Protestantism & Other Heresies; Common Questions

#1 Are we not told in John 5:39 that the Bible is the only source of faith: "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testify of me." (K. J.) ... So, too, in II Timothy, 3:16-17, where we are told that all Scripture "is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, etc."? These texts do not prove that Scripture alone is the guide or rule of faith. In the first text (John 5:39), Christ is not telling the Jews to read the NEW TESTAMENT to find His gospel because the New Testament did not exist. He is rather insisting upon the fact that they gain no profit from their own reading of the OLD TESTAMENT because they fail to recognize Him as the Messiahs. The word "search" is in the indicative and not the imperative mood. Christ is talking here to the Bereans who read the Scriptures to see whether He had correctly cited the Old Testament and whether His interpretation was true. The text of II Timothy likewise proves nothing in this regard because St. Paul is speaking to Timothy at a time when a good portion of the New Testament had not yet been completed. This is evident from the preceding verse which is seldom quoted along with verses 16 and 17. Verse 15 reads as follows in the King James version: "And that from a child thou hast known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Certainly St. Paul is not talking of the NEW Testament, but rather of the OLD. From the Old Testament, of course, Timothy could get a knowledge that would lead him to accept Christ and His teachings as he did.

#2 By what right does the Catholic Church teach doctrines which are not found in the Bible? Is this not what St. Mark calls ''Making the word of God of no effect through your traditions?'' or what St. Matthew calls "Teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men"? This certainly would present a problem for the sincere seeker after truth who believes that all revelation is found in the Bible and the Bible ALONE. By tradition we mean the official interpretation of the teaching Church, clarifying the written teachings of the Apostles. It also includes the UNWRITTEN teaching of the Apostles and the Church, handed down through the Fathers, the councils, the decisions of the Popes and the liturgy of the Church. Scripture is certainly the basis for this tradition. Christ sent His Apostles to teach: "All power in heaven and in earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, etc." St. Matt. 28:18-19 They were to teach with His authority and to teach all things He taught. They were to go and PREACH: "Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to EVERY creature." St. Mark 16:15-16 They were to be WITNESSES: "In Jerusalem in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the utmost parts of the earth." Acts 1:8 Nowhere is there a command to WRITE anything. And so the Church has the duty and the commission to teach all things that Christ taught whether or not those things have been committed specifically to Holy Scripture. Tradition itself is mentioned by St. Paul: "Hold to the form of sound teaching which thou hast heard from me." II Tim. 1:13 Not only was His written word to be obeyed; but also the doctrine committed to them by speech. "The things which thou hast heard from me through many witnesses, commend to trustworthy men, who shall be competent in turn to teach others." II Tim. 2:2 In other words, the teaching of Paul was to be handed down through teachers who were to follow him. In Romans he says: "How then are they to call upon Him whom they have not believed? But how are they to believe Him whom they have not heard? ... And how are men to preach unless they be sent?" Romans 10:14-15 We must remember that before the last Apostle, St. John, died, there had already been a succession of four Popes -- St. Peter (33-67), Linus (67-79), Cletus (79-91), Clement (91-100). These men who were accepted by the whole Christian Church as the supreme authorities in matters of faith and morals, were teaching before the New Testament was completed. All the Apostles, moreover, except John, were dead BEFORE the entire New Testament was written. So Catholics do not believe that they are teaching doctrines of MEN, or the traditions of men, or commandments of men. They are teaching DIVINE tradition. In the texts mentioned in the question, Matthew 15:9 and Mark 7:13, Christ is speaking of the Pharisees and their UNREASONABLE commandments.

#3 Why is the Bible alone not sufficient as our rule of faith or guide to the teaching of Christ?The Bible alone is not sufficient as a guide to Christ's teaching, because:

#4 Is it not true that Catholics worship images contrary to Exodus 20:3-5? The first commandment forbids the making of graven images "TO ADORE THEM." This is found in the Book of Exodus, where we read: "Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them." By this we are forbidden to make images to take the place of God, or to adore them, or serve them. This is the sin of idolatry. That it was NOT the intention of God to forbid the use of images is evident from the fact that the same inspired writer, in Exodus 25, commands the Jews to make two golden cherubim for the Ark of the Covenant in the temple. Likewise, in the Book of Numbers, God commanded Moses to make a brazen serpent, so that the Jews might look upon it and be saved from the attack of the fiery serpent. Therefore, images are forbidden ONLY if we attribute to them a power that belongs to God alone, or if we worship them as gods. "Thou shalt make also two cherubim of beaten gold, on the two sides of the oracle." Ex. 25:18. "And the Lord said to him: Make a brazen serpent, and set it up for a sign; whosoever being struck shall look on it, shall live." Num. 21:8 Why do we use pictures and images? We use pictures and images:

(a)	To remind us of the virtues of the particular saint, or of the Blessed Mother;
(b)	To remind us that we should imitate their virtues;
(c)	To help us concentrate on our prayers;
(d)	To honor that particular saint, or the Blessed Mother, who are God's heroes.

