THE BIBLE ALONE DOCTRINE IS FALSE

Scriptural Writings Compiled in the Bible

The one and only thing that holds the Protestant 40,000 plus denominational churches, each believing their own interpretation of the scripture, is the Holy Bible which is called the Word of God. To these "Bible Only" believing churches, if its not in the bible its not true.

Any other teachings that are not LITERALLY and DIRECTLY written in the Bible are just man-made doctrines that should not be followed. Such mindset put them in opposition against the Roman Catholic Church which ironically is the one and only institution that in the period 300 AD to 400 AD compiled and produced the Holy Bible in its earliest form of compiled books, letters, and epistles of the Old Testament and the New Testament.

There won't be a Holy Bible today without the works of the true church founded by Jesus Christ which later named the Catholic Church mentioned in the Letter to the Smyrnaeans sometime between 105-107 AD by St. Ignatius who was the 3rd Bishop of Antioch and one of the Apostolic Fathers. Many Early Christian writings were lost in the first 300 years of the church life because there was no fix central church organization yet to house them. Christians were persecuted wherever they were found that was why there was no central hierarchy to administer the overall activities and affairs of the church. Successors of Apostle Peter as Chief among the Bishops were not yet fully functioning. The church was more likely underground for its survival and continuing of its mission. Safekeeping of the documents was the least of their worry, it was enough that they were taught by their Bishops who were also taught by the Apostles. The ministering and services to members of the church was left out to each one of the churches in various places led by the Bishop and the presbytery.

As churches were built up in various places some problems broke out from among them due to some doctrinal differences and interpretations of the Apostles teachings. It was at such historical context that the Apostles Peter, Paul, James, John, and Jude wrote letters and epistles to the churches having problems in understanding and how to live out the teachings of the new Christian religion. St. Paul had to write letters to the Presbytery, particularly Timothy, Titus, Philemon to whom he has left the churches care while moving on with his missionary works to the Gentiles. Doctrines were beginning to take shape in the life of the church mostly in answer to questions that naturally came out from the debates and discourses among the members of the church and from pagans, Gentiles and Jews they were trying to convert. In fact we can even refer to the Letters and Epistles that came out as apologetic writings and Apostle Paul was the best among them as an apologist of the faith. He was not just preaching and teaching, he was explaining and elucidating to the churches the meaning of the Gospel and the scriptures. Of the 27 Early Christian writings in the New Testament, 21 are in the form of Letters and Epistles, 14 of them from Apostle Paul.

The composition of the New Testament were all just copies. The original Gospels and letters were lost in the first 300 years of the Catholic Church only fragments survive. They had to painstakingly preserved them by making copies and recopies of the scriptures by hand which took days, months and even years to complete. There was no printing press and scribes were used to copy and recopy documents in codex forms all by hand. The Christians were generally taught by oral traditions through the practice of communal living and meetings on the Lord's Day which is a Sunday. The meetings would always be in fixed time on the Lord's Day in what was called the household of God which was a "house church" and included hearing the teachings and instructions from the Apostles or Bishops.

The most important part of the meeting for the Christians was the holy sacrifice with the breaking of the bread known to them as the Eucharist available only to the baptized members. Catechumens who were converts to Christianity were being prepared for baptism and were not allowed to partake of the Eucharist. In short there was no Holy Bible in the life of the church and the Christians from 33 AD up to the time the Holy Bible was first introduced in a Codex form. In general the Christians were orally instructed and taught by the Bishops and the presbytery after the Apostles left.

If the "Bible Only Doctrine" is true then can we say the Early Christians who depended on oral teachings of the church were wrong? Of course the answer is NO because there was no Holy Bible then. 

PILLAR AND FOUNDATION OF THE TRUTH

The church that is the Catholic Church is the authoritative body and Institution for Christianity because the Church is the Pillar and Foundation of the Truth as taught by the Apostle Paul not the Holy Bible. Why is this so?

