“Sola Scriptura” (Latin for “Bible only”) – you’ll hear this term often in discussions and debates between Catholics and Protestants. It simply means that Scripture is the final authority for the church, since it is the only infallible authority we have today.
Protestants
generally believe in Sola Scriptura, but Catholics will often tell us that
Jesus didn’t leave us a book, He left us a church.
But what
does that mean, “Jesus left us a church”?
Who is the “us” in this sentence?
I think that we can safely assume that Catholics mean the “us” is referring
to believers, those who are saved, those who are right with God. But according to the Bible, believers ARE the
church! Since we are the church, it doesn’t make sense to say that Jesus left the
church a church! That would mean that He left us ourselves, and that is ridiculous.
When they
say that Jesus didn’t leave us a book, but a church, what they mean is He left
a final authority for all believers, and they believe that this authority is
the Catholic Magisterium.
But Catholics
are defining “church” in an unbiblical way.
According to Scripture, the church is not a building, nor is it a
“magisterium” of infallible leaders.
Catholics will often say things like, “The Church teaches…” or “The
Church has always believed…”, etc. When
they use the term in this way, they are speaking of their leaders, the Magisterium. But the Bible never uses the term “church”
when referring to leaders only. Never. The Bible uses the term to mean either the
local assembly of believers, e.g., the church of Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:2) or the
church of Ephesus (Revelation 2:1), or to mean the universal assembly of believers
worldwide (Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:17-18).
Yes, Jesus
did indeed establish a church. No one is
denying that. But we Protestants could
counter and say that Jesus didn’t give us an infallible church, but an
infallible book, the Bible, as the final authority. Catholics act as though the Bible has less
authority than the church. Are they
suggesting that Jesus did not leave
us an infallible book? Would they dare
say that Scripture is not inspired (God-breathed)? 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us:
All Scripture is
God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and
for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully
equipped for every good work. (BSB)
Keep in mind
the fact that 2 Timothy is the Apostle Paul’s last letter he ever wrote to the church, and that he knew he would
soon be martyred. And because of that,
we know that he wanted to impart some very critical information to believers in
this letter, but he never said that the
church or church leaders were
God-breathed. Not in this or any other
of his many letters does he state or imply this. If the church’s leaders were the final
authority for the rest of the church, it seems that this would have been the
time to say so. But Paul leaves us with
the understanding that Scripture is
the only thing God-breathed today. Not
only is it inspired/God-breathed, it also equips us for every good work.
Catholics
admit that Scripture is inspired. In
fact, it is the official position of the Catholic Church that Scripture is above, or greater than, the Magisterium:
“This
teaching office is not above the word of God, but serves it…” (Dogmatic
Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei
Verbum, chapter 2, paragraph 10)
“Yet this
Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #86)
Ok, that
sounds really good, even biblical. But
in actual practice, it is the
Catholic Magisterium that is over Scripture.
I say this because it is supposedly the Magisterium alone that infallibly
determines what Scripture is, and it is the Catholic Magisterium alone that officially
and infallibly interprets Scripture.
Therefore, for the Catholic, the Magisterium
is really the ultimate authority.
If common
sense dictates that verse “A” should be interpreted a certain way, but the
Magisterium demands that it be interpreted a different way (even if it appears to
be contradictory), then they must obey the Magisterium.
If other
Bible passages, as a whole, taken together, dictate that verse “A” should be
interpreted a certain way, but the Magisterium demands that it be interpreted a
different way (even if it makes the Bible contradict itself) the will of the
Magisterium must prevail. That’s why
they say that Jesus gave us a church, not a book.
For
Catholics, lip service to the idea of the Bible being over the Magisterium is just that – lip service. But the Catholic idea of an infallible
Magisterium does not line up with the very Bible that the Magisterium claims to
follow! They want their members to think
that the Catholic Church holds the Bible in high regard, yet in practice, the
Bible is down-played.
But
according to Scripture, the bottom line is this: Jesus Christ made believers (imperfect, common,
fallible people) to be a church, both as part of a universal entity and as part
of a local assembly, and He gave us an infallible book to guide us.
