I just had an insight this morning.
It is on this verse of Scripture:
[16] As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:16)
I was taught this in my youth, and countless pre-V2 Catholic books on Scripture and Apologetics point it out explicitly: the danger of wrestling with difficult passages of scripture -- how many have lost the Faith due to intellectual pride and excessive curiosity. Countless heresiarchs wanted to understand everything, they wanted to wrap their minds around the whole body of truth and even the mind of God, which was a foolish pursuit to begin with.
They ended up eventually going over the line, making a shipwreck of their faith, crossing over into heresy, but since they were addicted to
intellectual and mental pleasure, it was too late for them. When faced with the ultimate choice: mental satisfaction, or submission to the Church, they unfortunately chose the former. And it was all downhill from there.
"Curiosity killed the cat" is not just a glib aphorism.
But here is what hit me hard this morning:
What is Scripture? It's literally the word of God, inspired by the Holy Ghost. So it's a HUGE source of truth, literally infallible. What else is a source of truth like this? Where else does our Catholic Faith come from, besides Scripture? TRADITION! Besides the 2 pillars of the Faith, I would also add any other "truths" as being potentially dangerous.
So wouldn't it be equally possible for people to wrest TRADITION, HISTORY, CHURCH HISTORY, cօռspιʀαcιҽs, KNOWLEDGE OF SECRET SOCIETIES, TRUTH ABOUT VATICAN II or other truths to their own destruction as well?How many people have lost their Faith -- apostatized, lost the virtue of Faith -- due to "rabbit holes" they followed out of stubborn pride and curiosity?
Of course Scripture isn't alone in posing "temptations" to curiosity! Any truth does this. To say otherwise would be to accuse the Holy Ghost of creating some kind of time bomb, something particularly dangerous. That would be ridiculous! Scripture is a selection of history, prayers, and truths from God. Likewise there are other compendia of truths albeit not vouched for by God himself: history books, docuмentation on Vatican II, quotes from Popes, quotes from Saints, etc.
Yes, foolish people cause their own destruction (apostasy) by trying to shine a light on mysteries that are beyond them, and which they should leave alone, but it's not just Scripture that has such mysteries! There are millions of such things throughout secular and Church history, Vatican II, the Traditional movement, etc.