Considering that the Catholic Church wrote/compiled the Bible, ...?

Question

...how can Protestants justify Sola Scriptura? If I write a book, am I not the authority on what it means? Is it guaranteed that I have placed all my knowledge into the book such that nothing else I say can be added?

2 Timothy 3:16, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching...", does not imply that the Bible is inerrant. Paul was not even referring to the New Testament when he wrote that, as it did not yet exist. He was referring to the Jewish Scriptures, and worse, inspired != inerrant.

I don't get it.

Answer 1

Hi, Wondermus. Your question may be slightly skewed into a Catholic-Protestant confrontation. It might be more accurate to say that the original (and only) Church established by Jesus compiled the Bible. The Bible is a library of books written by many inspired authors. Here's an interesting piece of trivia: The author who wrote the most words in the New Testament was . . . Luke, who wrote two long books, Luke and Acts.

John writes very clearly that the central revelation of God is not the Bible, but Jesus himself:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. . . . 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

As a historical work about Jesus and his teachings, the New Testament is the best preserved set of writings from the ancient world, with about 5600 copies dating to within 100 years of its writing. But as your question implies, there is no claim of inerrancy in any New Testament book, including 2 Timothy. History knows only one case of inerrancy: Christ himself. To elevate a group of writings about Christ to the same level as Christ himself is to idolize the writings, which demotes the inerrant Word of God to the same level as some of the writings of the disciples.

If Christ himself is the perfect and inerrant Word of God, Christians need to look to all available evidential sources to understand Christ. That evidence has been collected and analyzed by the original Church. To explain the implications of Christian ideas such as the Trinity and Holy Communion, we need the writings of the early Church explaining the ideas in the New Testament (the Fathers of the Church) and to teachings worked out during 2000 years of Church history.

Answer 2

It seems to me that Catholics rely heavily on ritual and tradition. To the point that performing those is what saves and justifies you. Some of the Protestants have gone in the same direction. That's why there has always been a splintering off of groups over time who tire of ritual and desire a personal relationship with God. You can see that relationship is the key in both the Old and New Testament scripture. The bottom line is always salvation by grace through Jesus Christ. Our works do not determine our salvation but they do show if we really do love God and serve him. Our fruit and love for each other should be what distinguishes us from unbelievers and our modern day Pharisees. Not our tradition or ritual performed out of habit in the hope that it cleanses us. That will do nothing. Just like going to church on a weekly basis does not save you. Another problem Protestants have with Catholics is their heavy emphasis on Mary. Some believe Mary was sinless which in turn made Jesus sinless. Not so. Jesus is God and is sinless strictly based on that. Mary was like the rest of us.

Answer 3

The Jews wrote and compiled the Old Testament.

The early Catholic Christians wrote and compiled the New Testament.

The following verses specifically teach agains Sola Scriptura:

+ 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)

+ 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)

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 C.E.

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"?

For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sections 80 and following: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect1chpt2.htm#80

With love in Christ.

Answer 4

The Bible is a Catholic e book. basically the data. Protestants deleted Books that regrettably Jesus quoted from contained in the Gospels of their very bibles! Yikes! communicate some super oops! Luther tousled... Of the approximately 3 hundred previous testomony expenditures contained in the hot testomony, approximately 2/3 of them got here from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the previous testomony) which coated the deuterocanonical books that the Protestants later bumped off. that's extra evidence that Jesus and the apostles seen the deuterocanonical books as element of canon of the previous testomony. indexed right here are some examples: Matt. a million:23 / Isaiah 7:14 - behold, a "virgin" shall conceive. Hebrew - behold, a "youthful lady" shall conceive. Matt. 3:3; Mark a million:3; John a million:23 / Isaiah 40:3 - make "His paths in the present day." Hebrew - make "point contained in the desolate tract a highway." Matt. 9:13; 12:7 / Hosea 6:6 - I want "mercy" and not sacrifice. Hebrew - I want "goodness" and not sacrifice.

Answer 5

1. PETER CONSIDERED 2TIMOTHY 3:16 "SCRIPTURE," ALONG WITH PAUL'S OTHER LETTERS!

2Peter 3:15 "Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as OUR DEAR BROTHER PAUL ALSO WROTE YOU WITH THE WISDOM THAT GOD GAVE HIM. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. HIS LETTERS CONTAIN SOME THINGS THAT ARE HARD TO UNDERSTAND, WHICH IGNORANT AND UNSTABLE PEOPLE DISTORT, AS THEY DO THE OTHER SCRIPTURES, to their own destruction."

"...other scriptures" INCLUDES Paul's writings along with those of Moses and the rest of the Old Testament prophets as "SCRIPTURE." Aren't you supposed to believe what Peter said?


