Addressing Sola Scriptura: Why the Protestant Concept Fails, and Why Catholics Use the Bible, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium

To understand why Catholics do not believe in the Bible alone, read this!

Protestants disagree with Catholics in this way: they feel The Bible is the SOLE source of authority from God and divinely inspired document. Catholics also appreciate The Bible and the fact it is the divinely inspired Word of God that should serve as a guide to Christians, however we do not believe it is the ONLY divinely inspired thing to help us to the will of God as a Christian community. Catholics believe The Bible should be used alongside Sacred Tradition that has been passed down to us, as well as The Magisterium- meaning the workings of the Church which was founded by Christ and handed on to the Catholic Church of today through apostolic succession demonstrated throughout history since St. Peter in the beginning since Christ’s time. Though part of this includes the papacy, this is not the only part of the Magisterium. We will get into why all three should be used to guide our people as followers of Christ, but what must be known: is that The Bible alone is NOT the SOLE source of divinely inspired work we are meant to follow in order to understand the correct teachings.

Firstly, I want to get into Biblical evidence for why Sola Scriptura- or the usage of the Bible alone, is not correct. While Protestants are correct in pointing out that Jesus called out men for following traditions contradictory to the will of God and His commandments (Mark 7:8), He did not say we should avoid using any traditions in our means of understanding Christ. He also calls on us to: “stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter,” in 2 Thessalonians 2. Of course this isn’t a contradiction- traditions that are held Sacred are proper and what Christ tells us to do- so long as they don’t violate the Commandments of God, which Catholic traditions don’t do. The Bible is used everyday in better understanding how the Church should operate, and we believe the Holy Spirit guides the Church in the same way The Spirit guided the writers of the Bible. Trent Horn says in his book, The Case for Catholicism: “If God could providentially use fallible human beings to write the word of God without error, why couldn’t he providentially use fallible human beings to transmit the word of God in a non-written form?”

The second problem of Sola Scriptura is this: without the Bible, a crucial part of the Catholic teaching today, how could those who followed Christ understand how to be saved, and what steps to take as His followers? The New Testament was largely written in the coming decades after Christ, but The Bible itself took a few hundred years to be canonized entirely. Saying we must use “The Bible alone” as the infallible Word of God requires us to have an infallible interpretation, as I previously said, or else we will all draw our own conclusions. Read Hebrews 4:12-13 which says: “For the word of God is bliving and cactive and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of esoul and espirit, of both joints and marrow, and fable to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And athere is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are bopen and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” In nowhere does The Bible say: “only The Bible must be used,” to teach Christianity, though it is essential and the Word of God, indeed. As Christ said Himself- the traditions we have are equally important. How could Christianity be taught before The Bible was canonized? Or for the Jews before the Messiah (Christ) came on Earth? With tradition. What would be done if The Bible didn’t address something? That is why why we have the Church, which is described as “the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth,” in 1 Timothy‬ ‭3:15‬.

Truly, the next biggest problem with Sola Scriptura is this: how can we function as a Christian community if we all have our own subjective viewpoints on what the Bible says and commands us to do. If everything was clear in the Bible- we would have little disputes. Of course, such is not the case, and Christ didn’t intend for it to be that way. He gave the Church the authority to decide debates amongst Christians for us all to adhere to, and while the Bible is greatly important: it hasn’t always existed, and so one must ask: if it didn’t exist, how could people understand what to do? And similarly: since it does exist, how can we better make sense of its teachings? By turning to the Church- the “pillar and support of truth.” For everyone to have their own church denominations, loose biblical interpretations, and subjective viewpoints, would not only be ignorant, irresponsible, and a poor way to organize Christianity, but is against what Christ taught and intended with the usage of Sacred Traditions alongside Sacred Scripture, and the authority of His definitive Church on earth He established. The Church gives us an objective interpretation as the Holy Spirit guides it. We have to get Sola Scriptura out of our heads as Christians, while standing by The Bible and defending the Word of God in this great book through not our own interpretations, but the Church’s. And: remember where the Bible came from!

