The Bible presents a vastly more difficult test than my
single sentence. There are thousands of sentences in that book. Sometimes those
sentences give “seemingly” conflicting information. One may cite the
commandment “though shalt not kill” found in Exodus. But that is followed up
with reasons that you can kill as a punishment in Deuteronomy. In Exodus, again,
we get another commandment “You shall not create a graven image,” followed just
a few chapters later with the command to create images of angels for the Ark of
the Covenant. If you want a New Testament reference, how about Romans 2:6 “who
will render to every man according to his deeds” followed quickly in Romans
3:28 with “for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of
the Law.” The point of all this is interpretations.
To be honest, recent debates between Protestant and Catholic scholars largely
show a general agreement on the contextual application of these verses. While
there is much theological agreement between Christian subgroups, the fact that
there are thousands of subgroups should be cause for concern.
There are over 35,000 Christian denominations today. That
means that there are at least 35,000 different interpretations of Scripture.
All of these different groups splintered off from something that was already
there. The first major split came around 1100 A.D. when the Orthodox churches
broke off from the Catholic Church. There are very few dogmatic differences
between those 2 distinct Christian traditions. Nevertheless, they have a
different interpretation regarding some issues. It must be noted that the
Catholic Church will allow its members to take the Eucharist at an Orthodox
church if necessary because they hold the same belief about the real presence
of Christ. The next major split came with Martin Luther, Calvin, and others in
the form of the Protestant Reformation almost 500 years later. The Protestant
battle cry was two-fold: Sola Scriptura (Bible alone-meaning that the Bible is
the only place to look for the Truth of God) and Sola Fide (Faith alone-meaning
that we are saved by faith rather than our merits; which the Catholic Church
also teaches even if it hasn’t always done a great job of teaching it). Martin
Luther and the other Reformers led the revolt, which basically said that each
person can decide for him or herself what the Bible teaches. Interestingly,
when followers of the Reformers started to break off, which happened almost
instantly, Luther and the rest had no problem telling those people that they
weren’t reading the Bible right.
So how are we to know? Do we get a warm fuzzy feeling when
we read it? Do we know we are interpreting correctly when we get a large number
of “Amens” from the congregation? I, for one, believe that if Christ wanted Scripture
to play such an important role in evangelization, that he would have given us
some assurances that we could trust the interpretation. In Matthew 5:15 Jesus
says “Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and
It gives light to all the house.” Why would Jesus establish a church and give
it as its only tool, a book that, as history has shown, can be interpreted at
least 35,000 different ways without some sort of protection from false
interpretation? Again in Matthew 28:18-20 we hear: “And Jesus came up and spoke
to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go
therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I
commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’” Jesus promises to be with his church forever.
In John 16:12-13, we get the promise that the church will be guided by the
Spirit into all truth. “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot
bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into
all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He
hears, He will speak and He will disclose to you what is to come.” Finally a Catholic
apologist would be remiss to omit Matthew 16:18 “And I tell you that you are
Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not
overcome it.” Peter means rock so the quote should read: “you are Rock and on
this rock I will build my church.) Even renowned Protestant scholars agree that
Jesus is pointing to Peter as the rock. They just differ in their interpretation of what that
means. (I know. Shocking. Right?)
If the Bible can be interpreted in countless ways, why even
believe in the Bible at all? I guess the
short answer is that we believe that Christ is God and that Scripture is his
revelation to us. But lots of people
have claimed to be God. Many people have
claimed new revelation. Islam and
Mormonism immediately come to mind. The
founders of those religions made it perfectly clear that their revelation came
directly from God. But the vast majority
of Christians wouldn’t buy it. What
makes the Bible so different? Since we
don’t believe the claims of Joseph Smith, why would we believe Matthew, John,
Peter and Paul? Just because a book
claims to be inspired hasn’t helped me to get on board with Islam. I have chosen to believe the Truth of
Christianity based on the answers it gives me to the most fundamental questions. Why are we here? Where are we going? What does it all mean? Since there are over 35,000 options within
Christianity, what would lead me to believe that the Catholic position is
correct? To quote Jennifer Fulwiller,
(whose conversion story from atheist to Catholic is very illuminating) “Either
the Catholic Church is guided in its teachings by the Holy Spirit or it isn’t.
If it isn’t, then why put any stock in any of its claims, including the claim
that it chose the correct books for the cannon of the Bible.” She has it spot
on. This is the crux of the argument. I
believe that Christ founded a church with apostolic succession. I believe that
the church developed Scripture (inspired by the Holy Spirit) to assist in the
evangelization of the whole world. I believe that church was entrusted with a
protection by that same Spirit to interpret that Scripture faithfully. I guess
you could say Jesus lit a lamp (Scripture) and placed it on a stand (Catholic
Church) to give light to the whole world. The Reformers put a basket over it.