The One Question That Shuts Down the Catholic and Orthodox ‘Authority’ Trap
Jayni Jackson | 16 Aug. 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02FmU-NfmkE
3:05 Seing he had already done that once before, at the beginning of His Ministry, the priests certainly had thought of that.
9:38 "every Christian has a mandate to read the Bible for himself"
From Jesus or from Luther?
10:11 So glad you asked.
Under the authority of Moses. For instance Deuteronomy 13.
I'm not sure whether a representative of the Sanhedrin was among the Beroeans, but the duty of them to reject a false prophet is parallel to that of stoning a false prophet.
So, the Beroeans acted under the authority of the Old Law.
10:18 If the Pope should ever teach heresy, under the authority of Pope Paul IV and a few more we should conclude he is no Catholic and therefore no Pope.
There are also Church Fathers and ultimately Jesus for this move.
Now, a counterquestion. If I can detect an otherwise apparent Pope as teaching heresy, is it by contrast with what daddy heard in Catechism more than 60 years ago, or is it by contrast with what a highly learned man dug up as the Bible really meaning, even if no one ever heard of it, despite everyone reading the Bible, or what that highly learned man assures us the early Church did before Constantine?
10:39 No Catholic will say you have no right to believe the Bible.
The question is whether you have the right to interpret it.
If you say things like Ephesians 2:8 to 9 prove, not just justification without previous works meriting it (which we also believe), but also without an obligation to works from justification on, we could ask "who gave you authority to omit verse 10?"
If you say things like Matthew 16:18 having Jesus as the rock, we could ask you "and who gave you authority to omit verse 19?"
If furthermore we say Matthew 16:19 is a clear parallel to Isaias 22:22 speaking of Eliacim, and you respond "nah, Peter and Eliacim are two different persons" we could ask "who gave you permission to interpret the OT as if it were not about Jesus?"
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures, the things that were concerning him
[Luke 24:27]
Did you note: "in all the scriptures"? ... all of the OT is about Himself.
Including the relation between the House of David (=Jesus Himself) and Eliacim (can you find a better candidate than Peter?)
10:51 You are aware that Beroeans were at that point not yet Christians?
11:13 An Apostle's teaching "was tested by the very word of God"' by people who had not yet accepted his authority as an Apostle.
This is not a blueprint for how Christians should behave to their pastors ...
11:24 F. F. Bruce is not an Apostle. Nor someone the Catholic Church accepts as a legitimate successor of them.
And, in this context, not someone that I see as very well analysing the situation of the Beroeans.
11:34 If what you are doing is discerning simply from the Scriptures you accept whether you should become Catholic, fine, you are following the Beroean model.
However, what it seems to me you are doing is looking for excuses to reject Catholic authority, which reminds me more of how some groups of Pharisees were dealing with Jesus.
Like "Beroean model" vs "Catholic model" ... won't fly. Bad excuse. While examining St. Paul they were not yet accepting him as authority, but they were open to it. They were like any Jew today asking if Catholicism fits the Torah ... and some conclude it does.
12:06 The dilemma you have painted falls apart.
Current Church teaching indeed has a standard to live up to (so, higher). 1) Bible. 2) Oral traditions codified in post-Biblical times. 3) Past Church teaching.
Biblically, whatever is the true Church has an assurance that this will not fall apart into contradictions. Matthew 28:20.
12:46 Found the quote:
5. But, as I had begun to say, let us not listen to “you say this, I say that” but let us listen to “the Lord says this.” Certainly, there are the Lord’s books, on whose authority we both agree, to which we concede, and which we serve; there we seek the Church, there we argue our case
St. Augustine is not arguing for indivudual Bible reading to decide individual belief. He's arguing to take a schism to the Bible, the one authority both parties claim to adher to.
A little later he goes on to warn against churches or interpretations found only in some nationalities:
But if the Church of Christ is delineated among all peoples with divine and most certain evidence of the canonical Scriptures, whatever they should bring to bear and whoever should read it should say Look! Here is the Messiah! Or, There he is! Let us rather hear, if we are his sheep, the voice of our pastor saying Do not believe it (Matth. XVIV, 23). Indeed, those individual churches are not found among many nations, where that Church is; but this Church, which is everywhere, is found even where they are. Therefore, we seek it in the holy canonical Scriptures.
Like if you go to Ethiopia, you are likier to find Catholics and Copts than Protestants. If you go to Austria, you are likelier to find Catholics and Protestants than Copts.
13:12 "not just to the clergy"
No, but principally. Timothy is selected as clergyman because he is expert on OT Scriptures. He's instructed on how to chose clergy:
Holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience And let these also first be proved: and so let them minister, having no crime
[1 Timothy 3:9-10]
There are two criteria. Faith (to be judged by ordaining or consecrating bishop). Pure Conscience (to be judged by ordaining of consecrating bishop).
13:24 "the Beroeans weren't rabbis"
Did rabbis, as a distinct institution, even exist?
They were however Pharisees, i e students of the law, like Paul himself had been. They were not fishermen from Galilee.
14:15 No, there is nothing about either right or responsibility of weighing every single teaching of someone you already accept as your legitimate pastor ... unless you have reason to doubt he is such.
The key point is, Luke is describing the behaviour of Beroeans prior to becoming Christians, prior to accepting Paul as their authority.
