The
Legacy Of The
One Legged
Stool...
The Deposit of Faith of the Catholic Church
consists of Holy Scripture, Holy Tradition, and the Magisterium
in conjunction with our Holy Father the Pope. You can equate
it to a three legged stool, with each leg having its own specific function. This
three legged stool is also firmly implanted on the solid rock of the Catholic
Church. See Matt 16:18, John 1:42, Eph 2:20, 1Pet 2:4-8
A three legged stool has strength, is sturdy, stable, steadfast and stalwart.
That is all well and good. However, what happens when you cut off one leg? The
stool becomes unstable and falls over.
During the Protestant reformation, the reformers separated
themselves from one of those three legs of stability. They rejected the Pope and the Magisterium, the
teaching authority of the Catholic Church. They purposely chopped off one leg of the stool, and by doing so, they lost all authority. They lost the arbitrator
of disputes between opposing viewpoints regarding faith and morals.
See Matt
18:15-18.
They cut themselves off from the Foundation and the Pillar of
Truth which is the Catholic Church. See 1Tim
3:15.
They also made for themselves an unstable stool, one which was shaky
and was easily subject to tipping over and shattering.
Since the reformers lost all authority, to whom, or to what, could they turn to
fill the void? They turned to the only resource they had, the Holy Bible, a
product of the Catholic Church by the way. (See "Is The Catholic Church The
Mother Of The Bible Or The Daughter" for the factual details)
In so doing,
they declared that the Bible was the sole source of authority, and they
proceeded to fabricate a false man made tradition called "Sola Scriptura", or
"Bible Alone", in order to promulgate it.
See "The Origin of Sola Scriptura" for an
historical treatise on this subject.
Now, throughout Scripture, there is scattered yet a second leg of the Catholic Deposit of Faith to which the reformers could not lay claim. It is
Holy Tradition, Apostolic Tradition, GOD's Traditions for which the Church was commanded to keep, and which
she had already protected and preserved, for almost 1500 years by the time of
the reformation.
See Psa 44:1, Isa 40:8, ***Isa 59:21, ***John 15:20, Acts
20:35, 1 Cor 2:13, ***1Cor 11:2,
Phil 2:16, ***Phil 4:9, ***2 Thess
2:15. ***2Tim 1:13-14, ***2Tim 2:2, ***2Tim 3:14,
***2Tim 4:3, and
1Pet 1:25.
It is only man-made traditions which are condemned by Holy
Scripture.
See ***Matt 15:2-9, ***Mark 7:3-13, ***1Cor 2:13, ***Col 2:8,
***1Tim 1:4, and ***Tit 1:14
Non-Catholics fail to realize that the Bible
is nothing more than Tradition written down. For the first three hundred years
of Christianity, there was no New Testament as we know it now. Jesus did not
found a book. He founded a teaching Church.
Reformers were forced to
cut off yet a second leg from their stool. Now they
had only one wobbly leg left to balance on, and balance they did not do for very
long at all, not even for one year.
Since the Authority of the Magisterium for Bible interpretation was no longer
available, the reformers made a fateful decision that would result in a disaster
that grew so fast that they could no longer control it. They had decided that
everyone could go his own way in Bible interpretation. This was yet another man
made tradition forbidden by Holy Scripture.
See ***Acts 8:26-40, ***2Pet
1:19-21, and ***2Pet 3:16.
The one legged stool fell to the ground and
shattered into many pieces. Individual interpretation of Holy Scripture
immediately resulted in squabbles and splits in Protestantism which continue to
this very day. In 1521, the same year that Martin Luther split from the Catholic
Church, Thomas Munser split from Luther. By 1600 there were over 200 splits. By
1900, there were over 1000. Now there are over 36,400 splits in the Body of
Christ. The splits are continuing to this very day with an estimated 3-5 new
splits every week. In addition, all of the major Protestant sects are splitting
within themselves. All of this madness was caused by the man-made false
doctrines of Sola Scriptura and individual interpretation of Holy Scripture,
both of which were started by the reformers.
Martin Luther lamented when he
saw the damage that individual interpretation of Scripture had done to his
Protestant movement. See several quotes from him regarding his distress over the
Protestant splits in "The Origin of Sola Scriptura".
The stool of Protestantism is
a shambles. It has shattered into thousands of pieces, and there is no one in
Protestantism who has the authority to put the pieces together again. A stool
needs three legs to stand tall. It cannot stand on one for long. As soon as the
winds of change rise, it will topple over and shatter as did this one.
The Bible clearly says to keep the traditions of GOD and the Apostles, and
to condemn the keeping of man-made traditions, as shown above. Isn't it strange
that Protestantism condemns keeping and preserving all traditions by the
Catholic Church, while at the same time, they in turn, follow two man-made
traditions of their own making?
"And other sheep I have that are not of this fold. Them
also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there
shall be ONE FOLD and ONE SHEPHERD."
John
10:16
See also, Isa 40:11, and 1Pet 2:25
Where is the ONE FOLD and the ONE SHEPHERD in Protestantism?
"Has Christ
been divided up?" 1Cor 1:13
�
Written by Bob Stanley, January 5,
2000
Updated March 11, 2004
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