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All right, you two, come out of the corner with your hands up. Ready to have a nice clean fight.

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No, that sounds like this is going to be combative. This is not going to be combative. This is just going to be an explanation.

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Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.

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So, a lot of times, a lot of times, when I'm either teaching or when someone encounters a teaching of the Catholic Church,

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people will ask, well, where's that in the Bible? And that's a great question, but it's the wrong question.

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I mean, really, ultimately, when it comes down to it, it is the wrong question.

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Because, yes, while Catholics believe that the Bible is the Word of God, it is inerrant, it's infallible, it's reliable,

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it's all these great things, it's a huge gift from the Lord, we realize that it's not the only way that God has revealed himself.

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In fact, if you ever wanted to dive a little deeper when it comes to what do Catholics believe about divine revelation

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or what do Catholics believe about the Bible, read a little document that was published in the 1960s called Dei Verbum.

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Dei Verbum, in English, is the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation.

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And it's really critical because that English title of it, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, says a lot.

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It's not just on the Bible as the Word of God.

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It recognizes that while the Bible is the Word of God, that God also reveals himself definitively,

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or clearly, through at least two other sources.

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That we have the Bible, huge source of data.

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This is the Bible, huge source of data, sacred scripture.

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But God also reveals himself through sacred tradition.

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And he also reveals his teaching through the Magisterium of the Church.

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Magisterium, magistra means teacher, right?

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So the sacred scripture, sacred tradition, and the teaching office of the Church, the Magisterium of the Church,

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that's divine revelation.

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That's what we believe and that's one of the things that's been believed from the beginning because it's been necessary.

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I mean, this is so incredibly clear, that it's absolutely necessary, not just theologically, but also just logically.

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Now, what do I mean? OK, here's what I mean.

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The Christians, why do I believe that they absolutely need sacred scripture, sacred tradition, and the Magisterium?

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Well, because that's what's been necessary for the entire history of Christianity.

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I mean, so question, where's that in the Bible?

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Some people will typically use that question when it comes to purgatory.

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That's just kind of a common one.

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Where's the word purgatory in the Bible?

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And you would look through the whole Bible and you would not find the word purgatory.

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At which point, I typically respond, that's true.

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Where's the word trinity?

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Because if you want to talk about a distinctly Christian doctrine that unites all Christians,

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you're talking about the trinity, that we believe that God is one and yet he's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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So who came up with that? It's not clearly expressed in the Bible.

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In fact, the Church had to have a lot of discussion, had to have a lot of debate,

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had to have a lot of argument because some people were reading the same book

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and coming up with a completely different conclusion, that the Father is greater than the Son.

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Why would they come to that conclusion?

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Well, because Jesus says that in the scripture, but also Jesus seems to claim to be equal to the Father.

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So what do we make of that?

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Also, is the Holy Spirit just simply the gift that comes from the Father through the Son?

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Or is that Holy Spirit the gift who's also a member of this one united being called God?

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That's a huge question and it's not clearly expressed in the Bible.

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That's why so many people throughout history have come to different conclusions on this.

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So we have sacred scripture and we absolutely needed sacred tradition

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and then the magisterium, the teaching office of the Church.

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I mean, this is so clear.

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Why would we need, and we continue to need this, right?

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We continue to need the teaching office of the Church because there are things,

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there are questions that you and I experience on a daily basis in our lives

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that the Bible never even imagined were going to be asked.

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And so yes, you can apply biblical principles to these modern day questions.

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Absolutely you can.

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That's why we're not just kind of making stuff up as we go.

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But how do you know you're applying those biblical principles to modern day questions accurately?

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We can keep testing back to the Bible

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or you can rely upon sacred scripture, sacred tradition and the teaching office of the Church

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which has absolutely been necessary.

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Again, absolutely necessary.

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When it comes down to it, and I've said, maybe I've said this before,

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when it comes down to it, there is no Christian who doesn't also believe in the teaching office of the Church.

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There is no Christian who, when I say the Church, I mean the Catholic Church.

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There's no Christian who doesn't believe, hasn't put their faith in the magisterium,

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the teaching office of the Church.

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There is no Christian who doesn't put their faith in the sacred tradition of the Catholic Church.

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How do I mean this?

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Because every Christian believes in the authority of the Bible.

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They believe that the Bible has X number of books.

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Now, Catholic Church teaches that there are 73 books of the Bible.

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Protestants have 66 books.

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Martin Luther got rid of those seven books in the 1500s.

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OK, but even though it's 66, even though it's 66 books,

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the question you have to ask, logically, is

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how did you come to the conclusion that this book should have 66 books in it?

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How did you come to the conclusion that these are the 66 books in your Protestant Bible?

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The answer, ultimately, it comes down to, well A,

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they believe in the authority of Martin Luther to remove those seven,

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but B, in the year 250 in the Council of Rome,

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sorry, 315 in the Council of Rome,

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in the year 398 in the Council of Carthage,

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and in the 1500s in the Council of Trent,

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the Catholic Church definitively said these are the 73 books of the Bible.

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So what happened was the sacred tradition or the magisterium of the Church said

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these 73 books are the scripture, are the sacred scripture.

