catholic and bibles?

Question

I recently read that Catholics don't aquire all their teachings from the bible alone. If this is so, then where else would a church aquire their "rules"

Answer 1

Everything in the Catholic Church is biblical. Have you ever looked at the Catechism of the Catholic Church? It's chalked full of scripture. It's so full of scripture it's boring.

And rules?? Since when are they rules? I mean Purgatory isn't a rule. Neither is Limbo.

Answer 2

Dear, you've received many good and informative answers here regarding Scripture and apostolic tradition. Many people who insist upon "sola scriptura" -- Scripture alone -- for doctrinal authority try to use the Bible to refute or discredit certain teachings of the Church (such as purgatory, or the real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist). However, these teachings are indeed reflected in Scripture in addition to apostolic tradition. The one cannot contract the other because truth cannot contradict truth.

Some misinterpret the word "tradition" as meaning the same as any non-religious practice that is repeated so often in the same form that it becomes common and expected, like traditions around birthdays and secular holidays (fireworks on the 4th of July) or events (toasts at a wedding reception, tossing out the first ball at a baseball game, etc).

Those are examples of tradition with a small "t" -- very different from sacred Tradition with a capital "T". The misunderstanding of this, whether in all innocence or deliberately, is the basis of the frequent accusation that the Church follows "man-made traditions" in formulating its doctrines. This is not true.

A document from the Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum (meaning "The Word of God"), summed it up this way:

"For sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit. To the successors of the apostles, sacred Tradition hands on in its full purity God’s word, which was entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit."

Answer 3

The Catholic church is the Church create by Christ and not by men. the Church was around for 400 years before there was a canon of Scriptures and it was the Church that wrote the Bible and approved it for teaching under the authority of Christ and the inspiration of the Spirit. The Church follows Sacred Tradition which consists of the teaching of Christ , Scriptures and oral teaching passed down from Christ and the apostles. This is consistent with the teaching of St. Paul who said to hold fast to the traditions taught by letter and word. Sola Scriptura is a hertical doctrine of men in which the Catholic Church does not find veracity.

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

Kait,

It would seem that just by accident you would get something right occasionally. All this fanciful history is laughable to believe anyone would believe such nonsense. Do you personally make this stuff up or are you just parroting someone else with an overactive imagination and hatred for Christ's Church. You do realize , I pray, that such statements are against God's commandments not to bear false witness against others and I would say especially His Church.

Answer 4

First- the Catholic Church is responsible for putting the canon of scripture together. Without the Catholic Church, there would be no Bible.

Paul explicitly tells the Thessalonians:
With all these things in mind, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and keep a strong grip on the teaching we passed on to you both in person and by letter. (2Thess 2:15)

Not everything was written!

Everything the Catholic Church teaches is derived from scripture and from the apostolic tradition.

Answer 5

Of course they don't aquire all of their teachings from the Bible. There was no Bible until the 4th century! They base their teachings on Church tradition, the writings of the Fathers, and the decisions of Church councils. You believe in Sola Scriptura, or "Scripture Alone." That approach has only been around for a few centuries, and is still rejected by the majority of Christians.

Answer 6

The Catholic Church holds "Sacred Tradition" equal to that of "Sacred Scripture". This is because for the first few centuries the Church didn't have a canonized written form of the Apostles teachings. Everything was passed down by word of mouth. (See 2 Thess. 2:15) John in his Gospel even says that if everything Jesus taught and did were written down that the entire world would not be able to contain it! (See John 21:25) Therefore, the Christian faith was based solely on the oral teachings of the Apostles. The Bible, or the written form of some of what the Apostles taught, wasn't canonized until later.

There's alot more to it but it would take too long to write it all. If you want to know more feel free to e-mail me and I'll answer your questions.

Answer 7

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 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"?

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)

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 8

the traditions have to support the Bible... all the catholic doctrines could be found in the Bible... there are many verses where you can find traditions in the Bible.. the Bible alone? it's not sufficient. because the verses have to be interpreted according to the context.. ect...

Answer 9

Everything the Church teaches can be backed by Scripture, however, what you heard about is Tradition (capital T) which is handed down to us by the early church.

Answer 10

as far as anyone is concerned, the Catholic Church is the only Christian Church that follows the Bible 100%.