#5 What are some of the differences between the Catholic and the Protestant versions of the Bible?The chief difference is in the omission of seven complete books and parts of two others from the Old Testament in the Protestant versions. The books omitted are:

These omissions should certainly be a matter of concern and investigation. The entire Christian world accepted them as the inspired Word of God until the Reformation. If they did not belong there, then God had permitted the entire Christian world to be led astray for more than a thousand years. On the other hand, if they DO belong there, then Protestants are being deprived of a good portion of revelation and the inspired Word. No one would presume to say that anything inspired by God is unimportant.

#6 Is it not sufficient to "Accept Jesus" in order to be saved through the merits of Jesus Christ? Christ could not have made mere "acceptance" of Himself sufficient for salvation since the observance of some of the commandments is required by natural law. His plan included not only hope or "acceptance" but also the observance of the commandments, faith, baptism, etc. "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father in heaven shall enter the kingdom of heaven." St. Matt. 7:21

#7 When you say the Rosary, is this not vain repetition condemned by Matt. 5:7? The Rosary is indeed a repetition of prayers ... but NOT vain repetition ... or useless repetition. In this passage of St. Matthew, our Lord is condemning the Pharisees who "loved to stand in the corners of the streets that they might be seen by men." They talked to God only to be seen by men. Our Lord never condemned repetition in prayer. He Himself repeated the self-same prayer three times in the Garden of Gethsemani. (Matt. 26:39, 42, 44). The blind man repeated his prayer and was cured by Christ. (Matt. 20:31). We are told that the angels of God in heaven never cease repeating, night and day, the canticle: "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty." Apoc. 4:8. Repeated prayers are not necessarily mechanical or unnecessary. The girl who is in love does not rebuke her boy friend for repeating the statement that he loves her. In the Rosary, Catholics repeat the Scriptural prayers: the Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6) and the Angelic Salutation, or "Hail Mary," found in Luke 1:28.

#7 Which is older, the Catholic or non-Catholic version of the Bible? The Catholic version is more than 1000 years older than any non-Catholic version. (a) The source of the Catholic version (which contains the seven missing books) is called the "Septuagint Version," and dates to 280 B.C., and was the one used by Christ and the Apostles. The source of the non-Catholic version (the Massoretic Text) did not come into existence until about 1000 years later. (b) The canon, or official list of books, was established by the Council of Carthage in 397. It was more than a thousand years later (1534) that the first non-Catholic Bible, the Lutheran, came into existence as a complete Old and New Testament

#8 Why is it Catholics go to confession to a mere man in order to confess their sins? Is it not easier to go directly to God? Yes, it is easier to go to God, and probably this is why Christ did not chose this method. We confess to a man, not because he himself has the power to forgive sins, but because he acts as an agent, or a judge, in the name of God, and forgives sins in His name. The words of institution prove that Christ intended specific confession of sins: "He, therefore, said to them again, 'Peace be to you! As the Father has sent me, I also send you.' When He had said this, He breathed upon them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, whose sins you shall retain, they are retained'." St. John 20:21, 22 By these words Christ gave to His Apostles the power EITHER to forgive OR to retain. In order to exercise this judicial power it is necessary for the sinner to accuse himself specifically of his sins. Most sins are committed in secret and the priest-judge would have no other way of knowing these sins, except by specific confession. Furthermore, the priest as a judge must give a penance or work of satisfaction, which is proportionate to the sins and helpful to the sinner. This he can do only if he knows what sins have been committed. The fact that the priest is a sinner, as are all men, does not affect the power which he exercises. The power comes to him from his office. The same is true with a President or with a judge in our civil courts. The private lives of these individuals do not affect the authority, which they have under the Constitution.

#9 Is Christ's Church -- Corrupt? Is it not true that the Catholic Church became so corrupt before the 16th Century that it was no longer the Church of Christ? So-called "reformers" have chosen different points of history at which the Church of Christ was supposed to have become corrupt. No matter what point is chosen, it must then be admitted that UNTIL that particular time, the Catholic Church (the only one then in existence) was the true Church of Christ. To admit CORRUPTION OR APOSTASY, is to say that Christ failed in establishing a church -- either because He COULD not, or He WOULD not keep His promise.Three texts of Scripture prove that Christ made the promise that His church would go on until the end of time:

(1) Matthew 28:18-20. Christ promised that He himself would remain with the Church until consummation of the world.

