When was the last time you read the entire Bible? It took me three years to read through all 66 books after my conversion. I would encourage you to read the Bible for yourself and ask the Lord to open the eyes of your understanding. There are many plans to get through both the OT & NT in a year.
The phrase “it is written” appears around eighty times in Scripture. Note that it’s not, “go look at your church’s charter” or “go ask the Pope.” Our standard is the Word of God, not tradition – although that may be helpful, it’s not infallible. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Is. 8:20). The Lord said to Joshua,
Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful (Joshua 1:7,8).
Peter himself points us to Scripture:
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:3,4)
The Bible gives us “everything we need” … we don’t require esoteric interpretations, councils, ancient traditions or trips to Rome to teach us the way of salvation – the Bible is plain on that point. Peter goes on …
We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit
(2 Peter 1:18-21).
Although Peter had the amazing experience of seeing Jesus Transfigured, we should look to the Word of God for guidance and truth. Why didn’t Peter say, “talk to me, I’m the Pope, I’m infallible.” Recall the controversy in Acts 15? Did Peter get the most attention? Peter speaks, but James, the ½ brother of Jesus, seems to carry the major influence (Acts 15:13,19).
George Salmon (1819-1904) was a theologian and mathematician. In 1849, Arthur Cayley and George Salmon made the remarkable discovery that every smooth cubic surface (using Complex Numbers) contains exactly 27 lines. Salmon’s last Maths contribution was in 1873 on periods of the recurring decimals of the reciprocals of prime numbers.
The first strategic movement towards the rear was the doctrine of development, which has seriously modified the old theory of tradition. When Dr. Newman became a Roman Catholic, it was necessary for him in some way to reconcile this step with the proofs he had previously given that certain distinctive Romish doctrines were unknown to the early Church. The historical arguments he had advanced in his Anglican days were incapable of refutation even by himself. But it being hopeless to maintain that the present teaching of Roman Catholics is identical with the doctrine held in the primitive Church, he set himself to show that though not the same, it was a great deal better. This is the object of the celebrated Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, which he published simultaneously with his submission to the Roman Church. The theory expounded in it in substance is, that Christ had but committed to His Church certain seeds and germs of truth, destined afterwards to expand to definite forms … [1]
The infallibility of the Pope did not become dogma until the first Vatican council in 1870. The doctrine of papal infallibility means that the Pope cannot err when he speaks on matters of faith and morals ex cathedra (“from the chair”). There are many views held within the Romanist camp on numerous controversies – just tune in to EWTN and see for yourself. How else can such matters be settled unless the ultimate decision on an issue comes down to one man? Should there be a Supreme Court of the True Church? There is no official Roman Catholic commentary on the whole Bible. If the Pope were actually infallible, wouldn’t such a work be a great inspiration? Cardinal Newman was on the right track in something he wrote in his Anglican days,
This inconsistency in the Romish system one might almost call providential. Nothing could be better adapted than it is to defeat the devices of human wisdom, and to show to thoughtful inquirers the hollowness of even the most specious counterfeit of Divine truth. The theologians of Rome have been able dexterously to smooth over a thousand inconsistencies, and to array the heterogeneous precedents of centuries in the semblance of design and harmony. But they cannot complete the system in its most important and essential point. They can determine in theory the nature, degree, extent, and object of the infallibility which they claim, but they cannot agree among themselves where it resides. As in the building of Babel, the Lord has confounded their language, and the structure remains half finished, a monument at once of human daring and its failure. [2]
Salmon comments of the lateness on the infallibility dogma:
Did not the Pope, at the Vatican Council of 1870 [Vatican 1], bear witness to himself, and declare that every theory was wrong which made the organ of infallibility other than himself? But what time of day is this to find the answer to a question so fundamental? Can we believe that Christ before He left this earth provided His Church with an infallible guide to truth, and that it took her more than 1800 years before she could find out who that guide was? It seems almost labor wasted to proceed with the proofs I was about to lay before you, of the neglect or inability of the infallible judge of controversies to settle controversies, when it took him so long to settle that controversy in which his own privileges were so vitally concerned. [3]
… is it not most clearly proved that the Pope did not believe in his own pretense to infallibility, else why not take the opportunity of settling, by the joint authority of Pope and Council an authority which, in theory, all owned to be infallible a dispute which had so long convulsed the Church? But to meddle in the matter, that is to say, to decide the question one way or other “might cause a schism among Catholics”; in other words, these “Catholics,” whatever they might pretend, did not really believe in the infallibility of the Pope and the Council. Nay, I am putting the matter too weakly; for we do not set up our own opinion against that of an expert on any subject, even though we know that he is far from claiming infallibility; but these “Catholics” must really have thought that Pope and Council knew no better than themselves. Why should there be danger of a schism after the truth had been ascertained by infallible authority? Surely, no person could be mad enough to separate himself from the Church of Christ [Rome] in consequence of a decision which he believed to be infallibly true, and to have emanated from a divinely promised and infallible guidance. The only way of accounting for the conduct of the Pope and of the Council on this occasion is, that neither one nor the other believed in the pretense of infallibility. For, as I said, acting is the test of faith … [4]
Indeed, actions do speak louder than words.
In The Gift ofInfallibility, James O'Connor clarifies the idea of infallibility. He provides a helpful translation of the "relatio" or official explanation by Bishop Gasser given at Vatican I, the Church council that defined the dogma of papal infallibility. Despite its importance in all theological discussions on the doctrine of infallibility, Bishop Gasser's relatio had never until recently been translated from the Latin original into English. If “Pope-No-Lie” is such a critical doctrine, why has this not been translated into English over a hundred years ago?
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll (Rev. 22:18,19).
Notes:
1) The Infallibility of the Church by George Salmon (John Murray, London, 1914), p. 65.
2) Cardinal Newman quoted in Salmon, p. 176.
3) Salmon, p. 176.
4) Ibid., p. 181.
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Joseph Smith pic by Anthony Sweat, © 2014
