A Word on Evangelization

3rd Sunday of Advent, December 15, 2024

Deacon Mike Meyer

More than any other Christian religion, Catholicism takes Scripture seriously.

This assertion will surprise those who assume that Catholics are ignorant of Scripture and that the Protestant belief in sola scriptura (accepting “the Bible only” as a source of religious teaching) makes them the only true “Bible Christians.” However, history and logic reveals to us that the Catholic Church both interprets and lives by the scriptures. It was the Church that, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, created the Bible as we know it today and have known it since its birth (compiling the books of the Old Testament, and compiling the books of the New Testament). And it was the Church that decided which of the many early Christian writings were canonical, or worthy of acceptance as scriptural. (All Protestant Bibles contain the same twenty-seven New Testament books as Catholics Bibles—a list decided upon by the Council of Rome in 382. Thus, the Protestant New Testament ultimately rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church.)

     Moreover, none of the teachings of Catholicism contradict Scripture, and the Bible—at least implicitly but normally explicitly—supports all of the Church’s doctrines. Protestants reject many Catholic beliefs, but in doing so they must ignore or reinterpret what Scripture clearly says. For instance, the widespread Protestant understanding that the Eucharist is merely symbolic flatly contradicts our Lord’s words in John 6 (“My flesh is true food and My blood is true drink”) and also the accounts of the Last Supper (“This is my Body . . . this is my Blood” [Mark 14:22–24]). Rejecting the authority of the pope is also a rejection of Christ’s words to Peter, by which he gave him the keys to the kingdom of heaven and the authority to bind and loose (Matt. 16:18–19).

To deny the reality of the forgiveness of sins through confession, or the sacrament of reconciliation, is also a denial of the words of the resurrected Jesus to the apostles (John 20:22–23), in which he gave them the power to forgive sins in his name. Disbelief in the teaching authority of the Church is also disbelief in our Lord’s command to teach and baptize all nations, and in his promise to remain with the Church always (Matt. 28:19–20). A further weakness of the Protestant position lies in the idea of sola scriptura itself. Nowhere does the Bible say that Scripture alone is the only source of divine revelation, but there are numerous references to Tradition and the teaching authority of the Church (Matt. 18:15–18; John 14:16, 14:25–26, 21:25; 1 Cor. 11:21; Eph. 3:10–11; 2 Thess. 2:15; 2 Tim. 2:2; 2 Pet. 3:16). Some Protestants are very good at quoting the Bible, but, in terms of its entire message, it is the Catholic Church that has under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, created the Bible, interpreted its meanings, and lived by it.