OCR Text |
Show CHURCH AND SCRIPTURES Catholic Church Sanctions the Bible 2 Allows Her Members to Read Bible 3 Does Wot Ignore Passages Recommending Recommend-ing the aking it Difficult of Understand Not MStudy of the Inspired Work 4. ing 1 Church Sole Custodian of Scrip-" tures for 1,600 Years 2, Highest Church Authorities Recommend Bible to f Be Read 3, Meaning of Texts Quoted 1 -4, Begging the Question. (Written for the Imcrmountain Catholic.) Having dearly demonstrated that the Bible can not serve as a rule of faith, and that without a supreme unerring court to interpret it? true sense nn act of faith is impossible, it now remains 1o , Jf answer the objections against the alleged attitude ..f the Catholic Church towards the Sacred Scrip- aires. These are confined to four sources, namely, Jirst she is opposed to the Bible, second, she will , !!.( allow her members to read it. ihird, she ignores I) parages commanding it a. be read, fourth, she drives to make ihe inspired word difficult to be understood and mysterious." Being the sole custodian of the Bible for sixteen six-teen centuries anl preserving its sacred pages from the devastation of the northern barbarians who sacked and plundered cities, burned libraries, . does not show any opposition to the Bible. It was her members, principally, her monks, who spent . years in transcribing it in order to preserve it for future- generations. It was often buried in ihe . earth to save it from the flames of burning cities. Instead of being opposed to the Bible the church ' ' -. - a 1 wayg-rdon?-Iy trTirrHTrr''?-Trt're rf "v t 'hmre1 E pi i -Luther, in his commentary of the ICth chapter of . Si. John, confesses "that it was from the Papists ; ihey received the word of God. and that without ; them they should have no knowledge of it at all." The second charge, that she will not permit her . members to read the Bible is not only groundless. but the very opposite of what the church really ; does. She both allows and recommends her chil- dren to read the sacred volume. In all difficult , passages touching on doctrinal points there are in l x 1 the Catholic edition of the Bible explanatory notes which those reading must accept as the interpre-f interpre-f : tat ion of the text. In April, 1778. Tope Pius VI, I acknowledging a copy of the Bible translated into i the vernacular language, wrote: "At a time that a vast number of bad books, which mot grossly at-I at-I : tack the Catholic religion, are circulated even nmong the unlearned, to the great distraction of i souls, you judge exceedingly well, that the faithful . . should he excited to the reading of the Holy Scrip- . turcs: for these are the most abundant sources I which ought to be left open to every one, io draw : from them -purity of morals and of doctrine, to V. ; eradicate the errors which are widely discriminated in these corrupt times, etc.'" Here speaks the ; 1 ; hi-rhest authority in the church recommending that j : the Bible be read by Catholics. )The third objection, that she ignores texts of ' scriptures which command all to read them, is-w is-w : founded on three texts of the inspired writers. First. St. John. vs. of, addressing the Scribes and Pharisees said: "Search the scriptures, for you think in them to have life everlasting: and the fume are they that give testimony of me." If Christ in this text commanded lhat all should read jj the scriptures, then he imposed one which could not be fulfilled. But he would impose no such jk. ; command. Therefore there was not a universal ' . command. It could not be fulfilled during the first ihree centuries. because the Bible, as we now have il. was not, collected together till the commence-; commence-; wiit of the fourth century. Till then it was not known what books were inspired, and for those who lived during that period it was . impossible to "-arch the scripture.-." Till The invention of printing, in the 15th century, cen-tury, ninety per cent of the Christians could not secure a copy of the Bible which was very rare and proportionally dear. If the command, to "search the scriptures." was general, how were these ninety per cent to "comply with the command? To this may ho added a larre percentage who could neither write or read. Thete-xt in question instead of being a command was intended as a reproof for the Scribes and Pharisees who denied that Christ was ihe expected ex-pected Messiah. The context shows jdainly that after he proved to them his claims to.be the Messiah, Mes-siah, and they refused to believe, he referred them j' to the prophesies of the -ld testament, all of which . were verified in him. Even if there was a com-. com-. " maud it could only apply to teachers of religion for our Lord was addressing the Scribes and Thari-I Thari-I sees. But the. Catholic Church commands her min- inters, under pain of mortal sin, to read certain I parls of ihe Sacred Scriptures each day. J The second passage of note is that taken from t' St. Paul's second epistle to Timtothy, 111. 