This along with a few postings during the next few months (not necessarily the next one) will be from a pamphlet by The Catholic Literature Society, Los Angeles, CA of 1 March 1936 entitled “The Truth about Catholics.” All information in the quote below in square brackets [] has been added by me. It is basic Catholic apologetics, this particular argument being directed toward protestants espousing “Sola Scriptura” bible alone philosophy of following Christ to attain salvation instead of following, what is arguably, the religion He initiated through His first 12 apostles, or first 12 priest/bishops He “sent” and who subsequently “sent’ others to spread it to the whole world by his command.
(Matthew 28:19-20 – 19- Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ] 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.
It’s hard for a book, even an all-time best seller like the bible to baptize people!
Here’s the is the argument from Rev. Arnold Damien, S.J., quoted below:
When our Divine Savior sent His Apostles throughout the universe to preach the Gospel to every creature, He laid down the conditions of salvation thus: ”He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be condemned.” Here then our Blessed Lord laid down two conditions – Faith and Baptism. (Mark 16:16)
What is this divine Fatih which we must have in order to be saved? It is to believe, upon the authority of God, the truths that God has revealed. Now if a man is at liberty to believe any kind of religion provided he be a good man, then what use for Christ to send out His Apostles to teach all nations? Are men and nations at liberty to reject the teaching of the Apostles? Therefore if a man would be saved he must profess the true Religion.
Now if God commands me under pain of damnation to believe what He has taught He is bound to give me the means to know what He has taught. Has God given us such a means? “Yes”, say all Protestants, “He has”. And so say the Catholics. What is the means God has given us where by we shall learn what He has taught?
“The Bible say our Protestant friends and nothing but the Bible.”
But we Catholics say “No”; not the Bible but the “Church of God”. For if God had intended that man should learn his religion from the Bible, surely God would have given that book to man. Did He do so? He did not. Christ sent His Apostles throughout the universe and said: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and oft the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Matt. 28:19.
Christ did not say, sit down and write Bibles and let every man read and judge for himself. That injunction was reserved for the sixteenth century, and we have seen the result of it in the founding of about 500 religions by men, all quarreling with one another about the interpretation of the Bible.
Jesus never wrote a line of scripture nor did He command His Apostles to do so, except when He directed St. John to write the Apocalypse 1:11, but ordered them to “teach all nations”. Matt. 28:19 In Matt. 18:17, He does not say “He that will not read the scriptures, but “he that will not hear the Church” is to be considered a heathen and publican.
The Apostles never circulated a single volume of scripture, but going forth, preached everywhere,, the Lord cooperating with them. Mark16:20. Tis true our Lord said on one occasion: ”Search the scriptures, for in them ye think he have eternal life, and the same are they that give testimony to me”[John 5:39] This passage is quoted in favor of private interpretation but proves nothing of the kind. Our Saviour speaks here only of the Old Testament because the New Testament was not yet written. He addressed not the Apostles, but the Pharisees, and reproaches them for not admitting His Divinity. All Religious outside the Catholic Church teach that the Bible is their rule of faith, and that man cannot be saved without the Bible.
The Church established by Christ existed about 65 years before St. John wrote the book of Revelation. During these 65 years how did the people know what they had to do to save their souls? Was it from the Bible they learned it? No, because the [New Testament of the] Bible was not yet written. They knew it precisely as we know it, from the teaching of the Church of God.
Before the art of printing and papermaking were invented about the fifteenth century, everything had to be done with a pen upon parchment or sheepskin, and in those days a Bible would have coast about $8000. Not one in 50,000 had a Bible.
Would Our Divine Lord have left the world for 1500 years without that book if it were necessary to man’s salvation? Most assuredly not. But suppose that all had Bibles. What good will that book be to one half of the people of the world who cannot read? [acknowledging about only about 50% of the population was literate and those that were owed the fact almost exclusively to the Catholic church]
Now with regard to the King James edition learned Protestant Preachers and Bishops have written volumes to point out the errors that are in it, and various denominations acknowledge it. Some years ago there was held in St. Louis a convention of ministers to which all denominations were invited, the object being to arrange for a new translation of the Bible. In that convention a very learned Presbyterian stood up and urging the necessity of a new translation said, that in the present Protestant Bible there were no less than thirty thousand errors.
Protestants say the man who reads the Bible prayerfully has truth. Let us suppose:: here is an Episcopal minister; he reads the Bible in a prayerful spirit and he says it is clear and evident there must be bishops, for without bishops there can be no priests, without priests there can be no Sacraments and without Sacraments no Church. The Presbyterian, a sincere and well-meaning man, deduces from the Bible that there should be no bishops, only Presbyters. A number of sects hold that baptism by immersion is correct while others approve of baptism by sprinkling.
Next comes the Unitarian who calls then a pack of Idolators worshiping a man for a Bod and he quotes several texts from the Bible to prove it.
I have here brought together a number of the denominations understanding the Bible in different ways. What then, if I brought together 500 denominations all differing. One says there is no hell. Another says there is a hell. One says Christ is God, another says He is not, etc.
IS ANYONE FOOLISH ENOUGH TO BELIEVE THAT THE CHANGELESS AND ETERNAL HOLY GHOST IS DIRECTING THOSE FIVE HUNDRED SECTS TELLING ONE YES AND ANOTHER NO. DECLARING A THING TO BE BLACK AND WHITE, FALSE AND TRUE, AT THE SAME TIME.[?]
If the Bible were intended as the guide and teacher of man, would St. Peter have declared that “In the scriptures are things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction”. 2 Peter 3:16
If salvation depends upon believing truths, can we suppose that God would have each individual determine what these truths are? In his kingdom there are no sects but harmony and unity, yet His Kingdom on earth, established by His Own Blood, should be a house, “divided against itself”. Five hundred contradictory sects with about 1000 offshoots during the past 400 years because of understanding the Bible in different ways.
When George Washington and his associated wrote the constitution they did not say to the people, “Let every man make his own explanation of the constitution.” What did Washington do? He appointed his Supreme court to give the true explanation of the Constitution to all citizens, from the President to the beggar, and it is this alone that has preserved the Union of the United States.
So our Divine Saviour established His Supreme Court, His Supreme Judge to give us the meaning of the scriptures and the Son of the Living God has pledged His Word that the Supreme Court is infallible in Matters of Faith and morals. John 18:13. [though not in contravening what the Bible says in the Old Testament (or New Testament for that matter) unless Jesus Himself dictated contravention of it.]
I have now proved to you that the private interpretation of the scripture cannot be the guide of teacher of man.
The above is a good argument against Martin Luther’s new de facto protestant “law” of “sola scriptura” or in the case of worship of God, each individual being guided by the Bible only as opposed to worship guided by the church initiated by Jesus Christ on Pentecost around the year 30 AD.
Traditional Thomistic Catholic 