Posted on 10/28/2011 6:59:29 AM PDT by markomalley
October 31 is only three days away. For Protestants, it is Reformation Day, the date in 1517 on which Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to that famous door in Wittenberg, Germany. Since I returned to the Catholic Church in April 2007, each year the commemoration has become a time of reflection about my own journey and the puzzles that led me back to the Church of my youth.
One of those puzzles was the relationship between the Church, Tradition, and the canon of Scripture. As a Protestant, I claimed to reject the normative role that Tradition plays in the development of Christian doctrine. But at times I seemed to rely on it. For example, on the content of the biblical canon – whether the Old Testament includes the deuterocanonical books (or “Apocrypha”), as the Catholic Church holds and Protestantism rejects. I would appeal to the exclusion of these books as canonical by the Jewish Council of Jamnia (A.D. 90-100) as well as doubts about those books raised by St. Jerome, translator of the Latin Vulgate, and a few other Church Fathers.
My reasoning, however, was extra-biblical. For it appealed to an authoritative leadership that has the power to recognize and certify books as canonical that were subsequently recognized as such by certain Fathers embedded in a tradition that, as a Protestant, I thought more authoritative than the tradition that certified what has come to be known as the Catholic canon. This latter tradition, rejected by Protestants, includes St. Augustine as well as the Council of Hippo (A.D. 393), the Third Council of Carthage (A.D. 397), the Fourth Council of Carthage (A.D. 419), and the Council of Florence (A.D. 1441).
But if, according to my Protestant self, a Jewish council and a few Church Fathers are the grounds on which I am justified in saying what is the proper scope of the Old Testament canon, then what of New Testament canonicity? So, ironically, given my Protestant understanding of ecclesiology, then the sort of authority and tradition that apparently provided me warrant to exclude the deuterocanonical books from Scripture – binding magisterial authority with historical continuity – is missing from the Church during the development of New Testament canonicity.
The Catholic Church, on the other hand, maintains that this magisterial authority was in fact present in the early Church and thus gave its leadership the power to recognize and fix the New Testament canon. So, ironically, the Protestant case for a deuterocanonical-absent Old Testament canon depends on Catholic intuitions about a tradition of magisterial authority.
This led to two other tensions. First, in defense of the Protestant Old Testament canon, I argued, as noted above, that although some of the Church’s leading theologians and several regional councils accepted what is known today as the Catholic canon, others disagreed and embraced what is known today as the Protestant canon. It soon became clear to me that this did not help my case, since by employing this argumentative strategy, I conceded the central point of Catholicism: the Church is logically prior to the Scriptures. That is, if the Church, until the Council of Florence’s ecumenical declaration in 1441, can live with a certain degree of ambiguity about the content of the Old Testament canon, that means that sola scriptura was never a fundamental principle of authentic Christianity.
After all, if Scripture alone applies to the Bible as a whole, then we cannot know to which particular collection of books this principle applies until the Bible’s content is settled. Thus, to concede an officially unsettled canon for Christianity’s first fifteen centuries seems to make the Catholic argument that sola scriptura was a sixteenth-century invention and, therefore, not an essential Christian doctrine.
Second, because the list of canonical books is itself not found in Scripture – as one can find the Ten Commandments or the names of Christ’s apostles – any such list, whether Protestant or Catholic, would be an item of extra-biblical theological knowledge. Take, for example, a portion of the revised and expanded Evangelical Theological Society statement of faith suggested (and eventually rejected by the membership) by two ETS members following my return to the Catholic Church. It states that, “this written word of God consists of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments and is the supreme authority in all matters of belief and behavior.”
But the belief that the Bible consists only of sixty-six books is not a claim of Scripture, since one cannot find the list in it, but a claim about Scripture as a whole. That is, the whole has a property – i.e., “consisting of sixty-six books,” – that is not found in any of the parts. In other words, if the sixty-six books are the supreme authority on matters of belief, and the number of books is a belief, and one cannot find that belief in any of the books, then the belief that Scripture consists of sixty-six particular books is an extra-biblical belief, an item of theological knowledge that is prima facie non-biblical.
For the Catholic, this is not a problem, since the Bible is the book of the Church, and thus there is an organic unity between the fixing of the canon and the development of doctrine and Christian practice.
Although I am forever indebted to my Evangelical brethren for instilling and nurturing in me a deep love of Scripture, it was that love that eventually led me to the Church that had the authority to distinguish Scripture from other things.
He said he was Orthodox, not Latin rite. There is a difference that every Catholic knows. You said earlier you were a Catholic. Which is it? Were you or not?
Unlike unfortunate Roman Catholics who MUST attend whatever congregation available to them under penalty of condemnation even if the priest AND bishop are guilty of all manner of evil. What CAWW is speaking of, which I can understand is a foreign concept, is that as Christians steeped in the knowledge of the word of God we have the freedom to seek out others of like mind. God never expected his children to remain in apostate churches. In fact, he said to come out of them, to be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. It is a blessing to have the Scriptures as our guide. They are a light unto our path.
I’ll just stick with those books inspired by God which have no errors.
Well, let me repeat: This "true Church of Christ", I'm happy to say, consists of all those who hold to the same faith of those early believers. We are all part of that universal body of Jesus Christ.
