Bible.ca Rebuttal: Definition of a Catholic - Part 1
The best thing someone in the Church of Christ can do when speaking of Catholics is to understand what they actually believe. It’s very easy to tell people what Catholics believe, but it’s harder to do the research and make sure your view of Catholics is correct. Bible.ca makes several doctrinal and historical claims, some true, some untrue (Rudd, n.d.). I’ll be clarifying and correcting these positions.
The first claim is Catholics believe their Church was founded in AD 33. This is true. We believe Jesus gave the keys and authority to Peter, and Peter officially opened the Church on the Day of Pentecost. 3,000 people entered the Church that day, organized under Peter and the other apostles.
The second claim is the Pope is God appointed as head of the Church on earth. This is where clarification from Steve Rudd would be helpful. Does he mean that Catholics believe God selects a Pope Himself, or He approves them through the ordinary means of selection by men? If it’s the second, then yes, that is what we believe (Akin, 2018). What we don’t do is say God is telepathically saying who the next Pope will be. The office of the Pope is authorized by God, the men themselves have free will and may not act in accordance with that office.
The third claim is Catholics believe the Pope has the same authority as the Scripture. This is false. The Second Vatican Council affirmed God’s Word is above the Magisterium. The Papacy serves the Scripture. The Pope is infallible, but not inspired (Broussard, 2025). He cannot make new doctrine, but he is authorized to infallibly teach Scripture when speaking ex cathedra.
The fourth claim is the Church is the infallible interpreter of Scripture. This is true, but it does not mean the Church has infallibly interpreted every verse. Rather, the Church interprets what God has deemed important for us to understand, whereas other verses are free to the reader. For instance, the Church has not defined what time of day Adam and Eve ate the fruit. The reader is free to artistically render that scene however they choose. Perhaps they do it as a sunny day, or a rainy night. What the Church does is install fences to ensure her children don’t wander into a briar patch or off a cliff (Eric, 2015). For instance, the Church has ruled we must believe Adam and Eve did rebel and brought sin into all the world. So we aren’t free to think of Adam and Eve as mythical and sin as a social construct.
The fifth claim states Tradition is equal to the Bible in authority. This is mixed because Tradition is not the Bible, but Tradition and the Bible are God’s Word. Tradition cannot create new revelation, it simply tells us what the Church has always believed as handed down from the apostles. Paul told the Thessalonians to not just hold to scripture, but to the Tradition they received from the apostles. And the Catholic Church has kept this Tradition intact since the first century. You can’t have Scripture without Tradition because you need Tradition to tell us what Scripture is, and the teachings not written down.
References
Akin, J. (2018). Does God Pick the Pope? Catholic Answers. https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/does-god-pick-the-pope
Broussard, K. (2025). Is the Pope’s Word God’s Word? Catholic Answers. https://www.catholic.com/video/is-the-popes-word-gods-word
Eric, S. (2015). Why Doesn’t the Church Infallibly Interpret Every Verse of Scripture? Catholic Stand. https://catholicstand.com/doesnt-church-just-infallibly-interpret-every-verse-scripture/
Rudd, S. (n.d.). Definition of a Roman Catholic. Bible.ca. https://www.bible.ca/catholic-start.htm