The Holy Bible is akin to a portable Library composed of books and writings from ancient past. It is not that all accurate to call the Book by itself as the Word of God. The more accurate thing to say is that the Holy Bible "has" the Word of God because it is not at all limited to the spoken Word of God that was written down from centuries ago but it includes the history of world, people, and nations from creation. It presents stories of the lives of ancient men and women who experienced God's works in their lives and were witnesses to God's power. Witnesses who told their stories not by writing them at first but by speaking about them and orally transmitting what they witnessed through thousands of years of generations of men until they were written. If written scriptures were at first orally transmitted and taught then put into writing then

Witnesses to history that happened thousands of years ago are all gone thousands of years ago. To preserve the teachings of the ancestors, they devised ways to remember their stories through songs and repetitions to keep the truth alive in their minds. Without the oral tradition repeatedly told from generations to generations until at some point in time they were written down by scribes who were commissioned to put them into writing all would have been lost. But to pass on the oral tradition and writing them down need an organized people with common interest, the same mission and purpose, of the same sets of values and beliefs. An assembly or a community of believers which is a church. They must be very organized to a point that they are able to preserve both oral and written tradition of their beliefs in God which allowed them to hold and passed on the same faith to succeeding generations. If such will be just left to individual person it will be forgotten and just be buried in the dustbin of history.

Writing in Papyrus

God is a God of perfection, unity, and order. He left nothing to chance in his creation. They are alive and moving on their own and by their own intelligence. Each creation has a purpose for having been created even the smallest things that are invisible to the eyes in the Universe have a purpose. Each is connected to the others. Each completes and holds together the other parts as one creation. By his will he allows his creation to move on their own unless he sees fit to intervene for the common good. This he did for man. And so he revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and from them came the People of God chosen for a purpose. But they were loose tribes of wondering people called Hebrew. They were nomadic as their father Abraham. Without leadership they are just any people wondering aimlessly such were their condition when they were lured to Egypt and became slaves.

So the Lord raised Moses who led the People of God from their slavery in Egypt to the desert and out of the desert. He became their leader, organized them, disciplined them, administered to them, fed them, taught them to be one people of one mind and hearts for God. Judaism was formed and founded, a church was born which is the church of the Old Testament or the Old Covenant with hierarchy of leaders from Moses to Aaron and to their appointed leaders. They have become so well organized complete with rites, worship, customs, traditions and laws to become one nation of God. Moses having been educated in Egypt brought them the practice of writing down their religious laws and history as a people. The scriptures and books were written down in scrolls by scribes to preserve them for teaching succeeding generations. The scriptures and books were compiled and they called it the Torah and together with other books of history, poetry, songs, we now call The Old Testament in the Holy Bible. Its a product of thousands of years works of God acting on his people who passed the stories to the people by mouth until the stories were written down when writing technology and materials became available to them. Its church of Judaism from which the Old Testament came from. 

The Old Testament is not written by one man but by hundreds and maybe thousands of men. Its written for a period of more than 4,000 years. They are documentary evidence of the historicity of God's works in the lives of men. Our window to the lives of the People of God thousands of years ago and the events that took place in history. Many of the words written there did not come directly from the mouth of God as one would hear someone talking to him but from the inspiration of God to men who told the stories. They were prophets and messengers of God. Men spoke through the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit. Now how did these scriptures and books find their way to the Holy Bible? Certainly the Holy Bible did not come to us directly from heaven and out of the clouds with a voice saying "All my words are in this book".

Can anyone really believe that we can hold the eternal word of God on paper in a book? The Scribes and Pharisees thought they can do that and made the Lord accountable for their personal interpretations of the word of God. They were rebuked many times by Jesus with "Woe to you scribes and pharisees!". Such is the danger of making interpretation based on our own understanding of a word, a verse without understanding the context by which the words were spoken during the time and place it was spoken. To whom and for what purpose they were spoken. "Woe to you.." we can hear the voice of the Lord.

