Did the Roman Catholic Church give us our Bible?
Roman Catholics often say that it was their church that gave us the Bible. They sometimes claim this when defending their “sacred tradition” so that they might support extra biblical teachings such as purgatory, penance, indulgences, and Mary worship. They often say the only way the Christian church knew what books were to be included in the Canon of Scripture was because it was revealed by word-of-mouth in the early church; that is, by the tradition of the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, this argument implies that tradition is superior to Scripture. Of course, we are not saying that the Roman Catholic Church teaches that tradition is above Scripture. But when sacred tradition is claimed to be the thing by which Scripture is given, then tradition is inadvertently the thing that gives blessing and approval to the Bible. Heb. 7:7 says, “But without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater.” The unfortunate psychological effect of saying that Roman Catholic tradition is what gave
