Chris D

Catholic guy seeking truth.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

This argument assumes the very thing it needs to prove: that the Bible alone is the sole and sufficient rule of faith that every private reader can correctly interpret.

That premise is not in Scripture. The Church existed, preached, baptized, ordained, and celebrated the Eucharist for decades before a single New Testament book was written. The apostles commanded the faithful to hold the traditions taught by word of mouth or by letter. Scripture itself calls the Church the pillar and ground of the truth.

People who actually study the early Fathers and the historical context of the New Testament keep becoming Catholic. The ones who leave usually started with the Protestant assumption that anything not explicitly spelled out in their personal reading of the text must be rejected. That is not "studying the Bible." That is studying the Bible through a 16th century filter.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

@JoshuaTCharles The spirits of the air that ancient christendom once cleared are returning

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

James never says "before men." That is your addition.

He says Abraham was justified by works when he offered Isaac, then draws the conclusion: "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone." The same Abraham who believed God in Genesis 15. James is not talking about impressing other people. He is talking about the nature of living faith before God. Faith that produces no works is dead and does not justify. You are the one creating a contradiction by forcing a distinction the text never makes.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

You keep dodging the text. James 2:24 literally says a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. Philippians 2:12 says work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Romans 2 says God will render to every man according to his works. Jesus says the one who endures to the end will be saved.

The gift of grace is free. It is not forced, and it can be lost. Treating the clear demand for living faith, obedience, and perseverance as "a sick demonic religion" does not make the verses disappear. You are the one rewriting Scripture to fit a system the apostles and the early Church never taught.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

Are you literally going to ignore the plain sense of Scripture I just posted to you? It literally says a man is not justified by faith alone.

Quit lying about the Catechism (or being ignorant). It teaches that the initial gift of faith and justification is pure grace. We receive it. We do not earn the first grace. But that gift requires our free cooperation, and it can be lost. Heaven is called a reward because God freely chooses to crown His own gifts in us. That is not paganism. That is James 2, Romans 2, and the entire witness of Scripture and the early Church. Calling grace "earning" when it demands a living response is just refusing to deal with the text.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

No one is "earning" salvation like a paycheck. That is your caricature.

Salvation is by grace through faith. But the only place Scripture uses the phrase "faith alone" is James 2:24, and it says a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. Faith without works is dead. We will be judged according to our works (Rom 2:6-8). Christ is the source of all grace. Living faith cooperates with that grace and produces the obedience that Scripture demands. Calling that "earning" is just avoiding what the text actually says.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

"God is the Author" does not get you sola scriptura. That is a non sequitur.

God is also the Author of the Church. Christ founded it. The Holy Spirit guides it. Scripture itself calls it the pillar and ground of the truth. The same God who inspired the written word also inspired the oral apostolic teaching that the Church received and handed down (2 Thess 2:15).

A king writing a letter does not mean his appointed ambassadors suddenly lose all authority to speak for him or explain his will. The letter is from the king. The living authority he established still acts with his power. Claiming "God authored Scripture so Scripture alone" simply ignores everything else God also authored and established.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

Im literally writing definitive book on this RIGHT now (with @AnullmentProof) with all the receipts. NFP is a huge part of the reason for the change.

Track me here on x and substack cause ill be releasing it in the coming months.

Here are some links to some of the receipts:

https://t.co/Og1R1QIifl

https://t.co/PcwrWI84LU

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

Pius XII directly contradicts you.

In the 1951 Address to Midwives he taught that a couple who embraces marriage, continually uses the marital faculty, and yet deliberately avoids its primary duty without a grave reason commits “a sin against the very nature of married life.”

He is even clearer a few lines later: when there are no serious reasons and the couple still restricts the act exclusively to the sterile periods in order to avoid children while continuing “to satisfy to the full their sensuality,” that will “can only be the result of a false appreciation of life and of motives foreign to sound ethical principles.”

So the claim that NFP is “basically impossible to abuse” for a loving couple is simply false. The Pope said the opposite.

The hierarchy of ends is not optional. In 1944 the Holy Office issued the decree *De Finibus Matrimonii* (1 April 1944). A formal *dubium* was submitted: whether one could admit the opinion of certain recent writers who either deny that the primary end of marriage is the procreation and education of offspring, or teach that the secondary ends are not essentially subordinate to the primary end but are equally principal and independent. The answer was Negative. Pius XII approved the decree the next day and ordered it published.

He repeated the same teaching in the Midwives address: marriage “has not as a primary and intimate end the personal perfection of the married couple but the procreation and upbringing of a new life.” The other ends are essentially subordinate.

This procreation-primary hierarchy was the consistent tradition of the Church for for first 1900+ years of the Church (Florence, the Roman Catechism, Aquinas, Leo XIII, Pius XI, the 1917 Code, the Holy Office, and Pius XII). The idea that “unity” (whatever the hell thst undefinable mess is) and procreation are co-equal primary ends is novel. It only becomes prominent after *Humanae Vitae* and is formally reflected in the 1983 Code’s deliberate omission of the older ranking. That shift is foreign to the prior tradition.

Even Paul VI gives the game away when he describes the use of the infertile periods as a way of “controlling birth” (birth control) whose intent is the "child avoidance". That is precisely why the older hierarchy matters: systematic child-avoidance without serious reason is not neutral. It runs against the primary end of marriage.

Your position is the one the Holy Office and Pius XII rejected.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

Stop putting words in my mouth. I have not shifted anything.

The Church existed and operated with the authority Christ gave it years before a single page of the New Testament was written. The apostles preached, baptized, ordained bishops, and settled disputes with real authority long before the Gospels and letters were composed. The New Testament was written by men inside that Church under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is the Church's book.

