Where do Catholics get their authority?

[Guest Xerxes_Fett]

I was just wondering where the authority comes from. Does the Church (Pope) supersede the Bible, or vice versa? If the Bible says one thing and the church says another, what will take as the ultimate and absolute truth?

[cappie]

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I can see how it seems blasphemous for a Catholic to say the Bible is not the "only" authority. Most certainly the Bible is infallible. Catholics believe that the Bible itself teaches us and shows us that the Church came before the Bible. Jesus did not write any books of the Bible. Jesus chose NOT to write but rather to build his Church, and 30-60 years later He inspired the members of his Church write down what they learned. Several hundred years after that, he inspired members of his Church to decide what books belong in the Bible. If Jesus inspired members of the Church to infallibly write the Bible and later to infallibly decide on what writings to include in the Bible, I think he can inspire the Church to make right judgment as to its interpretation on critical matters to the faithful.
The following passage is often used to profess Sola Scriptura (Bible alone)
"...the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training" (2 Timothy 3:15-16)
However, the passage simply says Scripture is inspired and useful. Catholics totally agree. Water is necessary for my existence but is it all I need? Most certainly not. Interestingly, there was no New Testament written back then so if this passage was saying Scripture is all we need, it would be saying that the New Testament wasn't necessary, which is obviously untrue.

Catholics believe that the "Bible alone" theory is not what the Bible teaches.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say the Bible alone is the only authority. However, the Bible does say that Jesus founded his Church and gave it all authority. (Mat 16:18)

Scripture says "And the Word became Flesh" (Jn1:1) It doesn't say "and the Word became paper." God became Flesh, he instituted and commissioned his Church, later he inspired members of his Church to write, then he inspired members of the Church to discern which books to include in the Bible, and he inspired his Church to interpret it. This is what Catholics believe, and that is what all Christians believed for the first 1500 years of Christianity.

Catholics believe Jesus ordained Peter and the Apostles to be the teaching authority over God’s Word to us. We believe that God gave Peter a special Grace to teach infallibly. Jesus said "...you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Mat 16:18). We believe that Jesus extendsthis grace through Peter's successors to the present day Pope. We call this special grace infallibility. We think it is a rallying point and a great source unity that Jesus summons us to in Scripture. More Christians are in unity with Rome in this way than all the other decontaminations combined.

The Catholic Church does not claim to fully understand all Scripture. What it is saying is that whatever has been revealed to it and set out in Dogma is true. There are many areas of Scripture that are still mysteries, and therefore not defined as Dogma. There is much for the Church to learn. We believe God is not finished with us. That is why we say that the Catholic Church is on a pilgrimage.

How is it possible for one organization to be confident in its claim of infallible interpretation of Scripture? The question is: "Is it possible for God to make it possible for one organization to have the power of discernment?" Could God do this if He wanted to? I believe every Christian would agree that He can do anything. The Church believes Jesus wanted to do this, he promised it, and he delivered. (Mat 16:18-19, 18:18, 28:20; Jn 14:16, 25, 16:13).

Catholics think that perhaps God organized the authority thing to prevent us from having a thousand variations of Catholicism based on every person who gets a conflicting insight about Scripture. If this happened, it would not be consistent with Jesus' wish for Unity. (Jn 17:20-23, 1 Cor 1:10; 12:25 Phil 1:27 Eph 4:13-15, Eph 4:5).

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