and there i have it.

so, i really wasn't sure if i had much to say on this blog as opposed to my other one, as this one is intended to be essentially my Catholic blog. well, for the past hour or so, i've been writing up an apologetics message to some woman i don't even know and it just clicked that i ought to post it here.

the set up is that, while i was commenting on another topic, i also wished to address a point that was made about biblical inconsistancies. here's what i came up with:
i agree that the Bible seems to have what seem to be contradictions. however, i believe the Bible to be the most internally consistant piece of literature available (meaning that it doesn't contradict itself. the New Testament fulfills the Old) however still, it's when people begin to read the same passages different ways, as what we see here, and we have 38,000+ "versions of Truth" out there where, regardless of translation, it becomes up to the pastor to decide what's True or not. therefore, in the Gospel according to St Matthew (16:18), Jesus Christ gives us a Church to be our guide by naming Peter the rock on which He builds said Church: the Catholic Church. Jesus promises that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. part of what the Catholic Church teaches to it's members is obediance. now, i'm newly getting into this topic myself, but one thing i do know about obediance is that it is a step of faith. it's a huge step of faith. however, because it's faith, we know that when we are obediant, it is not the servant that is to blame if he or she is wrong, but the master. furthermore, because Christ assured us that the gates of hell will not prevail over the Catholic Church, that same verse tells us that if we do obey God and His Church, He will protect us from hell. now, it wasn't my goal to talk about this in as much detail as i did, but if you're problem with the Catholic Church is that you didn't get to pick who the pastor was, i'd ask you, what makes you think that you know what makes for a godly leader, before you were told what one was by your pastor or before you read about it from somewhere? let's just keep the order here. let's keep Church history in mind here. Jesus picked Peter to be the first Pope and assured him that whatever he bound on earth would be bound in Heaven and whatever he loosed on earth would be loosed in Heaven. from there, Apostolic Succession in the Pope was established, and so we can say that not only did God give us our Catholic Church, but we can also say that God picks our leaders, and we should put our faith in them through obediance, pray for them that they themselves will not fall to sin and corruption (which unfortunately does happen as our priests are still fallen breatures), but yet take comfort in the fact that our obediance will be rewarded. to be honest, in my experience, priests do live up to the expectations of the community to be the spiritual direction needed, so it's not like all priests would intentionally lead their flock astray. yet, even though Catholic seminaries are becoming better and better at educating and growing potential priests and even weeding out those that should not be priests, some "bad" ones make it through. regardless, the Holiness of the Church, while made up of unholy people, does not depend on their holiness. the Catholic Church is Holy because God is Holy. again, it's the Church that He gave us. the point that i wanted to make through all of this, though, is that the Catholic Church will never teach anything that contradicts Scripture and Scripture never contradicts Catholic Church teaching.
is that to say then that the Church teachings things that aren't in the Bible? yes. however, the problem with bible-only theology is that it's not biblical. no where in the bible does Jesus tell us that He's going to give us a Bible after He leaves and we're to follow it to the letter. He does however give us the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the Helper, and again, He gives us a Church, the Holy Catholic Church. the Bible is the product of the Spirit working in conjunction with the early (Catholic) Church to put together all these texts. so, if you think about it that way, anyone who does believe in Jesus comes to Him by God's Grace and through the Catholic Church. and, if that's the case, why not accept what the Church teaches, even though we might not fully understand, or even disagree with some aspects of it, and become a full member of His Church and be one people as He intended?