What do you think about the following? Just as a protestant can have faith that the books of scripture are true without accepting the Catholic Church, and it is true faith, those Catholics who have faith in the magisterium have an extra barrier to error when the magisterium binds them to believe something that they would otherwise remain agnostic on and disbelieve. You might say at that point they would disbelieve the magisterium, and that is an option for them, but it is an abandonment of faith just like disbelieving the Bible is an abandonment of faith if one finds an error one can't resolve in scripture, or disbelieving the goodness of God if one is convinced by the problem of evil. In either case, since faith is a (supernatural) habit, and habits are strengthened by actions, the response that is required is to make an act of faith in X teaching that you are doubting. Protestants don't have an infallible magisterium, so when they are about to deny a truth of the faith that would already be taught by the magisterium, they may hold the two in tension in their mind and make the assent of faith by God's grace. Also, I think that the kind of doctrinal unity in Ephesians 4, given that the Holy Spirit through Paul indicates that this matters a lot to God, and the Intellect and will of Christ are united to the intellect and will of God, though separate, so it seems reasonable to assume that doctrinal unity is what Christ is wishing for in John 17, in addition to the unity of brotherly love. Christ's union with the Father isn't just a unity of love but a unity of intellect, and the unity of love and intellect with God is realized in heaven among the saints by the beatific vision. Furthermore it isn't just Christian disunity of will that is a scandal for non-believers, but Christian disunity of thought. You probably hear all the time, as I have, "Christians don't even agree with themselves, so how do they expect me to agree with them?" from atheists. Anyways I think your thoughts in this video are very perceptive. Thanks for your thoughts and God bless! Let me know if I get anything wrong.
I agree with everything you said, though I would point out, unanimous doctrinal unity is a reality in no tradition. Catholics have more of it, but are not in agreement with each other about everything; Protestants have less of it, but agree with each other about those things necessary for their communal worship of Christ together in Spirit and truth.
@@taylorbarrett384 Yeah you are right, Catholics don't have the unity that Jesus desires for us completely. This is obvious on the brotherly love level, so it can also apply to the doctrinal level. I think that I would say that some Protestants agree with each other about things necessary for their communal worship of Christ together in Spirit and truth. I think that some of them go astray who otherwise would not if they were guarded by the magisterium, but that does not undermine the fact that many Protestants have the Holy Spirit and are in Christ, invisibly connected to His bride, and worship in Spirit and Truth, while getting some things wrong, even crucial things like not baptizing infants.
