Most Catholic today are happy and proud
to profess their faith without having a basic scriptural understanding of what
the church believes and teaches and as a result when challenge by other
Christians they will abandon the church and when confronted they will claim
that most of what catholic churches believes and teaches are not
scripture-based and once engage in discussions regarding Catholic
faith or doctrine they usually ask, “Where is it in the Bible?” or “Is it in
the Bible?” If, as a Catholic you cannot point out which part of the Bible
these are found, their comments will also be if it is not in the bible I don’t
want to believe it or hear it, whatever you say is totally heretical or its only
human doctrines. Blinded by ignorance and biases, those Christians or run away
Catholics who believe that everything must be in the bible fail to recognise
that not everything was written in the bible; St. John say that
“There was much else that Jesus did: if
it were written down in detail. I do not suppose the world itself would hold
all the books that would be written (John 20:25)[1]”,
Again He further state categorically “there were many other signs that Jesus
worked in the sight of his
disciples, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that
you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing
this you may have life through his name(John20:30-31)[2].
This shows how
much of the actions and Teachings of Jesus that were left undocumented in the
Scripture, The unwritten ones were being enacted by the Apostle and their
converts. They kept them and taught them to others as part of their tradition[3]. These
show how important traditions are St. Paul exhorts Thessalonians “Stand firm,
then, brothers, and keep the traditions that we taught you whether by words of
mouth or by letter(2 Thess 2:15)[4]”.
Does it mean that those actions and teachings that are unwritten were not important?
It is
not in vain that the scripture says, “My
people perish for lack of knowledge (Hos 4:6)[5]”. This problem
is hardly surprising, for even in the early years of Christianity the Apostle
Paul predicted it when he said: The
time is sure to come when people will not accept sound teaching, but their ears
will be itching for anything new and they will collect themselves a whole
series of teachers according to their own taste, and they will shut their ear
to the truth and will turn to myths(2 Tim, 4:3-4)[6].
THE NECESSITY OF STUDYING BIBLE AS CATHOLICS
The Bible is the
most read book, but also the most misunderstood
and abused book in the world because we can easily find a handy verse to
justify our vices or weaknesses and make the Holy Bible say what we want.
People often do this by taking just one sentence out of context and distorting
its meaning[7].
As Catholic for you to stand firm there is urgent need for you to be conversant
with the scripture so that you can defend your faith when the need arise and doing
this is an obedience to God as he commanded in the book of Joshua
“this book of the law shall not depart out of
your mouth; but you shall study, meditate on it day and night, that you may be
careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make
your way prosperous and then, you shall have good success(Josh 1:8)[8]
Towering this path
and given heed to this teaching St. Paul charged timothy “study to make
yourself worthy of God’s approval, a workman who has no cause to be ashamed,
following a straight course in correctly teaching the message of God’s truth(2
Tim 2:15)[9]”. It
is a necessity for a Catholic faithful to be people of scripture studying God’s
word with the view to understanding the doctrine and traditions of the church
and to defend their faith and believe. Sacred
tradition in this article refers to all the
teachings and practices of Jesus and his Apostles, which are not explicitly
described in the scripture, and other articles of faith that continue to unfold
under the breath of the Holy Spirit, which the Church preserves, practices and
passes on to succeeding generations(Dei Verbum.no7)[10].
SOURCES OF CATHOLIC DOCTRINE AND TEACHINGS
The sources
of Catholic Church believes and teachings are the sacred traditions and the Holy
Scripture thus “Sacred Tradition and
sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the word of God, which is
entrusted to the Church(Dei Verbum.no10)[11] “. The two complement each other
because they all “flow out from the
same divine well-spring ... and
move toward the same goal” — that is, making “present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ” As a result
the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is
entrusted, “does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the
Holy Scripture alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and
honoured with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence (CCC, no. 82)[12]”. The sacred traditions comes into mine
because the Apostles did not write down everything about their faith and
what they saw Jesus did the reasons are as follows, In the first place, while
the Apostles were still very strong and active, they did not see the need of
writing because they could go about to teach and supervise their new converts
in person. Secondly, not all the Apostles were educated (Acts 4:13)[13],
but they too had to teach others about Christ. Examples of relying on sacred
tradition are abounding in the scripture itself for example Paul praised the
Christians of Corinth for adhering to the traditions he taught them. He said: “I congratulate you for remembering me so consistently and
for the traditions’ exactly as I passed them to you (1cor 11:2)[14]”.
