Teaching "Just From the Bible"

One of the great blessings of becoming Orthodox Catholic was the consolidation of scripture, where, in Orthodox understanding, all of it "fits" and has context.   Nothing but the Gospels are "amplified" and by "amplified" I mean contain the information, the story upon which all other scriptures are viewed.  In Orthodox Catholicism, all scripture is genuinely interpreted IN Christ, not in a personally held understanding of what "the Light of Christ" is, or what a particular or passage or section of scripture says.  Nor is the Church's interpretation subject to that personal understanding, the ego filter, which colors scripture.  Rather, all is understood, all of the Tradition, which includes Scripture, in the Light of Christ held by the Whole (Catholic -of the Whole) Church from the very beginning. 

I suddenly was relieved of the burden of defending my interpretation of scripture on every issue, all those things a thinking Protestant needs hold an opinion. I speak of the myriad huge, mild, and subtle difference of Protestant scriptural interpretation, creating 44,000 denominations of Protestants in the world, and millions more non-churched Protestants all holding their "personal interpretation" of scripture. In this sea of confusion, it was like battling waves that could sink you, and suddenly finding rock solid ground, and being able to say, "The Church Teaches."  Because she indeed does.  No matter what scripture, the church teaches; no matter what the competing dogma, the church teaches. She always has and her light has not been extinguished.   ON this subject a friend wrote the following.
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My Protestant Coworker Has Been Learning From a Bible Teacher
 
One of my coworkers, whom I'll call Terry, goes to an Evangelical Protestant "non-denominational" church.

He had a conversion a few years back and does not yet understand much about the differences between different Protestant denominations, much less what Catholicism teaches.
 
He found out that I was Catholic, and we began to discuss some of the important issues surrounding which Church, if any, is the true one.
 
Terry told me that his family member gave him and his wife a set of DVDs of a Protestant pastor's sermons, and that they had been watching them.
 
"He teaches straight from the Bible," Terry said. "And when he says something that is his own opinion, he tells you. He says 'this is my own belief here,' or 'this is directly from Scripture.'"

So I pointed out to Terry that even the things this pastor is saying are directly from Scripture are actually only his opinions as well. Terry didn't understand, but I soon demonstrated it to him.
 
He told me the pastor's name, and I googled him. Turns out the pastor is a mid-Acts hyper-dispensationalist Protestant.
 
A Hyper-What?

It does not particularly matter what small niche within a niche within Protestantism that this pastor follows. In this case though, I was familiar with this sub-sub-strain within Protestantism from a guy I interacted with a year or so ago who was a late-Acts (or Acts 28) hyper-dispensationalist.
 
Every statement that this pastor made--even those he claimed were straight from the Bible--were his own interpretation of the Bible through a particular lens or tradition.
 
In this case, the tradition is a hyper-dispensationalist one that was invented about one hundred years ago by some other Protestants.

My friend Terry was confused. So I explained briefly to him that he is listening and believing a man who has no more authority than any other Protestant who picks up a Bible and says "this verse means X."

And in this case, he was following a man whose beliefs are such a tiny minority within Protestantism that even his fellow Protestants had created websites devoted to debunking his teachings.
 
Terry didn't know how to respond. But I didn't press him on it. A seed is planted. A seed that will make him think critically about what this pastor is saying before blindly believing in it.
 
Most Protestants Are Like Terry
 
Most Protestants are not apologetics experts. They are not Bible experts.
 
They are instead like Terry.

They know what they have been taught from some particular set of Protestant pastors and friends. They think that it is just "plain Bible teaching," not even realizing that thousands of Protestant denominations differ on those "plain teachings."

You don't have to refute everything they wrongly believe. You just have to gently and kindly point out the questions they need to ask themselves: "How do I know what Jesus and the Apostles really taught?"

God bless,
Devin
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2701 Quanah Dr.
Round Rock TX 78681
USA