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NASB | Titus 3:5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Titus 3:5 He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we have done, but because of His own compassion and mercy, by the cleansing of the new birth (spiritual transformation, regeneration) and renewing by the Holy Spirit, |
Subject: Titus 3:5 and washing of regeneration |
Bible Note: Hi there, Your statement is quite near to what I believe the Bible means when it asserts: 'that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation.' I would prefer to say: ‘That no interpretation is correct that contradicts, [opposes, denies] how the Church reads Scripture, appealing to the patristic consensus of the hundreds of years of writings by the Church Fathers, whose contemporaneous Council’s given us the great confessions of faith, the classical statements of Christology and the biblical canon.’ The biblical canon is a list you possess because of an authoritative decision of the Church. The list of New Testament books cannot be found within inspired Scripture. It is Church tradition. I would claim that you are unwittingly putting some of the Church’s biblical interpretation at the centre of your belief system. That is, whatever you discover in scripture about the Trinity or the dual natures of Christ united in one person, you will never dare oppose the Church’s conclusions formed at Nicea 325 and Chalecdon 451. The Catholic interpretation is cast in stone. We saw the shambles when one group tried reinterpreting the Trinity in their own light, the heresy of Oneness Pentecostalism (the return of Sabellianism). Going back to the Council of Jerusalem, (Acts15:22) it is written 'Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church...' There is nothing about individual interpretation here. Furthermore, as a non-American, I really think this extreme individualistic interpretation popular with American evangelicalism has more to do with the individualistic charter your country is founded on than anything else. We share this to some extent in Europe with the same emphasis on the great 'I' since our so-called Enlightenment. Christianity is not meant to simply be a spiritualised form of the private individual 'I', with an emphasis on ‘my’ bible-reading, ‘my’ holiness, ‘my’ interpretation, etc. It was the Fall that shattered the human unity and brought individualism. Thankfully, the Good Shepherd brings back to the fold the whole of humanity fragmented by the Fall. As one early Christian wrote "Adam himself is therefore now spread out over the whole face of the earth. Originally one , he has fallen, and, breaking up as it were, he has filled the whole earth with the pieces." The Catholic Church joins and binds together its members in a bond of unity. There is nothing authentic about all those individual and opposed interpretations by ‘Bible-Christians’. It is rather 'that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.' (John 17:12). Or as the Holman CSB puts it (v.23): I in them and You are in Me. May they be made completely one…' This nonsense about the Christian as a man alone, his own pope pontificating on his personal interpretations of Scripture, while claiming to possess divine truth comes not from the apostolic faith. Christianity is not meant to be a multitude of individuals, as numerous as sands of the seashore. Regards Dalcent, expect a few typos this was written at speed! |