Well helloooo, long-lost blog-land! Just when I thought I’d hung up my blogger’s hat, a pivotal moment came along that has my fingertips itching to get the explosion of thoughts out of my head just so that I can sleep tonight. Who’m I kidding? I’m not sleeping tonight. After three years of intensive prayer and research of the Catholic faith, then ultimately becoming Catholic almost seven years ago (wow! not a newbie anymore!), Lukus and I settled into a nice little intellectual reprieve, simply living our faith and raising our family. But since a recent move, I’ve found myself having all the same conversations I was so saturated in years ago, but this time with new friends as I explain and defend Catholicism. I gotta say, it’s quite the mix of thrilling, exhausting, bonding, and frustrating, so I figured I would take the frustrating part and channel it into something halfway productive.

I made the mistake of thinking that I wouldn’t need to ever write about Catholic doctrine. I could get away with just writing my own story of conversion, and my experience in the Catholic faith. After all, far more brilliant and educated minds than mine have plumbed the depths of Catholic doctrine and written substantial treatises, so who am I?

Turns out, I’m people’s friend, and that’s my essential qualification. People don’t know what they don’t know until they have a friend who knows. And apparently, it appears that most Catholics and Protestants do not run in the same circles, and therefore do not get to know one another or their beliefs, nor do most people read the foundational writings of other doctrines (Ain’t nobody got time for dat). Or if they do run in the same circles, most people tend to avoid controversy and discussing their differences.

But now I find myself the sole Catholic in a wonderful new-to-me community of other Christians. These friendships have been a balm to my heart after years of loneliness and rejection, and they accept and respect who I am and my beliefs without sweeping them under the rug and ignoring our differences. I’ve loved how we’ve been able to engage on topics so openly and respectfully! The thing is, my friends and I are all part of a bigger organization that I was surprised to find does not allow Catholics in leadership. This struck me as odd for a non-denominational Christian organization that welcomes Catholic and Orthodox families as members. While I could understand a distinctly Baptist organization saying that only Baptists can lead a group, or an Anglican group only hiring Anglicans, I struggle to accept the logic of a broadly Christian group rejecting a Catholic who adheres to the core Christian tenets of the faith. With all the members having a very wide range of varying doctrinal beliefs, why draw the line at Catholics? Being a former Protestant, I know exactly where the concerns about Catholics lie, but being a former Protestant, I also know exactly where the misinformation and misunderstandings lie. So here I am on a Friday night, utterly compelled to put something out there that clears the air.

I intend to do a series of the various hang-ups with Catholicism, but I’ll start with this: It was suggested that Catholics do not have a biblical worldview. Oh boy, where to begin with that one?! I’m sure my Catholic friends in our small group Bible study would wonder what we’ve been up to if we weren’t gaining a biblical worldview from our studies! Again, as a former Protestant who learned John 3:16 at age four from my big sister, who carried my Egermeier Bible Story Book around with me everywhere for years, who attended Christian school and competed in memory verse competitions, practiced daily Bible study, had scripture quoted to me by my mom as I raced out the door to school…I know what a biblical worldview means and what it looks like, and that’s what I see in the Catholic Church. If Catholics don’t have a biblical worldview, no one does.

Here’s why:

First off, the Bible was canonized over a series of councils beginning in 325 A.D. and culminating in the Council of Rome in 382 A.D. under Pope Demasus during the reign of Constantine I, which means that the Church had practiced the Christian faith without a Bible for over 300 years. Yes, there were the Gospels, and there were many letters written by apostles and pastors, but nothing was definitively settled as the “divinely inspired Word of God” until 382. Until then, Christians relied on Apostolic Tradition, trusting God that He was divinely guiding the apostles, bishops and priests before there was a completed Bible. And what did these divinely inspired people do? They compiled a Bible, voting on which letters were significant enough to be called “Scripture” and which were not. So not only did the Church come before the Bible and functioned quite effectively without one for those 350 years, but by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it recognized the need for the Bible and gave us one. The Church then continued to preserve, translate, copy, and teach the Bible from that point to this day.

