I often say that Protestantism has to believe in scripture alone or else it cannot confirm it’s reason for existence. Protestantism asserts scripture alone because it is not in scripture.
Protestantism had to create new novel false exegesis, concepts, and definitions in order to separate from the original church.
God established His church for among many other reasons, as helps against our fallen nature. 1500 years later, man created faith alone and scripture alone in our fallen nature. This is why it appears that Catholics and Protestants are speaking a different language. It’s because we are. Catholics are speaking the language of a first century Jewish convert while Protestants are speaking a language of anti Catholicism. Many have no idea they are doing it.
This created a false construct of Christianity. Protestantism as a tradition then began to look at scripture through this false construct and judge Catholicism through this false construct. This is why modern Protestantism does not only look different from the faith of the disciples of the apostles but it is worlds apart from it. It’s not even close. The disciples of the apostles lived the Catholic faith.
A clear example is how the words faith, grace, and works were manipulated away from how the early church lived these things.
Let’s start with faith.
The apostles were Jews who never understood belief outside of obedience to the faith in a covenant relationship with God. So belief was always acted on inside covenant oath. Paul reminds us of this when he writes:
This is my blood of the New Covenant, do this...
5By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith, in all nations, for his name: 6Among whom are you also the called of Jesus Christ.
Rm 1:5
Paul is writing to those who were baptized into the church living the narrow road of transforming grace of the sacramental life in obedience to the faith with bishops, priests and deacons.
For this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and shouldest ordain priests in every city, as I also appointed thee:
Titus 1:5
We know this through multiple points of fact including Paul calling those in the church to obey the leaders of the church.
Obey your prelates and be subject to them. For they watch as being to render an account of your souls: that they may do this with joy and not with grief. For this is not expedient for you.
Hb 13:17
Prelates are the rulers of the church including bishops. It would also be foolish to think that Paul would be referring to obeying any prelates of any church, but only the one church of one doctrine that entered into the covenant relationship with God in obedience to the faith.
John 3:16 has to be a summation of belief because belief includes obedience to the New Covenant.
When it comes to works. Protestantism had to step back from seeing scripture as a whole and instead had to isolate specific verses applying more of a literalist approach to scripture interpretation instead of a more honest literal.
There is in scripture reference to an actual law of works. This has nothing to do with works in general.
But knowing that man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ; we also believe in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
Gal 2:16
Where is then thy boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Rm 3:27
The literal law of works was the boast of the baptized Pharisees. The literal law of works is the ceremonial law of Moses and circumcision. Baptized Pharisees boasted about keeping the law of works believing they were closer to God than the Gentiles in the church were because they kept the “ law of works.” The law of faith is obedience to the faith of the New Covenant.
AND some coming down from Judea, taught the brethren: That except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. Acts 15:1
5But there arose of the sect of the Pharisees some that believed, saying: They must be circumcised and be commanded to observe the law of Moses
Acts 15:5
As for grace. Again this is not ambiguous.
The prophecy fulfilled of the law written on our hearts as opposed to the Mosaic law of rule, fear, and temporal punishment for Jews only is grace given freely in order to be saved through following conscience. All of the sacraments of " the way" is grace given freely.
“ The Gentiles do what the law requires without ever knowing the law, their conscience bares witness.”
Rm 2:14
For this is the testament which I will make to the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my laws into their mind, and in their heart will I write them: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:
Hb 8:10
Baptism is grace given freely. Baptism is redemption through the destruction of original sin and entrance into the chosen people, the holy nation, the royal priesthood.
Whereunto baptism being of the like form, now saveth you also: not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the examination of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 3:21
Protestantism falsely reads Titus 3:5 in its goal of separation from the original church. Protestantism believes that this verse proves faith alone but like many other examples of false exegesis in Protestantism, it proves the opposite.