This is about oral tradition. Paul neither wrote a Bible nor did he
write down everything he taught the people. John the Apostle did the same with
the group he looked after. He thought it wise not to write everything down for
his community, but would normally prefer to visit and teach them in person (2
John 12)[15]. And
further states that there are several
things I have to tell you, but I have thought it best not to trust them to
paper and ink. I hope to visit you instead,
and talk to you in person (3 John 13- 14)[16]. Catholic
hold unto both scripture and traditions because they follow the instruction of
the bible, as St. Paul says Pass
on to reliable people what you have heard from me through many
witnesses, so that they in turn will be able to teach others(2
Tim 2:2)[17].
And further says: Stand firm,
then, brothers, and keep the traditions that we taught you, whether by words of
mouth or by letter (2 Thess.
2:15 )[18]. And in Philippians St. Paul instructs us to keep doing everything you learnt from me as you were told and have
heard or seen me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you (Phil 4:9)[19]. Then why are people fond of saying if it is not in the bible they
will not believe it? I’m not saying you should believe anything but there are
some traditions that are right. Please don’t forget that Jesus never wrote any
bible for his followers, but only taught them and send them out to teach others.
What we see
in the scripture is what they remembered of that teaching through the
inspirations of the Holy Spirit and their collective experiences many years
after Christ had left them. The canon of the Bible is closed, and no new things
can be added to it, but Christ’s promise that the Holy Spirit will lead the
Church to complete truth
“I still have many things
to tell you, but they would be too much for you to bear now. However, when the
Spirit of truth comes he will lead you to complete truth, since He will not be
speaking of his own accord, but will say only what He has been told; and he will reveal to you the things to come (John 16:12-13
)[20]”.
The above portion of the bible indicates that
there are bound to be innovations in the Church, which are not described in the
Bible. These will continue to form part of the tradition of the Church. This is
why you can’t discard tradition in the Church teachings
CONFUSION
AMONG CHRISTIANS
We have to remove the log in our eyes first in order to be able to see
the speck in other people’s eyes. The log in this case stands for ignorance, many people have very little or no understanding
of the faith, which they profess and this has lead to confusion, today
Christians hardly see other Christian as a believer simple because they have
different doctrine, in fact most Christian denomination hardly recognise
catholic worshippers as Christians, they only see them as sinners, those on
their express way to hell fire. My questions is, is it, also recommended in the
bible for the founders of churches to place their pictures and their wife’s in
a billboard advertising their church?, let them also follow bible ad verbatum,
why are they confused, the mode of their worships is it also specified in the
bible? How can we explain the multiple churches we have today, is it also in
the bible? When Jesus even pray for unity among us and yet we are not united,
what unite us today is the fear of Boko Haram not even Jesus because most
Christians don’t even believe that a fellow Christian is a believer once he is
not member of his/her church
CONCLUSION
The only way we can save ourselves from
confusion is to search scripture prayerfully in order to grow in the knowledge
of God and his church and Holy Spirit our helper is always there to guide us
treasure the wisdom that has guided the church of Jesus Christ from it foundation
unto this day
[1]
John 21:25
[2] John 20:30-31
[3] Agbo J Boniface, Your Questions on Catholic
Faith a Simplified Response, Snap
Press LTD Enugu. 2003
[4] 2 Thess 2:15
[5] Hos.4.6
[6] 2 Tim, 4:3-4
[7] Wolfgang Schonedke, Are Catholics
Saved? Africa: Paulines. 2002
[8] Josh 1:8
[9] 2 Tim 2:15
[10] Dei Verbum.no7
[11] Dei Verbum, no.10
[12] Catechism of the Catholic church, no. 82
[13] Acts 4:13
[14] 1cor 11:2
[15] 2 John 12
[16] 3 John 13- 14
[17] 2 Tim 2:2
[18] 2 Thess. 2:15
[19] Phil 4:9
[20] John 16:12-13
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