Why do Catholics believe in things that are not in the Bible?

Answer 1

AnswerAll religions and all denominations teach things that are not in their holy scriptures. It is simply not possible for a religion to hold no beliefs outside those written down centuries before.

In many cases, the early Christians tried to understand what was actually in the Bible, and came up with answers that implied some new revelation about their religion. At the extreme, the Gnostics could not resolve the angry and vengeful God of the Old Testament with the loving God of the New Testament and resolved that there must be two Gods.

It is this process of revelation that has allowed Christianity to grow and evolve. However, eventually, the Catholic Church became laden down with many new doctrines of increasing complexity, that not all members of the Church could accept. Thus came the Protestant Reformation, by which the Protestant Churches abandoned those doctrines that they felt were without foundation. The counter-Reformation also allowed the Catholic Church to review its teachings. The Catholic Church will continue to refine its teachings, via ex officio statements from the Pope.

Nevertheless, even the Protestants have retained some teachings that are not in the bible, or which are now known to have been inserted long afterwards by interpolators.

Answer 2

Many of these traditions have been handed down since the time of the apostles. In the book of John it says "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book" (John 20:30). He also says "But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written" (John 21:25). John admits that not everything is in Scripture. Nowhere in The Bible does it say "Scripture alone." Other things that were not in Scripture have been handed down by the apostles. If you look in the writings from the early Christians, many of the traditions are there.

Answer

The above is perfectly true. However, unlike some Protestant denominations who base their theology entirely on scripture, the Catholic Church has continued to develop its thinking and theology throughout history. For some doctrines this has not been a problem, but for many others critics say that the Catholic Church has been almost forced to add doctrine that is unbiblical in order that previous doctrine could not be suddenly realised as wrong. As an example of this, there is absolutely no evidence that Mary the mother of Jesus remained a virgin all her life. In fact, there is a great deal of evidence that she gave birth to several other children - brothers and sisters of Our Lord, as mentioned in scripture on several occasions. However, Catholics developed the doctrine that Mary was without original sin and hence the Immaculate Conception had to be invented to preserve this. After this, her perpetual virginal state had to be adopted as a doctrine, and her assumption into heaven, again to preserve the previous doctrines about her uncorruptability. Those questioning the Pope regarding docrine were then prevented from doing so by the doctrine of papal infallibility which was adopted in the 20th Century. So, after hundreds of years of extending doctrine in this way - not just with regard to the Virgin Mary but in other areas like purgatory and the veneration of relics - the Catholic Church cannot simply retract these doctrines as their original basis and the presumed authority of the church would also then be called into question.

Roman Catholic Answer:

The Catholic Church has many traditions that are not in the Bible because Jesus Christ established a Church which is His Mystical Body. He did not invent a printing press, he did not write the New Testament. He taught twelve apostles, sent the Holy Spirit on them to teach and all truth, and sent them out into the world to preach the good news. The Church wrote the New Testament as part of Its preaching. Not everything that was taught by Jesus is contained in the Scriptures, it says so itself! However, He guaranteed to be with His church until the end of time, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Nothing the Church teaches can be in conflict with Sacred Scripture, of course, that would be impossible as the Church wrote them and believes them to be inerrant as the Word of God.

Answer 3

Tradition from the apostolic succession, and the writings of what early Christians believed by the people known as the Patristic Fathers (Irenaus, Origen, Augustine, etc.) In the years right after Jesus' death and before the Gospels or Letters of Paul were even written traditions played a huge part in Christianity's development. Disciples of the apostles and Paul would write these down to reflect what was taught, for example the Trinity, which is not in the Bible anywhere, and more than just Catholics profess it. Plus the Bible as we know it today did not even exist until about 395 after its "catholic" canonization around the time of the Council of Nicaea. Furthermore after the Reformation huge portions of the Bible were dropped in "protestant" versions.

Roman Catholic AnswerCatholics only believe what was revealed to us by Our Blessed Lord and His Apostles. Revelation ended with the death of the last Apostle, at that time, the fullness of Our Blessed Lord's revelation and teaching to us was complete, nothing can be added or subtracted to that teaching. As noted above, it is called the Deposit of Faith, or Tradition. Part of that Tradition was written down in the Bible in the century following the death of Our Blessed Lord, and finally collected into the Bible and approved by the Church and the Holy Father in the fourth and fifth centuries. Catholics do not believe ANYTHING that is contrary to the Bible, but remember that the Bible is a Catholic Book that was written by the Church as a teaching tool, NOT as an Encyclopedia of the Faith!