Catholic Apostolic National Church (CANC) :: View topic - Learning Through Explaining and Defending The Faith

Administrator · Site Admin Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 60

[Taken from the CANC Catechism, Chapter 6]

Learning Through Explaining and Defending The Faith

The Catholic Apostolic National Church has much in common with our Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Roman Catholic brethren, including Scripture, Apostolic Tradition, the Eucharist, as well as the common lines of Apostolic Succession flowing from each into our own Church. These three ancient families of Christ trace their spiritual heritage back to their founding by the Apostles, in various places around the world, and ultimately through them to Christ Himself.

We profess and give witness to the very same faith that these ancient families of faith all profess, in a common core of Christian beliefs that are held by all. Our faith and belief is that same faith and belief professed from the Apostles, in the Early Church, down to our own day. It is important to learn the faith well, in order to be able to explain it to those who are uninformed, misinformed, or unchurched, as well as to defend the faith against those persons who seek to attack the Church, her sacraments, priesthood, Apostolic Traditions, and teaching authority. To do this, you must be well instructed in the faith and well-versed in Holy Scripture. You must live out the faith in your life and engage in great prayer and devotion. The single best explanation of Catholic Apostolic National Churchs is found in the faithful child of God who lives out his or her faith every day in their life, so that the Light of Men can be seen operating in them. A faith that is alive is lived out in the life of the believing man – it is not found only on his lips, but also in his heart, and so glorifies his Father in Heaven.

In explaining the faith to others, it is of the utmost importance that it be done with respect, humility and charity. One does not convince another of a spiritual truth through belligerence or arrogant disposition. Patience is required, and a well-annotated Bible will assist you in illustrating the issue being discussed.

Rather than presume to know another individual’s faith or theology, it is better to concentrate on being able to accurately explain and defend the teachings of the Church from mistake misunderstanding, misinformation or those simply seeking to make a name for themselves by attacking the Church. Through faithful study and prayer, your ability to understand more and explain to others, what we believe will increase. In explaining the faith to others, it is important also to understand that when we use words, such as prayer, worship, salvation, and justification, we are using them with the meaning that we normally attribute to them within our community of faith. This may not be the same meaning attributed to these words by other faiths, and you must always explain exactly what we mean when we use these terms (and others), and where this meaning comes from. In this way, some misunderstanding can be avoided at the onset, and perhaps eliminated, if past misunderstandings exist.

Ultimately, the knowledge and understanding of the faith obtained is nothing, if we do not live it in love in our daily lives. In this way, we become a living explanation of our faith. Others see and learn what we believe in the manner in which we live. We are saved by the grace of God, justified by faith, working in love in our lives.

Authority

In most cases, particularly when speaking with many Protestant groups, the primary issue is one of authority. Most Protestant Christians will quote several verses of Scripture to make their point, usually that the “Bible alone” is the only rule and guide for Christians, and that a Church although helpful, is not necessary.

The problem with this reformation-based concept is that Christ did not teach it, and the Bible itself does not say it. Usually the response is to show, from Scripture, that Scripture is “useful” for teaching and instructing (2 Tim. 3:16-17). But this does not equate to being all-sufficient. In fact, this particular passage of Scripture only refers to Hebrew Scripture (the Old Testament), the “Scriptures” that the intended audience would recognize and accept as such, and certainly not what we now consider to be the New Testament. At the time of this letter having been written, the Bible, as we know it, did not exist as a compiled, approved and divinely inspired group of texts, recognized as such as we do now. Even so, with respect to being “useful”, one could say that a “Bible Tract” is “useful”, if it causes a reader to covert to Christianity, even if it only paraphrases the Bible, and uses no direct Scripture quotes. So there is a true problem for the “Bible Christian”, since the Bible itself does not teach that the “Bible alone” (sola scriptura) is the sole rule and guide of faith for Christians. In order to make this concept fit into a faith that never heard of it until the Protestant Reformation, the “Bible Christian” must refer to extrabiblical sources to explain this position, which, in and of itself, negates the “Bible alone” position. One cannot use, as an infallible authority, something (or someone) other than the Bible, in order to prove that the “Bible alone” is the sole rule and guide of faith.

