Catholic Replies
Editor’s Note: From time to time, readers want to know how to respond to the Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura (“Scripture alone”). This is the notion that the Bible alone is the only authority on matters of faith and practice; if it’s not in the Bible, the theory goes, it isn’t true. This theory rejects Catholic belief in an infallible teaching authority and gives each reader of the Bible the authority to interpret what its passages mean. Catholics have one Pope to explain the Bible; Protestants have thousands of “popes.” This exaltation of private judgment has led to the existence of more than 30,000 Protestant denominations.
Why can’t the Bible be the sole rule of faith and the only religious guide to Heaven? Because Jesus never said that the Bible was the only guide to Heaven; because He told the apostles to go forth and teach, not to go forth and write a book; because millions of people have lived and died without having seen or been able to read the Bible; because not everything contained in Scripture is clear and intelligible to its readers; and because the Bible does not contain all the teachings of Christianity.
Protestants will attempt to support this theory by quoting St. Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy, where the apostle said that “all scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (3:16). But to say that Scripture is “useful” (other translations say “profitable”) is not the same thing as saying that it is the only source of truth.
A very good refutation of the Bible alone theory can be found in the January/February 2015 issue of Catholic Answers Magazine (cf. catholic.com/magazine). In a reprint of an article he first wrote for the magazine in April 1999, Jimmy Akin says that sola scriptura is wrong because it presupposes:
“1) the existence of the printing press, 2) the universal distribution of Bibles, 3) the cash-based economy, 4) universal literacy, 5) the universal possession of scholarly support materials, 6) the universal possession of adequate time for study, and 7) a universal education in a high level of critical thinking skills.
“Needless to say, this group of conditions was not met in the crucial early centuries of the Church, was not met through the main course of Church history, and is not met even today. The nonexistence of the printing press alone means sola scriptura was unthinkable for almost three-quarters of Christian history.
“It is thus hard to think of sola scriptura as anything but the theory spawned by a group of Renaissance-era dilettantes — people who had an interest in being their own theologians, who had a classical education in critical thinking skills, who had plenty of leisure time for study, who had plenty of scholarly support materials, who had good reading skills, who had access to Bible-sellers, and, most importantly, who had Bibles.
“The average Christian today — even the average Christian in the developed world — does not fit that profile; much less did the average Christian in the early centuries. What this means, since God does not ask a person to do what he is incapable of doing, is that God does not expect the average Christian of world history to use sola scriptura. He expects the average Christian to obtain and maintain his knowledge of theology in some other way.
“But if God expects the average Christian to obtain and maintain the Christian faith without using sola scriptura, then sola scriptura is not God’s plan” (p. 26).
Q. Why does Sacred Scripture not clearly state that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was always sinless, bore no other children, always a virgin, assumed into Heaven upon her death, and crowned Queen of Heaven? Your response would be helpful to me in my attempt to discuss these matters with my disbelieving wife of almost 50 years and her Protestant friends. — J.D.H., California.
A. Your question arrived by regular mail just after we had composed the editor’s note above, so your timing could not have been better. As we pointed out, not every Christian teaching is contained in the Bible, which is why sola scriptura is a false theory. Jesus never said that the Bible should be the only source of Christian beliefs, but He did found a Church (cf. Matt.16:13-19) to be the final authority on what Christians are to believe. That’s why St. Paul called the Church “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). So the Marian doctrines you asked about have been taught and affirmed by the Catholic Church and are binding on all Catholics, even if they are not specifically mentioned in the Bible.
We should note, however, as we have noted in the past, that these doctrines are inferred in the Bible. For example, the Angel Gabriel implied the sinlessness of Mary when he said that she was “full of grace” (Luke 1:28), which means that she was free from original sin. Since original sin leaves us susceptible to committing actual sins during our lifetime, and Mary did not have this sin, she was never inclined to sin throughout her earthly life.
Second, while there are “brothers” of Jesus listed by name in Matt. 13:55, we know that at least two of those “brothers” — James and Joseph — were in fact the sons of another Mary, the wife of Clopas (cf. Matt. 27:56), who was a relative of the Blessed Virgin (cf. John 19:25). This would make her Jesus’ aunt and her children His cousins. Furthermore, there is no place in Scripture where Mary is mentioned as the mother of anyone but Jesus. She was a virgin before, during, and after the birth of Christ.
Third, since one of the consequences of original sin is bodily decay in the grave, and Mary did not have original sin, she did not undergo corruption at the end of her life, and her body was assumed into Heaven. It is not unreasonable to conclude that Jesus would want her to share in His bodily glorification since it was her body that sheltered Him for nine months.
Fourth, it is also reasonable to conclude that when Mary got to Heaven, she would be recognized as Queen of Heaven. This can be inferred from the Old Testament where the mother of the king was always given the title and role of queen. Thus, King Solomon placed his mother, Bathsheba, at his right hand, the position of authority (cf. 1 Kings 2:19). Mary’s divine motherhood surely qualified her to be Queen of Heaven.
For more details on these matters, see our book “All Generations Will Call Me Blessed”: 100 Questions and Answers About the Blessed Virgin Mary. The book is available for $10.95, plus $6.00 for shipping, by visiting the web site www.crpublications.com or by sending a check or money order to the address below.
Q. Why are pride, avarice, lust, anger, envy, gluttony, and sloth called the seven Deadly Sins or the seven Capital Sins? — P.R., Massachusetts.
A. Actually, they are not sins in themselves, but rather are tendencies or dispositions that can lead to grave sins. They are called “deadly” because they can kill the life of God in our soul. They are called “capital” because they are the source from which all other sins or vices flow. The late Bishop Fulton Sheen called them the “seven pallbearers of the soul” because they transport us away from life and toward death.
Our Lord may have been talking about these attitudes or habits when He spoke of an unclean spirit that goes out of a person and roams through deserts searching for a home. Finding none, it then returns to the person from whom it came and “brings back with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they move in and dwell there, and the last condition of that person is worse than the first” (Matt. 12:43-45). Or perhaps these are the seven demons that Jesus cast out of Mary Magdalene (cf. Luke 8:2).
In any case, consider pride, which always heads the list of capital sins because it was the first sin committed, and it is the most dangerous of all the seven sins because it leads to arrogance, causing us to think that we are gods, that any accomplishments we have achieved are the result of our own abilities, and that anyone who disagrees with us is obviously stupid (cf. Jonathan Gruber and his “stupidity” of American voters comment).
It was pride that caused Lucifer to rebel against God; it was pride that caused Adam and Eve to fall for Satan’s temptation. “Pride goes before disaster, and a haughty spirit before a fall,” warns the Book of Proverbs (18:18-19).
These seven sins are countered by seven virtues: humility, generosity, chastity, meekness, kindness, temperance, and diligence.
