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PART I
*Months ago, I was visiting a favorite Catholic website of mine on Facebook and was reading a newly released article about our Blessed Virgin Mary. As I was reading various comments of Catholics regarding the article, I noticed one particular person who appears to be trolling under the comment box, unsolicitedly "refuting" different Catholic teachings to any one who would dare to read his comments and take the bait. As I skimmed through other articles of the site, I was baffled to see that same person trolling the comment boxes again under those respective articles, taking on anybody that challenges his varied assertions and accusations, one Catholic at a time that comes his way like in a one-man-versus-an-army martial arts fighting scene. I started to see his trend.
If I recall correctly, he said he used to be Catholic and now belong to some strain of Protestantism (among the roughly 33,000 in existence today) and the Bible alone (Sola Scriptura) is his sole authority. I told him that swapping Bible verses won't get us anywhere (to argue about Mary, Purgatory, Saints and all other Catholic beliefs that Protestants think are a bunch of hooey). Instead I politely ask him if he is willing to answer 3 fundamental questions about our Christian faith. He obliged although seemingly a bit reluctant at first, but answered it nevertheless. Here's one of the questions I raised, his reply and my response back on his reply:
Me: How do we know what the Christian faith is?
His Reply: “It's contained in the scriptures, which we received from God.”
My Response:
First of all, the Catholic Church always taught,
believed, and pioneered the affirmation that the Bible is the inspired,
inerrant, infallible Word of God. But the Bible did not just drop down from
Heaven, God chose to reveal His divine plan through the instrumentality of
people. You said it’s in scripture we get to know the Christian faith?
Protestants took for granted the fact that early Christians for the first 300+
yrs did not have handy Bibles in their hands to study & know their faith.
There wasn’t a definitive list of the New Testament books until the 4th
century (thanks to the Catholic Church). Printing press wasn’t even invented
until the 15th century. Not to mention books were expensive and
difficult to access, and illiteracy was commonplace especially prior to the
invention of the print. How then were those poor souls for the first 1,500
years able to know their Christian faith without the printed scriptures in the
palm of their hands?
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