Jesus who is the Word of God who is God made it clear to the Scribes, Pharisees, the Sadducees of his time that they were wrong in their interpretation of the word of God which he said that they did it for their own selfish interests. Meaning those people make the word of God "fit" in for their own purpose and interest and did not really care what the true spirit of the meaning of the word of God. By doing so Jesus accused them of preventing the people from entering the kingdom of God. Now does this sound familiar to the so called "Bible Only" believers with their own interpretations of the bible?

Jesus made known his authority by teaching the people the true meaning and interpretation of the scriptures. He chose 12 Apostles whom he taught and instructed to the truth. It was later on clearly preparatory to the founding of the church of the New Covenant of the Lord Jesus Christ. He specifically told them "I will build MY CHURCH". To the early Christians, the Church is the body of Jesus Christ. As such it is the authoritative body in preaching the Gospel, in teaching and instructing the Christians to the truth. 

Let us imagine ourselves living in the time of Jesus as the Jews. The Jews are known to be the People of the Book, The "Old Testament Only" believing Jews similar to the "Bible Only" believers of today. To the Jews their understanding and interpretation of the Messiah is like David, a king that will deliver them from the enemies, the Roman Empire, and get back their former Davidic kingdom and free his people. That is what is written according to the letter of the scriptures. Then out of the blues you heard a man introduced as Jesus saying "Love your enemy. Be good to those who hate you" what would you feel? How would you react? You may have asked, Jesus where do you find that in the OT? No that is wrong. It should be tooth for a tooth. Then you heard him again saying, "If your enemy hit you on the right cheek, give to him the other also" No the Torah does not teach that. That is not in the scripture. Then "I and the Father are one". What? You and the Father our Lord and God are one? Isn't this Jesus the son of the carpenter? That is too much to hear right? Why for the "Old Testament Only" believing Jews the guy Jesus is teaching something that is not in the scripture and therefore he must be teaching a man-made invention.

Fast forward today we understand Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies in the Old Testament yet if we go word for word, letter for letter in interpreting the Old Testament and we were the Scribes, the Pharisees, the Jews hearing him say those words, we too will stone him to death as prescribed in the Laws of Moses. That is why he was crucified and that is why Jesus said "Forgive them Father for they know not what they do". The same thing is happening again to the Catholic Church which is the true church of Jesus Christ and his body. Is it possible that the Protestants may be the modern day Jews, Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees? Because of what appeared as the new and revolutionary teachings of Jesus Christ to the Jews, he was totally rejected by them and only a handful of his initial followers remained numbering about 120 Disciples. Do we now see the parallelism?

Jesus did not of course violate the Old Testament, the Word of God, because he is the Word and he is God. When the Jews told him he is breaking the law of the Sabbath by working miracles even on the Sabbath he said to them, "I am the Lord even of the Sabbath". And he made it clear to them that it was not a sin to do the work of mercy (which is still work) in the Sabbath because "Man is not made for the Sabbath but that the Sabbath is made for Man" to give man a rest from the yoke of working everyday of the week but it does not prevent man from "working" to help those in need when they need it even in the Sabbath. The work of mercy and righteousness is not prevented by the Sabbath. Yet they could not understand that Jesus was teaching the truth within the spirit of the Word of God written in the Old Testament. He is the Messiah the one who was to come and is come and they could not identify him. Their eyes were closed to the letters of the law that they could not see the spirit of the law and the Prophets. They could hear him speak but they could not listen to the spirit of the Word. Emmanuel already in their presence preaching in the flesh but they did not recognize him.

So then when Jesus founded his church and left the world to go back to his glory in the right hand of the Father, he left the leadership to Peter. Whatever the argument of the non Catholics against the leadership of Peter in the church as foretold by the Lord, there can be no denying in the historical account in the Acts and the many writings of the Church Fathers that Peter was the Chief and the first among the Apostles. Like Moses who led the Jews, he too was to lead the Apostles and Disciples in the building of the Church. Boy that was tough! With only 120 Disciples and with the world against you? Who would dare take such huge task of a lifetime? But Peter and the Apostles strengthened with Grace from the Holy Spirit sent by God to them and the church accepted the great commission and they built the church from small new religious sect of converted Jews to Christianity who were persecuted, chained, beaten up, and killed wherever and whenever they were found.

