Catholic Apologetics Online

Choose a topic from Vol 2:

God

Man

Religion

The Religion of the Bible

The Christian Faith

A Definite Christian Faith

The Protestant Reformation

The Truth of Catholicism

The Church and the Bible

The Dogmas of the Church

The Church and Her Moral Teachings

The Church in Her Worship

The Church and Social Welfare

Comparative Study of Non-Catholic Denominations

To and From Rome

Catholic attitude towards the Bible

452. Are not all the Christian Churches based on theBible?

The Protestant Churches originally insisted that the Bible wasthe Word of God; but they were based on the various senses theirfounders read into the Bible and declared to be the meaningintended by God. But the Catholic Church, although she insists thatthe Bible is indeed the Word of God, does not base her positionupon the Bible. She is not so foolish as to say, "Believe theBible to be inspired because I tell you it is; and believe in mebecause the Bible, which speaks of me, is inspired." Thatwould be a vicious circle. Of course, if a man already believes theBible to be the inspired Word of God, the Catholic Church can beginfrom that in her discussions with him, and show that the very Wordof God which he accepts justifies her claims. But if a man does notaccept the inspiration of the Bible, then the Catholic Church doesnot appeal to it as inspired. She will justify herself on thegrounds of history and reason alone. Only after the man hasacknowledged the reasonable character of her claims, and with thehelp of God's grace has attained to faith in her as the Churchof God, will he be prepared to accept her teaching that the Bibleis the inspired Word of God. With such a man the Catholic approachdiffers radically from that of the Protestant Churches.

453. If you agree that the Roman Catholic Church isnot founded on the teachings of the Bible what becomes of her claimto infallibility?

You must not imagine that there could be anything in theCatholic doctrines opposed to the teachings of the Bible. We do notbelieve that the Catholic Church is founded on the Bible as if menwere given the Bible, and then constructed the Catholic Church forthemselves according to the ideas they thought the Bible tocontain. We believe that the Catholic Church was founded personallyby Christ, who built it upon the Apostles, sending them to preachHis Gospel and propagate the Christian religion throughout theworld. And it was Christ personally who guaranteed theinfallibility of the Apostles and of their successors, so that theChurch would be unable to err in her official teachings. Since theChurch is infallible and the Bible is the inspired Word of God,there will never be a conflict between the two. You must keep inmind, of course, that the Bible is the inspired Word of God in thesense in which God intended all that is written in its pages; notin any false sense which some non-infallible reader desires toimpose upon it.

NEXT TOPIC »

MORE FROM VOLUME 2

• About the Author
• Introduction
  - Rev. Charles Mortimer Carty
• Preface
  - John Gregory Murray
  Archbishop of Saint Paul
• Forward
  - Dr Leslie Rumble, MSC

Prefer a PRINT version?

Copyright