4But when the goodness and kindness of God our Saviour appeared: 5Not by the works of justice which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the laver of regeneration and renovation of the Holy Ghost. 6Whom he hath poured forth upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour: 7That, being justified by his grace, we may be heirs according to hope of life everlasting. 8It is a faithful saying. And these things I will have thee affirm constantly, that they who believe in God may be careful to excel in good works.
Titus 3:4
We do not come into the flesh of Christ, the church, the Royal priesthood, redemption from original sin, through our own justices but through the true laver of regeneration through renovation of the Holy Spirit. Of course after, we are called to always be careful to excel in good works. What did the Levitical priests do after they washed in the Laver? They entered the veil which Paul refers to as the flesh of Christ.
19Having therefore, brethren, a confidence in the entering into the holies by the blood of Christ: 20A new and living way which he hath dedicated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh: 21And a high priest over the house of God: 22Let us draw near with a true heart, in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our (((bodies washed with clean water.)))
Hb 19:19
And of course because the New Covenant is a marriage between a perfect groom and imperfect bride. The flesh of Christ is also the church.
19And I will espouse thee to me for ever: and I will espouse thee to me in justice, and judgment, and in mercy, and in commiserations.
Hosea 2:19
23And I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy on her that was without mercy. And I will say to that which was not my people: Thou art my people: and they shall say: Thou art my God.
Hosea 2:23
9For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the church: 30Because we are members of him, body, of his flesh and of his bones. 31For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother: and shall cleave to his wife. And they shall be two in one flesh. 32This is a great sacrament: but I speak in Christ and in the church.
Eph 5:29
Faith, grace, and works.
Hippolytus
"The Father of immortality sent the immortal Son and Word into the world, who came to man in order to wash him with water and the Spirit; and he, begetting us again to incorruption of soul and body, breathed into us the Spirit of life, and endued us with an incorruptible panoply. If, therefore, man has become immortal, he will also be God. And if he is made God by water and the Holy Spirit after the regeneration of the laver he is found to be also joint-heir with Christ after the resurrection from the dead. Wherefore I preach to this effect: Come, all ye kindreds of the nations, to the immortality of the baptism" (Discourse on the Holy Theophany 8 [A.D. 217]).
Even the understanding of the word belief was manipulated through time and a fork in the road that began to move people away from truth. This could have been a diabolical deception.
I first saw this in Marthaler’ s book “The Creed”.
With what I have previously presented on sola Scriptura and with what we have discussed today, it should be clear that with Marthalers understanding of the etymology of belief, it should be clear that when proper honest exegesis is applied to scripture, you should see that there is not one word in scripture that goes against the Catholic faith. It’s a Catholic book.
From the Creed we read:
“Etymologically, “believe” is related to a broad range of familiar words, some archaic, like life (dear, willing), some still in use, like “beloved,” and “love”. The history of “believe” in its various forms----ranging from Old English be loef to the early modern English synonym “beloved”, through the seventeenth- century misspelling that gave us “believe” instead of “beleeve”---is a chronicle of its gradual change in meaning…In the fourteenth century, about the time of John Wycliffe (1330-1384), important changes began to take place that mark the transition from Middle English to Modern English. A new word, “faith,” was coming into use as the English form of the Latin Fides. Early evidence of the transition can be seen in two versions of the English Bible attributed to Wycliffe, both based on the Latin Vulgate. In the first, bilefe translates fides, whereas in the second, “faith” appears in a number of places. By the seventeenth century the transition was virtually complete. The 1611 King James Authorized Version used the word “faith” 246 times, while using “belief” only once. The Oxford English Dictionary, which describes this evolution (s.v. belief), states,
…the word faith, though being through O[ld] F[rench] fei, faith, the etymological representative of the L[atin fides, it began in the 14th c[entury] to be used to translate the latter, and in course of time almost superseded “belief” esp[ecially] in theological language, leaving ‘belief” in great measure to merely intellectual process or state…Thus “belief in God” no longer means as much as “faith in God.”
Belief is obedience to the faith of the New Covenant.
Comments