The way you put it, it sounds as if Paul came in, held a speech, and then Beroeans at home verified. If that had been the case, how would Luke have known they verified? He obviously knew because they voiced the test criteria. "OK, but does this really match up with ...." and Paul answered.
This was not an ordinary occasion, it was a missionary one. Same problem that Sabbatarians have with the text, they think Paul worshipped mainly by preaching in the Synagogue. No, he worshipped at Holy Mass, on Sundays. He preached on Sabbaths, because he was a missionary. They voiced objections, because it was his duty to answer objections as a missionary.
14:44 "my allegiance is to Christ, and to Christ alone"
Can you source that in the Bible?
15:43 The Beroeans were pretty close to at least first year theology students and they were at the point described not being faithful to Jesus Whom they hadn't accepted yet, but to Moses.
16:04 When they consulted the Scriptures, it is very arguable they also consulted the Oral Torah, as still not yet adulterated among them by rejection of Christ, as it was going to be.
17:24 They discerned under the authority of Moses.
17:35 We should reject a heretical office holder or apparent holder as not Catholic and not office holder, on the authority of the teaching of the Gospel as it came down to our fathers within living memory.
If everyone within living memory in the Catholic Church had been decidedly Heliocentric, I would have no right to stay aloof from an apparent Pope who in 1992 said "Galileo was right" which he wasn't.
Fernand Crombette was Geocentric and Young Earth Creationist, and he died in 1970, two years after I was born. No one was telling him "no, you can't" ... because no such outrageous decision was taken prior to 1992.
So, I reject Wojtyla for 1992 bc Fernand Crombette is within living memory and because no previous Pope in an official statement adressed to all the earth's Catholics had come out as decidedly either Heliocentric or Old Earth. Pius XII did come out as Old Earth in 1951, but only in a document adressed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
[Comments posted after this previous one are invisible under the video.]
18:51 No, when I belong to Jesus, I'm already beyond the stage of the Beroeans who were at that point only disciples of Moses.
Jesus did NOT ask us to believe Him without any human institution as evidence, if human means consisting of human beings and visible in human affairs.
If Jesus told Apostles to teach all peoples, He expected all peoples to hear the Apostles. Not just critically, while deciding, but uncritically once they had decided.
He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me.
[Luke 10:16]
I am a convert. My confirmation sponsor was a convert. His confirmation sponsor was also my friend, and his reason for converting was :
How then shall they call on him, in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear, without a preacher And how shall they preach unless they be sent, as it is written: How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, of them that bring glad tidings of good things
Romans 10:14-15]
In other words, we are NOT just supposed to believe Jesus because Jesus, but because credible human testimony which comes through the Church and refers to the Church.
19:56 "we all need reformation at some point"
We don't all need reformation at the same point in time. When Rome was as corrupt as Luther saw it (after that, St. Filip Neri is counted as Third Apostle of Rome), Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros made sure that Toledo was not corrupt.
When Poland needed cleansing from Lutheran errors, Rome was already OK again (one ancestor of Lewis XVI on the side of his Polish ancestors became a Lutheran, his son became Catholic again).
20:17 "who are the Beroeans to test Paul's word?"
So far, while doing so, still un-Christian.
20:36 In some cases one can.
As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction
[2 Peter 3:16]
Note that in the previous words, St. Paul was not supposed to be scrutinised according to the OT (St. Peter was not adressing Beroeans before their conversion), but adherred to:
And account the longsuffering of our Lord, salvation; as also our most dear brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, hath written to you
[2 Peter 3:15]
— Yes, but Romans 2:4 is different, that's Scripture!
— OK, how were they supposed to know it was Scripture if no one told them?
This by the way confirms that Peter was writing to Romans, he was near the Tiber, not near Euphrates.
But the point is, the easiest way for Romans to know the Epistle to the Romans was Scripture was, because Peter said so.
20:46 Can you point to any Pope prior to John XXIII doing so?
By the way, when Daniel cites Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus as adoring the true God, are they using the tetragrammaton name, or is Daniel interpreting their use of Nebo or of Ahura Mazda?
Just in case you should find one.
21:20 He is certainly not teaching obvious Catholic tradition.
The Catholic position would normally be, the Muslims have a correct philosophical grasp on what God is, but not a correct theological grasp on Who God Is.
22:05 I think pretty much all of your video has been challenging Catholicism on credentials instead of truth claims.
So, the question, why do we challenge your credentials can be answered: how do you know you are not one of the unstable and unlearned who twist the Scriptures.
If any Catholic would like to ask me that, I'd answer "I checked with Aquinas and Church Fathers on essential or doctrinal points, I just provide technical solutions" ....
24:18 As you asked for challenges, feel welcome to mine!
De Unitate Ecclesiae: On the Unity of the Church by Augustine
on the site Semper Reformanda
https://www.semperreformanda.com/de-unitate-ecclesiae-on-the-unity-of-the-church-by-augustine/
Une vision de la Création et du monde antique conforme aux Livres saints
Le savant de Dieu FERNAND CROMBETTE Un catholique français
https://ceshe.fr/loeuvre-dun-catholique-francais-fernand-crombette/
Also available in English: just click the button English (UK) or English (US) whichever you are more familiar with, and it will translate without changing the URL. If on first click it shows in your language and you would want to check the French, click the button Français.
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