"And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." Matthew 23:9
Their priests are called Father.
"..in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving" 1st Timothy 4:1-4
The priest is not supposed to marry and they can't eat meat on Fridays.
According to this verse, they have departed from the faith.
2006-12-20T14:56:30Z
rukidding,
The one true church was started by Christ upon his death. The Catholic church was formed over 500 years later. That makes it impossible to be the true church.
2006-12-20T15:04:19Z
BigPappa,
The entire verse reads Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
The epistle that is mentioned is the Bible, it is not the creed books that men have written.
"Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men," Mark 7:7-8
2006-12-20T15:06:26Z
churchmusicgirl,
..you will find Jesus warning people not to give their leaders (religious or not) that which is reserved for God.
Exactly my point. Father, in religious aspects, is reserved for God
Yes, our priests are called father, but because they are a spiritual advisor and sacrament-performer, and that is a term of respect. That is different than the father forbidden in the Bible; that passage is more along the lines of the first commandment.
They're still not supposed to marry, and that hasn't changed. The thing that might be confusing you is that if a man is already married and he wants to become a priest, some dioceses will allow that with Rome's permission. Still, those men are few and far between.
I don't know about the eating habits of priests... I've never heard any of them say anything about it either way. But does it really matter? No. You might recall the verse in which Peter says that it is not what enters the mouth that defiles a man but what leaves it.
I suppose you just call your male parent "dad," right? Semantics, my friend, that's all it is. Additionally, we can eat meat on Fridays. Where've you been? Not eating meat was a practice of sacrifice to remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross each Friday. I guess that would be a terrible thing to do. Indeed, we are charged with still doing something to remember the Lord's sacrifice each Friday, but it has not been limited to not eating meat. I
If you are truly interested in why priests are not allowed to marry, you can contact me and I will be happy to explain it. However, I think this is merely a condemnation. I think it might be better for you to remove the plank from your own eye, first.
Catholics rely on the Bible as the Word of God as well as tradition since they accept the truth of the Bible as having been written to explain the world around them in the Old Testament and to evangelize certain audiences in the New Testament. Certain occurrences were omitted in the New Testament as unimportant. The writer decided that based on how best to convince the reader of the central truth. God did not dictate the Bible to it's writers but, rather, inspired them.
How do you explain that Saint Paul told many in his epistles that they should not marry, whether or not they were ministers of the faith? How do you explain the inconsistencies of the Bible or how slavery and incest were acceptable within it? How do you explain that the Catholic Church as been around for over two thousand years and most evangelical churches, if not all, have not existed for even 25 years yet?
The fact remains that the Catholic Church is the one true church and it is you, not I who have strayed from the faith.
If we followed the verse from Matthew literally, we would not be able to call the men who sired us "Dad," "Daddy," "Papa," "Father," etc. If you put the verse back into context, you will find Jesus warning people not to give their leaders (religious or not) that which is reserved for God.
The letter from 1st Timothy was written by a human man to a specific group of people who were experiencing a specific event at a specific time. While the epistles can all be good guidelines and teaching guides, they were not written to be universal teaching documents.
Then why do Protestants call their biological father “father”? It says not to call anyone on earth “father” does it not? BTW, those Catholics made your NT didn’t they? They picked & chose the books of the NT, no? Oh, and where in your NT does it say that the NT is “the word of God” or anything about “sola scriptura”?. You hypocrites! Actually Catholics are far closer to original Christianity and Protestantism is a new religion and didn’t exist before Luther, right? I’m sure the world was waiting two millennia for the real Christianity (Protestantism). Having said that the Catholics are not perfect either since they (Romans) hijacked the original Christian religion which is gnosticism ,hehe.