Читать книгу A Minute in the Church - Gus Lloyd - Страница 6

The Bible

Where does the Bible come from? That might sound like a strange question. The Catholic Church has always taught that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God. But remember, in the years immediately following the Resurrection of our Lord, there was no New Testament...only the Church.

In the first few centuries of Christianity, there were literally hundreds of letters and books circulating among churches. So how do we know that the 27 books in the New Testament are divinely inspired and supposed to be in the Bible? Late in the 4th Century A.D., Catholic bishops met in council at both Carthage and Hippo, and with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, decided on what books belonged in the New Testament. It is the Holy Catholic Church that was given the authority by Christ to determine the canon of Scripture.

St. Augustine said, "I would not believe in the Gospels were it not for the authority of the Catholic Church." You see, the Bible didn't just fall out of the sky, or off of a local printing press. There had to be an authoritative Church before the New Testament was ever written to determine what books would be in the New Testament. If you accept the authority of the New Testament, then you accept the authority of the Catholic Church.