Arming
Catholics with the Word of God
By
Director of Stewardship, Heartland Parishes of
My hope is that you will save this article. It may be of help to you in the future. My basic premise is that Bible alone theology does not work. It has never worked. That’s why Christianity continues to fracture. The Bible cannot say you are saved by faith alone (which it never explicitly does), then say you are not saved by faith alone (James 1:24). Truth cannot contradict truth. God cannot contradict himself. Certain passages need to be reconciled in order for the Bible to be properly interpreted.
“Bible alone” Christians most often quote 2Timothy 3:16-17 as their primary scriptural citation for this belief. I’m going to use the King James version throughout this article, because many Protestants use it. The passage begins: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2Tim3:16).
To that, we Catholics would say profitable, absolutely, but where the heck does this say scripture alone? Protestants would respond, “That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2Tim:3:17). To them, “Perfect,” proves complete sufficiency.
Not so, not so, we Catholics will say. Have them look in the concordance in the back of their Bible. Look up the word perfect. James 1:4, says that patience makes us perfect. Hebrews, 2:10, says suffering makes us perfect. Hebrews 13:21, tells us God makes us perfect through our good works. Which one is it? If I can be made perfect in other ways, why do I even need Scripture at all?
Let’s look at this from another angle. Saint Paul wrote the letters to Timothy. He was beheaded in 67 A.D. We know that the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation were written between 90 & 110 A.D. St. Paul could not have meant these books when he penned his statement. They didn’t even exist! In fact, at this time the Old Testament had not even yet been formally canonized.
If you take our Christian friend to the last verse of the last Gospel written, the Gospel of John, it says, “And there are many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen” (John 21:25). Doesn’t this directly contradict the Protestant interpretation of 2Tim 3:16-17 above?
The Bible itself calls the Church, not Scripture, the pillar and ground of the truth. Show our Christian friend 1 Tim 3:15 for that. Later in the Bible, St. Peter says, “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of thing; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2Peter 3:16).
In closing, St. Jerome, probably the greatest Bible scholar of all times said, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” We need to continuously read and try to better understand the Bible. But we’ve got to take our own interpretations with a certain grain of salt. Each person is not his own inspired interpreter. That creates chaos!
The Catholic Church correctly teaches that, just as there is one inspired Word of God, there is one inspired interpreter. That Catholic Church is that same Church that Jesus initiated. It has protected the entire deposit of faith, Scripture, Tradition, and Magisterial teachings from the beginning. It always will. That’s its charge.