They became a thriving and growing church in the midst of troubles, suffering and persecution. They were witnesses to Jesus whom they knew in person and heard directly from him his teachings; saw him in the body and in the flesh after they saw him died on the cross, he rose again and was seen talking and eating with them after which they saw him ascended to heaven. Who would not be willing to give his life for such wonder of wonder, the mother of all miracles? Yet Jesus warned them and made them aware that it won't be a bed of roses for them. In building his church, they will experience what he experienced, they will suffer and get killed. There is no easy way out once they commit themselves to follow Jesus. But they followed him anyway. Every instruction, every commandment, every teaching, he left with them and more because Jesus told them they will do greater things than what he did because he was going up to the Father and they will be left to do the building of the church.

What then is the result of the works given by Jesus to his Apostles? By the time the last Apostle John died. The Church was growing and expanding to various cities in the old world, Asia, Africa, and Europe and they reached the Capital of the old world, Rome where the Church in Rome was built by Peter and helped grow by Paul. The Apostles organized the church for effective administering and management of each of the churches which they put up in every city while they went their way to other places for their missionary works and continuing building of the church. They appointed Bishops, presbyter (priests), deacons and use "house churches"  in the absence of buildings and temples for their worship and service. Such act was duplicated in every place where the church was organized and built. There was order and unity and the practice of succession of church leaders was instituted. If a bishop dies another bishop appointed by the Apostles took over at times the Apostle themselves or the appointed Elders and Presbyter.

Since Peter was the head of the Apostles and Bishop of the Church in Rome, the said Roman Church became the first among all the churches. And so Gospels and related writings on the life of the Lord and his family, the Apostles, Acts (historical accounts of early works of the church), Letters and Epistles of the Apostles mostly from St. Paul were written down so that in the first 100 years of the Church the Bishops had enough materials for teaching and preaching. Since there was no printing press during that time, many Church writings were done by scribes and interpreters that accompanied the Apostles to Greek Speaking and Latin speaking communities as well as in other languages. For example its known that Peter was accompanied by John Mark who interpreted and wrote for him. It was a laborious job just to complete a letter, Epistle, and Gospel. Many churches and communities didn't have copy and only depended on the oral tradition. The letters and Gospels were read during the Lord's Day worship in the house churches and only the church leaders may have the copy.

THE CHURCH EXERCISED ITS TEACHING AUTHORITY

From the historical perspective, the name Catholic Church was already in used sometime between 70 AD to 105 AD when St. Ignatius wrote his letter to the Smyrnaeans referring to the true church of Jesus Christ as the Catholic Church. "Where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church". So then the church grew and expanded throughout the known world then as far as Africa and Europe from Jerusalem without the use of the Bible. The Early Church had the Didache which is also known as the compilation of the Teachings of the 12 Apostles. It is used as guide or catechism manual for use of the church in performing its rites, worship, service, and one self which include among others: Baptism, Prayer and Fasting Eucharistic prayer, Sunday Worship and sacrifice. The Didache was part of the development of the Catholic Church yet it was not included by the church in the bible because its not inspired as it is a manual for instruction of the Catholics. We can say it is the first Catechism of the Catholic Church.

One can see from this simple action of the church that it differentiates what can be used for preaching and teaching to non Catholics and what can be used for the members of the church. The Bible therefore was first meant for the propagation of the faith and conversion. It serves as a written witness of the works of God in the lives of man. Now this does not mean that the writings in the church spelling out its doctrines have no basis in the Bible simply because they were not included. Such doctrinal writing need not be included in the Bible because they are the product of the teachings in the bible that is already practiced in the Catholic Church.

