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Show INFALLIBLE AUTHORITY A NECESSITY Bible Cannot be Sponsor For its Own Authen-icity Authen-icity (Vfust be Accredited by a Reliable Extrinsic Witness If Not the Church, Where is it to be Found ? 1 Written for The Intel-mountain Catholic-.) Ai! a Hides of faith are received on the author-) author-) ( God. who reveals them. In Catholic teaching, .j .-111:1- express real truths, which have their foun-..:ii'n foun-..:ii'n in the revcah-l Word.' These articles of ; i'h express truths of the ideal "order, or super-1 super-1 ,-iuiral truths, and though they may transcend n ;e-"ii. yet,, because revealed by Cod, they must be h. musically true. Beason is incompetent to pass I judgment, because it has no jurisdiction over I Mipernatural truths. Plan's destiny, according to ihc revealed Word, is supernatural. Reason is eon--.I to the natural order, and in-so-far as the spiritual spir-itual is concerned, is unable to judge what is good , i- evil fr the soul, save in the light of God's re- 1 :iei word. All are commanded to believe, and to believe the truths which Cod has revealed. The condemnation 1 . .!' not believing extends to all men without limitation. lim-itation. "He who belioveth not shall be eon- I lr.ned." .lustier 011 the part of Cod, who do- I mauds f h il li undor so severe a penalty, requires I j tli.it lie make known what must be believed before I Jle eaii condemn anyone for not believing. I Assuming the Christian law to be Cod's re- I vfiiled Word, and that man is bound to believe what I it contains, the question of knowing its real and j genuine sense is to be determined. Reason and the I law combined cimnot serve as a court to determine 1 liic real meaning of Cod's revealed "Word. Reason r alone is incompetent to pass judgment on the super- natural truths contained in the revelations made to I iiuiii by Cod. The law itself, or the revealed Word, j e.iiinot serve as a court of last appeal. This would J making the statute book, which contains the law, I rUo the court. J The question, then, for those who object to the r :,uih ritatrvo leaching of the Catholic "Church in j declaring dogmas or articles of faith, to be au- i swered, is: How decide the meaning or true sense I. of the written word regarding some special mys- tery or certain supernatural truths To illustrate j i this difficulty, we take dcsiis' discourse on the Bread j! of Life. Addressing the multitude, he said: "I j J am the Bread of Life. If any man eat of ; I ; this Bread, he shall live for ever; and the Bread j J ! that 1 will give is My flesh for the life of the j I world." Did Christ, in these words, as well as those I j vliieh follow, mean His natural flesh? The answer j I of Hn individual Catholic, believing in transubstan- tiation. cannot be accepted, for that would make j j him both plaintiff and the judge of the law; neither j 1 - an the denial of the Protestants be accepted, for I that would make him both plaintiff and the j j.i'iiie of the law. When those memorable ; Wonb. which contain" a supernatural truth, were uttered by Christ, His hearers uu-f uu-f d'-r-tood theiu in 1 heir plain, natural sense, and so 1 pres-ed themselves: "How can this man give us hi- fle-h to eat '." Does Jesus, who was a teacher ; of truth, correct a wrong impression on the part of J I is hearers f Xn. On the contrary, He affirms that 'Ik- meaning which they attached to His words is ii' true meaning; i. e.. ihe meaning which He v anted 10 convey to their minds. Hence, He said. ii-ing the -trongest asseveration: "Amen. Amen. I -. v unto you. except you cat the flesh of the Son " Man. and drink His blood, you shall not have c in ou." That He meant what He said He con-- United at His last -supper, when He took bread, -ed it and said, "This is uiy body." Now, to again advert to ihe propositions hert- ! 'ic affirmed, i. e.. the necessity of faith, supcr- ' nral truth.