The Bible Alone?

Is it the Bible alone or Bible and Tradition? What is the pillar and foundation of truth? If we believe that the Bible is the infallible inspired word of God, 1 Timothy 3:15 tells us we find that the Church is the pillar and foundation of truth.

Most non-Catholic Christians believe that the Bible is the sole rule of Faith. Martin Luther claimed this when he broke away from the Catholic Church, i.e. the claim of "Sola Scriptura." Catholics have, on the other hand, always accepted the teaching authority of the Church together with the Bible as the basis for our Faith.

So then, how do Catholics come to this position?

Well we didn't actually come to this position; we have been simply living it out since the very inception of the Church. A brief historical perspective might be helpful in understanding this.

From a previous post (Is the Bible Inspired?), we saw that the New Testament books were not really put together as a completed Bible until approximately 400 AD. So we know that the earliest Christians did not have access to the written word. We also know that until the invention of the printing press in the 1450's, the Bible was not accessible to most people due to the difficult and time consuming task of making copies by hand. It wasn't even until fairly recently that faithful Christians were educated enough to be able to read the Bible.

Make you wonder how the Christian faith was passed on to believers during this period of when access to the Bible was quite limited.

The answer is that practically all of the teaching during this time was done by oral instruction relying on the teaching authority of the Church for the proper interpretation of the Scriptures and for the passing on of Apostolic Tradition.

The Bible itself is quite clear regarding the significance of tradition (see John 21:25, 2 Timothy 2:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:15 and 1 Corinthians 11:2). Since these scripture references, along with many others, refer to both tradition and the spoken word, they MUST be integrated into the Christian understanding of revelation. Since the Word of God can not contradict itself, the only choice we have as Bible believing Christians is to accept tradition as well as scripture as our source of faith.

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Is the Bible Inspired?

I know. That sounds like a crazy question, but have you ever seriously considered it. It seems to me that most Christians (Catholics and non-Catholics alike) just accept that the Bible is inspired without giving it a second thought. What is the reason for this? Perhaps it is because our parents and teachers told us it was or because when we read scripture we feel inspired by it or because scripture itself states that "all scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17)?

If you really take the time to think about it, none of these reasons are good enough for us to build our system of beliefs on. Parents and teachers have no direct proof or authority to teach us that the Bible is inspired; it comes from their own traditions! The feeling of inspiration one gets from reading scripture does not guarantee that scripture is inspired. And, many other religious books claim to be inspired, e.g. as the Koran and the Book of Mormon.

So then, how do we know that the Bible is truly inspired?

First we will not assume the Bible is inspired but will look at it strictly from a historical perspective. We can easily support the historical accuracy of the New Testament from many other writings existing today. Since we know that it is historically accurate, we know that a man named Jesus actually existed and that He worked numerous miracles during His lifetime and that He claimed to be the Son of God. From this we can make two statements about Jesus. Either He was who He said He was, or He was crazy. If He was crazy, then how do we explain the many miracles, the eye witness accounts of His resurrection and the numerous people willing to die for him? We can't! Quite to the contrary, these facts actually point to the conclusion that Jesus was who He said He was; the Son of God.

Now, if He was the Son of God, we know that He would accomplish all that He said He would. One of the things He said He would do is to found His Church; "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build MY church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:18-19).

Well, now we have a Church founded by Jesus himself which was given the authority to bind and loose; so now let’s take a look at the Bible.

In the early years of the Church, there was no New Testament. In fact, it was not until around the year 400 AD that the final version of the books of the Bible was actually compiled. How do we know that those books of the Bible actually represent the word of God? The answer is now fairly simple! It doesn't depend on our parents or teachers and their traditions, our feelings or a statement in a scripture claiming inspiration. We know the Bible is inspired because the Church that Christ founded used the teaching authority given by Christ to discern which scriptures were inspired and which were not.

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About Me

Life Curriculum

Core

Catholic

• I love being Catholic
• I love my mom and dad for raising me Catholic
• I love my mom and dad for their enforcing discipline, which I believe is the primary reason I am an obedient Catholic today.
• The Catholic Church is my mother. I do my best to be obedient to Her as a child should to his mom
• “I can be obedient, because it is my fundamental coniction that my intelligence is limited and the Church is wiser” –Joseph Ratzinger

Husband

• I love being a husband
• I have a covenant relationship with my wife
• There is no person on earth I love more than my wife
• I love sharing my Catholic faith with my wife
• I have a goal to help my wife get to heaven

Father

• I love being a father
• God made me to be a father
• Being a father, I understand why God created man
• I love teaching my children
• The best thing I can do for my children is love their mother

Electives

Golf

• I love golf
• I love to play golf
• I love to watch golf, especially the Masters, US Open & Ryder Cup

Reading

• I love reading about the Church’s dogmas, traditions, history, etc.
• I enjoy Catholic conversion stories. e.g. Surprised by Truth books
• I enjoy Catholic apologetics. e.g. The Catholic Answer and Envoy magazines
• I keep up with conservative news. e.g. townhall.com and cnsnews.com

Sports Teams

• I love the St. Louis Cardinals and UNC Tarheels basketball
• I very much enjoy watching the Cards and Heels at my dad’s…his huge HDTV is a plus also
• I was born in St. Louis. Hence, the love of the Cards
• I moved to North Carolina at age 8. Hence, the love of the Heels
• 1934 my dad was born and the Cardinals won the World Series, 1964 I was born and the Cardinals won the World Series, 2006 my first son was born and the Cardinals won the World Series. And in 2011, my daughter was born and the Cardinals won the World Series. How sweet is that!

Beer

• Many people close to me will say this belongs in my core curriculum…and the first one to say so is my loving, beautiful, patient wife
• I love Belgium beer. Now that NC has repealed its alcohol by volume limit, I have local access to all kinds of great Belgium high gravity beers.
• I love most microbrews, especially ESB and IPA…the bitter the better

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