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Bible Alone? Part 4

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Over the last few days I’ve been looking at the subject of Sola Scriptura. Today I would like to discuss the alternative to Sola Scriptura which I realized made more sense of both history and the Biblical data…

The Alternative: Apostolic Authority

Ironically, the answer itself was in Scripture. After the Ascension, writing the New Testament wasn’t the priority because it wasn’t what Jesus commanded the Apostles to do. At the Great Commission Jesus told His disciples to “teach” all nations what He had taught them (as opposed to write a book). If you wanted to know the truth in c. 30AD you would go to Jesus. Who would you go to after the Ascension? You would go to the Apostles He taught and commissioned. It was this living Tradition that sustained the Church – primarily by orally passing on to others what Jesus had taught. Jesus wanted to found a Church, not a book club.

In the Book of Acts, when there was a disagreement over the question of Gentile circumcision, the Christians didn’t use Scripture to decide the answer, but called a Church Council. I could only think of one Church today which still calls [Ecumenical] councils to resolve matters of doctrine and practice…

The more I read Scripture, the clearer it became that the Early Church was one which exercised authority (1 Corinthians 16:16, Hebrews 13:17) given to her by Christ – to forgive sins, no less! Even in my most anti-Catholic moments I could still clearly see that Matthew 16 showed Christ giving Peter a special authority. I could only think of one Church today which claimed to still have that same authority passed on from Peter….

“If a man does not hold fast to this oneness of Peter, does he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he deserts the Chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, has he confidence that he is in the Church?” – St. Cyprian (A.D. 251)

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New “Theology On Tap” Podcast!

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I’m very pleased to announce that the San Diego Diocese has just launched a podcast feed! From now on, the audio from the Theology On Tap sessions will be available on your desktop and mobile devices.

It is available on iTunes:

iTunes

…and also on Google Play:

GooglePlay

If you have difficulty subscribing with either of these, you can either search for the podcast in the respective stores, or manually add the feed to your podcast app:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/sdyam

Podcast

If you have any problems with the podcast, please let me know in the comments below and I’ll do my best to sort them out!

Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 8 (“Ya Sin”)

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hell

Today I’m going to be looking at a longer chapters of the Qur’an: Surah 36.

Surah 36 – “Ya Sin” (Ya-Sin)
This chapter covers the usual material. Muhammad’s commission by God is, of course, reaffirmed. He is told that some people to whom he speaks will not listen to him, but his job is to warn them anyway.

This chapter describes a pair of missionaries arriving at a city. It is not clear if this is an historic story or not. Either way, the message of the missionaries is rejected, but then a man comes from the city and pleads with his fellow inhabitants to listen to these men. He draws particular attention to the fact that they do not ask for money. For his own part, the man testifies that Allah made him, he will return to Him and thus Allah is worthy of worship and the intercession of the city’s false gods is worthless. The text abruptly switches to speaking about Paradise so my footnotes suggest that this means that the man was killed for his faith. While I can understand this explanation, the Qur’an seems to me to jump randomly from topic-to-topic without warning on a regular basis.

Allah then identifies various “signs” to be submitted for consideration:

  • The bringing forth of life from dead earth
  • The production of fruit from trees
  • The departure of the sun at nighttime and the cycles of the moon
  • The salvation of Noah’s family through the Ark

I’m not 100% sure, but it seems that these signs are all meant to point to new life and Allah’s saving help.

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Calling Up The Dead

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A while ago I promised a friend that I would do an in-depth treatment of the Catholic Church’s teaching on the Communion of Saints. I’m still planning on doing that more detailed examination at some point in the future, but today I’d like to do another brief post following on from yesterday’s posts about All Saints Day.

I’ve mentioned Jay before, a Protestant with whom I dialogued for several months. During our discussions he brought up the subject of the Saints. It wasn’t really pertinent to the subject at hand so I didn’t dwell on it for long, but here was what I wrote to him:

“The Saints” was another issue you raised, but again, in an effort to stay on-topic, I’ll try to be brief. 

We don’t worship Saints – we honour them.  Worship is for God alone. If you catch any Catholic worshiping a Saint, let me know and I’ll make sure that both their Priest and Bishop find out. I will ensure that they are kept behind after Mass for extra catechism classes while the other parishioners enjoy coffee and donuts 😉

I can pretty much guarantee that all of your disagreements stem from how you view the Church.  The Catholic view is that the Body Of Christ is simply one, composed of:

1. …those here on earth (“Church Militant”)
2. …those in purgatory (“Church Expectant”)
3. …and those in heaven (“Church Triumphant”). 

Although we may be physically separated by the barrier of death, we nonetheless remain united to each other.

I’m sure you’ve asked people to pray for you before – it’s a very natural thing to do and I’m guessing you would find no conflict here with 1 Timothy 2:5 (to which you allude).  Moses, Abraham and Job were all mediators and intercessors.  In fact, as you rightly point out, interceding for others is a living out of our universal priestly calling. 

I would also suggest that the people you ask to pray for you are often those whose faith is the strongest, as you hope in the power of their intercession (James 5:17).  The Catholic response to this is a hearty “Amen!”  But how much more powerful will the prayer be of one who has been completely sanctified and is standing before the throne of God?

There’s loads more I could say about this, but I’ll simply say that this is why we ask Saints for their intercession and why the Vatican teaches “filial reverence” – it’s simply because these are people who are part of the Church – it’s just that this part that is in heaven.

Sunday Lectionary: King of kings

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Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time: October 16th, 2011

This week’s Readings focus on the distinction between the kings of this world and the LORD. The Gospel asks us the question: what do we owe to our rulers and what do we owe to our God?

In the First Reading we learn that it is the Lord, and not the King of Persia, who is subduing the nations. In the Psalm we are told repeatedly to give the Lord the praise which He is owed. In the Second Reading we hear the response of the Thessalonians to God’s great grace. Finally, in the Gospel we are told in no uncertain terms – give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but give to God what belongs to God…

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The Dawah Dilemma

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The Qur’an speaks about Allah helping the followers of Jesus and keeping them “uppermost”, but this presents a dilemma since, historically, this has to refer to Trinitarian Christians… which is a very strange thing for Allah to support. If it wasn’t Trinitarian Christians, who exactly has remained “uppermost” since the time of Christ?

O believers! Stand up for Allah, as Jesus, son of Mary, asked the disciples, “Who will stand up with me for Allah?” The disciples replied, “We will stand up for Allah.” Then a group from the Children of Israel believed while another disbelieved. We then supported the believers against their enemies, so they prevailed. – 61:14

˹Remember˺ when Allah said, “O Jesus! I will take you and raise you up to Myself. I will deliver you from those who disbelieve, and elevate your followers above the disbelievers until the Day of Judgment. Then to Me you will ˹all˺ return, and I will settle all your disputes. – 3:55

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