(2) Matthew 16:18. His promise to Peter that He would build His church upon him as a rock and the gates of hell would not prevail against it.

(3) John 14:16. Christ promised to send the Holy Ghost to abide with the Church forever. These promises were made by the Son of God; and therefore, He INTENDED to keep them, and WAS ABLE to keep them. Although individuals, large groups of men, and even entire nations, have apostatized from God, we can never say that the Church itself apostatized; for this would mean that Christ had not kept His promises.

#10 Why is the Mass celebrated in Latin? (a) Because Latin is the official language of the Church. It was adopted as such because it was at one time the official language of a large part of the civilized world. (b) Latin is a dead language and therefore the meaning of words remain constant. (c) To preserve the uniformity of the Mass in different counties and at different times: Latin makes it possible for a person to be able to follow the Mass as easily in China as in America.

#11 Why is it that Catholic priests do not marry?The Church has always considered marriage as a Sacrament and something sacred. The fact that priests do not marry is not a condemnation of marriage. The reason is that priests VOLUNTARILY give up the married state in order that they may give themselves entirely to the service of God and the care of His people. This is a disciplinary law of the Church; and the Church, for good reason, may dispense from the law. St. Paul gives this as the reason in his Epistle to the Corinthians: "I would have you free from care. He who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please God. Whereas, he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife; and he is divided." I Cor. 7:32, 33 In the Eastern Churches connected with Rome, priests are permitted to be married men provided they marry before they become deacons.

#12 Is it not true that the Church chained Bibles in the Middle Ages? The Church DID chain Bibles in the Middle Ages; and for the same reason that the Telephone Company chains its directories to the booth -- to prevent people from STEALING them. We must remember that each Bible had to be copied by hand and that it took the lifetime of a monk to do this. According to standards today, each one of these Bibles would probably be worth $10,000. Records have been compiled which show that there were 5,000 chained books in 11 Protestantant 2 Catholic libraries. The Reformers, likewise, chained their Bibles in their churches for at least 300 years. Therefore, Catholics were not alone in chaining Bibles.

#13 Was it not Luther who discovered the Bible, and was he not the first to translate it into the language of the people? Of course, this is a falsehood. Luther, himself, in his Table Talks said, "When I was young I acquainted myself with the Bible -- read the same often, so that I knew where any reference was contained and could be found when anyone spoke about it." Luther's translation of the New Testament was not published until 1522, and his version of the Old Testament was not published until 1534. Catholics, between the years 1466 and 1522, had already published fourteen complete editions of the Bible in high German and five in low German. During this same period of time, that is, from 1450 to 1520, Catholics had also published 156 Latin, 6 Hebrew editions of the Bible, besides 11 complete editions in Italian, 10 in French, 2 in Bohemian 1 in Flemish, and 1 in Russian. The objection to Luther's translation is summed up by a non-Catholic as follows: "He has in many places confused, stultified and perverted the old trustworthy text to its great disadvantage, and also poisoned it with heretical glosses and prefaces.-- He almost everywhere forces the Scriptures on the question of faith and works, even when neither faith nor works are thought of." (Janssen, History of the German People, XIV, 425). The same author points out 1,400 inaccuracies. Bunsen, another Protestant, mentions 3,000 inaccuracies. We know that he ridiculed the Book of Ecclesiastes, that he rejected the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Apocalypse as not being Apostolic, and that he called the Epistle of St. James, "An Epistle of straw." He changed the meaning in Romans 3:20 and Romans 4:15 by adding the word "only." Likewise, he added the word "alone" in Romans 3:28. When this was pointed out to him, he made this comment. "If your new papist makes much ado about the word 'alone' just say straight out to him: 'Dr. Luther will have it so, and says, papist and donkey are one and the same things; thus I will and am determined to have it; my will is the reason'."

