to there have been church splits that ensue because of the fact of motives that are unbiblical, yet that's what occurs while human beings enable their flesh to get interior the way of what the Scripture teaches. i'd desire to comfortably walk into maximum Protestant church homes and worship and not using a concern, because their center ideals are Biblical, even however we would disagree on some factors. have faith me, we don't pick a clergyman or bishop controlling us by using conserving the reality from us and telling us what they pick us to be attentive to. Christ is the top of the Church and could reason the upward push, which will bring about new assemblies, anyplace He chooses.

Answer 3

Of course it does, and even if it is with a priest or teacher! Do you think every priest and teacher agrees amongst themselves exactly how the Bible is to be read and the exact meaning of each passage in the Bible, no! This is why there was an apostacy. Soon after Jesus was crucified, the prophets and apostles too were crucified. The prophets and apostles DID all agree as to what the correct reading of the Bible was because they recieved relelation directly from God. Today there are many different christian religions because after revelations disappeared with the deaths of God's prophets and apostles here on earth, men read and interpreted the Bible the best they could, but without revelation from God, men were confused and disagreed about how the Bible was to be read (literally, figuratively, how much of each?) and created their own churches based on their understandings of the Bible (without the guidance of revelation).

God ended the apostacy, however and called another prophet and 12 apsotles as was his organization when he was here on earth. Today the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon church) has this same organization after God called Joseph Smith as a prophet and again revealed to him truth from heaven. Now we can again be guided in our reading of the Bible and God has revealed new revelations for our time now, just as he did to the apostles and prophets when he was here on earth. God is not silent, but speaks to us today through his prophet and 12 apostles in his true church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Answer 4

Not any more than reading it with a priest or teacher would. In surveys of "beliefs" or dogmas, it was shown that different leaders of various congregations had widely different beliefs, i.e protestants with catholic beliefs ans vice versa.

Now if you actually read it from an objective viewpoint, you'll see that it is totally made up.

Answer 5

Nope there are plenty of ministers etc who disagree with each other! There are diffferent interpretaiosn of the bible. Thats why we have the Holy Spirit!

Answer 6

nope it doesnt ive been told to consult them if i didnt understand anything in it

kinda like muslims telling me to read the quran with the help of an imam or scholar in case i couldnt understand

more like if i said hey this is crap and they can spoon feed me the meaning of things that are non sensical to begin with

Answer 7

no,but will probably set you free from them.