Today, 08:33 AM
PART SECOND.
XII. How it is possible for a Protestant to know whether the Bible he reads be the Word of God.
— I defy all Protestants, past, present, and future, to prove, without doing violence to their principles, that the Bible is truly the word of God.
As for myself, being a Catholic, the question is easily solved. I know what the Holy Scriptures are. The Church of God, the living and infallible authority established by Jesus Christ on earth to teach me the knowledge and practice of true faith, lays open before me the holy books, and tells me in his name: These books are the writings of the Prophets and of the Apostles. They are authentic; which means, they are indeed written by those to whom they are attributed; and are, moreover, inspired, which means, they are written with the assistance of the Holy Ghost, and they truly contain the word of God. I believe in the teaching of the Church, and, logical in my faith, I say and believe that the Bible is the word of God.
On the other hand, the Protestant, from the moment he rejects the authority of the Church, cannot reason as I do. With Bible in hand, he cannot tell you why he has faith in what it teaches.
1. Are the books of the Bible authentic? — I will ask a Protestant at once, — how do you know that they have been truly written by the Prophets and the Apostles?
Thus we are in a mesh of historical questions, some among them almost inexplicable. Schoerer, a Protestant doctor remarks: "Each individual is here called upon to give his opinion on matters about which doctors have doubts and disagree. The most simple among the faithful must, before he can trust his faith, resolve questions of authenticity, critic, and history. . . In sooth, it is a dish of very palatable food for the mind of the faithful! Behold a rule very accessible to the mass of the Christian people!" (La Critique et la Foi, par E. Schoerer, of Geneva.) But no danger for us Catholics of being in such mazes. The Church avers an authenticity, the certainty whereof she transmits to her children from age to age.
2. But let us, by an impossibility, grant that a Protestant can of a surety know that all the books of the Bible have been written by the holy authors whose names they bear, will he know as well that they are actually inspired, and that they are not above the level of common good books?
It may, in very sooth, be, that Saint Paul, Saint John, Saint Matthew have written a number of letters, and even religious works, which were not at all inspired. Now, how can you tell, outside the infallible judgment of the Church, which one of the writings of those authors is, or is not inspired?
Will you say that the Holy Ghost, assisting as he does every Christian, will give you the means to ascertain which books are inspired? But, then, how is it that you are so little agreed with one another on this point, and Luther rejects what Calvin accepts, and Protestants to-day receive books which their fathers rejected; as for instance the Books of Daniel, Ruth, and Esther, St. James' Epistle, and that of St. Paul to the Hebrews, etc.? What more? Even on the four Gospels Protestants cannot agree, and this very day some pastors will admit only the gospel of St. Matthew, while others will receive none but that of St. John.
This question, a fundamental one if ever there was one, on the certainty of the inspiration of the holy books, must needs be a stumbling block to the Protestant from the moment he becomes earnest in his reasoning. In fact, it is a mortal difficulty for Protestantism.
Thus, many Protestants, wishing to reason on their faith, find that their religious edifice is based on a very dubious foundation, and thereby lose whatever remnant of belief they possessed, and fall into rationalism or indifference.
3. Let us make a third and last remark. — Suppose, then, a Protestant has obtained a certainty of the authenticity and inspiration of the Bible; how will he know that the version which he uses and distributes among his friends is perfectly reliable, and does not substitute, as it often happens, the erroneous interpretation of the translator for the true and not understood sense of the original?
Very few indeed know Hebrew well enough to make a good translation from it; and on the other hand we are not sure in what language some of our holy books have been originally written.
With us the authority of the Church supplies the deficiency of these impossible researches; whereas the poor Protestants, halting before these difficulties, which they cannot overcome, either give up everything, Bible, Faith, and Religion, — or their studies, pursued without direction, entangle them in the meshes of innumerable doubts, from which they escape only by falling into a negation of all truths; or, lastly, they preserve, without the aid of any reasoning, their faith in the Scriptures, do not trouble themselves with any examination of them, and on the guaranty of Catholic tradition, they believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible, which Protestantism is unable to demonstrate to them. In this they are Catholics without knowing it, and happily there are many such.
Whenever a Protestant appeals to the authority of the Bible, he unwittingly invokes the authority of the Catholic Church, whose infallible testimony is indispensable in the demonstration of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures. As early as the fourth century St. Augustine protested that "he would not believe the Gospels, were he not forced to it by the authority of the Catholic Church."
