Does the Bible Really Say That?: Discovering Catholic Teaching in Scripture (2 page)

CHAPTER 2

Temptations

The famous wit Samuel Johnson once wrote, “If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.”
¹
He knew, as we all do from bitter experience, that temptations to sin are most formidable when we’re alone and think no one will see. But of course,
God
sees, though we try to ignore that reality.

King David reflected on this fact: “O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me! / Thou knowest when I sit down and when I rise up; / thou discernest my thoughts from afar. / Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, / and art acquainted with all my ways. / Even before a word is on my tongue, / lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether” (Psalm 139:1–4).

So, since we know we gain nothing from rebelling against God through sin, and since no sin, however clandestine, is hidden from God, why does he allow us to be tempted in the first place?

The
Catechism of the Catholic Church
explains that this is part of our progress toward spiritual maturity enabling us to “
discern
between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, [cf.
Lk.
8:13-15;
Acts
14:22;
Rom
5:3-5;
2 Tim
3:12]
and temptation, which leads to sin and death [cf.
Jas
1:14-15].” The Holy Spirit also gives us the grace necessary to distinguish between “
being
tempted and
consenting
to temptation” (
CCC
, 2847). 

As Scripture warns, temptations are “a delight to the eyes” (Genesis 3:6). And though they are highly attractive, at least at first, in reality they are a downward-sloping path to eternal destruction. “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 14:12).

We must guard against temptation, first, so we won’t commit sin and, second, so we won’t become a source of temptation to others, causing them to sin because of us. Christ warned, “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the man by whom the temptation comes!” (Matthew 18:7).

When Christ taught us the “Our Father,” he included the petition “lead us not into temptation” (Matthew 6:13). The
Catechism
explains what this means:

[O]ur sins result from our consenting to temptation; we therefore ask our Father not to “lead” us into temptation. It is difficult to translate the Greek verb used by a single English word: the Greek means both “do not allow us to enter into temptation” and “do not let us yield to temptation” [cf.
Mt
. 26:41]. “God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one”; [
Jas
1:3] on the contrary, he wants to set us free from evil. We ask him not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin. (
CCC,
2846; see also 2863, emphasis added)

James 1:12–15 says: “Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death” (see Romans 6:23). And Saint Paul wrote about his bafflement at his own struggles with temptation and sin:

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.... I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.... I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members (Romans 7:15, 18–19, 21–24; see 7:13–14).

If even Saint Paul had to contend with unruly passions and temptations, we are in excellent company as we struggle against the temptations that nip and peck at us.

We must avoid the near occasions of sin that give rise to temptations (Matthew 18:8–9) and proactively seek to conquer temptations through prayer and by cultivating virtue. “Why do you sleep?” Christ admonishes us. “Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Luke 22:46; see 22:39–45).

Satan tempted Christ himself during his forty-day fast in the desert (Luke 4:1–13). Christ is the perfect model of how we should react when the devil dangles a sinful enticement before us. We must rely on God’s grace for strength to conquer it (2 Corinthians 12:7–9), for his grace is stronger than any temptation, however formidable.

Remember what Saint Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:13: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” When temptations come your way, pray for strength and remember these encouraging words: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

Further Reading:
Genesis 3:1–24; Psalm 121; Matthew 4:1–17; Luke 8:4–15; 1 Corinthians 7:1–7; 10:13; Hebrews 2:18

CCC,
538–556, 1262, 1520, 2340, 2848

CHAPTER 3

Do Catholics Worship Statues?

When I arrived one evening at a suburban Chicago parish to conduct an apologetics seminar, I noticed a life-sized statue of Our Lady of Fatima on the rectory lawn. Three smaller statues of Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, the children to whom Our Lady appeared, knelt in prayer, heads bowed, before the larger statue.

Turning to my colleague in the car, I joked, “What a great religion Catholicism is! Not only can we worship statues, but our statues can worship statues.” We chuckled at the absurdity of the thought.

