Catholic Answers to the church of Christ

The Bible does not need to be interpreted, just to be read

Most countries have a written law, that is published in all official languages of that country. If every citizen were given the right to interpret that law for themselves, there would be no order in that country, even if every citizen only had the best of intentions to follow the law of that country. Instead, most countries have a high court with lawyers and judges that interpret the law of that country.

When I speak of interpreting the Bible, I do not mean translating the Bible, but simply understanding it. If every Christian had the right to interpret the Bible for themselves, there would be no order in Christianity. And in fact, there is no order outside of the Catholic Church, as there are now over 28,000 heretic denominations. There are many churches who feel they have the correct interpretation of the Bible, and each church argues with the others over who is right. "I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me." (John 17:20-23) The Church of Christ is not many individuals interpreting the Bible for themselves, but "one." So that Christ's Church can be one, it has "a high court with, lawyers and judges, that interpret the law of that country." This high court is the Sacred Magisterium of the Catholic Church, which not only can interpret the Word of God, but is the Word of God. No other church has the ability to proclaim the the complete Word of God.

Like many other churches, the church of Christ believes that they have interpreted Sacred Scripture correctly; however, they will freely admit that they do not have an infallible interpretation of Sacred Scripture, and may have erred in their teachings. By admitting this, they admit that they are not confident that their interpretation of Sacred Scripture is the true Word of God. Only the Catholic Church is confident that they have an infallible interpretation of Sacred Scripture, and therefore the true and complete and true Word of God.

Some members of the church of Christ believe that they have not interpreted Sacred Scripture, but have simply read it, and have taken it at face value. In some cases, this is the correct way to interpret Sacred Scripture, but the church of Christ has not actually done this. If the church of Christ did taken all of Sacred Scripture at face value, they would admit the earthly leadership of Peter, honour Mary above all other creatures, and believe that the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper are the true Body and Blood of Christ. As well, if they really did take the Bible at face value, they would follow the example set in Acts 2:44-45, and practice communal living. Like other heretics, the church of Christ selects and fashions Christ's teachings according to their own pleasure.

Some believe that the Sacred Magisterium of the Catholic Church takes precedence over Sacred Scripture, this is not true. It is through the Sacred Magisterium that a correct interpretation of Sacred Scripture is possible. Only the Catholic Church, with its infallible power of Sacred Magisterium, has the ability and authority to interpret Sacred Scripture.

The Bible alone is the Word of God and the foundation of faith

Since Sacred Scripture is the written Word of God, its contents are Divinely guaranteed truths. During the first millennium of the Church, the faithful were encouraged to read Sacred Scripture according to their spiritual needs. This included translations of Sacred Scripture into the vernacular, which the Church provide to newly converted nations as soon as possible. This was the reason for the early Latin and oriental translations, as well as the translations for the Armenians, the Slovenians, the Goths, the Italians, the French, and the partial translations into English. But on January 2, 1080, Pope St. Gregory VII told the Duke of Bohemia that he was not allowed to publish Sacred Scripture in the language of that country. The pontiff feared that the reading of the Bible in the vernacular would lead to irreverence and the wrong interpretation of Sacred Scripture. This was just before the Waldensian and Albigensian heresies, and the beginning of the heresy that Sacred Scripture alone is the Word of God. In 1199 Pope Innocent III stated that the desire to read Scripture was praiseworthy, but that the practice was dangerous for the simple and unlearned. On March 24, 1564, Pope Pius IV declared in his Constitution, "Dominici gregis", the Index of Prohibited Books. According to the third rule, the Old Testament could be read in the vernacular by pious and learned men, according to the judgment of their bishop. The fourth rule allowed the reading of the New Testament in the vernacular by laymen, according to the judgment of their confessor or pastor. Pope Benedict XIV required that the vernacular version read by laymen should be either approved by the Holy See or accompanied with notes written by learned and pious authors. This requirement was declared again by the Sacred Congregation of the Index on January 7, 1836, and again by Pope Gregory XVI in his Encyclical of May 8, 1844. The idea that Sacred Scripture alone is the Word of God became, outside of the Church, publicly accepted after the beginning of the Protestant heresy of the sixteenth century. The Protestants gave this heresy the name Sola Scriptura, but this heresy did not exist in any form until the second millennium.