As Catholic Apostolic National Churchs we know that it was the Church, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that determined which books would be included in the canon of Scripture (i.e. the official list of sacred Christian texts), and which ones would not. It Is important to recognize the role of the Church in the process of determining the canon of Scripture, as the Church is the pillar and foundation of Truth, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and protected by Christ’s promise that the gates of Hell would not prevail against her. For the first three hundred years of the Church’s existence, the Bible, as we now know it, did not exist. Even after the canon of Scripture had been set and agreed upon, the vast majority of people could not read or write, and learned Scripture the same way the Apostles themselves were taught, at the foot of the teacher through oral teaching. The assembled individual books of the Bible did not all have titles (and of those that did, some are called by different titles now), nor did all identify their authors. The authenticity, accuracy and authorship of many of the books of the Bible had to be determined by the Church, as well as which books would be considered as inspired and sacred and which would not; the Church, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, made this determination. As the Church grew throughout the centuries, the vast majority of people continued to learn the Good News through oral teaching and preaching, and as the Church built the large edifices with mosaics, statuaries and stain glass windows, these visual depictions of important aspects of Christianity were their teachers, along with the readings of the Old Testament, the Psalms and the New Testament during the Divine Liturgy, as we still continue to do today.

In addition, Bibles were very hard to come by. Bibles were also very expensive, the inks and pages were costly, and each individual Bible was meticulously made by hand. Each page of the Bible was laboriously copied and reproduced, along with illustrations of various historical scenes, and took years to complete. An entire village would pool its financial resources so that the materials could be purchased and the labor done. Often decorated with precious jewels, these Bibles were available publicly in the parish Churches, but due to theft (as the pages were many times gold-leafed, and the covers jeweled) had to be chained to the lectern. Many people, unable to read or write, would learn the Good News through the many illustrations in the Bible, as well as the paintings and statues in the Church, depicting various scenes in the Bible.

It would not be until after 1450 A.D., when German inventor Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, could large amounts of Bibles be printed inexpensively and quickly. The original texts of the various books of the Bible did not have chapter and verse numbers, as those were added arbitrarily by book printers after the invention of the printing press in 1450 A.D. Even then, most people could not read or write. There were no comprehensive public school systems to provide free education for everyone, as there is today (people often forget this). It was with the new printing press, that the individual books of the Bible then came to be printed with titles, for some of the books had none, along with chapter and verse numbering, for the original texts certainly had none of these.

Unfortunately, many individuals eventually produced their own Bibles, many with numerous typographical errors, sometimes purposefully omitting entire books of Scripture, or changing or adding words to Scripture that were never there, but the individual felt were inferred, such as Martin Luther. Martin Luther produced his own version of the Bible (the “September Bible”), inserting the German word for “alone” into St. Paul’s writings, to make Scripture say that a man is justified “by faith alone” (Sola Fide). He also deleted the Books of James, Revelation and others, because he “could not find Christ in any of them”. This shocking act harkens back to the Early Church’s battle again the Marcionite heresy, in which Marcion in the second century, of his own determination, place all of the Old Testament and most of the New Testament on a lesser, lower level of spiritual authority than the ten Epistles of St Paul. This Gnostic heretic taught that under the Old Testament, the people lived under a different type of spiritual economy than people living in the time of the New Testament and the New Covenant.

The Church gathered many defective Bibles, some missing books of the Bible, some with modified wording, some with words added, and some simply with horrific typographical errors, and disposed of them in the reverent manner that the Church disposes of certain holy things, by fire. Unfortunately, the Church could not purge men’s hearts of attempting to re-write the Bible, and to this day, there are sects that have re-worded the Bible to suit their particular theology, such as the Jehovah’s Witness, and their “New World Bible”. Others, such as the Mormons, seek to reinterpret Scripture by adding other “inspired texts” to “clarify” certain aspects of their own unique faith. Left without an infallible authority to determine which books are inspired and should be regarded as Scripture, and which are not, as well as which translations are authentic, and which are not, every individual is left to determine these things for his or herself, and becomes an “infallible authority” unto themselves, because they reject the authority of the Church, whose members wrote the New Testament books, determined which books were scriptural, and how the Bible should be understood and interpreted.

