So you are saying that the Popes are infallibly guides by Jesus?
The argument for the Magisterium is circular. Catholic apologists prooftext the Magisterium from the Bible. But if the Bible is not perspicuous, how do they know that their prooftexts apply to the Magisterium? Are they prooftexting the Magisterium with or without the Magisterium? If the former, then the prooftexts are superfluous–but if the latter, then the Magisterium is superfluous.
Of course, the argument of an infallible church is circular, because it is only on the authority of tradition that the Roman Catholic church can claim infallibility, yet infallibility is required in order to guarantee the truth of the tradition to which Rome appeals.
Rome has no infallible canon, as it were, of infallible papal statements.
Rome claims that the authority of the Church is logically and temporally prior to that of Scripture and therefore denies the self-attesting nature of scriptural authority. Scripture, according to Rome, owes its very existence to the decisions of Rome, and therefore the Romaist Church authority is in a very real sense prior to that of Scripture.
The Romanist requires multiple infallible authorities. People who abandon
sola scriptura ultimately simply just decide to to take on another infallible authority, sort of like how someone converting to the Mormonism gets "a burning in the bosom".
When all is said a done, any appeals Romainsts make to Scripture to establish their other infallible authorities requires a lot to be read in to those verses. Romanists can continually say that the Scriptural evidence provided to them do not establish
sola scriptura, but, oddly enough and ignoring the irony, Romanists readily will use Scripture in response to say Scripture somehow clearly establishes
other infallible rules of faith. That won't do. :AMR:
How is it that Scripture is clearer to the Roman magisterium than to some other body of men?
A Roman Catholic’s only appeal is that Rome says so. For as soon as the Romanist reaches for his Bible to prove his point he undermines his conclusion that Scripture is not an effective final infallible source of doctrine. Not only do Romanists believe Rome on her say so alone; they are unable to check her claims against Scripture because Scripture is apparently unclear and not effective in settling such matters. By the way, Mormons have a similar problem.
Given the Roman Catholic view of the ineffectiveness of Scripture to settle doctrinal matters, the conclusion of an infallible magisterium rests one-hundred percent upon Rome’s claims regarding infallibility.
This should come as no surprise since that in order to establish
sola ecclesia one must attack
sola scriptura. To convince someone of the necessity of the Church's sufficiency, one must deny the Scripture's sufficiency. And that, beloved, is where the battle rages.
AMR