Who Made the Bible? Rev. Dr. Paul Kaiparambadan on 05/30/2010 at 16:38pm ‘Where is that in the Bible?’ Anti-Catholics always ask this to prove that Catholic practices are baseless or unbiblical. In order to answer them, we should know the true story about the origin of the Bible. Hundreds of Protestant pastors have already come back to the Catholic Church because they have studied not only the Bible, but also the great history of the Bible. The ‘Bible alone’ is not the basis of faith Jesus in his life never mentioned about the Bible. He never commanded us to believe in a book. We cannot see that He ordered apostles to write a Book. During the time of the apostles there was no Bible at all. Jesus founded, not a book as the basis of faith, but the Church as the “pillar and foundation of the truth” (2 Tim 3:15) And He promised not that book, but that He himself will be with his Church till the end of the age (Mt 28:20) and the Holy Spirit will lead the apostles and the successors in the ‘fullness of truth’ after his ascension to heaven (Jn 14:16-17). He even said, “If anyone refuses to listen to the church, treat him as you would a gentile or a tax collector.” Tradition and the Bible In the early centuries, before the Bible was formed, Christians believed the teaching of the apostles and their disciples as the basis of their faith, which the Church calls “Holy Tradition.” These traditions were not human customs (mentioned in Mt 15:3,6-9) that were observed by the Pharisees, but they were accepted as guided by the Holy Spirit. In fact, the words Bible, Purgatory, Trinity and Assumption are all came from these early Christian traditions! Later, when the Bible came, it defended those traditions. 2Thess 2:15 says “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or letter from us.” 1Cor 11:2 says “Now I praise you because you remember me in everything, and hold firmly to the traditions just as I delivered them to you.” 2Thess 3:6 – shun those acting not to tradition. Why the Bible was formed? In early centuries of the Church, there appeared more than 50 gospels, which include 4 gospels such as gospels of James, Thomas, the Hebrews, and others. There were 22 Book of Acts, Acts of the Apostles, Acts of Paul, and Acts of Thecia among others. There were numerous Epistles that we see in New Testament such as Paul’s letter to the Laodiceans, the Epistle of Barnabas. This created total confusion among early Christians because some of the books and letters were ‘spurious’ and others genuine. Some of them contained even superstitions and funny stories of the miracles of Jesus and apostles. Many false prophets appeared with different theologies contrary to the apostolic teaching. For Arius, Jesus was not God. For Apollinarius, Jesus was not man. Macedonius preached that the Holy Spirit is not God. For Marcionites, all the gospels are false. All of them started to quote the scriptures available at that time. To defend the true Church and its doctrines form apostasies, the Catholic Church decided to select some books that seemed genuine and inspired: it is known as the canon of Bible (Greek Kanon means something serving to determine, rule). This Bible came from the Church! The Church is not coming from the Bible. Church made the Bible It was Melito, Bishop of Sardis (170 AD) who first tried to have an Old Testament Canon but many of the inspired books are not seen in his list. The Council of Laodicea (360 AD), with the permission of the Pope in Rome, produced the firs canon of the Bible. But it is only in the year of Pope Damascus (367 AD) that a great effort was done to form the Bible. This Holy Pope compiled the books which he considered genuine and ordered St Jerome to translate them into Latin, which was the official language of the Church. St Jerome went to Jerusalem and lived for 30 years in a cave to do the job. At 397 AD, he finished his works and presented them to the Pope. This is known as ‘Latin Vulgate.’ Pope Siricius called it the ‘Bible’, which means ‘collection of books’. (In fact the term ‘Bible’ has a pagan origin. The Greek word ‘biblia’ is coming from the Phenition city of ‘Byblos’ that was a trading port for papyrus. For the Greeks, ‘biblos’ meant those books ‘an invocation of the goddess or muse’ (daughters of Zeus who inspired poets, speakers and artists). Remember, critics always criticize Catholic feasts such as Christmas for their pagan background. Even the Bible itself has a pagan background.) Though Luke was not an apostle of Jesus, the Pope accepted his gospel because it clarifies all doubts about the doctrines of Mary – as it was believed in the early Church that Luke got ideas about the infancy of Jesus from Mary. Luke was also famous for his paintings of Mary and the Child Jesus (one of the pictures is still kept in the Basilica of Mary Major in Rome). Matthew gives a very clear idea about the Primacy of Peter and the Church that Jesus founded on him. John’s gospel was used by the early Christians to defend the real Presence of Jesus, as one whole chapter of this gospel deals with that subjects “my flesh is true food and my blood true drink.” Mark, being a close associate of Peter in Rome defends the selection of Peter, and his authority. If you have a Bible, you can create your own church, with your own interpretations! You can cheat many poor people by proclaiming yourself as an angel or prophet! But can you give them salvation? The church you create will never be the Church of Christ. Religion making business is a money-making business now! Fr. Paul Kaiparambadan Author Know the Truth (Magazine) No Bible without the Church Those who deny tradition, the Primacy of the Pope and believe in new dogmas of “total apostasy” ate really questioning the validity of the Bible. When we say gospel written by Luke, Mark or Matthew, it doesn’t mean we have any evidence that they were written by them. These beliefs are based only on tradition. All those scholars in textual criticism of the Bible say, many of the gospel parts are latter additions of the disciples of the evangelists. Mark and Luke were not even apostles of Jesus; they wrote what they heard from Peter and Paul. The Bible has no errors just because the Catholic Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, didn’t include erroneous books in the Bible. The Church even accepted disputed books in the Bible such as the Epistles of Jude, James, Peter and John. The Book of Revelation was considered unacceptable in many early Christians. They