Verses Versus Verses

As a cradle Catholic, I had only a vague understanding of the difference between Catholicism and Protestantism, as I generally understood that Protestants had less reverence for Mary, didn’t really believe in saints, and that their services were a lot different.

As I got older and became more interested in theology and Church history, I began watching Catholic vs. Protestant debates to gain a better understanding of the disagreements.

While watching these debates, it immediately became clear that Protestantism was not the monolith that I thought it was, as there was just as much bickering within the group relative to disputes with Catholics.

As most people know, there are a billion Protestant denominations (roughly 47,000 to be precise), which lead to variations among important doctrines like infant baptism, sexual morality, marriage, female ministers, how services should be conducted, and more.

The main reason for perpetual creation of new Protestant branches is the usurpation and democratization of the power to interpret Sacred Scripture from the only institution with the authority to do so: the Catholic Church.

This rejection of authority leads to the phenomenon of individuals being more likely to be Protestant if their personality is more inclined toward a general unwillingness to accept authority, whether it be from their parents, teachers, or mentors.

Taking this into account, it is intuitive why early America was mainly Protestant.

Obviously, most of the settlers coming from the England area, and its separation from the Catholic Church plays a role.

But, when analyzing the settlers’ struggle with its previous authority of England and King George III, it makes sense why they would reject any type of institutional authority in the spiritual realm.

Speaking of authority, the concept of sola scriptura—the Bible being the lone source of authority—seems to check out initially and is usually appealing to new Christians ignorant of the early Church and its history.

However, when analyzing whether a development has been “good” or “bad,” one must simply judge a tree by its fruits.

This leads to an obvious question: what has been the main fruit of sola scriptura? The only viable answer is the endless fragmentation, and thus weakening, of the Christian Church into a multitude of sects that continually increase over time.

Individual verses, chapters, and even sometimes books may seem straightforward, and one may come to the conclusion that no interpretation is necessary.

However, it is essentially impossible accurately answer all of the important questions regarding faith and morals by simply reading the Bible cover to cover in your living room.

It is the Church’s job to be the sole interpreter of scripture—not simply because it is the largest or oldest Christian institution, but because it was given the authority to do so when Jesus gave Peter and the apostles the keys to the kingdom and sparked the chain of apostolic succession that remains unbroken to this day.

Catholics understand that the Church is heaven on Earth and that the Holy Spirit has been continually guiding it on the pathway of truth.

Protestants, on the other hand, essentially have two choices.

The first is to trust in a specific Protestant denomination and become a Lutheran, Presbyterian, Reformed Baptist, or any of the others, and trust that one man’s interpretation is correct while the other 40,000+ are incorrect.

Whether it’s Martin Luther (Lutheranism), John Calvin (Calvinism), John Knox (Presbyterianism), Thomas Cranmer (Anglicanism), or many more, those within a specific branch must believe that the Holy Spirit gave the accurate discernment to one man while the rest failed to receive this gift.

The other option is to become the infamous non-denominational Christian, in which you essentially become your own denomination and trust you have both the physical intellect and spiritual guidance to holistically interpret the scriptures.

I hate to tell you this, but the unfortunate truth here is that you probably don’t.

Another issue within Protestantism is the verses versus verses problem. When differing Protestant sects engage in debate, they usually point to a few verses that support their argument and should seemingly lead them to a “victory.”

However, what usually happens is the opponent will cite verses elsewhere that support their argument. This will go back and forth and inevitably end in a stalemate, with a handful of verses versus a differing group of verses.

Obviously, some sort of central authority to make not just definitive decisions after taking everything into account, but also the correct ones, guided by truth and The Advocate, is needed; that is exactly what the Catholic Church and its magisterium is.

There are numerous examples of the gathering of Church clergy, leaders, and theologists through both informal and formal councils, like Nicaea exactly 1700 years ago, to teach in the name of Jesus Christ whenever disputes arose because that is what is was given the authority to do in Matthew 16:18-19.

In Catholicism, although both Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture are co-equal authorities, it is actually Sacred Tradition that predates Sacred Scripture.

For clarity, Sacred Tradition refers to the oral teachings of Jesus passed down to the apostles, manifested in the authority of the Church and its Magisterium.

It was at the Council of Rome in 382 led by Pope Damasus I that the Church used the authority bestowed upon it to determine which scriptures were considered divinely inspired and which ones were not. After this determination, the official Canon of 46 Old Testament Books and 27 New Testament Books was established.

Dr. John Bergsma, a faithful Catholic and former Dutch Calvinist minister, began to experience the verses versus verses issue first hand. When discussing the dilemma with a fellow Protestant mentor of his, he found that the mentor was seemingly ignoring verses that were inconvenient to his positions.

Bergsma then pointed out the obvious: “you’re making yourself your own arbiter of the truth!”

The man shamelessly replied, “well, that is the Protestant principle, isn’t it?”

The implication of sola scriptura, like the man hints at, is that individuals become their own Pope, as once you reject the authority of the Church and its Sacred Tradition, there is really nothing left except for your own personal opinion.

Diving into more detail, the discrepancy stems from the concepts of material and formal sufficiency of scripture.

Material sufficiency refers to the idea that scriptures contain all of the material necessary for salvation, though not necessarily in a fully explicit form.

Formal sufficiency, on the other hand, means that the Bible is fully sufficient in terms of clarity and completeness, and that Scripture does not require any external sources for its proper understanding or application of matters of faith and morals.

Trent Horn, a popular Catholic apologist, simplifies it with an analogy.

Material sufficiency is similar to the idea that a hardware store is technically sufficient enough to live in a house, but you need someone to actually assemble the house for you. In this case, the construction workers would be the Church.

Formal sufficiency would be more like a suburban tract home that does not need any type of assembly and anyone can move right in.

The counter-evidence to formal sufficiency is simply to ask every Protestant denomination, “is the use of artificial birth control immoral?” This will result in a wide variety of responses, including the sadly popular response of “no, because it is not explicitly prohibited in the Bible.”

This example, among many others, is a perfect example of the need of an infallible institution to guide the flock in the same manner that Jesus would.

While it may seem like the purpose of this memo is to demean Protestants, it is rather to critique the doctrines of Protestantism and help the individuals within these sects find the fullness of faith that can only be found in the one, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

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Thanks for reading and until next time.

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