When I mentioned this incident during the seminar, the Catholics in the audience laughed at the notion of statues worshiping statues as much as at the nonsense of humans worshiping statues—but some of the Protestants in attendance weren’t laughing. They looked puzzled. The reason, as I discovered during the question and answer session, was that some of them actually believed that Catholics do worship statues.

The suspicion that Catholics engage in idolatry fuels this Protestant disapproval of Catholic statues and images. And the concern is far more widespread than you might think. Their scriptural objection to religious statues is primarily based on two passages: In Exodus 20:3–5, God warns Moses, “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them” (see Deuteronomy 5:6–9). And Deuteronomy 27:15 says, “Cursed be the man who makes a graven or molten image, an abomination to the
Lord
, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.”

Indeed, admonitions against idolatry appear throughout Scripture (Numbers 33:52; Deuteronomy 7:5, 25; 9:12; 12:3; 2 Kings 17:9–18; 23:24; 2 Chronicles 23:17; 28:1–3; 33:18–25; 34:1–7). In 1 Corinthians 10:14 Saint Paul clearly admonishes, “[B]eloved, shun the worship of idols” (see Romans 1:18–23).

Keep in mind that God condemns worshiping any
thing
as an idol, whether it be a statue, or stock options, or sex, or power or a new car. But he does not prohibit religious images, provided they are used properly. For example, in Exodus 25, God commands Moses to carve religious statues:

The
Lord
said to Moses...“[Y]ou shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.” (Exodus 25:1, 18–20; see 26:1)

It is evident from this passage and others that there are circumstances in which religious images are not merely permissible, but are actually pleasing to God.

In Exodus 28:33–34 the Lord commands that Aaron’s priestly vestments be adorned with images of pomegranates. In Numbers 21:8–9 he commands Moses to fashion a graven image of a snake that would miraculously cure poisonous snakebites (a mysterious foreshadowing of the cross of Christ [John 3:14; 8:28]). Yet in 2 Kings 18:4, when the people begin worshiping the bronze serpent, the king immediately destroys it. What once was a legitimate sacred image had become an object of idolatry—a cautionary tale for anyone tempted toward that sin. There is also an oddly humorous incident involving images described in 1 Samuel 6:1–18.

And notice what God told Solomon as he constructed the temple: “
‘Concerning this house which you are building,
if you will walk in my statutes and obey my ordinances and keep all my commandments and walk in them
, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.’ So Solomon built the house, and finished it” (1 Kings 6:12–14, emphasis added).

This passage contains crucial insight into the use of religious images, for Solomon’s temple contained many statues and graven images, including angels, trees, flowers, oxen and lions (1 Kings 6:23–35; 7:25, 36). Solomon’s decision to include these religious images came from the gift of wisdom with which God had blessed him (1 Kings 3:1–28). Far from being displeased, God said to Solomon: “I have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before me; I have consecrated this house, which you have built, and put my name there for ever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time” (1 Kings 9:3).

Obviously, God would not have blessed Solomon and “consecrated” his temple filled with statues and images if he did not approve of them—further evidence that images can be good when used to order our minds toward heavenly realities.

In the New Testament, Christ is called “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). The Greek word here for “image” is
eikon
, from which we derive the word “icon.”

Just as we keep pictures of our family and friends to remind us of them, we also keep religious statues and images in our homes and churches to remind us of Christ, Our Lady and the saints.

Further Reading:
John 14:9; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3; 1 John 1:1–3

CCC,
1159–1161, 2112–2114, 2129–2141

CHAPTER 4

Calling Priests “Father”

The Catholic custom of addressing priests as “father” dates back to the early years of Christianity. The writings of the early Church Fathers brim with examples of priests, bishops and popes being referred to as “father.” In fact, the term “pope” derives from the Latin
papa
, an affectionate form of address given to many bishops in the early Church, although now, in the
w
estern
c
hurch, it refers specifically to the Bishop of Rome.