XII. How it is possible for a Protestant to know whether the Bible he reads be the Word of God.
— I defy all Protestants, past, present, and future, to prove, without doing violence to their principles, that the Bible is truly the word of God.
As for myself, being a Catholic, the question is easily solved. I know what the Holy Scriptures are. The Church of God, the living and infallible authority established by Jesus Christ on earth to teach me the knowledge and practice of true faith, lays open before me the holy books, and tells me in his name: These books are the writings of the Prophets and of the Apostles. They are authentic; which means, they are indeed written by those to whom they are attributed; and are, moreover, inspired, which means, they are written with the assistance of the Holy Ghost, and they truly contain the word of God. I believe in the teaching of the Church, and, logical in my faith, I say and believe that the Bible is the word of God.
On the other hand, the Protestant, from the moment he rejects the authority of the Church, cannot reason as I do. With Bible in hand, he cannot tell you why he has faith in what it teaches.
1. Are the books of the Bible authentic? — I will ask a Protestant at once, — how do you know that they have been truly written by the Prophets and the Apostles?
Thus we are in a mesh of historical questions, some among them almost inexplicable. Schoerer, a Protestant doctor remarks: "Each individual is here called upon to give his opinion on matters about which doctors have doubts and disagree. The most simple among the faithful must, before he can trust his faith, resolve questions of authenticity, critic, and history. . . In sooth, it is a dish of very palatable food for the mind of the faithful! Behold a rule very accessible to the mass of the Christian people!" (La Critique et la Foi, par E. Schoerer, of Geneva.) But no danger for us Catholics of being in such mazes. The Church avers an authenticity, the certainty whereof she transmits to her children from age to age.
2. But let us, by an impossibility, grant that a Protestant can of a surety know that all the books of the Bible have been written by the holy authors whose names they bear, will he know as well that they are actually inspired, and that they are not above the level of common good books?
It may, in very sooth, be, that Saint Paul, Saint John, Saint Matthew have written a number of letters, and even religious works, which were not at all inspired. Now, how can you tell, outside the infallible judgment of the Church, which one of the writings of those authors is, or is not inspired?
Will you say that the Holy Ghost, assisting as he does every Christian, will give you the means to ascertain which books are inspired? But, then, how is it that you are so little agreed with one another on this point, and Luther rejects what Calvin accepts, and Protestants to-day receive books which their fathers rejected; as for instance the Books of Daniel, Ruth, and Esther, St. James' Epistle, and that of St. Paul to the Hebrews, etc.? What more? Even on the four Gospels Protestants cannot agree, and this very day some pastors will admit only the gospel of St. Matthew, while others will receive none but that of St. John.
This question, a fundamental one if ever there was one, on the certainty of the inspiration of the holy books, must needs be a stumbling block to the Protestant from the moment he becomes earnest in his reasoning. In fact, it is a mortal difficulty for Protestantism.
Thus, many Protestants, wishing to reason on their faith, find that their religious edifice is based on a very dubious foundation, and thereby lose whatever remnant of belief they possessed, and fall into rationalism or indifference.
3. Let us make a third and last remark. — Suppose, then, a Protestant has obtained a certainty of the authenticity and inspiration of the Bible; how will he know that the version which he uses and distributes among his friends is perfectly reliable, and does not substitute, as it often happens, the erroneous interpretation of the translator for the true and not understood sense of the original?
Very few indeed know Hebrew well enough to make a good translation from it; and on the other hand we are not sure in what language some of our holy books have been originally written.
With us the authority of the Church supplies the deficiency of these impossible researches; whereas the poor Protestants, halting before these difficulties, which they cannot overcome, either give up everything, Bible, Faith, and Religion, — or their studies, pursued without direction, entangle them in the meshes of innumerable doubts, from which they escape only by falling into a negation of all truths; or, lastly, they preserve, without the aid of any reasoning, their faith in the Scriptures, do not trouble themselves with any examination of them, and on the guaranty of Catholic tradition, they believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible, which Protestantism is unable to demonstrate to them. In this they are Catholics without knowing it, and happily there are many such.
Whenever a Protestant appeals to the authority of the Bible, he unwittingly invokes the authority of the Catholic Church, whose infallible testimony is indispensable in the demonstration of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures. As early as the fourth century St. Augustine protested that "he would not believe the Gospels, were he not forced to it by the authority of the Catholic Church."
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre