In the
latest edition of his Bible Christian
Society newsletter, popular Catholic apologist John Martignoni is
addressing comments that were made to him by a Protestant named Don
Jackson. We don’t know Don Jackson and
our purpose here is not to defend him or the things he said. We simply want to comment on just one
specific aspect of what John Martignoni said.
Martignoni’s newsletter article can be found here:
In this
newsletter (#268), Martignoni encourages his readers, when debating with
Protestants, to “get to the issue of authority as soon as possible.” He feels that this is a strong point for
Catholics. He assures his readers that
Protestants are unable to answer his questions concerning authority without
somehow falling back on the authority of the Catholic Church.
At one
point, he asks, “Who is it that can authoritatively interpret Scripture?”
But the
question contains a false premise.
Martignoni is assuming that
one must have some special authority to interpret Scripture correctly. But that’s not true at all. This would be like asking, “What authority
must I have to follow the Ten Commandments?”
In either case, it’s not about authority; it’s just something that God wants and expects us to do.
And it’s not
just church leaders who are expected to rightly divide the Word of truth (2
Timothy 3:15; Acts 17:11; Matthew 13:3-9). The people that followed Jesus were not
mostly the rich, or scholars, church leaders, teachers or the elite. Most of them were just plain folk, the
uneducated, the poor, the down and out, and the lost. It was these
people who cried out to God, recognizing their need, and followed Jesus. It was those who were spiritually hungry and those
who pressed in and wanted to do God’s will that understood His message (John
7:15-17). Jesus never said or
implied that one needed “special authority” to understand His words. See these articles:
Toward the
end of the newsletter, Martignoni tells Jackson, “I do not follow my own
teachings based solely upon my own authority and my own private interpretations
of Scripture as you do, so I have no need of being infallible. You, however, relying on your own authority
and your own private interpretations, which you have admitted could be wrong,
have need of being infallible – but you’re not.”
Here, Martignoni
now goes a step farther and implies that not only does one need an
“authoritative” interpretation, but he needs an infallible one! Again, this
is a false premise. First of all, who
says that one has to be infallible to interpret Scripture? He certainly doesn’t get this idea from the
Bible (Mark 4:3-9). Second, let’s
break down what he said. He implies that
his teachings are not based on his own authority / interpretations, but those
of the “infallible” Catholic Church, as opposed to the Protestant, who merely
follows his own interpretation of the
Bible.
But in order
to understand and follow the (supposedly infallible) teachings of the Catholic
Church, Martignoni must still use his own fallible understanding to do so, just
as the Protestant does when interpreting his infallible source (the
Bible). There is no escaping the fact
that we are ALL fallible today, and must ALL use our fallible minds to
understand an infallible source.
So,
Martignoni is simply playing word games when he says he doesn’t follow his own authority
or his own private interpretation. It is
still his fallible interpretation of what the Catholic Church teaches.
Just before
the previous quote that we gave from the newsletter, Martignoni had asked
Jackson, “Will you admit that you could
be wrong in your interpretations of Scripture
and that you could mistakenly be following the father of all lies by relying on
your own private, fallible, non-authoritative, man-made interpretations of Scripture?” Martignoni thinks that he has Jackson over a
barrel here and that Jackson cannot escape his trap. But we would turn this question around on him
and ask:
“John Martignoni, will you admit that you could be wrong in your
interpretations of the Church and
that you could mistakenly be following the father of all lies by relying on
your own private, fallible, non-authoritative, man-made interpretations of the Church?” Is Martignoni humble enough to answer yes to
this? He needs to remember that this
sword cuts both ways.
The bottom
line… one does not need infallibility, or even “authority,” to interpret
Scripture correctly.
We just
might do some commentary on more of John Martignoni’s newsletters in the very
near future. By the way, we’d also like
to refer our readers to a very good website that deals in-depth with many of
Martignoni’s teachings here:
[Update - This link is no longer in service]
