Development Of Doctrine
DOCTRINE, DEVELOPMENT OF
BASIC R.C. BELIEF The Roman Catholic Church likens itself to a flower box in which many seeds have been planted. These are God’s revelations to men; some have just come up, others are blossoming, etc. They claim these seeds were all planted by Christ, but that they develop at different times depending on the need of the Church.
Karl Adam, THE SPIRIT OF CATHOLICISM (1928), “We Catholics acknowledge readily without shame, nay, with pride, that Catholicism cannot be identified simply and wholly with primitive Christianity.” “A religious historian of the fifth millennium A.D. will, without difficulty, discover in Catholicism conceptions and practices which will derive from India, China and Japan.”
CHRISTIAN COMENT The first error is saying Christ planted the seeds. Many important Roman Catholic doctrines have no scriptural basis: Immaculate Conception, Assumption, Purgatory, etc.
The next error is to suppose that any need was not provided for the infant church. Paul said he preached the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27). How could he, if some of God’s truths were in seed form buried beneath the earth?
Scripture was given by inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16), and its interpretation by the Holy Spirit (John 16:13). He never changes; God’s Truth never changes. Any development of doctrine is of human or satanic origin.