The Bible....Love letter from God

That’s not biblical! How many Catholics, like myself, and probably you, too, have heard that? Thousands of times. It’s one of the ‘go-to’ comments from detractors.

Well, let’s start with these two facts.

1. The Bible is NOT a history book. The Bible is the story of God’s relationship to His people.

2. The Bible is a Catholic book. That’s right, a Catholic book. The Catholic Church, which was the original Christian Church founded by Christ and built on the rock of our first Pope, Peter. The Church is the organization that put the Holy Scriptures together, that decided which of the ancient texts would be included, and which would not. That is the fact. Everything the Catholic Church teaches, and every practice the Church follows has its roots in the Bible, and the Bible has it’s roots in Catholic tradition. The Universal Church, put together the bible around the year 367. The Christian Church fathers decided on what written books would make up the bible at that time. And, just to dispel any wrong ideas, the Christian Church was the only church in existence. The split would not come until much later. The Catholic (universal) Church is the continuation of the original

Now, as I’ve mentioned before, although I was a cradle Catholic, I did spend some time drifting, including a stint in a couple of evangelical Churches. Like so many evangelicals, I never really thought about where the Bible came from......it was the literal Word of God, and just was always there. I suspected that the early Church was much like the practices of today, you know, Sunday school, Bible studies, stuff like that. Same as we do today, except you had lighted candles and torches for evening study rather than fluorescent light bulbs as we have now. But, other than that, it’s remained pretty much unchanged. But, there are some flaws with that thought. The argument goes on to make the claim that the Catholic Church denied folks the right to read Holy Scripture, and made Bibles unavailable to the masses. We've heard it ad nauseum....

Now, think about that for a second. Then remember this.....up until the middle of the 19th century, over 90% of the world’s population was illiterate. Could not read, could not write. Not at all stupid, but just not trained in formal education. So, how could the masses read Holy Scripture when they could not read themselves? The reliance was on The Church to teach them. That is what it was charged to do. 

There were also no printing presses. And, there was no worldwide chain of book stores. Each particular Bible had to be hand written, line by line, by one of the few who had the capability to do so. WordPerfect was not perfected. And, when completed, there were no trucking lines to haul and deliver them to the local Barnes & Noble, who had not even opened a lot of their stores yet. So, even getting one’s hand on a Bible was not an easy thing to do. They were scarce and hard to get a hold of.

Scripture was taught through memorized prayer. The Rosary is the Gospel of Luke, front to back. For those who did not possess the formal education to read themselves, which was about everyone except the elite, what a perfect way to teach Scripture......dwelling on each major part of that Gospel with each decade. Peter, the first Pope, was told by Jesus: “Tend my Sheep”....spread the Gospel. Make disciples of all nations. That was the charge given the Catholic Church. So, you do whatever it takes. The Holy Spirit leads the way, and shows you what to do. Memorized prayer was the way to do it. And, it worked!

In addition, because the bible did not exist for the first 367 years of Christianity there would have been nothing to study, anyway. The evangelicals scoff at the idea of oral tradition having any validity. But, oral tradition is the only thing that the world had......oral tradition fed the entire movement. We know the first book of the Bible was not written until somewhere around 30-35 years after the death and resurrection. We know that the last of the four Gospels, John, was written close to a century after the death and resurrection. We also know that the Gospel of Luke was written for the Gentiles, and we know the Gospel of Matthew was written to minister to Jews. That explains why the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ in Luke is on a plain (God comes to us) and in Matthew (We go up to God)......He made sure the authors got His point to everyone. The Holy Spirit thought of everything. The story of God’s love is the point, not the literal interpretation. We also know that when Christ made His promise to return, the Apostles, like all the rest of us imperfect children, figured He’s be back like tomorrow afternoon. When years passed, and He had not physically returned yet, someone figured they’d better start writing this down. So, with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Inspired Word of God was developed. And, of course, it remains the most popular book in man’s History. A book that covers everything.....every situation, every issue, is in it. The reason for that is that with the exception of technology, the situations the early Christians found themselves in are not all that much different. They dealt with the same sins we all deal with today....dishonesty, murder, injustice. The pull of evil has not changed much over the centuries, it’s just manifested in different ways. And, in these days, it can be manifested on a much larger scale than in ancient times.

Christ established the Catholic Church, through the first Pope, Peter to spead His message. He stated all teachings would come through His Church. He said that....if folks have a problem with that I guess they need to take it up with Him. It augments the oral traditions of the Church. The two do not conflict. One backs up the other.

Now, I’m sure the Sola Scriptura crowd will get on their hackles on this piece. That’s OK. As far as the Sola Scriptura philosophy itself, that is not biblical. There is nothing in Scripture that states that it is. You cannot use stand alone Bible verses to verify your viewpoint. The Bible must be taken in it’s entirety, and it must be realized that as a whole, it is the story of God’s relationship to His people. And, His relationship to us is the same as it was 2000 years ago.

It’s His story of love to us - to each one of us, man, woman, child. It’s the story that will never die.....it’s the truth. Count on it, and be thankful.