Christ founded a visible Church and promised the gates of hell would not prevail against it. He said the one who hears you hears me. Scripture itself calls that Church the pillar and ground of the truth. That is not the Church placing itself above God. That is the Church exercising the authority God gave it.

Private interpretation has given us thousands of denominations all claiming the same Bible and contradicting each other on essential doctrines. That is the actual historical proof of the problem. The Catholic position has never been "the Church invents truth against Scripture." It is that Christ left a living Church with the charism to authoritatively teach and preserve the deposit of faith. You keep inventing a Catholic claim that is not what was said.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

No. I did not say the Bible is "above" the Church so that every private reader gets to override the body Christ founded. You just ignored the actual point. Scripture is the inspired word of God. The Church is the pillar and ground of the truth that received it, preserved it, and has the authority Christ gave it to bind and loose. They are not competitors. Treating them as if one has to be ranked above the other so you can dismiss the Church is the exact Protestant move that produces endless division. The apostles never operated that way.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

@IndianaBrunner https://t.co/w4RHj5rNxv

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

Scripture itself proves the charge wrong.

Luke 1:48: "from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed."

Catholics and Orthodox are the ones who actually do what the Bible says. Most Protestants barely mention her except to downplay her.

Luke 1:28: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee."

Luke 1:42: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb."

Luke 1:43: Elizabeth calls her "the mother of my Lord."

John 19:26-27: Jesus gives her to the beloved disciple as mother.

The early Church and the Catholic Church fulfill the prophecy. The ones who refuse to call her blessed are the ones ignoring Scripture.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

God is the final authority. No one disputes that. The question is how He has chosen to exercise that authority among us. Scripture itself says the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim 3:15). Christ said "he who hears you hears me" and gave the apostles the power to bind and loose. The Church does not place itself above the word of God. It is the living body Christ founded to receive, preserve, and authoritatively proclaim that word under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Treating every private reader as the final interpreter of "His words" is what produces thousands of conflicting denominations all claiming the same Bible. That is not how the apostles or the early Church operated.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

@SipsWithSerra https://t.co/Do2MvECiTM

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

Calling the honor given to the bodies of the saints "paganism" ignores both Scripture and the earliest Christians.

2 Kings 13:21: a dead man is thrown into Elisha's tomb, touches the prophet's bones, and comes back to life. God worked a miracle through the remains of a dead prophet.

Joseph made Israel swear to carry his bones out of Egypt. They did. David retrieved the bones of Saul and Jonathan for proper burial. The Old Testament shows clear reverence for the bodies of the righteous.

Then look at the Martyrdom of Polycarp (c. 155 AD), written by the church in Smyrna:

"Accordingly, we afterwards took up his bones, as being more precious than the most exquisite jewels, and more purified than gold, and deposited them in a fitting place, whither, being gathered together, as opportunity is allowed us, with joy and rejoicing, the Lord shall grant us to celebrate the anniversary of his martyrdom..."

This is not paganism. This is the faith of the apostles and their immediate successors.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

@levihmoore https://t.co/Do2MvECiTM

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

Calling the honor given to the bodies of the saints "paganism" ignores both Scripture and the earliest Christians.

2 Kings 13:21: a dead man is thrown into Elisha's tomb, touches the prophet's bones, and comes back to life. God worked a miracle through the remains of a dead prophet.

Joseph made Israel swear to carry his bones out of Egypt. They did. David retrieved the bones of Saul and Jonathan for proper burial. The Old Testament shows clear reverence for the bodies of the righteous.

Then look at the Martyrdom of Polycarp (c. 155 AD), written by the church in Smyrna:

"Accordingly, we afterwards took up his bones, as being more precious than the most exquisite jewels, and more purified than gold, and deposited them in a fitting place, whither, being gathered together, as opportunity is allowed us, with joy and rejoicing, the Lord shall grant us to celebrate the anniversary of his martyrdom..."

This is not paganism. This is the faith of the apostles and their immediate successors.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

@mikepantile I got the intent. All or nothing can be a trap. I just 😬 at labeling 1 hour of prayer as one end of an extreme in men's minds. Not trying to be nitpicky - just a thought.

God bless what you do brother!

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

The Church is not a random congregation of creatures who just happened to compile some books. It is the Body of Christ that He founded and to which He gave real authority. "He who hears you hears me" (Luke 10:16). "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven" (Matt 16:19). 1 Timothy 3:15 calls that same Church the pillar and ground of the truth. Scripture is the inspired word of God. The Church is the

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

@Bronymon_ Its rage/engagement bait.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

For modern man its definitely a challenge. Especially if they have families. But id never call more prayer "extreme". Do you sometimes spend an hour in the gym? If so, is that extreme? Id say no. But if not, then striving for an hour of prayer is infinitely more valuable. The two aren't mutually exclusive. Id call men to both challenges so long as exercising their body and the soul didnt come at the cost of the ones they are responsible for.

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

@residentreformr

[Chris D @chrisdcath]

Your point was that the early church fathers agrees with protestant reformers. I showed you just a small sampling that that's far from true. So don't claim the church fathers when they overwhelming Evidence is against you.

Furthermore, Sola scriptura is not in Scripture. Nowhere does the Bible say Scripture alone is the sole infallible rule or that tradition must be judged only by private reading of the text. 2 Thess 2:15 commands us to hold the traditions taught by word or by letter. The early Church lived that way for centuries before any closed canon existed. Your definition is itself an unwritten tradition that the Fathers never held. Scripture is the inspired word of God. The Church is the pillar and ground of the truth that received, preserved, and interprets it.