- or mysteries are the object of faith; 'h niiiin- certainty, therefore excludes doubt; condemnation uttered against him "who beliov- h not" applies to all without limitation; and last-' last-' to l,ow to decide the true meaning, or genuine -. of tlie-c words of Christ, who was a teacher ' null '. Reason i incompetent to pass judgmx-nt, : -'.ieni;itural truths arc outside of its jurisdic-' jurisdic-' The answer of an individual Catholic or I' extant r-annot be accepted, for each, either as 1 ' ' ndjiit or ph'intiff, would le also judge. We arc bound to believe something, according ' ':, iositi( and solemn declaration of Christ, i that something must le truth, not falsehood. i ' a'i-fv ihc demands of faith and escape the I ' don, nation pronounced against him ''who be- ' ;h not.' ihe justice of Cod requires that He I ; ';nt a court, also that that court be infallible - deeiVion- regarding what one niust believe, ! 1 11 i- explicitly or implicitly. Then' arises the ' ''ion: Where and what is that court? If not i ' ; ' Inn. h which claims to be such court, and I v "h . -xisted in all nations, and through all ages, I lio. identity is unmistakable to all then ; ' i ' and where is the court that decides the true !: . t iii- and genuine sense of these four words: " 1 i '- i- My Body." , Ue.i-on, as -hown. is unable to answer. By as- II tina that reason is incompetent to judge what 1 c nuine sense of these four words is, or fo de- i, " !' - from them the supernatural truth which they i- '"' ti'a.in. it is not denied that reason is a competent Mi'iie- 10 thi fact of revelation, nor that it is of i Keino importance in determining whether a rev- ' :ion uts Kn mf,de; nor that the fact of revela- i-. and should be, evident to natural reason, f The Proii ant principle assumes that the Bible U 1 'i"1 coun that decides; i. e., the Bible interpreted ! ', v 4he private reason of the believer, who reads it ""voinly and brings to his aid any critical, historical or other assistance that he can find. But. after ' M'erinieMing for nearly four hundred years on. ' 1'IK one text, as to its ineaning and genuine sense. 'i ' v'''at sujerriatural truth has that system deduced j from the text? Xot less than three hundred dif- I 1 V i INFALLIBLE AUTHORITY A -NECESSITY. . (Continued from Page 1.) ferent interpretations have been proposed as to ; meaning. This is simply guess work: and guessimr at the truth, especially a supernatural truth, winch we are commanded to believe under the most severe penalty, was never intended by a loving Father, who sent His Son to redeem the human race and to:,ch it the truth. Here, too. it may be stated that tho Bible, without some infallible authorky. independ- I ent of itself, cannot be the judge. r"cffusc (1) ir cannot settle its own canon; (2) it cannot establish that the Scriptures are sufficient; (3) it cairn..?. ' decide or determine their genuine sense. A statute book is a record of laws or legislative acts. We. take the Bible as an authentic record of the revelations actually made, but we know from the Book itself that it was not the original medium of planting the Christian faith. Long before tb " revelations made by Christ to His Apostb-s or ' committed to writing, they were published oral!-- ! by them to the public. Authoritative teachers and Dolioving Christians there were prior to the Dibi-. and to those who already believed, the Bible could not serve as a court. Then it. follows that it was not the original medium of planting the Faith -.r communicating to man the revelations which Jcmn orally communicated to His Apostles. What then, is its chief value? It consists in this, that ir faithfully recoids, in an authentic manner, th-revelations th-revelations spoken by Jesus to His disciples and ! by the. Apostles to the first Christians. We can j ' then produce it in evidence as a record of the rev- j S elation, but not as a court. j 5 But every record, to be of anv real vInn ....,si b 1 ! authenticated. The Bible cannot authenticate it- i y self, and until authenticate, by some competent j j authority, which is independent of it, it cannot be I , adduced in evidence. Such is tho-process pursued i I tu our civil courts when any record is introduced j I I by defendant or plaintiff. That record must be j I first authenticated before the court will admit it f ' as evidence. As applied to the Bible, this authen- tication of the records which it contains is simplv settling !ts canon, and until that is settled it is ' useless to argue with believers or semi-believers. Now, where is the authority that will settle the 1 ; canon? That authority must possess the same h qualifications as the authority that decide the V ' meaning of the words, "This is Mv Bod v." It must , 1 be independent of the Bible, and it must be in- ' 1 fallible. T D 1 1-1 It i ' |