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So every Christian who believes in the Bible

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actually believes in the magisterium of the Catholic Church.

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They actually believe that the magisterium has the authority

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to definitively, infallibly teach this

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because they could have got this wrong.

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I mean, the reality is you could have got the books of the Bible incorrectly.

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If I don't believe they got it incorrect or got it wrong,

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that means I must be trusting in the authority of the magisterium and the sacred tradition.

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I don't know if that makes any sense, but it makes sense to me.

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It's a logical kind of a thing.

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Because even, think about the illogic.

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OK, so in the 1500s, Martin Luther had one of his rallying,

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two rallying cries to the Protestant Reformation.

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Again, this is not meant to be a Catholic, Protestant kind of a thing

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as much as it is to explain our background,

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our perspective as Catholics on what God has revealed.

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He's revealed himself in sacred scripture, sacred tradition and the magisterium.

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OK, so in the 1500s, Martin Luther had two rallying cries to the Protestant Reformation.

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One was sola fide, faith alone.

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We can talk about that later.

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The other was sola scriptura,

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that we don't believe anything that doesn't come from scripture.

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This is one of the reasons why it's very common to have the question,

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where is that in the Bible, right?

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Because Martin Luther had this thing, sola scriptura, scripture alone.

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Here's the interesting thing.

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OK, that means as Christians, we won't believe anything unless it's in the Bible.

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OK.

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Big question.

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Where is the doctrine sola scriptura in the Bible?

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Like, where in this book,

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even with 73, or seven extra books, 73 in the Catholic Bible,

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even in the whole Bible,

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where is the doctrine Bible alone found in the Bible?

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And this is almost one of those, what you might call like a self-refuting teaching,

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that to uphold it refutes itself

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because if a thing must be in the Bible to be believed,

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where is sola scriptura in the Bible?

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Now, some people would turn to, I think, 1 Timothy 3,

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2 Timothy 3,

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which talks about like this.

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It's Paul writing to Timothy and he says,

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But you, Timothy, remain faithful to what you've learned and believed

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because you know from who you learned it

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and that from infancy you have known the sacred scriptures

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which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

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Good, yeah, so scriptures capable of giving you wisdom

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for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus.

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And he goes on to say,

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All scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction,

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for training in righteousness so that the one who belongs to God

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is competent and equipped for every good work.

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Super good, like just amazing, right?

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It's scripture, we love it so much.

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Is St. Paul saying in that line,

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And all you need is scripture.

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Now, I would maintain he's not saying that for a couple of reasons.

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One of those reasons being the kind of scripture that St. Paul is referring to

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when he's talking to Timothy, he's talking about the Old Testament.

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He's not talking about the New Testament

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because that's what Paul and Timothy and all the gang in the early church,

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when they talk scripture, when they say,

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It's in the scriptures, it's in the writings,

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what they're talking about is they're talking about the Old Testament.

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So, as a modern day Christian, would you say,

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Actually, yeah, all you need is the Old Testament for salvation.

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Then you'd say, I don't know if I want to say that.

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If you don't want to say that, then you also don't want to point out

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or don't want to come to the conclusion or maintain that this means

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that all you need is scripture or you have scripture alone for a source of data

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or a source of truth when it comes to our knowledge of God.

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Because you have to ask the question,

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What does sacred scripture say is the pillar and foundation of truth?

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Well, actually, it's in another letter of St. Paul to Timothy,

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the first letter of St. Paul to Timothy, also chapter three.

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Because in that letter, St. Paul says this, he says,

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I'm writing to you about these matters, right? Timothy, right?

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Although I hope to visit you soon, but if I should be delayed,

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you should know how to behave in the household of God,

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which is the church of the living God,

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which is the pillar and foundation of truth.

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The pillar and foundation of truth.

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See, even the Bible, even the sacred scripture calls the church

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the pillar and foundation of truth.

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It doesn't call itself the pillar and foundation of truth, it calls the church.

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And again, at this point, there's only one church,

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the church that would become to be known as the Catholic Church,

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the one holy Catholic apostolic church, the Roman Catholic Church.

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OK, so sacred scripture is one of God's gifts to us, absolutely.

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But as St. Paul wrote in his second letter to the Thessalonians,

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he says, hold fast to the teachings that you were taught,

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whether by word of mouth, sacred tradition, or by letter.

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Yes, the Bible, huge gift of God to us.

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But it's not the only gift God has given us.

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He wants us to know him and he wants us to know him clearly

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and he wants you to know him clearly.

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That's one of the reasons why he gave us the gift of sacred scripture.

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But it's also the reason why he gave us the gift of sacred tradition.

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And it's also why he gave us the gift of the magisterium,

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the teaching office of the church.

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So here's the question.

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Why not just be grateful for all of the gifts?

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And to be able to say, OK, if it's not clearly, you know,

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always something clearly, clearly expressed in the Bible,

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what has tradition taught about it?

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What has the teaching office of the church taught about it?

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Because these are all God's gifts to the world

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so that we can come to have knowledge of him

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and fall more and more in love with him and follow him better.

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That's it.

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From all of us here at Ascension Presents,

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my name's Father Mike. God bless.