CODEX VATICANUS

The first and oldest bible was found in the Vatican library called Codex Vaticanus which is written in Greek. It was dated sometime in the 4th century between 300 AD to 350 AD. The next oldest extant Bible is the Latin Vulgate the work of St. Jerome as commissioned by Pope Damasus in 350 AD. Whether St. Jerome used Codex Vaticanus for his translation of the Bible from Greek to Latin was not clear.What was clear then was the need for the Church for the Bible. The Apostles, the Apostolic Fathers, and Church Fathers already died and some remnants were very old and dying too. Most of the original copies of the early writings of the Gospels, Letters and Epistles were lost and they need to be recopied. Just like the first Church of the old Covenant, Judaism, which preserved the Old Testament, the New Church of the New Covenant, the Catholic Church must also preserved the written scriptures.

The Catholic Church need to separate the truth from the fiction because many false teachings, heresies and false churches were coming out deceiving many of the faithful Christians. The Church is the only authority to choose what are the TRADITIONS ORAL AND WRITTEN that were handed over to the church from the Apostles to succeeding generations of the church and they must preserve them. As Jerome has said "Ignorance of the scripture is ignorance of Jesus Christ" but what scripture? For there appeared to be so many scriptures that proliferated in the churches. Such scriptures spawned heretical teachings that permeated in the churches. Now only the Church who is the Pillar and foundation of Truth must act and act quickly. In the tradition of the church when they called the first Council in Jerusalem to settle the issue of the Gentile converts in the church, they were to call councils later on to settle doctrinal issues. Thus the Bible came to be when the Church chose what are the canonical (genuine) books from the Old Testament and the Gospels, letters, and Epistles of the Apostles in the New Testament that will be included in the Bible.

The Holy Bible came out of the Catholic Church using its Teaching Authority as the body of Jesus Christ to produce it.

The translations of the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek known as Septuagint and the translations of both Old and New from Greek to Latin considering the Church of Rome became the dominant church in the West as they built more churches throughout the Roman Empire, more Latin Churches need to to have a Latin Bible thus the Latin Vulgate was produced and became available in 405 AD to many people after it was recopied many times over. The translation of Jerome opened up for others to do the same in their own language started out by Ufilas of the Goth or the original East German people (now exctinct) who turned to Christianity and needed the bible. But they did not have written language only oral language, Ufilas from scratch in his understanding of the Greek and Latin composed a language of the Goth and translated the Bible in such language. His work were followed by the others who also translated the bible in the vernacular.

Now the problem of translating the bible without the guidance of the Catholic Church authority is the real danger of corrupting the scriptures by adding or subtracting words from the original. Worst is translating the words in the scripture into their own understanding of how the words were spoken in the bible. The results are very clear even today. Many bible translated into vernaculars have different meaning and the spirit of the words spoken of in the written scripture is lost in many instances. An example is what Martin Luther did. To defend his new doctrine of Sola Fides or Faith Alone where he added the word "ALONE" in the verse he used to teach his new doctrine which the Non Catholics now love to use. In Romans 3:28, Luther admittedly added the word "alone" to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans that originally states "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law". Luther inserted in his interpretation of the bible the word "alone" to read "...by faith alone".

The spirit of the verse show that justification is by faith "apart" or "besides" from the works of the law which is in agreement with James 2:17 which states "So too faith by itself if its is not complemented by action is dead". Therefore justification can't be by Faith alone; but, besides from faith works too or action and good deeds. The synonym of apart is besides. Besides means "in addition to or apart from" the grammatical use of "apart" in Paul is a preposition that linked its relationship to works. So to make it more clear on the other side stands faith while on the other part stands works but each can't be alone since they are both important for justification. Thus Faith and works go together for justification and not by Faith alone or even Work alone. Without adding and subtracting words, the Bible message should be complementing not contradicting. 

