You have a Bible. You say it's the Word of God, but you say some verses are "figurative", or "metaphorical", or "not tenable", and NOT to be taken "literally". This allows you to derive the meaning that you want. Then you say the Holy Spirit inspires you. Who is your authority? Who says what is the truth when two or more of you disagree?

THE CHURCH

1. "And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
[Matthew 16:18]

CONCLUSION:

Jesus founded a church, only one church, which operated without Bibles for 1500 years. Therefore, the Church came first, then Bibles. Furthermore, The Church told us which are the inspired books of the Bible (all 73 of them) at the Roman Council in 382 A.D.

The Bible-Only Christians make a liar out of Jesus Christ. They claim that the Church was taken over by the Roman Papacy during the period 350 to 538 AD. Some claim the Papacy is the Beast in Revelation 13. If so, then Jesus lied when he said, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

SUPPORTING VERSES:

1a. "And if he will not hear them: tell the church. And if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican."
[Matthew 18:17]

1b. "But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."
[1 Timothy 3:15]

BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST

2. "Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you."
[John 6:54]

CONCLUSION:

Bible-Only Christians are dead, spiritually dead. To have the life of Christ in you, you must eat His flesh and drink His blood.

SUPPORTING VERSES:

2a. "If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world."
[John 6:52]

2b. "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day."
[John 6:55]

2c. "And taking bread, he gave thanks, and broke; and gave to them, saying: This is my body, which is given for you. Do this for a commemoration of me."
[Luke 22:19]

2d. "Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord."
[1 Corinthians 11:27]

FAITH WITHOUT WORKS

3. "But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?"
[James 2:20]

CONCLUSION:

With Faith alone, Bible-Only Christians are dead, spiritually dead. To have the life of Christ in you, you must do good works, charitable acts. This seems to disagree with St. Paul who says:

"But knowing that man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ"
[Galatians 2:16].

The Bible, however, cannot disagree with itself, therefore St. Paul must be talking about a different kind of works, the works of the old law that Jesus criticized, saying:

"All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not."
[Matthew 23:3]

Actually, St. Paul is in agreement but uses the word "charity" instead of the word "works" used by St. James.

SUPPORTING VERSES:

3a. "What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but hath not works? Shall faith be able to save him?"
[James 2:14]

3b. "So faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself."
[James 2:17]

3c. "Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by faith only?"
[James 2:24]

3d. "And I heard a voice from heaven, saying to me: Write: Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; for their works follow them."
[Apocalypse (Revelation) 14:13]

PRIVATE INTERPRETATION

4. "As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction."
[2 Peter 3:16]

CONCLUSION:

In the Bible, certain things are hard to understand. It was written by men of God, who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. That does not mean you, as a reader, are inspired. The writers did not use their own judgment, but submitted to the Holy Spirit. You also should submit to the judgment of the Church, as the authority inspired by the Holy Spirit. Bible-Only Christians reject the authority of the Pope and the Church. Why? Because of intellectual pride, the same vice that caused Satan to be cast into hell.

SUPPORTING VERSES:

4a. "Understanding this first, that no prophecy of scripture is made by private interpretation."
[2 Peter 1:20]

4b. "And if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more: that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand. And if he will not hear them: tell the church. And if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican."
[Matthew 18:16-17]

4c. "Who said: And how can I, unless some man shew me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him."
[Acts Of Apostles 8:31]

SALVATION IS NOT GUARANTEED

5. "Wherefore, my dearly beloved, (as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but much more now in my absence), with fear and trembling work out your salvation."
[Philippians 2:12]

CONCLUSION:

Bible-Only Christians are not already saved. Salvation is not guaranteed.

SUPPORTING VERSES:

5a. "Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven."
[Matthew 7:21]

PURGATORY EXISTS

6. "It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins."
[2 Machabees 12:46]

CONCLUSION:

Purgatory exists. Pray for your dead friends and relatives.

SUPPORTING VERSES:

6a. "Be at agreement with thy adversary betimes, whilst thou art in the way with him: lest perhaps the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison [purgatory]. Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing."
[Matthew 5:25-26]

6b. "That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth [purgatory]."
[Philippians 2:10]

6c. "And no man was able, neither in heaven, nor on earth, nor under the earth [purgatory], to open the book, nor to look on it."
[Apocalypse (Revelation) 5:3]

6d. "And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come."
[Matthew 12:32]

6e. "A gift hath grace in the sight of all the living, and restrain not grace from the dead."
[Ecclesiasticus 7:37]

6f. "In which also coming he preached to those spirits that were in prison [purgatory]." [1 Peter 3:19]

FORGIVENESS OF SINS

7. "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained."
[John 20:23]

CONCLUSION:

If a man falls into sin, he needs a way to become worthy to receive the body and blood of Christ. He becomes worthy by confessing his sins to one who has the power to forgive sins, such as a Catholic priest.

