Why dows the catholic church make up it's own rules? Aren't we supose to follow the bible?

Answer 1

I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. (John 16:12-13)

The Catholic Church does not use Holy Scripture as the only basis of doctrine. It could not. The early Catholic church existed before and during the time that the New Testament was written (by Catholics).

There were hundreds of Christian writings during the first and second centuries. Which New Testament writings would become official was not fully decided until about 400 AD.

Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit was guiding the early church (and is guiding the church today) to make the correct choices about things like:
+ The Holy Trinity (which is also only hinted at in the Bible)
+ Going to church on Sunday instead of Saturday (which is actually directly against one of the Ten Commandments)
+ The Communion of Saints
+ Which writings include in the New Testament?

Things that are even more modern like
+ Slavery is bad. Slavery is never declared evil in the Bible. This was one of the justifications for slavery in the Confederate States.
+ Democracy is good. The Bible states that either God should be the leader of the nation like Israel before the kings or kings should be the leader, "Give to Caesar that which is Caesar's." This was talked about a lot during the American Revolution.

This second source of doctrine is called Apostolic Tradition.

Do Christians who do not allow the continuing guiding force of the Holy Spirit to make their beliefs more and more perfect, still endorse slavery as Colossians 3:22 commands, "Slaves, obey your human masters in everything"?

Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours. (2 Thessalonians 2:15)

We instruct you, brothers, in the name of (our) Lord Jesus Christ,to shun any brother who conducts himself in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us. (2 Thessalonians 3:6)

I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions, just as I handed them on to you. (1 Corinthians 11:2)

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

You've already gotten a lot of really good answers--and, of course some nonsense. I mostly want to comment on and expand the repeated assertion that the Catholic Church "wrote" the Bible.

First place, the bulk of the Bible is the Old Testament--the Jewish Bible. No Catholics involved there! Admittedly, the RCC did decide which of several slightly different lists of books from the time before Christ were inspired. She picked some--e.g., Maccabees--that Judaism eventually rejected (followed MUCH later by most Protestants).

As for the New Testament, IF you think the Catholic Church started on Pentecost, yeah, Catholics wrote it. If you're not willing to go that far, it was early Christians, virtually none of whom had access to all the other material that eventually was collected into the NT. (MAYbe John when he was writing Revelations, alias the Apocalypse, could have had an otherwise complete NT; I'm not enough of a scholar to be sure!)

Those early Christians also wrote a lot of other stuff--for just one, the Didache--that the Church still respects but doesn't consider inspired.

AND they wrote a lot of nonsense--like some of the so-called "other Gospels." For instance, there are some in which the boy Jesus is the ultimate Mean Wittle Kid, because He's got the power to be. The Church rejected those.

Getting back to the charge of making up its [no apostrophe] own rules: Remember that the Church asserts that she is both Divine and Human. So like any other organization, she has organizational rules--like Benedict's recent decree requiring that next papal election be by 2/3 vote, no matter HOW long it takes. And she claims to meditate on God's Revelation and draw new insights and interpretations out of it.

Answer 3

all Rcc beliefs can be found in the bible, some plainly others indirectly indicated. Scripture itself points out an authoritative church & tradition. St Paul points out in his second letter to the Thess – stand firm & hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or letter. Here are some scriptures to check out 2 Thess 2:15, 1 Cor 11:2, 2 Thess 3:6, 2 Tim 1:13-14 & 2:2. When the first Christians had disagreements they didn’t open their bibles – they didn’t exist – they held councils and held binding decrees – these councils were those who knew more then the others and they came to an agreement/understanding and thus made a binding decree (acts 15:1-29). The very books of the bible were determined by the Church (Rcc) and didn’t even happen until the 4th century – centuries of oral tradition. Without their determination and will to listen to the Holy Spirit, sent by God to inspire them there would be no bible.
If the traditions and leaders of the Rcc did not hold to the scriptures (while some held violently or savagely) the majority shared and taught. Had the hierarchy of the Rcc not established the foundations where would Christianity be today? Would there even be a bible in print – I really don’t think so. Because people would not have shared their traditions. Most people century’s back never owned a bible like we do, gracious they couldn’t even read.

Answer 4

Every church "makes its own rules," so Catholicism isn't unique. The "other rules" are called Tradition. Tradition is mentioned in the Bible:

2 Thessalonians 2:15 "So then, brothers, stand firm, and hold the traditions which you were taught by us, whether by word, or by letter."

