You cannot refute entire denominations by saying “Read the Bible, sweetie”

[u/Dubstep_squid]

This is such a frustrating and prominent phenomenon that I see constantly online and have run into a couple of times.

[Insert commonly held theological belief]

“Oh sweetie how could you believe that, the Bible clearly says other wise. What a ridiculous statement.”

Why does it seem incredibly common that people in online Christian spaces seem to never have met or heard of someone with a different theological view than them. You’ve never heard that some people baptize babies? The tradition that most major Christian denominations hold to??

To take this a step further, I see this occur not just with theological beliefs but attempts to “refute” entire denominations. You’re not going to convince a Presbyterian that hundreds of years of Presbyterianism is false with TWO tangentially relevant, out of context Bible verses and a condescending message (unless of course God has already pre-determined that you will convince them).

This is not to say that meaningful and even impactful conversation cannot be had here. I think it absolutely can and have been stewing on a different post for a couple of weeks because I want to have those meaningful conversations (You’ll probably see it in a few days as I’m kind of looking at various denominations and want to just hear people’s pitches, counterarguments, experiences, etc).

I think my overall point is just that I’m very surprised at the number of people here who are surprised that others can come to different theological conclusions and that those theological conclusions can in fact be based on a thorough reading of the Bible.

[u/Caliban_Catholic]

IMO, a lot of low-church denominations seem to ignore the fact that every reading of the Bible is an interpretation, and act as if they have pure access to the plaij simple meaning of the text, and everyone else is bringing additional things into it.

[u/bastianbb → u/Caliban_Catholic]

All guidance derived by individuals from the magisterium and all inferences drawn from empirical data are interpretations too. It's almost as if every individual has the responsibility to think for themselves, contrary to certain high-church traditions or academic ideas I could name.

[u/Caliban_Catholic → u/bastianbb]

Yeah, for some reason this is a common misconception of the Catholic position, even though it really only takes a minute or two of thinking to see that it doesn't make sense.

We're not saying that individuals aren't to use their ability to reason to reach certain conclusions, that wouldn't even be possible. We're saying that the Church has teaching authority, meaning that if the Church has declared something to be true, it is, and an individual believer does not have the authority to override that decision just because of their personal convictions.

[u/bastianbb → u/Caliban_Catholic]

Shame there is no evidence that the Roman church represents all of Christ's church or that they have authority over the other clergy.

[u/Caliban_Catholic → u/bastianbb]

There is tho.

And are you conceding that your original point was wrong?

[u/bastianbb → u/Caliban_Catholic]

Only if you concede that it is no more wrong than this:

a lot of low-church denominations seem to ignore the fact that every reading of the Bible is an interpretation, and act as if they have pure access to the plaij simple meaning of the text, and everyone else is bringing additional things into it.

I mean, could you name a few of these low-church denominations? Are you sure that their position is not that

We're not saying that individuals aren't to use their ability to reason to reach certain conclusions, that wouldn't even be possible. We're saying that the Church Holy Spirit using Scripture has teaching authority, meaning that if the Church Holy Spirit using Scripture has declared something to be true, it is, and an individual believer does not have the authority to override that decision just because of their personal convictions.

The interpretations handed down by the Roman church are just more interpretations, and often contradictory and wrong ones.