Yes, truly, to appreciate the Bible and it’s context, one must understand where it came from, and how the New Testament was canonized and paired with the Old Testament- in which the Jewish people followed, better known as the Torah. The Catholic Church was actually the one who canonized the New Testament and made The Bible what we have today. The New Testament books were written roughly by the end of the first century A.D., but The Bible itself was not actually put together in until the late 300s, like with the 382 Council of Rome under Pope Damasus. This decision was again ratified at the councils of Hippo in 393, and Carthage: (397 & 419). Those who argue this was not the Roman Catholic Church but the “universal, catholic church” fundamentally ignore the fact this was a definitive, authoritative body of early church leaders who would agree and did agree with Catholic dogma, and everyone throughout these times the leadership in Rome held supremacy over the rest. The Council of Trent reaffirmed this in 1545; not randomly added things following the Protestant Reformation. For people who say the Catholic Church changed The Bible: yes, we did- we canonized The Bible and put it together. To describe this role, Trent Horn says in his book called The Case for Catholicism: “The Church does not determine the canon in the sense of choosing which writings are inspired- God does that when He chooses to create Scripture and give human writings divine authority. But the Church also doesn’t merely recognize Scripture or use fallible methods in order hopefully to “discover” the contents of the canon. Instead, God determines the canon while the Church authoritatively declares the canon.” We have this authority; what is the Protestant standard for what is classified as Scripture and what does not? Before the Catholic Church added the New Testament to the old one and compiled it, there were only admired writings and oral traditions; which we still hold onto in Catholicism as Jesus instructed, but now we have the New Testament compiled all together. To Protestants who trust only The Bible, they must come to the realization they unknowingly already accept the authority of the Catholic Church who compiled the canon of Scripture. The Catholic Church canonized The Bible, Luther in the Reformation altered them and removed 7 books, while critiquing several others. Was The Bible only infallible once Luther changed it? Protestants often say no to this, but if books were included in the Bible that they object to for a little less than 1500 years, that is a problem. Were the vast majority of the Bible versions used by all of Christianity for 1500 years that were Catholic not trustworthy and inspired by God? If not for the Catholic Church over our history, we would not have The Bible to lean on in times of questions of faith.

Now that we’ve come to understand the Bible, it’s origins, and why we should appreciate it individually but also look on it with great holiness in the bigger picture, and how that should be used alongside Sacred Tradition, let us begin to understand what the Magisterium actually is. Truly, this can be best explained similarly in a way that I will write my post on the papacy on, but let us understand all aspects of how Catholic teaching is formed, and how that should be binded alongside the Bible for believers and followers of the faith. The Magisterium can be best explained in a phrase we call as Catholics the “deposit of faith,” which means: “the body of revealed truth in the Scriptures and tradition proposed by the Roman Catholic Church for the belief.” This can be see at levels from top to bottom which would include: the Pope teaching ex-cathedra (meaning from the Chair of St. Peter on faith and morals with the intent of binding it to the entire Church; not his personal statements or views as a private citizen), an ecumenical council, the bishops teaching something alongside the Pope definitively, the general papal authority which is not infallible, and then the bishops also teaching authoritatively but not infallibly. The Church gets this authority from Christ giving Peter the “keys to the kingdom of Heaven” as described in Matthew 16:18, and also the general apostolic succession led by Peter and the other Apostles given to the continued Church hierarchy and power for the 2000 years since.

The best way to understand why Catholics use Sacred Scripture (The Bible), Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium can be explained through this image: a stool demonstrating our general foundational dynamic as Catholics versus Protestants. Not only does this provide our Church stability to be in unison with one another and not disagree on many things, it allows us to continue the work Christ and His apostles did as the one, holy, catholic, apostolic church for all time, who will stand strong so that the “gates of hell will not prevail.” Christ be with us always!