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Church authority is scriptural, legitimate
To the Editor:
In answer to Rev. Dr. James Barnes article, Nov. 4-5, let it be said that the authority to definitively interpret the Bible is not a solo effort of the preacher in the pulpit, nor of the individual reader in his study or living room. Nor is the Bible self-interpreting, as some believe. After all, St. Peter says of Paul's letters, "In them are some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction" (2 Pet. 3:16). The Bible makes clear that The Church, stretched through time and space, and founded by Christ, is warranted to be the final interpreter of Scripture in times of biblical conflict and confusion.
The Catholic Church does regard the Bible as the sacred word of God, infallible and inerrant. Also, we believe that all Divine Revelation (what God has revealed as true) ended with the death of the last apostle or with the end of the New Testament era, if you wish. We do not believe in continuing revelation; there is no new information to come in before Judgement Day. We have everything we need to know.
But throughout history, there has been confusion about certain truths revealed through Divine Revelation, which comprises Sacred Scripture (the Bible) and Sacred Tradition (more on that later). Denial of a certain truth is called heresy, first corrected and refuted by the local bishop where the heresy arises, but at times addressed by the universal Church through an ecumenical (general) church council or even by the pope himself.
In doing so, the Church is a handmaid or servant, subservient to Divine Revelation, not adding to it nor subtracting from it, but further clarifying it, for the good of believers. The church is not the source of Divine Revelation but the deposit and channel of it. God is the source.
That the Church is endowed with this authority is clear in scripture. 1 Timothy 3:15 says (New American translation) "You should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth." (emphasis mine)
He doesn't say that the pillar and foundation of truth is the Bible. He says it is the Church. That's because the Church came before the New Testament at least, which completed the Bible. In turn, the New Testament came out of the Church, not vice versa. Consider that Our Lord died and rose about 30 A.D. The first book of the New Testament was I Thessalonians, written about 55 A.D., twenty years after the death and resurrection of Christ. The New Testament, written from within the womb of the Church, was completed about 100 A.D. What did believers depend upon in the interim, between Pentecost and the end of the first century? They depended upon the Church and her preaching by the apostles and by the bishops, with the office of bishop being in place long before 100 A.D. (cf. 1 Tim. 3:1-13)
Church councils were and are important as shown by the 12 apostles (the first bishops), when they convened the Council of Jerusalem, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. Here, a doctrinal clarification was needed on what to do with the incoming Gentile (non-Jewish) converts, something Jesus had not talked about during His public ministry. He did not tell them everything then because "you cannot bear it now" (Jn. 16:12). Telling them then that they would soon go out throughout the whole world to preach to the pagans (Gentiles) and bring them into the fold, would have freaked them all out totally at that point. He continued "But when He comes, the Spirit of truth, He will guide you to all Truth." (John 16:13).
So, the question on the table at the council was: Do the Gentiles, the pagans, need to become Jews first (with circumcision, dietary laws, etc.) and only then allowed to become Christians?
The decree that the council issued said no, they don't have to become Jews first. They can cut right to the chase, be baptized, come into the Church, without becoming Jews first. And the Mosaic law was ended.
The council fathers prefaced this decree by saying "It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us..." (Acts 15:28) Thus, Holy Spirit and the Church are in partnership with one another, with the Holy Spirit the senior partner. Herein lies the gift of infallibility, that God will not let the Church make an error when deciding, from her highest authority, matters of belief, in consort with, and in obedience to, Divine Revelation (Scripture and Tradition), so as to not lead countless believers astray. And that's for the good of all the faithful.
There have been 21 ecumenical (general church) councils in the 2,000 year history of the Church, the first being the Council of Nicaea, in 325 A.D., defending the full divinity of Jesus Christ against certain heretics saying that our Lord was only semi-divine.
At times (and rarely), the pope can issue such a doctrinal decree solo (infallible), outside of an ecumenical council, and this is called an "ex cathedra" (from the chair), decree and the Scriptural support for this is Matthew 16:18-20, when Jesus tells St. Peter, the first pope, "I say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give to you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." And remember, none of this is ongoing Revelation or new Revelation, which the Church has no authority to do, but it is clarification, teaching about already revealed truths.
Some say that this church authority continued only during the lives of the 12 apostles and then the Bible took over and that's all we need. This ignores the fact that after the writing of the last book of the New Testament (again, about 100 A.D.), there were centuries of debate on which books to include into the New Testament and which to exclude. The vehicle chosen by the Holy Spirit to reach consensus was councils of bishops.
Some truths are passed down to us outside of Sacred Scripture and this is called Sacred Tradition, of which the Bible speaks: "Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by oral statement or by letter of ours." (emphasis mine) (2 Thess. 2:15). There, you see, Divine Revelation (God's truth) can be passed down either through written Scripture ("by a letter of ours") or by unwritten Scripture, i.e., Tradition ("oral statement"). Also, 2 Thess. 3:6, "We instruct you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who conducts himself in a disorderly
way and not according to the traditions they received from us." (emphasis mine). Tradition can also serve as an interpretive tool, such as when someone proposes a strange teaching, then believers can speak up and say, that's not what we've been taught, in other words, that's not the Tradition.
Here, a side note on sacramental confession and absolution from sin. Our resurrected Lord gave the apostles (the first bishops) authority over sin in John 21:22-23 when he told them, in the Upper Room, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." How can they forgive or retain sin if they don't know what those sins are? They have to be told, and thus confession of sins. St. James says in his epistle "Confess your sins to one another" (James 5:16). Why would this authority, this gift, to absolve sins disappear with the death of the last apostle and not be passed on to the church and her leaders? That would make no sense. It is indeed passed on to the Church and sure, that formal absolution, after confessions and repentance, is enshrined in a ritual. Ritual is not bad. It makes solemn the event and people are comforted by the words "I absolve you from your sins..."
Church leaders do not lord it over others in exercising these God-given prerogatives but this is all done in humility, for the good of the people. Preachers in the pulpit exercise humility when they preach the whole Truth and only the Truth, so help us God, as conveyed by Sacred Scripture, according to the understanding transmitted throughout time by Sacred Tradition, as interpreted by the teaching authority of the Church, with all of that illuminated by the infallible protection of the Holy Spirit. May God be praised.
Rev. William M. Weary, Pastor
Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, Lewistown
St. Jude Thaddeus Church, Mifflintown