What do Catholics believe about God and the Bible?

Answer 1

Sadly, this is a fair question. It ought not to be so as one of the major reasons for the Protestant Reformation was a 'back to The Bible' emphasis, as typified in the Latin slogan 'sola scriptura' or scripture alone. This was in contrast to the Roman Catholic church of the day who had adopted many traditions which were seen by the Protestants as being contrary to the Bible. It was the Protestants who sought to have the Bible translated into the 'vulgar' or everyday languages of the common people, so that the masses could read and understand it and then follow its truths.

This is sadly a fair question, since many Protestants today do not believe or follow Bible teaching but follow human philosophies and add them to or replace the Bible with them. Bishop Spong would be an extreme example of one who consistently sought to apply his evolutionary belief to his version of Christianity. What he ended up with bears little resemblance to the historic Christian faith. Many Protestants take all sorts of liberties and reinterpret the Bible to suit the modern times, rather than allow the Bible to rule as an unchanging word, like the divine author.

Many would regard this approach as Biblical, since the Bible is indeed meant to be relevant and powerful for all time. Others would see it as making human ideas and philosophies the master, rather than God's, and would thus find this approach indefensible.

Perhaps the greatest problem is the post-modern idea of relativism - that there is no such thing as absolute truth. Thus any view is just 'your interpretation' and God has not spoken finally and authoritatively. This anti-Biblical cancer is prevalent in many Protestant churches and drastically undermines Biblical authority. Together with this, the widespread belief in evolution has undermined Biblical Christianity and many have compromised here also, trying to fit this in by sleight-of-hand tactics such as the 'gap theory' which are foreign to the Biblical text. The modern creation movement is a return to taking the Bible seriously as is the renewed and simultaneous emphasis on Biblical inerrancy.

So, to summarize, the answer would be both yes and no - depending on which Protestants you talked to. Those who aren't really following the Bible also may not wish to identify themselves as such, as, at least in name, the Bible is the sole source of authority for Protestants.

Answer 2

The Sacred Scriptures have God as their principal author, they are inspired, and inerrant. They teach the truth, and they should be read and studied. As Christ is the fulfillment of the Sacred Scriptures and the central object of the New Testament, they are to have wide access by the Christian faithful. "Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ." - St. Jerome.

Answer 3

That the Bible is the Inspired Word of God, revealed to prophets by the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches us the history of our salvation through Jesus Christ.
The Catholic Church believes and teaches that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, a part of the sacred Deposit of Faith. Some have described it as "a love letter from God to us." The Church also believes that a special part of her mission is to interpret, teach, and hand on the Bible. The Catholic Church has always set great store by Holy Scripture. During the Dark Ages in Europe, when many books were destroyed in wars and invasions, Catholic monks sat quietly in the cells painstakingly hand-copying the entire text of the Bible. There was no electricity; the printing press had not yet been invented. For light these monks had either the sunlight coming through a small window or a candle; for a pen they had a quill or other hand-made pen, and the ink they used they had to mix up themselves. In cold weather, the ink sometimes froze, and the monks had to thaw it with a candle. The paper they wrote on was made from either the skins of animals or from cloth - so the monks often had to make the pages for their Bible themselves, too. The newly-copied Bibles were distributed to churches and convents throughout Europe so that the people might hear the word of God.

Answer 4

Catholics and Orthodox Christians believe that the Bible is the inerrant, divinely inspired word of God.

For us (I am an Anglo Catholic) we do not believe the Bible is the ONLY source of divinely inspired truth: we believe that the Tradition of the church is ALSO AND EQUALLY inspired by God. So, unlike most Protestants who believe the Bible is the ONLY source of divine revelation, we have TWO sources.

Finally, we do not believe every word of the Bible is to be taken literally. The Bible is not a single book, but a disparate group of books that we consider to be divinely inspired. They are divinely inspired literature and thus not everything in the Bible is intended to be taken as FACTUALLY true. There is allegory, parable, analogy, symbolism, etc. In other words just because the Bible said that the world was created in seven days doesn't mean it literally happened that way. It is symbolism. We interpret it to mean that God created the world and man in his own image. It used language and symbols that were meaningful to the time the bible was written.

Thus unlike fundamentalist protestants we interpret the Bible appropriately: thus every word of the bible contains DIVINELY INSPIRED TRUTH not necessarily HISTORICAL FACT. This does not mean however that there is no historical fact in the Bible. We literally believe among other things, in the birth, ministry, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus as well as the coming of the Holy Ghost, or Pentecost.

Answer 5

Both believe that it is the WORD OF GOD, however there is great disparity in the interpretation and application to the influence it may or may not have on the life of the individual.