CHURCH INFALLIBILITY IS NOT IN THE BIBLE
She appeals to:
Luke
10:16 when Jesus said to His disciples, "He who hears you hears me"
(Luke 10:16). This was spoken before the Church was founded
and merely means that the disciples were trained to say exactly what Jesus
wanted so that whoever hears them hears him.
Matthew 16:18. According to some
this merely says that the gates of Hell will never destroy the true Church so
God will keep some Christians in enough truth to bring them to salvation. This can be achieved without conferring
infallibility. Jesus never clearly said
he meant his Church on earth would never fail and the Roman Church says that
the Church on earth and the Church in Heaven and Purgatory are one and the same
Church so even if the Church fails on earth that does not mean that the Lord
has failed for he still has the Church elsewhere. Catholics may answer that he told Peter he
would build his Church on him meaning the earthly Church for the heavenly one
existed then among the angels. But Jesus
could have meant that he would extend his Church in Heaven to earth and build
it on earth and that the Church would never be destroyed which would not
necessarily mean the earth one would be preserved forever for it is all the one
Church. Some say that the true Church
never fails but that men fail the true Church and let it die. This is agreeable with what Jesus said.
John 14:16,17,26. Jesus tells the apostles that they will be
led into all truth and be reminded of all Jesus’ teaching – there is no need to
suppose other than that the promise is for the apostles alone or that it is
about all truth with no restrictions. It
would be inane to imagine that Jesus wanted the apostles to remember literally
everything he said so he meant all the essentials. The Catholic Church does not have all truth
for there are many things that theologians are at loggerheads over. How could the Catholic Church remember
everything that Jesus said as the last verse promises? The Church says that Jesus’ promise must be
fulfilled in her tradition for the gospels say they only report some of Jesus’
teaching and statements which is not true.
The fact that no tradition is reliable or can be traced back to Jesus
proves that he didn’t promise that if he was God.
Jesus is saying that the scriptures have all the truth you need. He could have been promising the power to
write scripture or to give divinely inspired teachings which will become
scripture. This is the sensible
interpretation for the New Testament is the closest we can get to the apostles
and anything else is too far off to be trusted.
Jesus was talking about the disciples preserving what they recalled
about him and his teaching which obviously most likely seems to be promising
them they will produce writings and new scriptures.
He is not telling the Catholic Church that he will help her remember what
he did for she was not around to see what he did.
If Jesus meant that the apostles and their successors would enjoy
protection against error then he would have mentioned those who would succeed
them. Infallibility would have to be
superior to the Bible and to tradition for it interprets and judges them. It is unthinkable that Jesus would have passed
over such an important charism – unless the Church is
lying and there is no such charism.
Jesus never said that the councils of the Church were beyond error. If he had he would have laid down conditions
for this infallibility to take effect.
The idea that Jesus is promising infallibility in the production of new
scripture is the most likely meaning for Jesus never said that there would be a
Church that could not err but it stands to reason that additions to the Jewish
Bible were required.
When Jesus promised to use the spirit of God to make the apostles
remember he must have been a fraud for that should not be necessary – there was
pen and paper in those days - and so he was promising an unreasonable
miracle. If God does daft
miracles who knows what he is up to?
The Church could not have picked a worse text to make her excuse for
claiming to be inerrant.
At the end of Matthew’s gospel when Jesus told the apostles to teach all
nations he meant through producing scripture for word of mouth is unsafer. That was
how they could literally teach all nations.
By implication, the Church had to distribute their new Bible for they
could not be everywhere. Yet some
Catholics saw evidence of the infallibility doctrine in that episode! If they were right then only the apostles had
the kind of infallibility that the Roman cult boasts that it has.
1 Timothy 3:15.
The Church is called the pillar and ground of the truth. Surely,
The Church knows fine well that her interpretation of the texts is
unwarranted for it is only necessary to skim over them to see that this is so.
Her apologists reply that by themselves they don’t look like much but
when one considers them in the light of the fact that an infallible interpreter
is needed they must mean the Church. But
this is the fallacy that since Jesus needed one he commanded one. Perhaps he did not know he needed one.
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Wednesday, 20 February 2008