16:17, where he says: "All scripture divinely inspired is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to in-struct in-struct in justice; that the man of God may be per-j per-j fret, furnished to every good work." Those two texts, as may be learned from the preceding verse, had reference to those parts of scripture which i Timothy had known from his childhood, and can not regard the new testament, some of which had not been written at the time. St. Paul does not 1 I say they are sufficient, but that they are profitable. ; All admit that they are profitable. I The next and last passage is taken from the I acts of the Apostles, XVII. II, where it is said of the Bereans. "Now these were more noble than i f ! I j JZ ., I .ml , T r- - those in I'hessalonica, who received the word with all eagerness, daily searching the scriptures, whether those things were so." To know why the inspired writer complimented the Bereans it is necessary nec-essary to read the entire chapier from which the text is taken. They were styled "nobler men" than the Thessalonians, to whom St. Paul preached Christ crucified a short time before, and who. instead in-stead of seeking the verification of his words in the scriptures, persecuted him and his companion, Silas, whom they banished to Berea. Here they preached the same doctrines, and the Bereans. none of whom were yet Christians, searched the scriptures for ihe verification of St. Paul's words; and having found all the ancient prophesies veri- , fied in Christ, they embraced- Christianity, and for this reason they were styled "nobler men" than ihe Thessalon ans, that is, more reasonable. The fourth and last charge against the church j is. that she tries to make difficult to be understood the word of God, which would be incompatible with thowisdom and goodness of the Holy Ghost. The objection, in its most forcible form, is, if the scriptures scrip-tures are not plain enough to be understood by men of ordinary capacity, it is, because the Holy Ghost could not, or. would not make them so. But such teaching would be blasphemy. This argument is. what logicians term, begging, the question in favor of private judgment. The scriptures are plain enough if one follows the light thrown upon them by those whom he commissioned to preach the gospel to all nations. If they are so plain and easy why do those, who adopt the principle of private pri-vate judgment, differ so widely among themselves, and that in most important doctrines too i Some claim that baptism by immersion is necessary for salvation, others saw that sprinkling the water suffices, suf-fices, others still hold that baptism is not necessary neces-sary for salvation. All appeal to the scriptures, and each is entitled to his view on the principle that the Bible privately interpreted is the only rule of faith; yet how widely divergent, yes contradictory, contradic-tory, are not the opinions on this most essential doctrine? The same can be said of the divinity of Christ. Some Christians assert it, whilst others deny it, yet all stand on the same platform, namely. the Bible. Who will deny that it is an essential, docfrhiV1 of ClnrtTrrribrliFf t ""The scriptures "are plain and easily understood if read under the light-thrown light-thrown upon them by those whom Christ constituted consti-tuted as successors and whose principal office was ihe interpretation of difficult passages. The framers of ihe constitution of the United States were unable to draw up a document sufficiently plain so that all men (of ordinary capacity would interpret it alike. Hence to preserve unity provision pro-vision was made for a supreme court with a chief justice whose principal duty is the interpretation of the constitution and to see that no law is enacted en-acted that conflicts with the constitution. This is an absolute necessity for all government. So. too, is it a necessity in interpreting the scriptures which contain God's laws of unity and-harmony are to be preserved, and discord and contradictions contradic-tions to be eliminated from religion. If the scriptures are plain and simple why did St. Peter, writing of St. Paul and his writings say: "In which are sonic things hard to be understood, under-stood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction." de-struction." -2 Kp. St. Peter. III. 16. In ihe first chapter of the same epistle, v. 20, he places a veto on the Bible being plain and simple. "Understanding "Understand-ing this first, that no prophecy of scriptures made by private interpretation." The history of the diversity di-versity and contrariety of Christian beliefs whiclr are multiplying every day is proof sufficient that the scriptures are not plain and easily understood. The four words: "This is my body," have received not less than two hundred different interpretations. There has been twenty different opinions on the doctrine of justification among the partisans of Augsburg. Viewing the whole matter dispassionately and solely with the object of obtaining Christian truths and unity, it can not bo denied that the Bible as a rule of faith is a failure. Against facts, common sense and reason, there is no argument. These arguments on the position of the Catholic and Protestant churches are not to arouse religious hostility, but to present the controversy in a fair and impartial way. Any objection to the Catholic claims and Protestant objections will receive a respectful re-spectful hearing. F. D. ' |