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THE BIBLE & THE CHURCH:
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Introductory Challenge Thank you very much.
We have a lot to cover and I hope that you brought your Bibles tonight.
Ruffle the pages a little bit so I can be assured that you did. What I would like
to do in our time this evening is to focus upon how we as Catholic Christians
should relate to the Scripture, and how we as Catholic Christians can help
our non-Catholic brothers and sisters understand the Church's teaching with
regard to Scripture. That's why the title of the talk is rather provocative:
The Bible and the Church, Both or Neither. In titling the talk in that way,
I'm throwing down the gauntlet. I'm challenging Catholics and non-Catholics
to rethink some old practices and to perhaps break old habits. Many non-Catholic
believers are convinced that the Bible alone is not merely sufficient, but
exclusive as an authority for our faith and for our practice as believers.
There are many Catholic theologians in good standing with the Church who might
contend for the material sufficiency of the Bible: that everything we need to
believe and everything we need to do is somehow contained in Scripture,
either explicitly or implicitly. So it isn't just that the Protestants say,
"The Bible is sufficient," because many Catholic theologians can
contend that as well. But the non-Catholic, the Bible Christians, the
fundamentalist says, "The Bible alone is our sole and exclusive
authority. It is the only form in which we find the word of God binding for
believers today." I want to challenge the non-Catholic brother or sister
in Christ who is either here tonight or who will hear these words on tape or
who will get into a conversation with you when you patiently and gently
explain the Church's position. I want to challenge them to reread Scripture
and to discover that that position is anti-Scriptural and it runs contrary to
many different passages that are found both in the Old and New Testaments. I also have something
in store for the Catholics as well. I want to throw down the gauntlet and
challenge you to recognize the fact that it's the Bible and the Church, both
or neither. If you say, "Well, I'm close to the Church. I've got
devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, I attend daily Mass, I go to frequent confession,
but I don't understand the Bible." Then I want to suggest to you, that
if you listen closely to the Church that you supposedly adhere to so closely,
you'll discover that there is something woefully deficient, seriously
defective about your own relationship to the Church. Because one can't say,
"I have the Church, I don't need the Bible," or, "I have the
Pope and the blessed Virgin Mary and the holy Eucharist I don't really need
to study Scripture." If you're saying that, then you're saying it in a
flagrant disobedience to what the popes throughout this century and many
other ages have declared, have commanded, have suggested, taught, and invited
lay people to do. Catholic Position Regarding Scripture Let's take a step back
and just remind ourselves of what the Church teaches about Sacred Scripture.
Perhaps the best place to turn, just from the very beginning, would be to
Vatican II. In 1965 we have one of the most important documents of the
century issued, not just for theologians, not just for bishops and priests,
but for the ordinary "Joe Six-pack" in the pews. The Dogmatic
Constitution on Divine Revelation is meant for you every bit as much as for
the priest here or the Bishop of your diocese. Listen to chapter six,
"Sacred Scripture in the Life of the Church." There we read the
Council Fathers declaring the following: "The Church has always
venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the Body of the Lord,
since, especially in the sacred liturgy she unceasingly receives and offers
to the faithful the Bread of Life from the table both of God's Word and of
Christ's Body." So there's an analogy here between the Eucharist and
Sacred Scripture. It goes on, "She
has always maintained them, and continues to do so, together with Sacred
Tradition as the supreme rule of Faith since, as inspired by God, and
committed once and for all to writing, they impart the Word of God Himself
without change." In other words, for the Catholic believer the Word of
God alone is supreme. Recognize that we need to make it clear to the
non-Catholic believers that we are bound by God's Word and God's Word alone.
It's just that the Scriptures aren't the only source for God's Word, just as
the Scriptures themselves declare. We're going to look at
2 Thessalonians 2:15 in just a few moments. There Paul reminds the
Thessalonian believers that they must hold fast to whatever the traditions
are that the apostles have passed down either in writing or by word of mouth.
So Scripture insists that the Scriptures are not the only source for God's
Word; we have Sacred Tradition as well, oral tradition as vouched, as
attested by the New Testament itself. The point that I just made a moment ago
can be simply stated this way: We do not believe in Sola Scriptura, the Bible
alone but we do believe in Solum Verbum Dei, the Word of God alone. It's just
wrong to say, "The Word of God is found in the Bible alone." It's
contrary to Scripture itself. Vatican II goes on to
say that through Scripture "the Voice of the Holy Spirit resounds in the
words of the prophets and the Apostles. Therefore, like the Christian
religion itself, all of the preaching of the Church must be nourished and
regulated by Sacred Scripture. For in the Sacred Books, the Father who is in
Heaven meets His children with great love and speaks with them." That, I
believe is the heart of it all. It isn't simply that we receive the
propositions we must believe; it isn't simply that we receive the moral
instruction that we must practice; it's really that we as God's children hear
the voice of our Father speaking to us from Heaven, through living oracles,
so that we might develop a more intimate friendship with Christ. That's the
overarching purpose for Sacred Scripture as the Church teaches it. The force and power in
the Word of God is so great that it stands as the support and energy of the
Church. So it's not just a love letter from our Father in Heaven, it's the
force and the power and the energy that we need as believers and the Church
needs to support its own life, the strength of faith for her own sons, the
food of the soul, the pure and everlasting source of spiritual life. So how can Catholic
Christians get away with neglecting Scripture, without flagrantly disobeying
the Pope and the Council, and the Fathers and the bishops and the priests?
How can we appease our conscience by saying, "We don't need to study
Scripture because Scripture study is too difficult" -- without flagrantly
neglecting, rejecting the commandment of God that reaches us through the
Church? It's the Church and the Bible, both or neither! We might say,
"We believe that." But, does your lifestyle reflect that? Are you
soaking in Scripture? Are you studying it? Are your reading it? Maybe a
little bit a day. Maybe a lot each week. But if you won't study God's Word,
you won't know God. St. Jerome declared so clearly, "Ignorance of
Scripture is ignorance of Christ." We've got to read the Bible in the
Church because this is the map of the City of God. If you want to know your
way around the New Jerusalem, if you want to feel at home in Heaven, you
better learn the map. If you want to understand what you receive in Holy
Communion, if you want to understand how to communicate the truth of the Holy
Eucharist to people who've departed from the Church, who've abandoned the
Bread of Life, then you better study the menu, you better learn the
ingredients, you better learn about the Passover and the recipe that God
prepared for centuries before he finally delivered the Bread of Life in the
Eucharistic Liturgy. We cannot excuse ourselves any longer. We have 20 - 25
million Catholics in the United States who are still aligned with the Church,
but I think you all know that the second largest religious grouping now in
the United States is not the Southern Baptist Convention anymore; that's 14
million. We now have 15 million fallen-away Catholics. That is the second
largest religious grouping in our land. We can't blame the bishops. We can't
blame the Pope for not excommunicating so and so, we can't blame the priests
for allowing some things to happen in our parish that don't please us. The
problem begins and the problem ends with me and with you. I mentioned earlier
this afternoon (Program 2) one of the most astonishing statements that comes
to us from a Doctor of the Church, St. Theresa of Avila, declared a Doctor
this century, one of the two women Doctors, along with St. Catherine of
Siena. Here's what she says. St. Theresa of Avila was taught by God that,
"All troubles of the Church, all the evils in the world, flow from this
source: that men do not by clear and sound knowledge and serious
consideration penetrate into the truths of Sacred Scripture." Period.
That's strong. All the troubles in the Church and all evil in the world could
be alleviated by our learning, and loving and living God's Word in Sacred
Scripture. Do we trust God? Do we trust the Church? Do we hear what the
Doctors of the Church have declared? This has been the consistent testimony
of the Saints and Doctors and all the way back to the Fathers of the Church
in the first few centuries. We cannot afford this neglect anymore. I am not suggesting
that the solution to our problem is more Scripture scholars. We've got boat loads
of them, and that in many ways is a source of the crisis because so many
Scripture scholars have drunk from the wells of rationalism or
anti-supernaturalism or existentialism and now they end up de-historicizing
God's Word, de-supernaturalizing the miracles in Scripture. We don't need
Scripture scholars so much as we need Scripture junkies, people who are
addicted to God's Word, people who don't want to live a day without at least
meditating on a Gospel passage. I don't ever want to be known as a Scripture
scholar; I get uncomfortable when I am introduced that way. I'd much rather
be called a Scripture junkie. I want to deepen my addiction to God's Word, I
want to encourage you to as well. A bold suggestion: bring your Bibles to
Mass. An even bolder suggestion that I scratched out of my sheet here:
consider getting rid of cheap throwaway missalettes which I truly suspect
condition people to regard God's Word as disposable. It was interesting; I
was at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, and I noticed that one of
the students accidentally dropped a missalette. A Third Order Franciscan
walked by, picked up the missalette, kissed it and put it back in the pew.
The missalette gives us the Word of God. And I am concerned because these
cheap, paperback, throwaway missalettes, condition people unconsciously to
regard God's Word as just disposable. It's not disposable; it's
indispensable. Challenges From Scripture and the Church Listen to the Word of God
in Hebrews 4, verse 12, "For the Word of God is living and active,
sharper than any two- edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and
spirit, of joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the
heart." Do you want to know what Jesus Christ thinks of you? Do you want
to live in a way that truly pleases Him? You can't know how to please Him
without meditating upon the Gospels. You won't even know what Jesus Christ is
like without contemplating the stories. You've got to get to know Him in a
personal, intimate way and Sacred Scripture is essential for that. Hebrews 5 verse 11-14,
the writer says, "About this we have much to say which is hard to
explain." The writer of Scripture here in Hebrews 5 acknowledges that
what he is about to talk about is difficult to understand. Why is that? He
goes on to say, "Since you have become dull of hearing." This is
not a new 20th century problem. This goes back to the first century. People
are easily falling into the temptation of dullness, of indifference towards
Scripture. He says to them, "For though by this time you ought to be
teachers...." In other words he's addressing people who have been in the
Church for years and years, so they should be signing up for the first
century CCD classes to teach the young people. But he says, "No, you
need someone to explain to you the very first principles of God's Word."
The ABC's. "You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on
milk is unskilled in the work of righteousness, for he is a child. But solid
food is for the mature." Do you want to grow up as a child of God? Do
you want to mature as a son or a daughter of the Most High God? Do you want
to have the power, the wisdom, patience, the skill in bringing back people
that you love, people that you know, people that you work with to the Lord in
His family? That's why we're here. In Matthew chapter 22,
verse 29, Jesus declares in speaking to the Sadducees, "You are wrong
because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God." We have
to know the Scriptures but again, hear God's Word: we need the power of God.
We need the Spirit of Christ to illuminate the text to make it meaningful for
us today. And what I declared last night (Program 2) as a teaching of the
Church is something that the popes have always declared: the Holy Spirit is
the Soul of the Mystical Body. That being the case, we have to read the
Bible, but we have to read it in the Church and with the Church and for the
Church, because the Holy Spirit, who inspired the Scriptures and illuminates
them for our understanding is the Soul of the Mystical Body. Listen to what happens
to ancient Israel because they neglect God's Word and what happens especially
when the priests neglect their tasks and duty of proclaiming and explaining
God's Word. From Hosea 4 verse 1, "Hear the Word of the Lord,"
Hosea declares, "for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of
the land." That word in Hebrew, for controversy, Reve, is literally a
covenant lawsuit. God has a covenant lawsuit to lodge against His people.
"For there is no faithfulness or kindness, no knowledge of God in the
land. There is," get this, "swearing, lying, stealing, committing
adultery." Sound familiar? "Yet, let no one contend and let none
accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest." He says, "I'm not
going to rebuke the people who are living like pagans, I'm not going to
rebuke the hypocrites in the temple or the synagogue, my contention is with
you priests." "You shall stumble by day and the prophets shall
stumble with you by night, and I will destroy your mother" - which
refers to the city where they worship -- "for my people are destroyed
for lack of knowledge." Do you hear what the Lord said? "My
people" - in the Hebrew that word is 'am, that word literally means
kinsmen, it means my family, my children, are wasting away, for what? Lack of
knowledge. "Because you priests have rejected knowledge, I reject you
from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of God, I
also will forget your children and it shall be, like people, like priest. I
will punish them for their ways and requite them for their deeds." I believe with all my
heart this is a Word of God for us, for here and for now. We are going to be
destroyed even as we are now being destroyed as a Church in this land. As a
society embroiled in secularism and relativism and humanism, we are wasting
away because we don't know God and we don't know God because we've rejected
knowledge. We have found better things to do with our leisure time. We have
found more entertaining things to do with our money and our energy. So don't
blame anybody. I'll blame myself and join me because we have not yet begun to
obey. We have not yet begun to love God's Word as we need and as others need
us. Pope Paul VI declared,
in the late sixties, "In accord with the teachings of the Second Vatican
Council, all Catholics now must regard Sacred Scripture as the abiding source
of spiritual life." If you won't read Scripture and meditate on the
Gospel, then you can kiss your spiritual life good-by. You won't make it. The
temptations that are coming in the '90's are far greater than I can describe.
I don't know what they are yet, but when they come I can assure you one
thing: if you have not stored up God's Word in your heart, you won't stand a
chance. This is what Scripture teaches; this is what the Church repeats,
"Thy word have I stored up in my heart that I may not sin against
Thee." We're going to be sinning against God without even knowing it.
We're not going to know what positions to take on certain ambiguous and foggy
issues. So far it's been clear, but what's going to happen if schism occurs
in the Church? What's going to happen if all of a sudden there's a break in
the Church, and people who want to ordain women will break from the Pope and
declare themselves to be truly Catholic, and you're stuck without a parish?
Then a year later without a tax deduction for our measly contributions (which
now amount to 1.4% of our annual income anyway). We want our religion cheap;
we'll get it cheap. If we want tospend time learning God's Word, loving it,
and sharing it, things are going to change. In fact, if people here take what
you've heard here seriously and go home and beginning energetically, praying
for help and for grace to study Scripture and to learn it, to pray it, to
memorize it, to share it, Long Beach will never be the same. Wherever else
the rest of you go home to, your parish will be changed. God is pouring out
graces in the 90's the likes of which we've never seen in Church history. In
the past He poured graces upon the monks and the hermits and the bishops and
the great saints. There is such a lack of saints in our day, that now God is
willing to pour out superabundant graces upon the rank and file, the ordinary
Catholic, if he or she will respond to a minimum of actual graces that He is
giving us. St. John Chrysostom
reminds us how we approach Scripture. We pray, we beg the Lord for the grace
and for the Holy Spirit's light. He says, "To get the full flavor of an
herb, it must be pressed between the fingers, so it is the same with the
Scriptures; the more familiar they become, the more they reveal their hidden
treasures and yield their indescribable riches." Scripture has
indescribable riches. When I read the Bible,
and I have time to study it for maybe an hour or two, or three, the only word
I can use, the only word I find to describe the state that I'm in at the end
of it is inebriation. I discovered that the Fathers used to speak of
sobrietas inebria, this sober inebriation, this sober intoxication, where you
are drunk with joy, hearing God's Word and discovering His ways. It's going
to help you understand why you lost your job; it's going to help explain why
your children have left the Church, it's going to show you the way to get
them back. The only question is, "Do you love them enough to spend the
time and the energy and maybe the money to learn God's Word?" Scriptural Evidence for Bible Christians
Regarding the Necessity of the Church Now what I'd like to
share with you also, is basically designed to help you reach these
fallen-away Catholics, these Bible Christians. I want to have you now get a
pen or pencil and a piece of paper. If you have one, get it out. I want to
give you a series of texts that you should look up and read to understand why
Bible Christians, to be consistent, must become Catholic Christians. Matthew 16, 17-19,
perhaps the most important text of all. "And I tell you, you are Peter,
and on this Rock I will build my Church." Jesus says, "I will build
My Church upon this Rock, this Peter, this Petros." Not because of who
Simon Peter is, but because of Christ's greatness. Christ can do the greatest
with the least. If he can take a man as fickle as Peter was when he was Simon
and establish the Church upon Simon, then we can be sure that no matter how
bad a pope is, Christ will maintain His Church. For He says, "I will
build My church." He doesn't say, "I will build my churches."
He didn't say, "We will build My churches"; He didn't say,
"You will build your churches and My Holy Spirit will blow and
bless." "I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not
prevail against it." The gates of Hades symbolized the realm of the
dead. The gates of Hades were the barred gates that kept in those who were in
Sheol. Or the Greek word is Hades, or the Latin word is purgatorio. Jesus
speaks of Gehenna and how people will be there in fire forever where the worm
dieth not. But He speaks of Hades where people live in the shadowy,
unpleasant state. The Jews have always prayed for their dead, and this
statement reflects that. The dead who are
awaiting the Messiah are in Hades, and when Christ builds the Church, He will
give to Peter the keys to the kingdom so that the Church will reign over the
gates of Hades. You see the connection: the gates of Hades and the keys of
the kingdom. What do the keys fit into? The gates of Hades. That's why, in a
sense, I am very displeased with these loose periphrastic translations. My
version says, "The powers of death shall not prevail against it."
Literally it's "The gates of Hades." And the gates fit with the
keys because the keys fit in the gates and unlock the gates so we, through
Peter and his successors, can experience the release of souls in
Hades/Purgatory. He goes on, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of
Heaven, so that whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, whatever
you loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven." What is Jesus talking
about? In order to understand this passage, write in parentheses, Isaiah 22:
20-23. Isaiah chapter 22
describes how the Son of David, the King of Israel, rules over all of God's
people in the Old Testament. But he doesn't rule alone, he ruled with a
cabinet of royal ministers. Just as Jesus, the son of David, the King of
kings appoints twelve apostles to be his royal ministers. That's why in
Matthew 19 He says to the twelve, "You will sit on twelve thrones and
rule the twelve tribes of Israel." The Israel of God is the Church of
Christ, the Catholic Church. All twelve apostles are given by Jesus, in
Matthew 18:18, the power of binding and loosing, but only Peter, Peter alone,
receives the keys of the kingdom. Why? Isaiah 22 explains that here you have
the King, the son of David, and here you have his royal cabinet ministers. But
in between the King and the royal ministers, you have the prime minister. Who
is the prime minister? The one to whom the King gives the keys to the
kingdom. So when Jesus gives to the twelve the power to bind and loose,
notice He gives to Peter and Peter alone the keys to the kingdom. A very
clear Old Testament reference to the minister who is given primacy. So we
have the primacy of Peter being instituted by Jesus Christ. When you go back to
Isaiah 22, you discover two more things. The keys are called the keys of the
House of David, even though David died over a hundred years before. You see,
when David died he had a successor in Solomon. When Solomon died he had a
successor in Rehoboam and so on. But the king is not the only one who leaves
a vacant office at death. When he dies a successor replaces him. But you
discover that his prime minister also leaves a vacant office. How do you know
the next prime minister? He is the one to whom the keys are passed. So
besides Peter receiving primacy from Jesus, he also receives a symbol of
dynastic succession in the keys of the kingdom. The third element that
is important in Isaiah 22 is when Isaiah declares that, "All the
inhabitants of the kingdom shall call the one holding the keys," Eliakim
the prime minister, they shall call him "Father." Isaiah declares
that the one who holds the keys of the kingdom will be called Father, Papa.
And you know that Pope is simply the Italian word for father. That's why
through the ages we have referred to the successor of Peter as Pope, as our
Holy Father. All of this Jesus knew very well from the Old Testament. This
was something that the early Church picked up on without any controversy or
sense of novelty. First Timothy 3:15,
Paul reminds Timothy in the Church at Ephesus that "the household of God
which is the Church of the living God is the pillar and foundation of
truth." The pillar and foundation of truth is the Church. Now I used to
defend sola Scriptura. I used to attack the Catholic position. But I've got
to tell you, I never had a single text explicitly teaching sola Scriptura.
But if I had a text anywhere in the Old Testament or the New Testament which
said something like this, "Scripture is the pillar and foundation of
truth," I would have begun all of my arguments with that text and I
would have ended all of my arguments with that text. But you know the only
text we have of that kind declares that the Church is the pillar and
foundation of truth, the household of God. Literally the family of God. You see, when you
study the Bible, when you study Church history, what you discover is that the
Church precedes the New Testament. Jesus never wrote a single word. Odd,
isn't it? If He wanted the Scripture to be the exclusive source for our
doctrine, why didn't He write down a page or a word? Nowhere in the Gospels
does Jesus command any of His apostles to write a single word. He says,
"Go out and preach the Gospel." It's an oral communication. I am in
no way down- playing Scripture as the written communication of God's Word. If
you think so, you've missed the whole first half hour. I'm not downplaying
Scripture at all. I am just showing that Scripture exalts Jesus' intention to
build a Church, to send out apostles who are to preach, that is, communicate
God's Word person to person through living oracles, in an oral way which is
far more dynamic and interpersonal than simply what's on a page. Notice that even when
the apostles do write, how many of them write? We got Matthew, but Mark
wasn't one of the twelve; Luke wasn't one of the twelve, but John was. So one
half of the evangelists were apostles. Look at Acts -- Luke wrote that, not
an apostle. Paul wasn't one of the original twelve. We've got James and Jude,
apostles. First, Second and Third John. So we've got four or five apostles,
out of the twelve writing books. What about the other ones? Were they just
too lazy? Disobedient? No, of course not. They understood Christ's
commission, and in it there is nothing explicit about writing Scripture. The
Word of God is to be proclaimed, it is to be communicated orally and also in
a literary mode as well. But what is primary and foremost in Christ's mind
and in His words, as Scripture attests, is preaching the Word of God. In 2 Timothy 2:2,
"What you've heard from me, before many witnesses", write down? No,
"entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."
It's an oral transmission. It's a family. It's the household of God; it's
God's family. How much do you write down for your children when you teach
them? How many volumes have you penned so far in raising your offspring? More
is caught than is taught, and when you communicate orally, you communicate
more effectively than when you write because you can put your whole person
behind it. You can use your eyes and the inflection of your voice, hand
gestures and hugs and whatever else you need to get your point across. Titus 1 verse 5 -
"That is why," Paul says, "I left you, Titus, there in Crete,
that you might write some Scriptures so they have a source or an
authority?" No. "This is why I left you in Crete: that you might
amend what was defective and appoint elders in every town." Why did Paul
leave Titus in Crete? To spread around his letters? No. To write down a
Gospel? No! To appoint elders in every town. Paul's concern is for the Church
and for the magisterium of the Church, for the presbyters, for the
priesthood, for the hierarchy. The Church comes
before the New Testament. Get this. The New Testament is alive and kicking.
It's alive and worshipping and singing and praying and believing and
practicing and preaching long before any of the books of the New Testament
were written, much less gathered together and compiled in 393 AD. That's the
first time we have an official collection of the New Testament books at the
Council of Hippo, and then in 397 at the Council of Carthage. Imagine that,
the Church waited for over three hundred years before 27 books were gathered
together and formally compiled as the New Testament. What did they do for
three centuries? They lived on the proclamation of the Word and the
celebration of sacraments just as Jesus and the apostles teach. And so it is
today. Again, I am in no way down-playing the importance of Scripture. I am
just showing that Scripture itself highlights the Church, the Magisterium,
bishops, priest and especially Peter and his successor. We are unfaithful to
God's Word if we are disobedient or unsubmissive to the Pope, to the
Magisterium of the Church, and to the whole body of the Catholic Church as
well. In Luke chapter 10
verse 16, Jesus sends out the apostles and He says, "He who hears you,
hears me. He who rejects you rejects me." So the apostles go forth with
the very authority of Christ. The churches that they founded are all part of
the Church that Christ builds. If we reject the bishops of the Church who are
the successors to the apostles, we may inadvertently be rejecting Christ.
People might look at the apostles and say, "I don't like the way he
preaches. I can't understand his message. He hasn't showered in two weeks; I
can't get near him." Or "He's a Galilean and I'm a Samaritan, and
I'm offended by some Galilean neighbors I've got." They can come up with
all kinds of excuses, but if you reject them, you reject Christ who sent
them, as well as their successors. John chapter 14 verse
26 - Jesus promises the apostles that He will send them the Holy Spirit who
"will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have
said to you." He said to all twelve - remember, more than half of the
twelve apostles didn't write a page of Scripture, but he says to all of them,
"The Holy Spirit will cause you to remember all that I've taught
you." Everything, that's the way the Church thrived for centuries. John chapter 16 verse
13, "The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth," so that you'll
write it down? No, so that you'll proclaim it in your preaching. John chapter 21 verse
25 - "There are many other things which Jesus did... the world itself
could not contain the books." Do you realize that the world couldn't
contain books describing all that Jesus said and did. Does that suggest that,
what Jesus said and did, what's not recorded in the Gospels and the New
Testament, must not be important? No. But the Spirit will lead and guide the
Church into remembrance of all that He has taught. There is just simply a
sensus fidelium, a sense of the faithful. In the lay people, in the
Magisterium, the Holy Spirit animates the Body of Christ as the Soul of the
Mystical Body, bringing us to an awareness of many things that we may not even
be conscious about. Think about right now at this moment; what do you already
know? Many things that you are not consciously focusing in on. What color is
the carpet without looking? Red. Where are we? Long Beach. What is this
place? California, wild place, huh? All these things are in our minds, but
we're not consciously focused on them. All of the things that Christ said and
did are in the Holy Spirit and in the Church because the Holy Spirit animates
the Church. When the time is right the Holy Spirit will lead us to recall the
things that Christ said and did which apply to our need, to our situation,
without us even knowing it. But without any mention of the exclusivity of the
Bible. We go on. Acts chapter 2 verse
42 - "They devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching," not in
writing but in their preaching. Act chapter 8 verse 31
- Here the Ethiopian eunuch says to Philip, "How can I understand the
Scripture unless someone guides me?" He bears a faithful witness to
everybody's need. We need guidance when we read the Bible. Christ knew it, so
He gives us not just the Holy Spirit but the Church that is filled with the
Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 20 verse
35 - Here we discover Paul referring to a saying of Jesus that we've all
heard since our childhood: "'Tis more blessed to give than to
receive.'" Paul refers to this saying of Jesus, but I dare you to search
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and try to find where Jesus said: "It is
more blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20 verse 35 is the only
place. Now, how then did Paul know that Jesus said it? Because oral tradition
is maintained in the Church through the Holy Spirit. Romans chapter 10
verse 17 - "Faith comes from what is read?" "Faith comes from
what is heard." The point of the New Covenant then, is that the New
Covenant surpasses the Old. The Old was written and so was the New Testament
written. But the New Testament is more than simply written. It is alive and
powerful in our hearts and in our lives. Second Thessalonians
chapter 2 verse 15 - I've mentioned it before and I'll say it once more:
"Stand firm and hold fast to the traditions which you were taught by us
either by word of mouth or by writing." First Peter chapter 1
verse 25 - Underline this one, "The Word of the Lord abides forever and
that Word is the Good News which was preached to you." What is the Word
of God? That which has been handed down through the preaching of the apostles
and their successors. As Catholic Christians, we are bound to God's Word and
God's Word alone. Not sola Scriptura; That's "anti-Scriptura," but
Solum verbum Dei, the Word of God alone. What is the Word? It is the Good
News that was preached to you. Certainly it is also the Word of God contained
in the inspired Scriptures. But Scriptures are
difficult to understand. The Scriptures themselves tell us that. 2 Peter
chapter 3 verse 15. "There are some things in them," that is, the
writings of Paul, "that are hard to understand," which, even back
in the first century, Peter says, "the ignorant and unstable twist to their
own destruction as they do with the other Scriptures." So in every age
there are people who are unstable in their beliefs, who trust themselves more
than the Church that Christ built, and who say, "The Holy Spirit guides
me." But they fail to hear Jesus say that the Holy Spirit is given to
the apostles and their successors first and foremost to guide them "into
all that I've taught you." If we want to follow the Word of God, if we
want to obey Sacred Scripture, if we want to be illuminated by the Holy
Spirit, then become slaves to Mother Church and learn whatever She teaches.
Listen to whatever She declares. That's what it means to be a Bible
Christian. Other Arguments for the Necessity of the
Church Our Bible Christian
brothers and sisters who are separated from us need to hear us say these
things clearly, gently, persuasively. We have to fit this into our
conversations with them at some point. We have to pray to our Lady for help,
and for grace to find those opportunities. Sola Scriptura is unscriptural.
We've also said that sola Scriptura is unhistorical; that is, the New Testament
Church comes before the New Testament books. The New Testament Church leaders
are the writers who penned the New Testament books. The successors to the
apostles at the Council of Hippo and the Council of Carthage are the ones who
compiled the New Testament. Do you realized that
there were many other books besides the 27 New Testament books that were
vying for inclusion? Many churches thought the Shepherd of Hermas belonged.
Many churches believed the Didache belonged. Many churches thought that 2
Peter didn't belong. Some contested Jude, others thought that Revelation
should not be considered inspired Scripture. These are the antilegomena, the
books that were spoken against. There are other books too: the Acts of Peter,
the Acts of Paul, the Apocalypse of Paul, the Gospel of Thomas, these books
were regarded by some churches as inspired. Who's to choose? If Bible Christians
hold up the New Testament and say "These 27 books are the only
authority." You ask them, "Where did you get those 27 books, why
those and not others? Why do you take the decision of Catholic bishops,
meeting in Catholic Councils back in the 4th century? Why do you take that at
face value? Why do you assume that the Holy Spirit led them to declare what
books are inspired, when those same Bishops teach the Real Presence of Christ
in the Eucharist, the veneration of Saints, devotion to the Blessed Virgin
Mary, Purgatory, seven sacraments and so on? Why do you think the Spirit
guided them with the 27 books, but didn't guide them everywhere else?"
How arbitrary can you get? That's illogical, it's unhistorical, it's contrary
to Scripture. We can also show how impractical it is. What would happen to
our country if the Founding Fathers left us with a Constitution and then made
the closing utterance, "May the spirit of George Washington guide all
citizens in interpreting the Constitution."? We would have more than
fifty states; we'd have fifty million states. We'd be in an utter state of
chaos and anarchy. If the Founding Fathers of our country knew better, don't
you think that the founding Father of the Church knew better also? The Spirit can
preserve fallible men from teaching error as truth. The Bible Christian
believes that fallible sinners like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John could
communicate infallible truth through the Holy Spirit. Can't that same Spirit
guide the Church to infallibly proclaim that same truth in all generations?
And if the Spirit doesn't, then wouldn't you expect chaos and anarchy? Isn't
that what we have now with thousands upon thousands of denominations and
sects, so that in every generation Bible Christians have to reinvent the
wheels of the Faith? The Trinity is being questioned now by some Bible
evangelicals. The Divinity of Christ, the eternality of Hell, and many other doctrines
that have always been part of the historic Christian faith are up for grabs
in every generation in the teachings of Bible Christians. Because they have
the Bible without the Church, they are going to lose both as well. We could
cite other problems as well but we're running low on time. U.S. Bishops'
Pastoral Statement for Catholics on Biblical Fundamentalism (1987) What I'd like to do is
just draw your attention to a wonderful statement that was issued back in
March 26, 1987. It was put together by the Bishops of the United States. The
NCCB, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops formed an ad hoc committee
on Biblical fundamentalism chaired by Archbishop Whealon of Hartford,
Connecticut. They issued this statement on March 26, 1987. It's entitled
Pastoral Statement for Catholics on Biblical Fundamentalism. I'd like to call
your attention to some outstanding statements that you find there. First of
all, it clarifies who the fundamentalists are. "Biblical fundamentalists
are those who present the Bible, God's inspired Word as the only necessary
source for teaching about Christ and Christian living." It goes on to
say, "The insistence on the teaching Bible is usually accompanied by a
spirit that is warm, friendly and pious." That's what make fundamentalists
so effective: their warmth, their friendliness, their piety, their devotion.
"Such a spirit attracts many converts, especially idealistic young
people." It goes on to say, "According to fundamentalism, the Bible
alone is sufficient; there is no place for the Universal teaching Church,
including its wisdom, its teachings, and its creeds and other doctrinal
formulations. There is simply no claim to a visible, audible, living teaching
authority, binding the individual or congregation." Why is the appeal so
strong for young people? The statement tells us why: "The appeal is
evident for the Catholic young adult or teenager, one whose family background
may be troubled, one who is struggling with life, morality and
religion,"-- get this --"whose Catholic education may have been
seriously inadequate in the fundamentals of doctrine, the Bible, prayer life
and sacramental living." I've got to tell you, that describes 99% of
Catholic young people I meet. Let me say it again. "This is especially
appealing and seductive for those whose Catholic education may have been
seriously inadequate in the fundamentals of doctrine, Bible, prayer life and
sacramental living, whose catechetical formation may have been" -- oh
yeah -- "may have been inadequate" in presenting the full Catholic
Traditions and teaching authority. "For such a person, the appeal of
finding the answer in a devout, studious, prayerful, warm, Bible-quoting
class is easy to understand." Indeed it is. And the fault is ours! Scholars and experts
tell us that the cults and the sects and the heresies throughout Church
history represent the unpaid bills of the Church. Not that Mother Church is
lacking in funds, mind you, but that her children don't even bother signing
the check and sending it in the mail. If we were drawing on the unlimited
funds of Mother Church we would have more than ample resources to counteract
whatever seductive temptations would come by way of Bible fundamentalism. The
young people would be prepared; they'd be inoculated. But the fact is, we as
parents are failing. We can blame the catechists and believe me, they're
sometimes like laboratory scientists experimenting on our young people. It's
disgusting to see what has gone for catechesis in the last twenty-five years.
But that is no excuse for our neglect. Because the fact is, the teaching of
children is an inalienable right and responsibility of parents. We can
delegate it but ultimately it's our responsibility. On Judgment Day, we will
not be able to pawn off the blame on some catechist or some director of
religious education. The burden will fall on our shoulders to explain why our
children did not receive the Faith. And there's no hiding behind bad
catechists. We'll stand alone. So for the sake of
your soul, bone up on the Bible, study the Sacraments, learn about prayer,
memorize the catechism and teach your young people to memorize it. If it's
too late because your young people have grown up and gone off, then find
surrogate sons and daughters in your parish family, because your parish is
truly your family. Find young people and get involved. Pray, but cause some
trouble. Get the good catechisms out and into the hands of young people. God
help us. It goes on to say,
(The Pastoral Statement) "A study of the New Testament in fact shows
that discipleship is to be a community experience with liturgy and headship,
and demonstrates the importance of belonging to the Church started by Jesus
Christ." This is wonderful. "Christ chose Peter and the other
apostles as foundations of His Church, He made Simon Peter its rock
foundation and gave a teaching authority to Peter and the other Apostles.
This is most clear in the Gospel of Matthew, the only Gospel to use the word
'church.'" It goes on to say, "The history of twenty Christian
centuries confirms our belief that Peter and the other Apostles have been
succeeded by the Bishop of Rome and the other bishops, and that the flock of
Christ still has under Christ a universal Shepherd. For historical
reasons," it concedes, -- it's an interesting admission here --
"for historical reasons, the Catholic Church in the past did not
encourage Bible studies as much as She could have." Why? "Printing the
Latin Bible, which was the first work printed, was not invented until the mid-fifteenth
century." Just a few decades before Luther launched the Reformation. Do
you realize apart from Gutenberg, there would have not been Protestantism?
The first thing that Gutenberg printed was what? The Bible. Even before the
printing press, there were vernacular translations of the Bible -- long
before Wycliff in the fourteenth century -- in Norwegian, in French, in
German, in Polish, and other languages as well. There were fourteen different
authorized German translations the century prior to Luther. The only reason
Luther got into trouble was because he wouldn't submit his translations to
the Bishops because he knew he had been tinkering with the Greek, adding
words that weren't there in the original: Romans chapter 3, verse 28, where
he says, "A man is justified by faith alone." And he makes that the
battle cry of the Reformation although the word alone is not in the Greek,
and he knew it. Yet he insisted on a mistranslation to further his own cause.
