So... If the Roman Catholic Institution Gave Me the Bible Then Why Am I Forbidden to Even Own One?
I'm amazed at the audacity of Roman Catholicism to claim that she supposedly gave the Bible to the world. I have run into an argument with some self-proclaimed Roman Catholic apologists or some professional Roman Catholic apologists who agree at one point: they both agree that the Roman Catholic institution gave born again Christians the Bible. But there's one problem: their claim that the Roman Catholic institution is supposedly apostolic and Peter is the first Pope is built on shaky ground. Even if they claim that Peter could have just been out of town when Paul wrote to the Romans, wouldn't that be rude of Paul to forget Peter in the first place?
One reason I got from some self-proclaimed Roman Catholic apologists is that not anyone may read the Scriptures. They think that the interpretation of the Scriptures should be left to the "infallible magisterium" of the Roman Catholic institution with Popes and councils to justify why it was once illegal to own a Bible. Ironically, they do have a copy of a Roman Catholic Bible when back then, it was even illegal to own a Roman Catholic translation of the Bible! Note that the late Martin Luther translated a Roman Catholic translation from Latin to German. That kind of reasoning is very stupid because the Apostle Paul wrote this to Timothy which I'll quote from the Good News Version for the sake of Roman Catholics who are reading this post:
2 Timothy 3:15
And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Did you read that? Paul addressed to Timothy knowledge of the Scriptures even when the latter was as a child. The Old Testament didn't forbid Bible reading. In fact, it encouraged Bible reading. Here's some Old Testament passages that encourages Bible reading:
Deuteronomy 11:18-19
Therefore shall ye lay up these My words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Joshua 1:8
This Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
There's the objection that there was no Bible yet during that time so how can Sola Scriptura be possible? But what about the Scriptures? Whatever Scripture was available to them is the Bible of their day. Sure, they didn't have the New Testament yet but they all had copies of the Scripture. The Scriptures were compiled and when the new books were added it was because of divine inspiration. Today, the Bible is finished and the Roman Catholic institution didn't compile it. To say that the apostles didn't carry a Bible with them is just absurd because they carried copies of the Scripture. Should I mention that they love to mention "But that's just Old Testament!" all the while erroneously misquoting from it to justify the Roman Catholic priesthood? They may also be ignoring the fact that Jesus and the apostles quoted from Old Testament Scriptures to back up the fulfillment of prophecies and the validity of the New Testament. The New Testament didn't get rid of the Old Testament. Instead, it showed how important it was to understanding how Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in the New Testament.
I remembered reading the Foxe's Book of Martyrs and records of the Roman Catholic institution's atrocities included murdering Bible translators like the late William Tyndale through kangaroo courts and the Spanish Inquisition. Some Roman Catholic apologists have contradicted themselves to say that these Bible translators were justly executed because they are false prophets while they oppose the death penalty and deny the historical proof of the Inquisition as a "myth" at the same time. They're pretty much double-minded and James 1:8 warns double minded people are unstable in all their ways. So if they gave the Bible why even hide it? The Bible never commanded that the Bible shouldn't be at the hands of the common people. The Old Testament required it and so did the New Testament.
When the epistles were written were they meant for a certain group of people or for everyone to read? The more I read Paul's epistles he was writing to everyone in that city. He didn't write Romans only for the church authorities in Romans or Corinthians only to the church authorities in Corinthians. He spoke to both the church authorities and the people in every place he wrote. When he wrote to Philemon who had a runaway slave remember that man was a commoner. If the apostles wrote the New Testament for all to read then why forbid people from even owning copies of them? That alone starts to even contest the validity of the claim that the Roman Catholic institution is holy and apostolic. Yes it's catholic in the sense it's universal but it's not holy or apostolic. The history of the Vatican is so dirty. Remember Jesus warned this about knowing people by their fruits:
Matthew 7:16-20
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Just reading the history of the Roman Catholic institution is more than enough to make me vomit even if I'm not sinless and I have no holiness apart from my own. It's all about the conviction of the Holy Spirit that makes me hate sin and hate my sin the most because it was my sin that required Jesus to die for me and that sin that would have damned to Hell. The history of the "holy" fathers of Rome is even disgusting filled with a lot of stuff that were well hidden today. The history of the Popes is so marred with scandals that makes you wonder if these men are truly men of God or not. Even if the apostles weren't perfect but they never lived a life of sin. The papal scandals alone are so well-denied or are dismissed as merely satanic slanders even when they're true. The scandals of the Vatican are so numerous that there's really much to answer for. Even when the late John Paul II (now a "saint" according to Roman Catholicism) has held the Day of Pardon mass I don't think even half or a quarter of the truth has been told.
Besides, the real reason why the Roman Catholic institution forbade the Bibles to be owned was because of what it would do. Even before the late great Luther, the Baptists were already around giving copies of the Bible to Roman Catholics. That alone could have launched the Reformation without the late Luther so they ordered the massacre of such people. Late Pre-Reformers like Jan Hus and Girolamo Savonarola all lead their own reformation with the Latin Vulgate of the Roman Catholic institution. The Bible today is something that has its legacy soaked with the blood of those who sought to get it to be the common people. No, the Roman Catholic institution didn't give me the Bible and I have no reason to believe that lie.