Note: Mr. Vennari’s article was originally published in The Fatima Crusader, Issue #87 (2007).
Bible: The Sole Rule of Faith?
The Protestant believes himself to be on solid ground, because he says he believes and accepts the Bible and only the Bible, as the sole rule of Faith.
This is the central Protestant tenet of Sola Scriptura – the Bible alone is the sole rule of Faith. It is the Bible and only the Bible that is the pillar and mainstay of truth.
So the first question we have to ask is: how tenable is this Protestant tenet in the first place? Is the Protestant really on solid ground when he says that the Bible alone is the sole rule of Faith?
There is a well-known convert to Catholicism in the United States named Scott Hahn – a Protestant minister who became Catholic. Part of his conversion story gives helpful answers to this question (I personally wish Dr. Hahn would have become more traditional after his conversion, but that does not diminish the strength of the story).
Dr. Hahn had been a Presbyterian minister who, in his seminary days, was vehemently anti-Catholic. Subsequently, as a minister, he did a tremendous amount of Scripture study, because he wanted his sermons to be permeated in Scripture.
But the more he studied Scripture, the more he came to see that the truths that the Catholic believes, particularly manifested in the teachings of the early Church Fathers – Saint Jerome, Saint Basil, Saint Augustine – are firmly rooted in Sacred Scripture. These Church Fathers were Catholics. Every one of them was celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!
I’m not going to go through his whole story, but I want to spotlight a crucial event that clinched his conversion. It was something that took place while he was teaching class.
There he was, a Presbyterian Minister – a Presbyterian Professor – teaching young adults.
And one of the brighter students in the class asked him, “Dr. Hahn, you know the way we Protestants believe that the Bible alone is the sole rule of Christian faith, and we follow the Bible and only the Bible – not the Bible and Tradition?”
Hahn said “yes”.
The student said, “Well, where in the Bible does it say that?”
Hahn responded, “What a stupid question!”
As soon as Hahn said that he said to himself: “You have never said that to a student before. You have never answered a student by insulting him.”
But the reason Hahn responded the way he did was because he knew he really didn’t have an answer.
Hahn said, “Well, there’s II Timothy, 3:16.”
But the student retorted, “No! II Timothy 3:16 says ‘All Scripture, inspired by God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, instruct in justice.’ It says Scripture is profitable! It doesn’t say we must believe in the Bible alone!”
So Hahn then said, “Well, look at what Our Lord says about Tradition in Matthew 15.”
Again, the student responded, “Well, no! Our Lord was not condemning all Tradition, but He was condemning the corrupt tradition of the Pharisees.”
So after a few more failed attempts at Scripture citations, Hahn announced that the class was out of time and they can pick up on this next week.
Now, Dr. Hahn knew that he had not answered the student’s question. And the student knew that he had not had his question answered.
Dr. Hahn Searches for the Truth
So Dr. Hahn drove home that night in a cold sweat thinking, “What is the answer to that question?”
When he got home, he telephoned whom he said to be the top Protestant Scripture scholars in the United States. And he asked them, “Maybe I slept through this part of my seminary training, but you know the way we Protestants believe in the Bible alone and only the Bible, and not in Scripture and Tradition – where in the Bible does it say that?”
And to a man, each one of these Protestant scholars said, “What a stupid question!”
Then each of these professors invoked the same verse that Hahn had invoked: “Well, there’s II Timothy 3:16.” And Hahn responded as the student did, “No, this verse only says that Scripture is profitable, not that it must be the sole rule of Faith.”
Each of the professors also said, “Well, there’s Our Lord’s words in Matthew 15.”
And Hahn retorted, “No, Our Lord was not condemning all Tradition, but only the corrupt tradition of the Pharisees.” And further, Hahn said, Saint Paul instructs us in II Thessalonians 2:14 to stand fast and “hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle.”
And these tip-top scholars, these most eminent of Protestant theologians, had no answer.
It was then that Scott Hahn came to realize that the central, foundational principle of Protestantism – the Bible alone and only the Bible – is not Biblical!
This is a tremendous contradiction; it’s one of the reasons why I could never be a Protestant. Protestantism claims to base its entire belief system in the Bible alone, but the principle of “The Bible alone” is a non-Biblical principle; it is a principle that is nowhere found in the Bible.
No Basis in History
Secondly, the principle of “the Bible alone as the sole rule of Faith” cannot be a true principle of Christianity because it has no basis in the history of Christianity.
How did the early Christians learn their Faith?
How was the Faith communicated to them?
How did Our Lord tell the Apostles to communicate the Faith, the truths which must be believed for salvation?
He commanded them, “Go forth and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost”. He said to Peter, “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church.” (Matt 16:18) And Saint Paul taught clearly that it is the Church that is the pillar and mainstay of truth. (I Tim. 3:16)
Our Lord gave to Peter authority, and He commissioned the Apostles to preach in His name. “As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you.” (John 20:21)
Our Lord wrote no books. Nor did He say to His Apostles: “Sit down and write Bibles and scatter them over the earth, and let every man read his Bible and judge for himself”, which is the essence of Protestantism – each individual reads the Bible and decides for himself what are the truths of Christianity. No! As I said, Our Lord established a Church to teach in His Name: “He that heareth you heareth Me, he that despiseth you, despiseth Me.” (Luke 10:16) “And if he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican.” (Matt. 18:17)
The Church and the Faith existed before the New Testament. Only five out of the twelve Apostles wrote anything down at all! The Church was teaching and administering the Sacraments, the Apostles were forgiving sins, the Church was making martyrs for seven to ten years before one jot of the New Testament was set down on parchment.
The Church was spread throughout the entire Roman Empire before a single word of the New Testament was written. We had Catholic saints and martyrs before we had Gospels and Epistles.
The first Gospel was written by Saint Matthew, about 7 years after Our Lord left the earth. The next was the Gospel of Mark, written 10 years after Christ ascended into Heaven. The Gospel of Saint Luke was written 25 years after Our Lord’s Ascension, and the Gospel of John was written 63 years after Our Lord left the earth. The Apocalypse was written a good 65 years after the Ascension of Our Lord. And all of this was written, as Pope Leo XIII reiterates, under Divine inspiration.
So then, how did the early Christians become Christians and save their souls? By reading the Bible? No, because there was no New Testament.
We saw that the New Testament was not even completed until 65 years after Our Lord ascended into Heaven.
But this is not all.
For over three hundred years, the Church did not have all the books of the Bible compiled into one book.
And this brings us right to the question of Authority.