Absent this authority, improper interpretations of Scripture appear, such as the so-called “Roman Road”, a Protestant “Bible-tract”, which use the writings of St. Paul as a lens through which to view the Gospels, conspicuously absent any direct quotes of Jesus Christ Himself. Others focus on a single passage of Scripture as a means to dispute components of Christian faith taught elsewhere, such as the “Oneness Movement” which denies the Triune Godhead. Others still change a word in Scripture here and there, to “plainly show what a particular passage really means”. This has been done, in certain instances, even to create “bibles” which deny the divinity of Christ. Without a divinely inspired authority, who has the right to say which is right and which is wrong, with the impact being more than mere personal opinion? These are clear examples of Scripture being twisted and abridged to obfuscate that which has been believed for nearly two thousand years.

In regards to the necessity of the Church, Jesus Himself teaches us that the individual Christian lives abundantly, joyfully thrives, profoundly learns and spiritually grows within the Family of God, which is the Church. Jesus teaches us, in His imagery and description of the kingdom of God as a household, a family, and His Father’s house. To be part of a family is not to be a sole individual existing separately from the rest of the household, but rather an integral part of that family’s life. We are not initiated into the household of God by a book, but by a people. As children, the lessons of Scripture come alive, taught to us not by a book, but by our parents, who explain the meaning of specific passages as understood by the Family of God, the Church. Adult converts receive what they are taught by the Church through her members, which give the proper understanding and meaning of sacred Scripture, as taught and passed down throughout nearly two thousand years. It is not enough that Scripture be read and studied, it must be properly read and clearly understood within the context of the inspired writers who wrote it. Considering the historical perspective of the inspired writer is essential for proper interpretation of Scripture. To merely read the words out of time and out of the proper historical context is to lose the true meaning of Scripture, possibly replacing it with a twenty-first century concept that would have been totally foreign to the ancient inspired writer. All Scripture is inspired by God, and it is communicated to humans through other humans, in human forms of communication. Human communication is easily misunderstood and misinterpreted, absent the original context and intent of the writer. This is true for both ordinary human communication, and divinely inspired human communication. Scripture itself teaches us, that it contains things within itself that are difficult to understand, and that men attempt to twist the Scriptures for their own means. Thus, the Church is charged with the faithful stewardship of that understanding of Scripture and the Apostolic Tradition, and is divinely charged with faithfully protecting and teaching this Deposit of Faith through her Magisterial Office.

As Catholic Apostolic National Churchs, we accept the teaching authority of the Church. We accept the Church’s authority and inspired determination of the canon of Scripture and its interpretation and understanding. We have, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, a Church that was able to infallibly determine which texts were inspired and scriptural and which were not. Without this authority, who would verify that a particular book of Scripture is authentic? Who would determine which books belong in the Bible, and which do not? To whom would you go to definitively know, that the translation you have of a particular book is accurate?
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Forum Administrator

jodudan · Guest

Dear Father,
Does the National Catholic Church sponsor a newsletter or bulletin establishing her mind on various issues? I certainly think one would be welcome in the life of the church members; especially in this time of apostasy and novelty.
In Christ, Joseph Smile

Administrator · Site Admin Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 60

A newsletter would be great, and the Archbishop is working on one, but with only a few folks and lots to do, things get done slowly. The church has an ISSN for the newsletter, and hasn't had an opportunity to use it yet.

For the time being, we try to keep the news and information pages updated. Unfortunately even this can be difficult.
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bpfick · Newbie Joined: 29 Aug 2006 Posts: 2 Location: Michigan

Can we please check the quotation of Luther omitting the epistle of James from his German rendition of the Bible. While Luther held a confused opinion of "the epistle of straw" he none the less did not take upon himself the right to actually remove the epistle from his canon, as I understand the historicity of that event. Perhaps we can all check on this.