2. 2Timothy 3:16, "ALL SCRIPTURE is GOD-BREATHED and PROFITABLE..." certainly DOES IMPLY Biblical inerrancy. Consider in addition to being the words of God the fact that Paul writes that it is PROFITABLE. The implication that ALL is PROFITABLE tells us that there is something to be gained from its use and application. IF any part of it were FALSE, then that part WOULD NOT BE PROFITABLE. We are also told "... God, who does not lie..." (Titus 1:2), Paul's aside here just reminds us that God SPOKE all of creation into being. When God says something, IT IS TRUE whether it was before or not, so the "WORD OF GOD" MUST BE "INERRANT!!"


3. The TRUE canon of the New Testament was essentially finalized in the late 100's with the Muratorian Canon. Since the catholic heresy didn't come into full force until the early 300's, how can you say the catholic church "compiled the Bible?" It didn't even exist at the time.

Read a little HISTORY and learn about the CHANGES that were forced on Christians after the deaths of the apostles, Tertullian and Justin Martyr would be a good start...

There were no "popes" at the time of the Muratorian Canon, though the un-scriptural practice of "chief bishops" seems to have been in full swing. Catholicism represents numerous DEPARTURES from the TRUTHS on which the church was established, NOT TRUE CHRISTIANITY.

Answer 6

Even the Bible itself doesn't support Sola Scriptura:

2 Thessalonians 3:6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.

Obviously, the Thessalonians had been taught things by Paul that he hadn't written down -- i.e., traditions. Yet they were commanded by Paul to follow those traditional ways, so they were obviously on a par with the written commandments.

So "Sola Scriptura" has always been a bit of a mystery to me, too. I don't think there's a Protestant church on the planet that doesn't have its own traditions, from the order of their services to the type of hymns that they'll sing : "Oh, we've always done it this way."

And yet many of them lambast us Catholics for openly saying that we believe in both Scripture and sacred tradition. That strikes me as being a bit two-faced.

Answer 7

Basically, anyone who asserts that the Old and New Testaments are not inerrant is looking for a reason to lead a sinful lifestyle. In other words, their faith conversion is questionable at best. The Holy Scriptures are the Laws of Almighty God revealed to His servants. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit and sound study techniques, the full meaning on any topic is revealed when one examines the first instance of the topic in the Holy Scripture and its subsequent presentations throughout.

For example, God never authorized divorce. He established the institution of marriage ONLY between a man and woman.

In Matthew 19:1-12, Jesus discussed this issue with the Pharisees:

When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?" "Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." "Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?" Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."The disciples said to him, "If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry." Jesus replied, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it." (NIV)

It's a matter of the heart. You will find that every person and religious group that minimizes the inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures have drifted into false doctrines/traditions that are contrary the teachings of the Old and New Testament principles. Unfortunately, the Catholic church is at the top of the list in this regard.

There are minor differences due to personal perspective regarding passages about the same event. The same result would be true if 100 people saw the same movie. Their person account of the same movie would be detailed in 100 different ways, because their personal perspectives cause certain elements about the movie's presentation to be amplified or minimized. To capture the full essence of everyone's experience, a summary/survey of all their accounts should be considered and examined.

Again, this mindset is in search of reasons to engage in sinful lifestyly. It's the oldest deception/trick of the Devil. The reasoning is "Well, if this passage is not exactly like another passage regarding the same event, then the entire record is suspect." Don't fall for his deception! Ask the Holy Spirit for guidance, insight, and understanding of the Holy Scriptures.

In 2nd Timothy 2:15, Paul affirmed that every disciple of Jesus Christ must... "Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth." (AMP)

Lastly, I encourage you and others to hold fast to your confession of faith in Jesus Christ. We are living in perilous times where even the elect of God are being deceived, following false doctrines and seducing, demonic spirits leading them to depart from the Word of God. Also, I have one, final question: Are you ready for ETERNITY? (http://www.NeedGod.com) I know that I am... and I hope that you are, too! Enjoy! [(\o/)(XP)]

Answer 8

The Catholic Church didn't write or compile the Bible. More than half of the Bible was written well before the time of Jesus, let alone the Catholic Church. As far as the Cannonization process, the Cannon developed over a long time period mainly through consensus. Many of the folks who were part of that consensus would have viewed themselves as "catholic" as in universal but did not ascribed to the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church.

Answer 9

Protestants are againts the catholicism.. they left the church.. because they didnt learn the truth...martin luther wanted to make his own church and to follow a Bible without direction.. that's the reason we have many sects from that movement.. every pastor reads the bible.. according what he wants to learn.. without to analyze the text..

Answer 10

Google "Alberto Rivera" and read anything he wrote about the very corrupted Latin Vulgate that was produced by Eusebius under Constantine's order It's been several years since I read any of his writings on the subject, but what I do remember more than anything else is how revolting it all is, and yet catholics think they have the real deal. Sad..