Catholic Biblical Apologetics

Apologetics without apology!

What does the Roman Catholic Church teach about ...? ... and why?

This website surveys the origin and development of Roman Catholic Christianity from the period of the apostolic church, through the post-apostolic church and into the conciliar movement. Principal attention is paid to the biblical basis of both doctrine and dogma as well as the role of paradosis (i.e. handing on the truth) in the history of the Church. Particular attention is also paid to the hierarchical founding and succession of leadership throughout the centuries.

This is a set of lecture notes used since 1985 to teach the basis for key doctrines and dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. The objectives of the course were, and are:

To present the biblical basis for the origin and development of the Roman Catholic Church.
To present the development of the canon of Scripture and evolution of biblical teaching in the Church.
To understand the role of paradosis/tradition in the oral transmission of revelation.
To study the Council of Jerusalem, described in the 15^th chapter of The Acts of the Apostles and its role in the development of doctrine in the conciliar movement in the Church.
To understand the revelation, doctrinal development and practice of the sacramental life in the history of the Church.
To study the role of the Holy Spirit as teaching authority in the Church.
To study the revelation and development of hierarchical authority in the Church.
To understand the hierarchy of truths in the Church as well as the role of private devotion and personal growth in holiness.

The course grew out of the need for the authors to continually answer questions about their faith tradition and their work. (Both authors are active members of Catholic parish communities in the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia. Dr. Robert Schihl was a Professor and Associate Dean of the School of Communication and the Arts at Regent University. Paul Flanagan is a consultant specializing in preparing people for technology based changes.) At the time these notes were first prepared, the authors were spending time in their faith community answering questions about their Protestant Evangelical workplaces (Mr. Flanagan was then a senior executive at the Christian Broadcasting Network), and time in their workplaces answering similar questions about their Roman Catholic faith community. These notes are the result of more than a decade of facilitating dialogue among those who wish to learn more about what the Roman Catholic Church teaches and why.

Being Catholic and Christian: Faith and Salvation

Catholic Christians believe that God loves us, each of us personally. God's love for us and our response to His love unites us. As with all important understanding of how persons relate to their surroundings, believers pass on to those who follow the guideposts which mark the path of belief.

Catholic Christians view the Bible, the written Word of God, as authentic historical literature. This literature is addressed to and has something to say to all people--it transmits an authentic teaching.

This teaching expresses a need to believe something and someone.

Included in this teaching is the promise of saving the believer from death to life ... eternal life.

This written literature or Scripture is a record of the earliest response in faith by believers to this teaching--open confession of detailed statements of faith.

The profession of faith historically--from Apostolic times--led to initiation into a supportive faith community of like believers.

This supportive faith community of believers was known and is known by many labels: the Way, Church, Christian, etc.

The Transmission of Authoritative Doctrine

The historicity and authenticity of the Bible text is not a problem among Christians today. Roman Catholic Christians affirm that the Bible is an historical document and that the text we possess today is authentic.

It is apparent from the content of the Bible as an historical document that matters of importance were transmitted among the early Christians.

Jude 3: Beloved, although I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I now feel a need to write to encourage you to contend for the faith that was once for all handed down to the holy ones.
Jude 20: But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the holy Spirit.
2 Tim 1:13: Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
2 Tim 4:3: For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers
Titus 1:9: ...holding fast to the true message as taught so that he will be able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to refute opponents.
1 Tim 6:20: ... guard what has been entrusted to you.
2 Tim 1:14: Guard this rich trust with the help of the holy Spirit that dwells within us.
1 Tim 4:6: If you will give these instructions to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound teaching you have followed.
Heb 3:1: Therefore ... reflect on Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,
Heb 4:14: ... let us hold fast to our confession.
Heb 10:23: Let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy.
Phil 2:15-16: ...that you may be blameless and innocent ... as you hold on to the word of life
Acts 5:20: Go ... and tell the people everything about this life.
1 Jn 2:24: Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father.
2 Thess 2:15: Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.
Rom 6:17: But thanks be to God that, although you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted.
1 Cor 11:23: For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you
1 Cor 15:3: For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received ...

Paul declares specifically what it is he preaches. It is a "gospel" (the Greek euaggelion, means "good news").

Gal 2:2: I went up in accord with a revelation, and I presented to them the gospel that I preach to the Gentiles ...
Rom 2:16: on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge people's hidden works through Christ.
Rom 16:25: Now to him who can strengthen you, according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages
1 Cor 15:1: Now I am reminding you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand.

For Paul, the content of the preaching is Jesus Christ.

Rom 16:25: Now to him who can strengthen you, according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages
1 Cor 1:21: For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith.

Paul also writes of the fruit of the tradition which he preaches ... "faith."

Col 2:7: rooted in him and built upon him and established in the faith as you were taught ...
Gal 1:23: They (the people of Syria and Cilicia) only kept hearing that "the one who once was persecuting us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy."
Eph 4:5: There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism;

Paul finally writes of the content of the doctrine, the tradition he preaches - the "word of God" or "the word of the Lord."

1 Thess 1:6: And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the holy Spirit,
2 Thess 3:1: Finally, brothers, pray for us, so that the word of the Lord may speed forward and be glorified, as it did among you,
1 Cor 14:36: Did the word of God go forth from you? Or has it come to you alone?
Gal 6:6: One who is being instructed in the word should share all good things with his instructor.
Phil 1:14: ... the majority of the brothers, having taken encouragement in the Lord from my imprisonment, dare more than ever to proclaim the word fearlessly.

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