This "knockoff facsimile that only remotely resembles the Church that Christ created and the Holy Spirit commissioned at Pentecost" could very well define the Roman Catholic Church as this knock-off. Whereas the spiritual body of Christ, the called-out assembly created at Pentecost, more closely defines those assemblies that adhere to the same doctrines taught in Holy Scripture - those letters that God inspired in the writers of the New Testament to ensure the truths Christ taught them both before AND after he was seated in Heaven are and forever will be our authority. What today calls itself THE Church, has been shown to no longer represent that universal spiritual whole BUT God has always kept a "remnant" for himself that have not bowed the knee to false gods. This is what has always set apart those who faithfully follow the true path of righteousness found in Jesus Christ.
That does appear to be the reason. Sad to say.
Well said.
Again and again and again, no offense intended, that the “RCC” or the “CC” has been put in the place of the Church Christ calls His “bride”, is a matter of your opinion.
I believe it is a wrong opinion and that there is a visible, unique church whose mission and message Christ taught during His life on earth and which was born on the day of Pentecost with the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Christ’s church is one, holy, apostolic and catholic.
I don't know why this is so difficult to understand. The "church", the Body of Christ, consists of all those who are born again INTO this family of God and are all members of the body. As such, it is a universal, spiritual assembly that remains united in the one faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, God and Savior. We are the church because we are in Christ. There IS no other.
Of Course....you are Pope, Bishops and Ecumenical Council all rolled into one. Might as well make your own Canon of Scripture too!....(SARCASM)
OK. Well, the Roman Catholics claim THEY wrote the Bible. Your argument is with them then.
However, NEITHER of you wrote the Bible. The Holy Spirit is the author.
The OT was recognized as Scripture by Jesus, so that eliminates that from the Catholic claim. Peter in his letter, recognizes Paul’s writings as Scripture long before the Catholic church came into existence.
Scripture is GOD’S doing, not the Catholic church’s. They can lay no legitimate claim to it nor any of the power play claims for the only legitimate source to interpret it.
Oh well: “Cast not your pearls before swine, etc.”
Too much reading for you eh?
Yes it is. Catholic as in universal. Not as in RCC. No where in scripture was there to be a replacement for Christ here on earth. Scripture says that those who believe in Him are part of His body the church. Christ is our High Priest and no earthly hierarchy was to be instituted.
Before 1054 A.D. The two churches were ONE. Therefore the Holy Catholic Church put the Canon together.
All you have to do is read a little history, and you will see who did what.
Find for me from scripture where that wouldn’t work.
>>Might as well make your own Canon of Scripture too!....<<
Nope. I’ll continue to use what the Apostles wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That along with the Old Testament books recognized as truly inspired will suffice. No one has ever proven them wrong or with error in them.
Got a link for these 50 "new" commandments of Jesus? I did find one source that lists the following as the fifty commandments of Jesus. Let me know if yours are different.
1. Repent - Mt 4:17
2. Follow me - Mt 4:19
3. Rejoice – Mt 5:11-12
4. Let your light shine before men - Mt 5:16
5. Honor God’s Law - Mt 5:17-18
6. Be Reconciled - Mt 5:24-25
7. Do Not Commit Adultery - Mt 5:29-30
8. Keep Your Word - Mt 5:37
9. Go the Second Mile - Mt 5:39-41
10. Love Your Enemies Mt 5:44
11. Be Perfect - Mt 5:46-48
12. Practice Secret Disciplines - Mt 6:1-18
13. Lay Up Treasures - Mt 6:19-21
14. Seek First Gods Kingdom - Mt 6:35
15. Judge Not - Mt 7:1-2
16. Do Not Cast Pearls - Mt 7:6
17. Ask, Seek, Knock - Mt 7:7-8
18. Do Unto Others - Mt 7:12
19. Choose the Narrow Way - Mt 7:13-14
20. Beware of False Prophets - Mt 7:15
21. Pray for Laborers - Mt 9:37-38
22. Be Wise as Serpents - Mt 10:16
23. Fear Not - Mt 10:28
24. Hear Gods Voice - Mt 11:15
25. Take My Yoke - Mt 11:29
26. Honor Your Parents - Mt 15:4
27. Beware of Leaven - Mt 16:6
28. Deny Yourself - Lk 9:23
29. Despise Not Little Ones - Mt 18:10
30. Go to Offenders - Mt 18:15
31. Beware of Covetousness - Lk 12:15
32. Forgive Offenders - Mt 18:21-22
33. Honor Marriage - Mt 19:6
34. Be a Servant - Mt 20:26-27
35. Be a House of Prayer - Mt 21:13
36. Ask in Faith - Mt 21:21-22
37. Bring in the Poor - Lk 14:12-14
38. Render to Caesar - Mt 22:19-21
39. Love the Lord - Mt 27:37
40. Love Your Neighbor - Mt 22:39
41. Await My Return - Mt 24:42-44
42. Take, Eat And Drink - Mt 26:26-27
43. Be Born Again - John 3:7
44. Keep My Commandments - John 14:15
45. Watch and Pray - Mt 26:41
46. Feed My Sheep - John 221:15-16
47. Baptize My Disciples - Mt 28:19
48. Receive The Endument of Power - Lk 24:49
49. Make Disciples of all Nations - Mt 28:20
50. Demonstrate God’s Power - Mk 16:17
And the Holy Catholic Church, the True Church established by Jesus Christ, is the final judge: “Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.....whatsoever you BIND on earth will be BOUND in Heaven, etc.”
Sorry, but home churches, Baptists, etc. weren’t around then.
So take your Catholic bashing garbage to someone who cares.
oooo, suddenly every Catholic is a Bible literalist.....
Another lie that Protestants use to make themselves feel better. There was only ONE, HOLY, Catholic and Apostolic Church in existence at the time the Nicean Creed was formulated. Historical fact.
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