SUPPORTING VERSES:

7a. "Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord."
[1 Corinthians 11:27]

DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE IS NOT ALLOWED

8. "And I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery."
[Matthew 19:9]

COMMENTS:

Most Bible-Only Christians interpret this wrongly. They think it means:

1. One may divorce his wife and marry another, if his wife commits adultery.

But that's not the correct meaning. "Put away" is not the same as "divorce and marry another". And who decides what is the correct meaning? The Church. What is the correct meaning?

1. One may separate from (not divorce) his wife for adultery,
2. One cannot marry another, for if he does, he commits adultery.

This illustrates the need for a Church as an authority to define the true Faith, what God wants from man. If man is free to decide for himself, he can easily get it wrong. Why does man get it wrong? Selfishness. Usually, because he wants another woman.

SUPPORTING VERSES:

8a. "And he saith to them: Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery against her."
[Mark 10:11]

8b. "Every one that putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and he that marrieth her that is put away from her husband, committeth adultery."
[Luke 16:18]

8c. "But to them that are married, not I but the Lord commandeth, that the wife depart not from her husband. And if she depart, that she remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband. And let not the husband put away his wife."
[1 Corinthians 7:10-11]

HAIL MARY

9a. "And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women."
[Luke 1:28]

9b. "And she cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb."
[Luke 1:42]

COMMENTS:

Bible-Only Christians are wrong when they say that Catholics worship Mary. The first half of the Hail Mary prayer is taken from the Bible (9a and 9b) as follows: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." And the second half merely asks her to pray for us: "Holy Mary mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death."

BIBLE ONLY

10. "For I testify to every one that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book: If any man shall add to these things, God shall add unto him the plagues written in this book."
[Apocalypse/Revelation 22:18]

COMMENTS:

Bible-Only Christians use the above verse to "prove" the Sola Scriptura (Only Scripture) theory. This is not proof for one reason. (1) The "book" is actually not the Bible, but the Book of Apocalypse/Revelation. St. John, the author of this book, had no knowledge of which books were to be contained in the New Testament, because the Bible as we know it, with 73 books, had not yet been defined.

Sola Scriptura is the foundation of the Protestant faith because this enables them to be free from the Catholic Church. The BIG problem with Sola Scriptura is ... it's not in Scripture. Get it? If you believe in Sola Scriptura, then you cannot believe in it, because it's not in Scripture.

I have received a lot of emails suggesting that I look at certain verses. Those verses did contain the word "Scripture", but none of those verses have the word "alone" or "only" in them. Don't believe me? Try the following search:

"Scripture alone"
[Searching the Whole Bible 1:35804]

If only the following verses were in the Bible (but they're not):

"Then Jesus said: Behold, in 1422 years a printing press will be invented and a Bible will be printed and then you will be able to figure out how to be saved, through exhaustive study of the Bible. Or you can just take whatever meaning that you like from the verses and create your own beliefs. Then you can lie to people saying you were inspired by the Holy Spirit. And if someone disagrees with you, then you can lie again and say that the Holy Spirit gives different meanings to different people."
[Not in your Bible]

THE JEWS CRUCIFIED CHRIST

11. "Pilate saith to them: What shall I do then with Jesus that is called Christ? They say all: Let him be crucified. The governor said to them: Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying: Let him be crucified. And Pilate seeing that he prevailed nothing, but that rather a tumult was made; taking water washed his hands before the people, saying: I am innocent of the blood of this just man; look you to it. And the whole people answering, said: His blood be upon us and our children."
[Matthew 27:22-25]

CONCLUSION:

The Jews crucified Christ. Are the Jews the chosen people of God? They were, but now they are enemies of Jesus Christ. I'm speaking about the Jews as in the Jewish religion, not the Jews as a people, for some Jewish people have converted to Catholicism. Why do Bible-Only Christians keep calling the Jews the chosen people of God? They spend way too much time on the Old Testament. Jerusalem was destroyed because the Jews killed their Messiah.

SUPPORTING VERSES:

11a. "And when he drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it, saying: If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace; but now they are hidden from thy eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side, And beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee: and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone: because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation."
[Luke 19:41-44]

11b. "And Jesus being come out of the temple, went away. And his disciples came to shew him the buildings of the temple. And he answering, said to them: Do you see all these things? Amen I say to you there shall not be left here a stone upon a stone that shall not be destroyed."
[Matthew 24:1-2]

More to come ...

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