Scriptural Authority 4

Catholic Church	"...it decrees that no one relying on his own judgment shall, in matters of faith and morals pertaining to the edification of Christian doctrine, distorting the Holy Scriptures in accordance with his own conceptions, presume to interpret them contrary to that sense which holy mother Church, to whom it belongs to judge of their true sense and interpretation, has held and holds, or even contrary to the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, even though such interpretations should never at any time be published." Reference 4
Scriptures	Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. ~II Peter 1:20-21 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. ~II Peter 3:15-16
Comments	For a church hierarchy to claim that they hold the only true interpretation of the Bible, is in a sense to claim a private interperetation. The scripture above (II Peter 1:20-21) explains the reason why there cannot be a private claim of interpretation; In times past, God spake to holy men and they were moved to prophecy by the Holy Ghost. The will of man or the decrees of men had nothing to do with God's word. In other words, men do not decide privately what God says. In II Peter 3:15-16, Peter tells of the horrible fate of false prophets, he explains what happens when private interpretation occurs: Because the scriptures are hard to be understood, unlearned men will twist the meaning and the result will be a perversion of the scriptures. The tragedy of this is that countless individuals are decieved into believing that they can not know what the Bible says to them. They are convinced that only "holy" people can interpret God's will for them. Reading of the scriptures is forbidden. II Peter 3 tells us to beware of being led away with the error of the wicked. We are to grow in our knowledge of the Lord. Does the Catholic church deny that there are false prophets among them? 2 Peter 1 says that there will be false teachers among the church, secretly introducing destructive heresies. But yet here is a church who claims to have the ability to judge the scriptures true sense and interpretation.