2 Timothy 3:16-17
[SUP]16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
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First off, not sure of your translation of the bible is, for the bible I use (NAB) as "
may be complete. " No, my version has it as "so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work." Competent as meaning...."having requisite or adequate ability or qualities
: fit <a
competent teacher> <a
competent piece of work>. Competent and complete are two differnt things. Anyhoo, thats besides the point.
Lets first look at verse 16. The word used is "profitable", not "sufficient". It is certainly true that reading the Scriptures can lead to a man being "prepared for every good work" - but this does not mean that
just the Scriptures are needed. The most that this verse says is that the Scriptures are
useful and that they are possibly
essential – but that is not the same thing as
sufficient Kenallan. This is just another example of your "either/or" theology.
In addition, you and others fail to read these verses in context – when the passage 2 Tim.3:14-17 is read it is clear that St. Paul is reminding Timothy to remember what he learned and from who he learned it, and also to stick to the Scriptures which he "knew from childhood". This passage shows two things – firstly, Paul is advocating the following of Tradition. And, secondly, Paul is revealing what he means by "Scriptures" - he means the Old Testament, the Seputagint as it was known. Timothy is urged to read the Scriptures which he has known all his life. Someting else you and others fail to relize is that the N.T. did not exist when Timothy was a child, the only Scripture were the Jewish Scriptures. So, if this verse shows
sola scriptura it in fact shows
sola Old Testament – the New Testament should be abandoned. But, if we abandoned the New Testament, we wouldn't have this verse – so we wouldn't need to abandon the New Testament
Clearly fordman God says ALL Scriptures make the man of God complete. If its the Scriptures that make the man of God complete they why do you Catholics teach otherwise? Why do you Catholics go against what God says? God says we are THOROUGHLY EQUIPPED by the Scriptures!
Catholics are not the ones going against what God says in Scripture. We leave that up to the thousands of your differnt non-Catholic sects with their thousands of differnt interpretations of Scripture to do that. All supposedly inspired by the Holy Spirit. How do you know whos right, and whos not? The God we Catholics know is not a God of confusion!
Dude.... I can go on and on refuting your claim of the bible alone as being sifficient as a sole rule of faith. Lets look at the historical argument against Sola Scripture:
The Bible itself shows that there were Christians before a word of the New Testament was written – the whole of the book of Acts, for example, describes the early life of the Church from the Ascension of Jesus onwards. There is no doubt whatsoever that these people were Christians.
However, these people cannot have had a copy of the New Testament – the last book of the New Testament was written around 100 AD. Before that date no Christian could have had a complete "Bible" as we understand it today. If the Bible is the "sole source of Christian teaching and knowledge" as
sola scriptura claims, how can these people have been Christians? Peter, Paul, James, John and Andrew never saw a complete modern Bible – what they had was the Old Testament Scriptures and the
preaching and
Tradition of the Church. I could go on, but my favorite progam is coming on, but will if need be.
So why fordman are you trying to add man's WORKS to what God has said in the Scriptures
Lol!!! It is you tring to make Scripture say something thats just not there. As I have proven, 2Tim.3:16-17 in no way says that Scripture Alone is sufficient as a sole rule of faith. You just need to accept it and move on!! But by all means....keep trying!
Pax Christi
"from henceforth, all generations shall call me Blessed." ----Luke 1:48.
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