#14 Does not Scripture in 1 Tim. 2:5 tell us that there is only one mediator? Why, then do Catholics pray to the Saints and to Mary? Again, this is an example of taking a text out of its context. As a matter of fact Protestants as well as Catholics do use prayers of SECONDARY mediators. Do you not ask your minister to pray for you? Do you not ask your friends to pray for you? If no SECONDARY mediator is necessary, then why ask them to pray for you? Why not go directly to God? As with all Christians we believe that all graces come to us through Christ as the PRIMARY mediator. This does not mean, however, that we should not go to God the Father or to the Holy Ghost directly. The logical inference from the literal translation of 1 Tim. 2:5 is that we must ALWAYS go to Christ first. On the contrary, we have the words of Christ Himself telling us that when we pray we should say, "Our Father who art in heaven, etc." That the text of 1 Tim. 2:5 is NOT to be taken literally is evident from other sources of St. Paul. "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the charity of the Holy Ghost, that you help me in your prayers for me to God." Rom. 15:30 Likewise in the Apocalypse (or Revelations) we read: "And when He had opened the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four ancients fell down before the Lamb, having each of them a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, WHICH ARE THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS." Apoc. 5:8 Also in this same inspired Book: "And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God, from the hand of the angel." The Catholic belief is based upon the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ, i.e., that all baptized Christians are members of the Mystical Body of Christ and that all are working for the same objectives, the glory of God and the salvation of souls. The very act of going to an intermediary and asking him to go to Christ is an acknowledgment that we believe all graces and blessings can come only from Christ. Furthermore, it does not seem logical that we be permitted to ask living human beings to intercede for us, and yet be forbidden to ask the saints of God to pray for us. We pray to Mary because her influence with her Son is greater than that of any other saint. On earth the power of this intercession was proved at the marriage feast of Cana where Christ performed His first miracle before the time set by Divine Providence, because Mary had asked Him to do so. (St. John 2:1-11). The power of this intercession still exists in heaven since the mother-Son relationship still exists and because we have so much evidence of this intercession here on earth, i.e., the apparitions at Lourdes, Fatima, etc.

#15 Why do you deny the people the right to receive Communion under the form wine as well as bread? Protestants argue the necessity for receiving under both forms from three passages of Scripture:

(1)	St. John 6:55: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has life everlasting."
(2)	St. John 6:57: "He who eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, abides in me and I in him."

For each one of these passages where eating AND drinking are mentioned together, there is another passage which mentions eating alone. E.G.:

(1)	St. John 6:59: "He who eats this BREAD shall live forever."
(2)	St. John 6:52: "This BREAD that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

The third text used as an argument against the Catholic practice is: "Therefore, whoever eats this bread OR DRINKS the cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the body AND the blood of the Lord." 1 Cor. 11:27 The King James Version changed the reading "OR drink" to "AND drink." However, the reading "OR drink" has such overwhelming evidence that the King James Revised and the Standard Revised Versions have gone back to this Catholic reading. The Catholic reading COULD BE PARAPHRASED as follows, if we break it down into its grammatical parts: "Whoever shall eat this BREAD UNWORTHILY, shall be guilty of the body AND the blood of the Lord." Likewise: "Whosoever shall drink the CHALICE of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body AND the blood of the Lord." This is so because Christ is present entirely under EITHER form. However, the important thing is not the mode of reception, for just as in Baptism, our Lord left the form to BE DETERMINED by the Apostles and their successors. The important thing in the reception of Holy Communion is that we receive the Body and Blood of Christ really and actually. This fundamental fact is ignored in a discussion of the manner of reception. The truth of the real presence is brought out very clearly in this passage which is so often quoted by Protestants, 1 Corinthians 11:27, where we read that a person who RECEIVES CHRIST unworthily is GUILTY of the Body and the Blood of Christ. Without the real presence this passage would be meaningless. There could be no guilt attached to the reception of a mere memorial.

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Tobias	I Machabees
Judith	II Machabees
Wisdom	Esther (part)
Ecclesiasticus	Daniel (part)
Baruch

(a)	It was not CHRIST'S way. Only two of the Apostles wrote Gospels; and only five wrote Epistles. All would have done so if it were Christ's intention to spread the Gospel by the circulation of books. On the contrary, the Apostles were commissioned to teach and preach in His name.
(b)	The Bible alone is not a SAFE guide. There are many millions who cannot read. And there are many passages which are difficult to understand. St. Peter admits this in speaking of the Epistles of St. Paul. "In these epistles there are certain things difficult to understand, which the unlearned and the unstable distort, just as they do the rest of the Scriptures also, to their own destruction." 2 Peter 3:16
(c)	The Bible alone is not COMPLETE. (continued on next page) "There are, however, many other things that Jesus did; but if every one of these should be written, not even the world itself, I think, could hold the books that would have to be written. Amen." St. John 21:25
(d)	The Bible alone is not CLEAR. Read Acts 8:26-31. Likewise we see the hundreds of denominations [tens of thousands as of 1998] all of which claim to get their religion from the same Bible, believe contrary doctrines