The Church Has Always Held The Teachings of the Apostles

As we can see that one word can change the meaning of the scripture and one's understanding of what is the true interpretation can't be relied on as the truth but instead one must look at the context of what is written which means we must look at the macro level because a puzzle cant be completed by just piecing together a few parts of the whole. Likewise the truth cannot be learned just by the Bible Alone doctrine but must be confirmed by the authoritative body which the Lord has given us, the Catholic Church, the Pillar and Foundation of the Truth as taught by St. Paul. The final authority of the teachings of Jesus Christ is the church but not just any church for there are now thousands of churches of different beliefs but the true church. Its for this reason that God promised "..even the gates of hell shall not prevail" against the church which means also that there will be many troubles and evil attacks in the true church but it will always prevail making it a continuing and an indestructible church from its foundation up to the end of time.

The bible is the product of the church not the church coming out of the bible. We must always remember as we have already forgotten that the true church is a creation of God. We are taught that the church is Christ for the church is his body. If it is his body his words must forever be in that body and therefore we can say that the Bible subsist in the church for without the church the bible and with the scriptures would have been long lost. Therefore the bible fits in the Church not the church fits in the Bible because the Word of God is alive and not limited in writing. In the same way that the church is living and subsisting in the body of God. Thus the Church is alive and God continues to work in the lives of men through the works of the Church. 

But we must separate the works of the evil men who were able to enter the church for the purpose of destroying it by opening the gates of hell in it but Jesus knew these things and he promised us even the gates of hell shall not prevail. Therefore just because there are evil men that penetrated the church do not mean the Church itself has turned evil as the non Catholics love to preach. Such is a blasphemy to God for how can the church turned evil when it is the body of Jesus Christ who is Lord? Have you then forgotten the parable of the kingdom of God Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43?

In that parable of the Kingdom of God which is the church of God both the good seeds and weeds sown by the devil will be allowed to grow in the same kingdom IN THE SAME CHURCH. The weeds are allowed to grow because it can uproot even the good seeds. Meaning for the sake of faithful church members, the bad unfaithful members of the church are allowed to grow in the church but at harvest time the weeds, that's what is represented by the evil men and women that have entered the church to destroy it will be separated and burned. While he wheat, the good and faithful church members will be saved. So the Church can't be destroyed even if there are bad bishops and priests and those that followed them who have become apostate and heretics but remained in the church. They will not prevail because the good bishops and priests and the faithful members of the church who hold on to the true teachings of the Apostles will always make up the true Church of Jesus Christ. Thus the authority of the Church will always be upheld because they are infallible truths. On matters of dispute Jesus himself never taught us to appeal to the Bible instead he taught us to appeal to the Church. This church is the Roman Catholic Church by historical accounts and facts, it is the true church.

This article is not written to convince any of the non Catholics but to inform them of the truth. If you are non Catholic who certainly don't agree as expected, would it be best for you to also go deeper in your search for the truth? As Jesus said to the Sadducees which are very much like you, non Catholics, in their 'BIBLE ONLY FALSE DOCTRINE" the words of Mark 12:24 speak to you "Aren't you mistaken because you don't know the Scriptures or the Power of God?" Remember that the Sadducees are those who are the same "Scripture Only" believing Jews of Judaism. They did not accept anything that was not written in the scriptures and held that there is no truth to anything that is not written. In the end by 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed, the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin were destroyed never to rise again. Likewise in the end, the Non Catholics Bible Only believers will perish because they have rejected the Body of Christ, that is the Catholic Church, with which the Bible subsists and outside of which there is no salvation. 

How can anyone be saved outside the Body of Christ? In Matthew 12:30-31 Jesus said, "He who is not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters. Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven." Such is the destiny of non Catholics who have sinned against the Spirit for spreading lies against the Catholic Church the true church of Jesus Christ for which he sent the Holy Spirit to guide the church until the end of time. Like the Sadducees, the scripture only believing Jews who perished with their obstinate false beliefs perished, the non Catholic Bible Only believers will suffer the same destiny if they continue to be obstinate in their false doctrine which PREVENT PEOPLE FROM ENTERING THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

By Bro. Manny Chief Apologist

Copyright © 2016 by ONE TRUE FAITH SOCIETY

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