"By Letter" refers to scripture (at the time the New Testament was merely a collection of letters that were still being written, not yet a compiled book). This is also called Doctrine.

"By Word" refers to oral instructions that were handed down from the Apostles. Today, those teachings are called Tradition or Dogma.

The Catholic Church (and other Apostolic churches, e.g. Orthodox) claims the Tradition handed down from the Apostles. Protestants reject that tradition because it is not contained in the scripture.

Instead, Protestants have developed new traditions (dogmas) that are not derived directly from Scripture. Curiously, a major one is Sola Scriptura (Bible Alone), though the above scripture passage directly refutes that. Others include Sola Fide (Faith Alone), "Once Saved Always Saved" and Adult Baptism.

Answer 5

Pastor Billy says: compared to what, Evangelical Protestantism? lol, you can't be serious. The Christian bible OT and NT is a Catholic book. If you claim to be Christian the bible you use comes from Catholic tradition, as it was Catholic bishops who compiled the canon of the bible and it was Catholic practicing Christians who wrote the New Testament. Once again I ask compared to what, compared to the 30,000 + Protestant denominations all arguing over their own man made doctrines? Obviously you are young and naive to even ask this question. In reality all the communities that you understand as bible alone or believing also follow the teaching of their pastors/preachers/elders, they attend seminary where they learn not from the bible alone but from teachers and theologians.

See some of my question which provide some insight into the fallacies of the "bible alone" community.

Answer 6

The pope, bishops, priests, etc. had to do something all those years other than limit themselves to the Bible and collect money. Would get rather boring otherwise. So they had ecumenical councils and such.

Seriously though - without being facetious - they did need something to do other than sit around and repeat the same things others did. If you want to do an awful lot of reading, you can see in the writings of the early church fathers (ante-Nicene):

http://www.ccel.org/fathers.html

how the trinity concept **gradually developed** for example with subsequent writings - authors expounding on it with their own ideas which are not explicitly stated in the Bible (among some verses which are contrary to it). The Nicene and post-Nicene authors added alot more of their own ideas.

If you want to do an awful lot more reading, go to the New Advent site and search for ecumenical councils:

http://www.newadvent.org/library/almanac_14388a.htm

or creeds:

http://www.newadvent.org/etc/search.htm?safe=active&cx=000299817191393086628%3Aifmbhlr-8x0&q=creeds&cof=FORID%3A9#884

and see how these ideas were developed over the centuries, which go way beyond anything stated in the Bible. Keep in mind also that people in and around the 4th century decided what would be included in the Bible.

In some cases other than looking for more things to do and include, they were responding to events and issues of the day - such in Vatican 2:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_II

where not long after the holocaust they decided not to hold the Jews responsible for "Jesus'" crucifixion.


**The reason I think it is important to note how concepts such as the trinity gradually developed is because if it were apparent that such a thing exists I think the disciples and gospel authors and the church fathers directly after them would make this clear. They make no mention of it, but others reading the scriptures later and adding thier own notions devised it. Thus I am suspicious that any place where it says "the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" was even in the original scriptures but added later. Remember, the earliest complete text that exists is from the 4th century - after this concept was established.

Answer 7

You claim the Church does not follow the Bible, but you do not provide any examples. You are either unable or unwilling to do so.

The Truth is, the Church does indeed follow Biblical teaching.

Most likely, the Church's understanding of hte Bible is not the problem. It may very well be your understanding of the Catholic Church that's causing the problem.

Answer 8

If you followed the Bible you would know that there are Traditions involved too. Where in the Bible does it say follow only the Bible? It does not it includes the traditions besides the Catholics wrote the Bible. There was no Bible before the Catholics wrote it.

Answer 9

The Catholic Church DOES follow the bible as She is the one who WROTE the bible.

Answer 10

And how is Baptism, the Holy Eucharist, confessing our sins to one another, and other Catholic practices anti-Biblical? They're all mentioned Biblically, as is the "cloud of witnesses" (i.e., the saints) who watch over us. As for the Blessed Virgin Mary, she's called "blessed" right in the pages of Scripture. In the Bible, Christ appointed someone to watch over His church, in the form of Peter, and today, we call Peter's predecessor the Pope. So again, what's anti-Biblical? True, we are not a "sola Scriptura" church in the same way that certain types of Protestants are, but we're certainly not off the Biblical map, as you seem to be implying. Read some Catholic apologetics sometime, and you'll find that most points will be solidly backed by Scripture.