The Bible

Wow. There's enough going on in the comments section over there to keep us in conversation here for a month of more! I have copied and saved them all because we just can't be assured that they will remain there.

So I thought I'd take one little piece at a time.

Anonymous, without the Bible, we wouldn't KNOW that we are saved by faith. Also, the Bible increases our faith: Candy


Well she has it half right. The Bible does increase our faith! St. Jerome said "Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ." When we read the scriptures we can see God working out his plan over time through holy men and women like Noah, Joseph, Moses, Hannah, Samuel and many more. A great book to read is Scott Hahn's A Father Who Keeps His Promises: God's Covenant Love in Scripture. In it Professor Hahn helps to walk the reader through the Old Testament and show him Jesus Christ. It's a great bible study.

So Catholics would agree that the bible promotes faith, grows faith, nurtures faith, sustains faith and is indeed a gift from God.

But where Candy is incorrect is that without the bible we would not know we are saved! The bible did not even exist for the first few centuries of Christianity. Yet I would dare say that the early Christians were more on fire with their faith than many of us are today. Afterall, when was the last time you had to decide whether to admit you were a Christian or get eaten alive by a hungry lion in the Coliseum? The bible didn't exist, and yet the Christians had faith. They believed.

Then of course for centuries after the Catholic Church closed the canon of the bible, the common man neither owned a bible or could read a bible! Surely Candy is not suggesting that because those millions of Christians did not access or knowledge of the scriptures that they had less faith or no clue about their own salvation?


Finally Candy ends with this quote from Romans:

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." -Romans 10:17

Note that the the key word there is HEARING. Faith comes from HEARING the word of God, possibly in your own head as you READ the word, but also and probably more likely from HEARING the word of God proclaimed as it was for centuries. And that was and is the main mission of the Church - to have the people hear the word, regardless of their station in life or their literacy. Just to hear it.

In conclusion then I think Candy's remark leaves a lot more questions than answers and I think it would be extremely difficult for her to support her remarks in any sort of historical context that made sense.