Second of all, once the Catholic Church gave us the Bible, it protected the integrity of the complete text, which is why Catholics today have the same 73 book canon that Christians had from 382 A.D. But in the 1500s, Martin Luther deleted 7 Old Testament books, attempted to eliminate James, and added his own words to the book of Romans. Luther may have had some legitimate critiques of the Church during his era, but that is beside the point for this discussion. It seems ironic that the originator of the idea of “Sola Scriptura” took it upon himself to alter Holy Scripture sola himself. Catholics have claim to almost 2,000 years of the same Word of God as compiled by a series of councils over the course of 60 years by many bishops. Protestants, who prize God’s Word above all, have a 500 year old Bible that has been edited and altered by a single individual.

Third of all, the Catholic Church has combed over every word of Scripture in order to interpret it properly. This is where I could diverge onto the parallel subject of Church authority in interpretation, but I’ll try to stick as closely as I can to the topic of “biblical worldview” in this post. The Catholic Church has stood faithful to biblical doctrine for 2,000 years. While various Christian denominations have changed with the times, altering their stances on divorce, homosexuality, abortion, etc., Catholicism has adhered steadfastly to biblical teaching, holding the line so that the Christian faith is not watered down regardless of cultural shifts. A “biblical worldview” means believing in a loving Creator Triune God who made a good world, Man willfully sinning and being separated from God, God promising a Savior that would reunite Himself to Man, that Savior coming in the form of Jesus who was fully God and fully Man miraculously born of a virgin, sacrificing Himself on the cross out of great love, rising again in glory, offering salvation to all who accept the gift by grace through faith so that we may live lives of holiness by the power of the Holy Spirit, free from sin to do good works and redeem a lost world, and be welcomed to Heaven as we await the second coming of Christ. The Nicene Creed says it more beautifully, but this is a biblical worldview. This is everything the Bible and life are about. Additionally, a biblical worldview upholds the sanctity of life, views every individual with love, acknowledges the sins listed in the Bible as sin, looks to the example of Jesus in every area of life, compassionately meets the needs of the afflicted, and never caves to hopelessness, hate, or hedonism. This is the Catholic worldview because it is a biblical one.

Fourth, Scripture plays a central role in Catholic worship. There are two distinct sections of the Mass: The Liturgy of the Word, and The Liturgy of the Eucharist. No one who’s paying attention could sit through The Liturgy of the Word and claim that Catholics do not have a biblical worldview. We do four readings at every single Mass: one from the Old Testament, a Psalm, the New Testament (Acts – Revelation), and another from the Holy Gospels. Every Mass. Four readings. I didn’t do that much scripture reading in my biblical survey classes in college! At Mass, we read through the entirety of the Bible in a 3-year cycle, then the priest gives a simple sermon focusing on the message of the gospel. He frequently closes with, “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord with your lives,” a biblical commission if there ever was one.

And finally, Catholic Bible study groups are growing and flourishing everywhere. We left ours in Oklahoma City only to jump right into another one here in Spokane where we studied the book of Acts together. My intercessory prayer group always opens with a Bible reading. And the 4th through 6th graders that I teach on Sunday mornings all received their own Bibles from the church, and along with reading and discussing the scriptures, we are memorizing a scripture a week. Admittedly, personal Bible study for Catholics is a fairly new thing, and by new, I mean the 1950s when the Second Vatican Council took place and a lot of changes occurred that brought about a spiritual renewal. It doesn’t mean that Catholics didn’t have a biblical worldview before that, but rather that personal in-depth study is a more recent addition. But I would think that 80 years might be enough for an old reputation to fade. Obviously, there are “bad Catholics” out there just like there are “bad Protestants/church-goers/so-called believers” out there – people who claim a church or a certain set of beliefs, but don’t really know, or understand, or care enough to live it out. However, those people cannot be held up as representatives of the faith.

So let’s review: The Catholic Church gave us the Bible through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Catholic Church has preserved the biblical text these 2,000 years without alteration despite the Reformation changes, the Catholic Church has maintained the biblical morals, values, and doctrine as defined in the Bible for 2,000 years despite cultural changes, the Catholic Church reads and preaches the Bible, and exhorts biblical living at every Mass, and Catholics study the Bible for growth in personal holiness and devotion to Jesus. While Christians – Catholic and Protestant alike – can debate all the live-long day the various interpretations of Scripture or the minutiae of traditions, it is only in absolute ignorance that anyone could claim that a genuine Catholic does not, at the very least, have a biblical worldview. Let us have that preposterous notion put to bed once and for all.