The Bible, however, seems to contradict this ancient Catholic practice, and many Bible-believing non-Catholics consider calling priests “father” to be a direct violation of Christ’s instruction in Matthew 23:9: “[C]all no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.” At first glance, those sixteen words seem to cinch the case against this longstanding Catholic custom. But let’s look deeper and see if that’s really the case.

The truth is that Christ did not
literally
mean call no one “teacher,” “father” or “master.” If he had, we would expect to see the Apostles follow this literal interpretation throughout the New Testament, but in fact we see exactly the opposite: the New Testament writers frequently called men “father,” as well as “teacher” and “master” (Acts 5:34; Colossians 4:1; 2 Timothy 1:11). This indicates their understanding that Christ’s words in this case were not to be taken literally.

Rather, it seems that Christ was warning us not to look to any human authority as our teacher, father or master in the same way that we would look to God to fulfill those roles in our lives. The Lord’s admonition was prompted here by his disgust with the Pharisees and scribes, who had
wrongfully arrogated to themselves some things reserved to God alone (Matthew 15:1–9; Mark 7:6–13). For more on this problem, see chapter five.

Catholics are not violating Christ’s instructions by calling priests “father.” The first clue is that Christ, who is God himself, is utterly incapable by his divine nature of contradicting or somehow being at odds with the two other Persons of the Blessed Trinity, the Father and the Holy Spirit. “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33). Therefore, when we encounter episodes in Scripture where the Holy Spirit inspires people to use the word “father” as a form of address, we can safely conclude that Christ’s words in Matthew 23 cannot have meant literally “do not call priests ‘father’.”

For example, in Acts 7:2 Saint Stephen addresses the Jewish elders as “[b]rethren and fathers.” Stephen was “full of the Holy Spirit” when he uttered these words to
the very same men
Christ rebuked in Matthew 23 (Acts 7:55; see 6:8). Throughout his soliloquy, Stephen repeatedly referred to various men in the Old Testament as “fathers.”

Ask yourself: If Christ had meant “call no man ‘father’” literally, then how could the Holy Spirit have inspired Stephen to address his audience as “fathers,” as well as inspire Saint Luke to record this speech so favorably in the book of Acts? Clearly, he would not have if, in fact, Christ had meant his comments in Matthew 23 literally.

Saint John repeatedly addresses men as “fathers” in 1 John (2:13–14). Saint Paul also addresses the Jewish leaders of his day as “fathers” in Acts 22:1. He uses the title “father” when writing about Abraham in passages such as Romans 4:17–18. And in 1 Thessalonians 2:11 he describes his ministry among the Christians in Thessalonica as “a father with his children.”

And then there’s Saint Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 4:14–16: “I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers.
For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel
. I urge you, then, be imitators of me” (emphasis added).

Again we see in these Scriptures that calling priests “father” is not contrary to Christ’s teaching. After all, Saint Paul urges us to imitate him in doing so. Here we also see why this venerable Christian practice came into being in the first place: Priests are indeed our spiritual fathers. Priests “give birth” to us spiritually through the waters of baptism (John 3:3–5; Titus 3:5), they nourish us with the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist (1 Corinthians 11:23–32) and they care for us and bind our spiritual wounds through the healing sacraments of baptism, confession and the anointing of the sick (John 20:20–23; 2 Corinthians 5:18–19; James 5:13–16). Priests shepherd their flocks with all the fatherly love and concern that any good human father has for his own family. It makes perfect biblical sense to call priests “father.”

Finally, notice that many who quote Matthew 23:9 against Catholics often overlook verses 8 and 10: “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren.... Neither be called masters, for you have one master, the Christ.”  You see, if Catholics are violating Christ’s command in verse 9, then any Protestant minister who uses the title “doctor” (
doctor
is a Latin word for “teacher”) is just as guilty. Dr. Jerry Falwell, Dr. Billy Graham, and Dr. D. James Kennedy are prominent examples of such ministers. Similarly, any Christian with a master’s degree is in trouble!