were not considered genuine in some churches. But it was the infallible decision of the Pope that made these books acceptable to all. They believed that the Bible is trustworthy because the Holy Spirit is guiding the Church; the Pope is infallible (Mt 28:20) – “Teaching them to observe what I have commended you. And behold, I am with you always until the end of the age.” Everything that the apostles preached and early Christians practiced are not found in the Bible. The Bible itself admits that (Jn 21:25) “There are in fact, many other things also which Jesus did, which, if ever they were written in detail, I suppose the world itself could not contain the scrolls written.” In Acts 20:35 Paul records a saying of Jesus not found in the gospels. Those who accept the Bible as the only basis of faith will never reach the fullness of truth that Jesus revealed later through His Church. (Jn 16:12-13). “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when He comes, the Spirit of Truth, He will guide you to the fullness of truth.” Prophecies and warnings in the Bible The prophets who claimed the death of original church Jesus instituted created churches against the teachings of the Bible and contrary to the practice of early Christians. Joseph Smith claimed he was the last prophet! Felix Manalo claimed that he is the last messenger, an angel. Millions are spent already in TV shows to announce the emergence of this modern ‘savior’. “We will be saved through their doctrines!” “A new angel Gabriel with a new annunciation!” “His Church will last till the end of the world while the church founded by Jesus failed to exist!” Are they more powerful than Jesus Himself? For Manalo, he’s an angel, while Jesus is only a man. They all prophesied their times in the ‘Last Days’ about which Jesus said, “Neither the angels in heaven nor the Son knows.” But these new angels and prophets are very sure that their time is the Last. They may have more wisdom than Jesus. (After their certainty about the Last Days, even centuries passed without happening. But their TV shows continue to give its believers hope by showing tsunamis Katrina and Rita and the War in Iraq as symptoms of the Last Days.) But Jesus warned us not to believe any ‘christs’ who come in His name. (Christ means Savior). In the Last Days, Jesus didn’t promise that He will send and angel or a prophet as His Last Messenger. The Bible says the message that we received from Jesus is the Last: “In times past God spoke in partial and various ways through the prophets; in these Last Days, he spoke to us through The Son…through whom He created the universe” (Hebrew 1:1). These people who put themselves in the place of Jesus is really fulfilling the prophecies of the Bible which warned the coming of anti-Christ. “Whoever denies the Father and the Son will be the anti-Christ. No one who denies the Son has the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father.” (1Jn 3:22-23) “For many will come in my name, saying ‘I am the Christ’, and they will lead many astray” (Matt 24:4-5). The Bible warns about fake angels who may appear to destroy the only one church Jesus founded in this world. The Bible makes this prophecy: “for such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, who pretend as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan pretends as angels of light. His ministers also pretend as ministers of righteousness!” (2Cor 11:13-14) Gal 1:8 “Even if an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one that we preached, let that one be accursed!” We should not forget the warning of St. Peter – the first Pope: “False prophets appeared in the past among the people, and in the same way false teachers will appear among you. They will bring in destructive, untrue doctrines, and will deny the Master who redeemed them, and so they will bring upon themselves sudden destruction.” (2Peter 2:1) The Sad Story of the Bible! Until 1400 AD, Catholic monks preserved the original purity of the Bible and made copies by hand. Everyday in the Holy masses, the congregation attended both ‘Breaking of the Bread.’ The Bible was not available to common people as there was no printing at that time as it is today. In 1453 AD, printing was invented. Copies of the Bible were made available. In 1517 AD, Martin Luther attacked the Church, but first he vandalized Bible itself. To defend his dogmas, he threw out seven Old Testament books from the early canons of the Bible (Wisdom, Sirach, Judith, baruch, Tobit, 1st Maccabees and 2nd Maccabees). He planned to destroy even the New Testament book, ‘Letter of James,’ which spoke against his doctrine ‘sola fide’ (man is saved not by work but by faith alone). But James 2:26 says: “Faith without work is dead.” When opposition mounted, he was satisfied accusing this Epistle as ‘Epistle of the straw.’ So, the Bible that is used by Protestants, is partial, incomplete and unauthentic. His followers started to fight with each other on the interpretation of the Bible by creating contrary theologies and new dogmas. Thousands of Churches were formed. All believed that the Bible alone is the basis of faith; a dogma never taught by Jesus, never written in the Bible, nor supported by the Bible. Each church started to change interpretations and even words in the Bible according to their desire. This resulted in more than 200, 000 churches with contrary views, all based on the Bible. All claim the guidance of the same Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can never do this dirty confusion and total anarchy as it is the Spirit of Truth. There are more than 700 churches in the Philippines with the ‘Bible alone theory.’ Thus, history proved, beyond any doubt, that the ‘Bible alone’ theory is not from God. In fact, the Bible became an instrument in the hands of Satan to create chaos and anarchy in Christendom when it was taken away from its real basis – the Church founded by Jesus upon Peter. So Jesus warned, (Jn 15:6) “anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither.” Comment posted by truthdefenderINC, 05/13/2012, 7:00 am: To say that the Catholic church made the Bible is a big lie and absurd. Comment posted by paulino de guzman, 06/01/2011, 1:47 pm: maraming salamat po sa ibinigay nyo na kaalaman. humihingi po ako sa inyo ng permiso na i post ko 2 sa facebook. maraming salamat po syo fr. paul mabuhay po kayo!
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 03:30:31 +0000
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