How We Got The New Testament
Our Debt to The Catholic Church
Paul Newcombe
How Do Protestant People Know the New Testament is Inspired?
How does a non-Catholic Christian person know that the New Testament is the inspired word of God? To use a rather extreme example — did the New Testament drop from the sky surrounded by miracles claiming: “This is the Word of God?” No. As glib as it sounds, this is unfortunate for non-Catholics. An angel delivering the New Testament to the apostles would certainly settle the issue in one swift authenticating stoke. However, since we are left without such miraculous signs, we return to the five-hundred-year-old question — how does the Protestant know for sure that the book he is preaching from, the book he is quoting to his children and basing their salvation upon is, in fact, revelation from heaven?
Some have said: “Well, the New Testament says that it’s inspired”. But this just begs the question. The Book of Mormon also claims to be inspired, the Islamic Quran claims to be inspired, the Hindu Vedas claim to be inspired. Christians don’t accept these books on their say-so, so why do some Protestants accept the New Testament on its say-so? It’s circular reasoning which doesn’t really answer the question.
Some have said: “The internal testimony of the Holy Spirit confirms that the New Testament is inspired”. This also begs the question. How does one know with certainty that these feelings we experience come from the Holy Spirit? How do we know for sure that these feelings aren’t simply coming from: our own emotions, or our memories of past teachers who told us the New Testament is inspired, or even the pizza I ate too much of the night before? Again, there is no certainty in this line of reasoning. It also bears a close resemblance to the Mormon claim that one will experience a “burning of the bosom” when first reading the book of Mormon. Christians do not accept Mormonism on that claim so why would we consider subjective feelings to be proof of the New Testaments validity?
Another common answer is: “Well, I have personally examined the books of the New Testament, and I’m satisfied that they are in fact the inspired word of God”. But again, this answer leaves us with the subjective opinion of each person. People make mistakes and so there is no certainty in this reply. And so, the basic question regarding the inspiration of the New Testament remains unanswered.
Compiling The New Testament: A Role Given to the Catholic Church
The above attempts to answer the question of inspiration neglect that the New Testament was identified and delivered to the world through a historical process — a process that was overseen and managed by Catholic Bishops.
In the early centuries of Christianity, the twenty-seven books of the New Testament were floating around Asia Minor independently. In addition, there were scores of other gospels and letters circulating that were also making the claim to be “inspired” by the Holy Spirit or written by the Apostles. Twenty-seven inspired books were effectively mixed in with hundreds of books that were nothing more than secular literature. How would God enable His people to infallibly discern the inspired books from the non-inspired books?
As history records, the Catholic Church hierarchy was responsible for gathering the manuscripts and performing the task of examining and discerning each. Catholic Bishops met at the Council of Hippo in 394A.D. and again at the Council of Carthage in 397A.D. and infallibly declared the canon (list) of inspired books that would forever comprise the New Testament. These twenty-seven books are inspired! No more! No less! The Catholic Church alone is responsible for compiling the New Testament and passing it on to the world.
New Testament Reliability is Tied to Catholic Reliability
An important dimension to unpack from the history of the New Testament is related to the trustworthiness of the Catholic Church. As recent history records, non-Catholic denominations have quite often spent a large part of their time attacking the Catholic Church as being unreliable, as being unable to discern Christian truth. Some have even gone as far as to identify the Papacy as “the antichrist” and the Catholic Church as “the Whore of Babylon”. However, when the Protestant attacks the reliability of the Catholic Church, he is also attacking the reliability of the New Testament — because it was the Catholic Church that compiled the New Testament canon. If the Catholic Church is unreliable then we would have to admit that the New Testament is also unreliable. Maybe the Catholic bishops made mistakes and placed some uninspired books into the canon. Maybe some inspired books were left out. In any case we are left with a question mark over the whole issue.
It is inconsistent for Protestant people to say: “The Catholic Church was infallibly accurate when discerning the New Testament, however, it has been completely unreliable ever since”. No. The Catholic Church is either reliable or it's not. It cannot be elevated when convenient and yet viewed as untrustworthy on the whole. We need to also remember that those Catholic bishops who compiled the New Testament also believed in distinctively Catholic doctrines that have been rejected by most Protestants — doctrines like baptismal regeneration, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the Communion of Saints, Purgatory, and Sacramental confession etc. If these bishops were wrong in discerning all those religious issues, then how can non-Catholics consider them reliable in their ability to discern the New Testament? Again, it’s inconsistent, and therefore many Protestant people are left with little more than the fragile reasons listed at the beginning of this appendix to prop up their belief in the infallibility and divine inspiration of the New Testament.
Whose Interpretation?
One final implication to be drawn from the history of the New Testament is related to biblical interpretation. We live in an age where Christianity is hopelessly divided. In the United States there are now hundreds of Protestant denominations operating independently of each other. All of them claim that the Holy Spirit has led them to the truth of the Bible on very important matters and yet they contradict each other on every conceivable point of doctrine and morality. The correct meaning of the Scripture has been spread in thousands of different directions, to mean thousands of different things, and to have thousands of implications for people lives. Amidst all this confusion who should one listen to?
The Catholic perspective might run something like this: If the Catholic Church was used by the Holy Spirit to sift through the books of the New Testament to correctly identify their inspiration, is it possible that the same Holy Spirit also provided the Catholic Church with the correct meaning of those sacred books?
A question worth contemplating.