Imagine two guys having a discussion
about the correct way to drive a car.
After some disagreement, one of them gets frustrated and says to the
other, “Your argument is wrong because you don’t even know how the engine
works! You don’t know all the parts that
make up the car! You wouldn’t know the
difference between a carburetor and a catalytic converter!”
Of course, this is silly because you
don’t have to know all the parts of a
car in order to drive the car. There are probably thousands of people who could
not tell a catalytic converter from a carburetor. But so what?
In spite of their lack of knowledge in
this area, they would still be able to drive
the vehicle. There is a difference
between properly using a car and
knowing everything about the car.
Ok, most people would agree that the
frustrated guy above has a very poor argument.
Yet, this is exactly the
tactic that many Catholics will try to use against Protestants when debating
about the Bible. The Protestant will
quote a Bible passage and the Catholic might say, “You’re quoting the Bible, but
you don’t even know WHAT the Bible is!
You don’t know which books belong in it!” (i.e., the canon) – as though
that somehow stops the Protestant from understanding what he is reading.
One does not have to know the authors,
the original languages, or the full canon of Scripture in order to sufficiently
understand and gain useful information from it. By reading the Bible, a person can get saved,
learn to live for God, and teach others the same, without ever having an exact
knowledge of the canon. Sure, it can
certainly help to know all about the background of the Bible and have a fuller
knowledge of it. If a person does know all
this, then great. But that doesn’t
necessarily mean that those who don’t are unable to grasp what Scripture says.
The point is, Catholics and Protestants are
basically on equal ground when simply using
/ reading / interpreting the Bible. The
Catholic seems to be missing the point that they share a common source. You see, both
the Catholic and the Protestant agree that Scripture is from God. They both agree that it is an authoritative
and inspired guide. They both agree that
it is (at least part of) their rule of faith.
So, at this point, it is irrelevant
if one does, or does not, have a full knowledge of how the Bible came about. Just as in the car analogy above, there is a
difference between properly using the
Bible and knowing everything about the Bible.
So why would anyone even use this argument? This tactic is just a
smokescreen, a distraction that just muddies the water. Catholics usually resort to it when they are
losing an argument.
If the original argument is not about
the canon itself, then you don’t have
to know the canon for your argument to be valid.
There is a time for studying the origin,
background, and canon of the Bible. But
using it to divert attention from a different argument is misguided, at best,
and deceptive, at worst.
