The Bible is all you need?
Did Jesus say the Bible is all we need?
The issue with using the Bible alone when it comes to understanding what Jesus wanted for is that it opens up a huge problem with authoritative and accurate interpretations of what it is saying.
Why do we have over 30 thousand different Christian denominations? Because after 1500 years after Jesus’ time, people began to believe in the “Bible alone” and then they of course began to believe God is speaking perfectly to them because they prayed to the Holy Spirit, therefore they are now perfect in their understanding of God’s word. The problem is however, we now have different beliefs that contradict each other coming from different Christians. Minor disagreements and major major disagreements and conflicting issues and all of them claim to be reading the Bible and praying to the Holy Spirit.
This problem largely arises because the Bible alone was never meant to be a book by itself meant for infallible interpretation by individuals by themselves. The infallible interpretation comes from the church that put it together, the Catholic Church. Without an infallible interpreter we are left with thousands upon thousands of different interpretations that contradict each other. This is chaos.
Jesus never founded a Bible. He founded a Church that hundreds of years later put it together as we know it today. Sadly most Christians don’t even have full versions of the Bible. Because after 1500 years of all Christians using and believing in the same inspired books in the Bible, one man decided that 7 of them were not inspired by God. Martin Luther was his name and He decided to remove 7 books from the Bible that Christians have been using for 1500 years. So we have to ask if Martin Luther was right why would God deceive his followers for 1500 years into beliving that these books were inspired by Him all along when they weren’t? And why did He wait so long to “save us” through this one infallible man name Martin? Or maybe Martin was not infallible afterall and He was very wrong and the 7 books are actually inspired by God which means millions of Christians do not have full copies of the Word of God. This same man by the way, began a movement that says all we need is the Bible. A lot hinging on this one man eh? And what is the “fruit of this tree”, of this belief? Over 30K denomintstions. The result of the “Bible alone” belief has has brought about a massive division of Christians. Would you call this good fruit or bad fruit? If it’s bad fruit then maybe we must stop picking fruit from this Bible alone “Tree” right?
“A Tree Is Known by Its Fruit. ‘For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit.’ ” – Luke 6:43
Again here is another fruit from this same “Bible alone” tree. How often do we hear this question or questions like these?
“Where does it say that in the Bible?”
But the real question is and should be…
“Where in the bible does it say that everything Jesus wanted us to know must be mentioned in the Bible?“
Intresting enough it does not say it anywhere. It does not talk about the Bible as all we need, nor does it say it is the sole authority. Yes it says “all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching…” but not that the Bible is all we need and that all Jesus wanted us to know is mentioned in the Bible.
However it does talk about the authority of the Church, the pillar and foundation of truth. ( 1 Tim 3:15) And history shows there is only one church that has been around for nearly 2,000 years. It is the Catholic Church. Maybe this Church is the tree that God wants us to eat our fruit from when it comes to interpreting the meaning of the Scriptures? It seems quite evident and even more evident when one really begins to put personal feelings or personal preferences aside and one deeply looks at the history of the Church Jesus founded.
If you are not Catholic please be prayerfully open to looking into what Catholics really believe and not what others who misunderstand the Catholic Faith tell you what Catholics believe.
Jesus wants us to be One Church and not millions of individuals who believe differently according to what they believe the Bible is saying.
Come home to the Catholic Church. With open arms She is waiting to receive you.
MORE GREAT THOUGHTS on this topic at Tim Staple’s blog.
Sola Scriptura – An Unbiblical Recipe for Confusion
What do you think?