The Church of Christ, from the first century until the present, has always held Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and Sacred Magisterium as the foundation of faith, and the true Word of God. By relying solely on the New Testament to define all of the doctrine of a church, that church is without the complete Word of God, and is abusing Sacred Scripture. The abuse arises from using the New Testament for something it was never intended for, that is, defining doctrine of the Christian Church. In the Old Testament we find Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, that contain the law and doctrine of the Jews, this type of literature does not exist in the New Testament. The four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles are a historical account of the life of Jesus and the early Church. The twenty-one letters are encouragement and correction given to various congregations and individuals by the hierarchy of the Church. The book of Revelation was written to encourage Christians that Christ has, and will, triumph over Satan. Each of these books was written to specific people for specific reasons, but none of them were written to define Christian doctrine. The doctrine of the Catholic Church predates the earliest writings of the New Testament by at least twenty years, and therefore did not rely on the New Testament in defining it. Much of the doctrine of the Catholic Church is found in the New Testament, but it is only confirmation of this doctrine and not a definition of it that is found. The Christian writers of the first century believed that Christ would return within the next few years, and did not feel the need to give a written definition of all Christina doctrine. By the beginning of the fourth century, it was obvious that Christ would be returning much later then first anticipated, and a written definition of Christian doctrine was necessary. Much of Christian doctrine was only officially declared when it came into question, and only with the infallibility of the Sacred Magisterium was the Church able to declare Christ's teachings. By relying solely on Sacred Scripture as the source of a church's doctrine, that church is without a definition of Christian doctrine, and therefore does not follow all of Christ's teachings.

Very little of the evidence given in this article to defend Catholic doctrine comes from the official declarations of this doctrine, since most official declarations of Catholic doctrine were made between the fourth and twentieth centuries. The evidence this article makes use of is the writings from the first three and a half centuries of Church history, including the New Testament. Most of these writings do not define the doctrine being defended, but testify to their existence before they were officially declared. Some of the evidence used was actually considered for inclusion in the New Testament, but in the end, was not included. Some heretics will reject the writings not included in the New Testament, but these writings have as much credibly as those in the New Testament. If they apply the same criticism to the New Testament that they apply to these other earlier writings, they would have to reject the New Testament as well. The Catholic Church could have just as easily included any of these writings in the New Testament, but through the Sacred Magisterium, they only selected the twenty-seven writing, that now make up the New Testament, to be elevated as Sacred Scripture. Catholic doctrine was not defined in the New Testament, nor was it defined in much of the other early Christian writings. The official definition of this doctrine came later, but these early writings demonstrate the existence of this doctrine before it was official defined.

The Catholic Church has added to the Bible, and these additions create contradictions

The only additions the Catholic Church has made to Sacred Scripture, is the New Testament that all Protestant and fundamentalist churches, including the church of Christ, use today. Some non-Catholics mistakenly believe that the Catholic Church added the deutero writings to the Canon of the Old Testament, and call these writings "Apocrypha". The Catholic Church did not add these books to the Bible, it was the Hellenist Jews that did this around two and a half centuries before Christ. At the time immediately preceding Christ, this was the accepted Bible of all the Jews, including the Palestinian rabbis. It was not until the Protestant heresy, in the sixteenth century, that heretics removed all books of the Old Testament that were not found in the older Hebrew Bible. It was at this time that these writings were given the names deutero by Catholics, and apocrypha by Protestants; before this, they were only referred to as part of the Old Testament. The deuteros are still appended in the German Bibles printed under the auspices of the orthodox Lutheran Church. As well, the Catholic Church has always condemned the removal of these writings from Sacred Scripture, and no Catholic Old Testament is printed without them.

The deuteros were not the only writings remove from Sacred Scripture by the Protestant heretics. For over a century the followers of Luther excluded Hebrews, James, Jude, and the Apocalypse, and even went further than their founder by rejecting II Peter, II John and III John. Since this time, Lutherans have returned to the correct Cannon of the New Testament that is approved by the Catholic Church.

The reason many non-Catholics believe the deuteros create contradictions, is because their interpretation of the remainder of Sacred Scripture is flawed. The Protestant heretics removed these, and other, writings from the Bible so they could freely believe what they wanted, without conflicting with Sacred Scripture. The most notorious reason the Protestants removed these writings, was so that they did not have to believe in purgatory, which is clearly referred to in 2 Maccabees 12:46.

The Catholic Church canonized the New Testament in the same way that Balaam's donkey spoke in Numbers 22:28-30

This statement is a blatant insult to the intelligence of St. Jerome and the other Catholic scholars that catalogued the Damasan Canon, which is the New Testament used by church of Christ members. However, this statement admits two things: the Catholic Church is responsible for canonization of the New Testament, and the Catholic Church is the servant of God and not the servant of Satan. Admitting that the Catholic Church is responsible for canonizing the New Testament is a simple acceptance of historical fact, but admitting that the Catholic Church is the servant of God and not the servant of Satan is a serious hole in church of Christ theology. Numbers 22:28 says, "Then the Lord opened the donkey's mouth," which demonstrates that it was God who working through His servant, the donkey. Therefore, the above statement affirms that the Catholic Church, like the donkey, is the Servant of God. Do not confuse God talking through the donkey with demons admitting the Jesus is the "Son of the Most High God." (Matthew 8:29, Mark 5:7). Demons know this fact, but God does not speak this fact through them. Despite the insult, this statement testifies that the Catholic Church is the servant of God, and therefore the Church of Christ.