By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM
Part 28
Sometimes it is difficult to prove the obvious. Or, in common parlance, we say that the worst kind of blindness is when the blind man refuses to see. The concept of “Bible alone” is so nonsensical that it never ceases to amaze anyone who is able to think logically. The fact is that the sola Scriptura dogma of Luther is just a work of fiction, purely and simply.
Imagine, for instance, if Jesus had said to the apostles something like this at the Last Supper:
“Gentlemen, this is our last celebration of the Passover. Here is a book containing all the essential teachings I have given you in the last three years. Please make copies of them and distribute them to the people. Do not give them your interpretation of my writings. Just let them do their own. This book and only this book is complete, inerrant, and sufficient. It contains everything you need for salvation. Let the people read this book and accept me in their hearts as their personal Lord and Savior. Do not worry about the accuracy of copies and translations, because the Holy Spirit will guide each and every translator and copyist, as well as readers.
“Only this faith will save them, not works or Commandments. Regardless of the sins they have committed in their lives, if they accept me I will cover their sins with my blood just like a snowfall covers a pile of dirt and they will enter Heaven. My Father will not see their sins.”
That might sound nice to some people, as a way to indulge in sin and still get saved, but unfortunately for them, Jesus did not say anything of the kind. If He had sent the apostles to distribute copies of the Bible to the people, they would have faced a series of problems, such as: Firstly, how to secure reliable copyists and translators; secondly, how to guarantee the accuracy of the copies that would be made, and thirdly, what to do about the problem of the widespread illiteracy among the people! What is the use of giving the book to people who cannot read? Widespread literacy is a post-Renaissance phenomenon.
Besides, to copy the Bible accurately took a great deal of time in handwriting, and, if each new Christian had to have his own copy, it would have been an impossible task! The apostles would also have had to open literacy schools everywhere, to enable the people to read. The hope is that the printing and photocopying machines would have been invented much earlier, not to mention the certified translators’ academies. . . .
But that story is pure fiction. Here are the facts:
Christ neither wrote any Gospel nor commanded the apostles to write anything. On the contrary, He sent them to preach, and preaching is done orally, then as now, everybody knows that; the apostles’ mission was to impart each and every teaching of Christ by means of oral preaching. And after the Ascension, they dispersed throughout the various nations of the known world to preach, orally, to the peoples. And they did it.
Out of the eleven apostles, only two wrote Gospels: Saints Matthew and John. Saints Mark and Luke were disciples, and St. Luke never saw Jesus in the Flesh! The Holy Spirit called them individually to write, since writing was not part of the commission given to them by Jesus.
St. Paul was not one of the twelve apostles and yet he wrote more books than all the others put together. So, only five of Jesus’ followers received the mission to write down their message. If sola Scriptura were the rule to follow, the other apostles failed in their mission.
The apostles never put together a book or a set of books about Christ’s teachings, something like a catechism or a church constitution. The books of the New Testament were written for specific purposes, not as compendia for general use.
Most of the New Testament was written two or three decades after the Ascension. And even after the books had been written, very few communities had access to the whole list, but only one or two copies of this or that book, depending on the availability of copyists. Most people received Christ’s teachings by hearing the preachers.
Until the Council of Carthage in 497, there was no universal agreement about which Bible books were inspired and which books were not — there was no defined Bible canon as Luther knew it in his day. The council solved the problem by defining the canon, but Luther brought the problem back again, by denying seven books of the Old Testament and disputing some of the new, as we have seen in previous articles.
No Christian, without exception, ever affirmed the sola Scriptura doctrine before Luther! He was the first person to come up with it, the most unbiblical teaching about the Bible ever! And to make things worse, it came some 1,500 years after the New Testament books were written.
Ability to read has never been a prerequisite for being a Christian — and Christ certainly never demanded that unless you could read the Bible for yourself you could not be His follower.
Besides, to expect every person to discover by himself the truths to be believed by reading the Bible is utterly unjust, unfair, and impractical: If you know Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek, you might have a chance, but if you speak only English or any other modern language, how on earth will you know if the translation you have in your hands is correct? You need a competent authority for that. How would you know how to interpret it? Interpretations vary from head to head!
More: Only the original texts were free from errors, not the copies of copies of translations. Unless you believe that your Bible printing society is infallible, you will never know if the translation you have in your hand was properly done.
Bible interpretation is not easy for most people. Even theologians have problems in assessing the exact meaning of this or that important passage. If scholars who know Greek or Aramaic or Hebrew many times disagree among themselves, how on earth could you expect everyday people, who don’t have a clue about theology, to be able to interpret correctly? No wonder there are so many thousands of denominations!
Next article: Sola Scriptura — The End.
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(Raymond de Souza is an EWTN program host; regional coordinator for Portuguese-speaking countries for Human Life International [HLI]; president of the Sacred Heart Institute, and a member of the Sovereign, Military, and Hospitaller Order of the Knights of Malta. His website is: www.RaymonddeSouza.com.)
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