Msg Base:  AREA 5  - ASK FATHER            CIN ECHO   AMDG
  Msg No: 290.  Wed  4-22-92 22:06  (NO KILL)  (MAILED)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Danny Wilks
 Subject: The Bible

+-
| I have two questions that I will ask. 1 at what age does a child have
| acountablity?  2. What Bible txt proves Mary was still a virgin after the
| Bitrh of Christ?  I f it is not written then it is man made doctrine and
| not Biblical.  Therefor questionable as to accuracy.  Comment on first
| question: Children between ages newborn and five seem to be mor accepting
| of the love of God that flows through Christ in others. They also are mor
| able to accept Christ for some reason.
+-[DW=>ABIC]
 
Dear Danny,
 
You have written:  "If it is not written (in the Bible), then it is 
man made doctrine and not biblical."  This is the Protestant
principle of SOLA SCRIPTURA (the Bible alone is the repository of ALL
God's revelation to mankind). This principle is nowhere  taught or
implied in the books of the Bible. It was invented in the late Middle
Ages by the Albigensian heretics, adopted by the Waldensians somewhat
later to justify their heresy, and made the cornerstone of
Protestantism in the 16th century.  It was unheard of in apostolic
times and throughout the first eleven centuries of Christian history. 
It is "another gospel" than the one we received from Christ and his
Apostles. As such, it falls under the ban  pronounced by St. Paul in
Galatians 1:6-10.
 
From the Day of Pentecost (described in Acts 2:1-41) until A.D. 51,
when Paul wrote the earliest book of the New Testament (1st
Thessalonians), the Church had only oral traditions about Jesus and
his origin (involving Mary) and his teaching, death, resurrection,
and ascension.)  These traditions were monitored by the Church under
the protection of Holy Spirit.  Some of the Apostles and some of
their disciples wrote some of these traditions down, explored them,
and developed them, thus producing the books of the New Testament. 
The Church in turn, through her Bishops, exercising their teaching
authority (cf. Matthew 28: 16-20), authenticated the New Testament
books, identifying them as the work of the Holy Spirit.  The Church
has given us the New Testament.
 
Christian teaching, then and from then on, is contained in a twin
source:  sacred oral tradition, as from the Day of Pentecost, and
written tradition or Scripture.  In 2nd Thessalonians 2:14, Paul says
to his converts: "(God) has called you through our GOSPEL." In verse
15, he identifies his GOSPEL:  it is "the traditions that you were
taught". He then distinguishes those traditions as both oral and
written: "either by an oral statement or by an epistle of ours."
 
To ask for a "bible verse" to "prove" any Christian doctrine is to
fall into the SOLA SCRIPTURA trap.  Christians should not operate
that way.  Catholic Christians never do, because we know that we are
"the household of God, the Church of the living God, the pillar and
foundation of truth (1st Timothy 3:15).  The Church was the matrix of
New Testament scripture, which was written by her earliest bishops
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  The Church uses the New
Testament and the oral tradition as teaching tools.  Scripture is
indeed "inspired by God and useful for teaching, refutation,
correction, and training in  righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). But if
Scripture is misused, apart from the Church which Christ  founded to
teach us, Scripture becomes "hard to understand, so that the ignorant
and unstable distort it to their own destruction" (2nd Peter 3:16).
 
Danny, I have strict space limits on this board, so I must close now. 
If you wish to ask  questions about Church teaching on Mary or any
other doctrine, please send me more messages.  But I hope you
understand now that "show me in the Bible where it proves...." is a
meaningless demand.  It is unbiblical, too.
 
                                Sincerely in Christ,
 
                                Father Mateo