It goes on to say,
(The Pastoral Statement) "Through the lectionary, the Catholic becomes
familiar with the Bible according to the rhythm of the liturgical seasons and
the Church's experience and use of the Bible at Mass." But now comes the
conclusion. Listen to what our bishops are challenging us to do. "Our
challenge now is to get this knowledge into the minds and hearts and lives of
all our Catholic people. We need a pastoral plan for the Word of God, that
will place the Sacred Scripture"-- get this --"at the heart of the
parish and individual life." The bishops say, "We have a crying
need to put the Bible at the heart of the parish." "Pastoral
creativity can develop approaches such as weekly Bible study and yearly Bible
schools in every parish. We need to have the introduction to each Bible
reading be prepared and presented by the lector, in a way that shows
familiarity with and love for the sacred text." If you are called upon
to be a lector, then you study and you contemplate and you pray the readings
that you are going to proclaim to the faithful. "In areas where there is
a special problem with fundamentalism," -- and what area doesn't have a
problem with fundamentalism? -- "the pastor may consider a Mass to which
people bring their own Bibles" -- Alleluia! Can you imagine that? --
"and in which qualified lectors present a carefully prepared
introduction and read the text without, however, making the Liturgy of the
Word a Bible study class." It goes on to say,
"We need better homilies, since the homily is the most effective way of
applying Biblical texts to daily living." Now's my favorite: "We
need a familiar quoting of the Bible by every catechist, every lector and
every minister." We should know the Bible so well that we can quote it
verbatim, at will, instinctively, reflexively. "We have not done enough
in this area." That is the understatement of the decade. "The
neglect of parents in catechetics and the weakness of our adult education
efforts are now producing..." What? "A grim harvest." That's what we've got
on our hands, a grim harvest. Spiritual abortions. We have physical
abortions; they're an unspeakable crime, 1.5 million a year. It breaks the
heart of Heaven and all of the saints, especially our Blessed Mother. But the
babies that are aborted lose their bodies and their earthly life, but they
don't go to Gehenna; they don't go to hellfire. I dare say what might be
breaking the heart of our Mother far more are the millions of spiritual
abortions which occur with so many baptized young people who are reborn into
God's family and then poisoned by false teaching or starved without any of
the Bread of Life being fed to them, with all of the bad teaching or with the
neglect in the area of catechesis. We have tens of millions of Catholics who
are dying on the vine, who are for all practical purposes being spiritually
aborted by people in the Church who are more concerned with radical feminism
or more concerned with addressing nuclear arms than with feeding their own
children. But we can't blame them. We have our marching orders as parents, as
faithful lay people. We can't wait for them, we have to obey what God
commands us through the Church. We need to educate, to re-educate, they go on
to say, "our people, knowingly in the Bible so as to counteract the
simplicities of Biblical fundamentalism." Then the final
statement, "We Catholics need to redouble our efforts to make our parish
Masses an expression of worship, in which all people, parishioners, visitors
and strangers feel the warmth and the welcome and know that here the Bible is
clearly reverenced and proclaimed." That's what the bishops are calling
upon us to do in our parishes. We need to redouble our efforts to make our
parish Masses an expression of worship in which all feel the warmth and
welcome and know that here the Bible is clearly reverenced and preached.
"The current trend towards smaller, faith- sharing and Bible-studying
groups within a parish family is strongly to be encouraged." Practical Suggestions for Implementing the
Bishops' Advice But where do we begin?
We begin tomorrow morning, with five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes in
the Gospels. We begin this week with books that will explain from the book of
Acts, how Jesus instituted the Church and how Peter functions as its head at
every point and every chapter in the book of Acts. Read a commentary and
you'll see things that you might not have seen on your own. We need to read
the Gospel of Luke to see Jesus' attitude towards women, which Luke
highlights more than the other Gospels put together. In this Gospel and this
commentary, we'll see how Jesus gives us the antidote to radical feminism and
how he shows concern and compassion for the outcasts. In the Gospel of Mark,
some say we'll discover that Jesus did not teach that the second coming was
going to happen within His lifetime. I've heard that now from two pulpits during
the Mass. Shortly just a few weeks after becoming Catholic, I was in Mass and
I heard a priest declare: "Jesus thought he was coming again, in just a
few years, so the apostles were misled and they falsely taught the early
Church so that everybody was confused." Oh, I see, poor Jesus. No way.
If you read Mark and you study a simple commentary, you'll discover that
Jesus used language from the Old Testament to describe the end of the world,
the Old Testament, the end of the Old Jerusalem, the end of the temple, the
end of the priesthood, the end of the sacrifices, the end of the whole Old
Covenant, and how that prefigures the end of the real universe itself. But
Jesus uses words that we won't understand if we read them with Protestant
literalism, or fundamentalism. Catholic commentaries, so simple in their
guidance, will illuminate this. I remember asking my
sponsor who brought me into the Church, Chris Wolf. One day we were just
talking in his office -- he's a political science professor -- and I had been
studying seven years on the problem, "Did Jesus teach that He was coming
back soon?" I said, "How do you deal with a problem that when you
read certain texts, like Mark 13, you have Jesus seeming to declare that the
end of the ages has come, wars and rumors of war and all that?" He said,
"Well, I interpret that in light of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70
AD and the dissolution of the Temple." I said, "Chris, it took me
seven years to discover that after much research, how did you get that?"
He reached into his hip pocket and pulled out a little Catholic New
Testament. "It's there in the footnotes." It took me seven years to
reinvent the wheel. Read the Gospels,
meditate on them. Get simple commentaries and go through them. Divide up your
time, ten minutes in the Gospels, ten minutes in the commentaries. Go into
the book of Acts and see the Church in its seed form, how it's spreading
abroad, how it has an ecumenical council in Acts 15, how Peter alone resolves
the debate that was ravaging the Church. When Peter stands up and declares
his will the debate is settled. Read in the Gospel of Matthew about Jesus'
intention to form a Church. Read a commentary where someone like Father
Montague explains Isaiah 22 and the keys of the kingdom and the rock that is Simon,
and how all of this fits one Church and one Church alone. The Bible Christian
Catholic Church. Read this stuff, pray, share it, I urge you to. One thing I would also
like to include. I heard Father Fessio at least twice, I hear Steve and also
my wife Kimberly mention home-schooling. I realize that many of you will not
be able to home-school. Your kids are grown up or you simply have to have
another job just to hold down the fort and the finances. But Father Hardon
says, "Catholic home-schooling is the salvation of the Church in the
United States." Bishop Vaughn spoke to the National Home-schoolers
convention in Virginia; Kimberly and I were with him. He was so excited to
see six, seven hundred Catholic parents who were homeschooling. In Steubenville,
there are over forty devoted Catholic families who are home-schooling their
kids. We get together every week for socializing skills, retreats, for field
trips and this sort of thing. It's great. This tape series, Forming Young
Catholics Through Home-Schooling is wonderful. Maybe you're going to send
them to your parish school, maybe the parochial school is strong and
orthodox. But listen to these tapes. This is the best tape series that has
ever been produced on how Catholic Home-schooling is not weird; it's normal,
it's mainstream. It involves the exercise of Catholic parents' rights. They
are fully within their rights to school their children at home. This tape
series will do so much good if it could be spread around in the hands of
Catholic parents because that is where I am convinced Catholic Bible study
will really take off. Now I want to give to
you just a few tips to begin tomorrow. How do I begin reading the Gospels?
