08-03-2026, 05:17 AM
PART SECOND.
X. The Holy Bible is not, nor can it be, the Rule of Faith.
— The Bible is undoubtedly the word of God. We Catholics know it, even better than Protestants. The Bible contains naught but what is the teaching of God. And yet the Bible is not, the Bible cannot be, the Rule of our faith, in the Protestant sense.
Why?
First. The Bible cannot be the rule of our faith, because Jesus Christ has not said to his disciples "go and carry the Bible," but he said, Go and teach all nations — he that heareth you heareth me. Lessing, a Protestant, remarks that "Christianity had already been diffused before any of the evangelists undertook to write the life of Jesus. They repeated the Our Father before St. Matthew had written the words, for Jesus Christ himself had taught it to his disciples, who had transmitted it to the primitive Christians . . . Baptism was administered in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, before St. Matthew had drawn up the formula of baptism in his Gospel, for Jesus Christ had verbally taught it to his disciples." — (Beitrage fur Geschichte und Litteratur, t. iv. p. 182.)
To this proof of fact we must add another, which Protestants can never answer with even the appearance of reasoning.
Those words of our Saviour at the last supper, This is my body, have received upwards of two hundred interpretations at the hand of Protestants!
Fourthly and lastly. The word of God in the Bible is not, nor can it be, a Rule of Faith for Christians; because, if it were, then the Christian religion would not have been established for the Poor and Little ones, — that is to say, for those whom Jesus has distinguished as the privileged children of his love.
However, this last point is worth the trouble of being treated apart.
X. The Holy Bible is not, nor can it be, the Rule of Faith.
— The Bible is undoubtedly the word of God. We Catholics know it, even better than Protestants. The Bible contains naught but what is the teaching of God. And yet the Bible is not, the Bible cannot be, the Rule of our faith, in the Protestant sense.
Why?
First. The Bible cannot be the rule of our faith, because Jesus Christ has not said to his disciples "go and carry the Bible," but he said, Go and teach all nations — he that heareth you heareth me. Lessing, a Protestant, remarks that "Christianity had already been diffused before any of the evangelists undertook to write the life of Jesus. They repeated the Our Father before St. Matthew had written the words, for Jesus Christ himself had taught it to his disciples, who had transmitted it to the primitive Christians . . . Baptism was administered in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, before St. Matthew had drawn up the formula of baptism in his Gospel, for Jesus Christ had verbally taught it to his disciples." — (Beitrage fur Geschichte und Litteratur, t. iv. p. 182.)
To this proof of fact we must add another, which Protestants can never answer with even the appearance of reasoning.
Those words of our Saviour at the last supper, This is my body, have received upwards of two hundred interpretations at the hand of Protestants!
Fourthly and lastly. The word of God in the Bible is not, nor can it be, a Rule of Faith for Christians; because, if it were, then the Christian religion would not have been established for the Poor and Little ones, — that is to say, for those whom Jesus has distinguished as the privileged children of his love.
However, this last point is worth the trouble of being treated apart.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre