The Reformation

It was only at the Reformation in the 16th century, well over 1,000 years later, that some individuals said they knew better than the Early Church what the Bible meant and what the Christian Faith really was.  They even thought they knew better than Irenaeus did, and said that the Apostles did not appoint bishops to take their place as guardians, either of the Faith or the Sacraments, and that therefore bishops were not necessary.  They also said that a layman, who had never been ordained, was just as much a priest as an ordained priest was.  So they rejected the three-fold ministry which was formed by the Apostles, acting as Our Lord’s personal representatives.

The Bible is the Church’s Book

But the Bible is the Church’s Book and the Church’s Book alone, just as a railway timetable is the railway company’s book.  If you want to be sure of what the railway timetable means, you go to the railway company because the railway company produced it and is the only body which has the necessary authority to tell you what you want to know.  Indeed, you accept it in the first place on the authority of the railway company.

So too with the books of the Bible, and especially of the New Testament, which we accept on the authority of the Church.  If you want to know what the New Testament means and teaches, you go to the Church because the Church is the only body which has the necessary authority to tell you what you want to know.  So St Irenaeus, writing about the year 190 AD says, “…it is not necessary to seek the truth among others which it is easy to obtain from the Church; since the apostles, like a rich man [depositing his money] in a bank, lodged in her hands most copiously all things pertaining to the truth: so that every man, whosoever will, can draw from her the water of life”. (2)

SUMMARY

1. The Bible is the Church’s Book and for that reason only the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church has the authority to decide what it means.

2. It was the Early Church which took over the Old Testament and which chose the books of the New Testament because they agreed with the Christian Faith which had been handed down from the Apostles.  Thus the teaching of the Bible is the same as the teaching of the Early Church, and that is still the teaching of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church today.