Catholicism and the Bible

 

A friend of mine who is a Protestant minister put a post critical of Catholicism up on Facebook a few days ago. It has now disappeared from her feed. It listed a series of Catholic dogmas which were purportedly “not in the Bible.” 

I assume she got some pushback from Catholics, or even from fellow Protestant ministers, and thought better of it. 

Catholic teaching is always Biblical, in the sense that the Bible is the primary evidence for the teaching. It is always an inference from the text. One can, no doubt, have other interpretations. But if your interpretation is different, you need to make your argument.

But there is a more fundamental problem with this charge: it assumes the doctrine of “sola scriptura,” that all truth comes from scripture. This is a Protestant tenet, not a Catholic one. It is from Martin Luther. So even if you could establish that some Catholic teaching is not “in the Bible,” you have only proven that Catholicism is not Protestantism. Science is also not Protestantism. This does not prove that it is wrong.  

And, for Protestants, from whence comes the assurance that the Bible as we have it is complete, accurate, and authoritative? What gives them such assurance? Private revelation?

The Catholic answer is that its accuracy is certified by the Catholic Church, which selected and preserved this canon. Jesus gave his mandate to the church, not to a book of writings. “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” (Granted, this itself is recorded in the Bible) So the Bible cannot logically disprove Catholicism; Catholicism proves the Bible.