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Protestant View on Scripture Interpretation Protestants Say: Scripture is self-interpreting; therefore, the believer’s private interpretation is what the Holy Spirit intended. Catholic Response to Self-Interpretation of Scripture The Catholic Response: This assertion is problematic for several reasons. First, the Bible nowhere says it is self-interpreting; rather, it explicitly states or shows that it is not. See for example 2 Chron. 17:7-9; Neh. 8:1-9; Matt. 13:18-23; Luke 24:27, 45; …

Pope Leo X Condemns Luther’s Teachings In Exsurge Domine, the bull in which Pope Leo X formally condemns Martin Luther’s heretical teachings, the pope refers to Luther as “the wild boar from the forest” who seeks to destroy the vineyard, “an image of the triumphant Church” entrusted to Peter. The comparison of Luther to a wild boar is appropriate for two reasons: (1) wild boars are aggressive, short-tempered, and easily provoked, and they will not hesitate to attack h …

Luther and the Doctrine of Sola Scriptura The doctrine that Scripture is the Christian’s only infallible rule of faith was popularized and promoted by Martin Luther, who, the story goes, affixed his Ninety-five Theses to the church door at Wittenberg’s Castle Church in 1517. His Theses put forth a series of propositions for debate, focusing prominently on the doctrine of indulgences—see the Catechism of the Catholic Church(CCC), paragraph 1471—which he sought to challenge. Since indulgen …

Stay in the Catholic Church? After I became a Christian I struggled with whether I should keep attending a Catholic Church. As I sat in church and watched incense rise up from the altar, I felt an urge to stay and be part of what felt like a sacred mystery.On the other hand, there were a lot of Catholic beliefs that I could not find in the Bible, which made me think they were just man-made  traditions. I eventually decided that it didn’t matter which church I joined so long as I only be …

The clearest example of a sacred Tradition that both Catholics and Protestants accept is the canon of Scripture. The word canon comes from a Greek word that means “rule,” and refers to the Church’s official list of inspired writings. You can find this list in the table of contents of every Catholic or Protestant Bible.The canon of Scripture was first declared in Rome in A.D. 382and was later defined at two Catholic councils in North Africa(Hippo in A.D. 393 and Carthage in A.D. 397).How …