First of all, take up the Bible with reverence and say to yourself, "God
is now speaking to me." Say that audibly; "God, you are now
speaking to me." Before you read a single word say, "Holy Spirit,
you inspired these words, illuminate my mind to understand them." Say,
"Come Holy Spirit, enlighten my heart, my understanding. Help me to recognize
the eternal truth that I need to please God." Not only do you begin your
Bible reading with prayer, but you end the Bible reading with prayer and ask
the Holy Spirit to stamp onto your heart the truths you need for the day.
Then say to God, as you begin the reading, "Speak Lord, for your servant
is listening; here I am, Lord." Read slowly, meditatively, each verse.
Don't be afraid to go back and reread them a second time or a third time. Say
to yourself, "God, you and I are alone together right now, speak to me,
I'm listening." Listen to what Thomas a Kempis says in the Imitation of
Christ -- I love this -- "If you want to profit from your reading of
Scripture, read with humility, with simplicity and faith. Willingly consult
and hear with silence the words of the Saints and let your joy be in the
parables of the ancients." When you read the
Gospels, identify yourself with the characters in each scene. So that you are
Lazarus in the tree; you are Matthew inviting Jesus to come home for a meal;
you are the hemorrhaging woman, because frankly the fact of the matter is
that all of the physical diseases of the people healed are signs of our
spiritual need. We are spiritually blind; we are spiritually crippled; we are
hemorrhaging in our hearts; we are leprous with sin and all of the things
that Christ does to heal people, He needs to do to me and to my soul. That's
how the Saints and the Doctors of the Church have urged the people to
interpret the Bible. So we say with the blind man, "Jesus, Son of David,
have pity on me." I'm blind; I don't see you in the world, I don't see
you sometimes in my own life, in my problems and my marriage. Consider everything
that Jesus says in the Gospels as personally addressed to you and to me. When
reading the Epistles, listen not only for the voice of Saint Paul and the
Holy Spirit, but recognize that the Church is speaking to you, showing you
how to grow and mature in your faith, and then form a notebook, gather some
sheets together, buy a notebook and make a list of the important Bible texts
that really speak to you. The sayings of Christ especially, key texts that
answer questions that you've had or loved ones have had. Each day select one
of the passages that you read in the past and memorize a sentence or a verse
or two and throughout the day, bring it back to mind during your morning and
evening reading. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into certain passages that
will be a prayer that you pray during the hard time of the day. There are so many
other tips that we could suggest here but the most important tip of all is to
read the Gospels. Read them in the Church, read them with the Church, read
them in liturgy, read them with a focus on the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy
Eucharist, because when you divorce Scripture from the Liturgy, you're
tearing the soul out of the body. That's what leads to denominationalism,
that's what leads to sectarianism. We need not be afraid of the Bible, if we
know the Bible, we will know God's ways, we will understand them as well. Conclusion: Miracle in Nicaragua One of my favorite
stories, it's a true story that just happened two or three years ago: the
believers in Nicaragua who were horribly persecuted by the Sandinistas
regime, far more than the American press ever cared to report, especially the
Catholics. The Sandinistas, especially Ortega himself, were out to get the
Church. When finally Ortega was pressured to offer free elections, which were
filled with all kinds of cheating, the believers banded together, Protestant
and Catholic alike, in prayer-cells to pray and to fast for a blessed
out-come to the elections. But all the experts and statisticians told them
the statistics were against them. Chamorro didn't have a chance against
Ortega. Ortega was spending what in American dollars would be millions of dollars
to campaign. He took off his military fatigues and put on a bluejean jacket
and Levi denim slacks. He went around to the young people sponsoring rock
concerts, putting up billboards all over the cities in the country, saying,
"Vote Dan," listing the ballot-box number and the row. But the
people prayed and fasted for God's help. They needed deliverance and they
worked together to get it, in the Bible study groups, in the prayer-cells as
well. Then across the
country came this urge to ask the Lord for a sign. Not that He owes a sign to
anybody. But they began to ask the Lord for a sign, "Lord, show us that
you're in this; show us that you'll deliver us," and they worked
fervently. As the day of the election approached, everybody said, "Ortega
by at least fifteen to twenty percent," it was expected to be a
landslide outcome. When the day arrived, Chamorro shocked the country and the
world by winning big. It took days for the believers in Nicaragua to get over
their own stunned amazement. I mean, when you pray for rain, you ought to
carry an umbrella, they say, right? They prayed for this deliverance, but
they didn't really half-expect it. What was unusual, I've
heard this from Humberto Belli, who is now the minister of education in the
Chamorro government. He was teaching sociology at the University of
Steubenville for years. He was a former Marxist and atheist, a fallen-away
Catholic who eventually found his way back into the Church. Belli describes
how in the week following the election results people began wondering,
"We prayed for a sign. Did God give us a sign? We fervently asked, not
as though He owed us a sign." But then all of a sudden, one guy looked
up and discovered that all around Managua and all around the country side,
was this same billboard "Dan." Then it had the ballot-box number
and row, "5, 26." So someone got the bright idea, "Why don't
we look up Daniel 5:26?" Listen to Daniel, chapter 5, verse 26:
"God has numbered your kingdom and brought it to an end." They
asked for a sign but never in their wildest dreams did they imagine that
Ortega would pay for it! They asked for a sign but they didn't recognize it
until they opened up Sacred Scripture. I think we all should
be begging the Lord for a sign that He can deliver us from the unbelievable
messes that we have gotten ourselves into: drugs, pornography, abortion,
euthanasia, RU-486, homosexuality, the list goes on and on. Any one of those
problems would be enough to knock our country out, and now they are all
massed against us. We need a sign that God can use the lowly likes of us to
bring about deliverance. But don't expect to recognize the sign if you're not
going to study Sacred Scripture. The
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