Dear Patrick:

No offense to your friend as what I am about to say is rather harsh, but sometimes truth is harsh.

I am always amazed at the utter ignorance of the Bible of people who are "Bible Christians". Not only are they ignorant of the Bible, but they do not know how to think.

Case in point is the often spouted notion that the Bible does not have to be interpreted. This comes from a fear and demonizing of intellect and knowledge, an obfuscation to avoid responsibility and accountability for mis-interpretations, an arrogance of their own opinions and need to justify them, and a fear that Catholics might be right.

All communication in any form must be interpreted. The words I am typing in answer to this question must be interpreted and could be interpreted wrongly.

The Constitution of the United States is in black and white print for all to read, yet we have a Supreme Court to "interpret" those words of the Constitution.

The Bible itself, if they will only read it, also speaks of the difficulty of interpreting the teaching of St. Paul (2 Peter 3:15-16), for example, and warns about the attempts to try to interpret the Bible by oneself (2 Peter 1:20).

If the Bible does not need interpreting then why does the Bible speak about the difficulty of interpreting the Scripture and the danger of private interpretation?

As to the point that God knew what the writers of the Bible would write, this is true. God knows this because He knows all things, and He is the one who divinely inspired the message (but not the letter-by-letter) of the Bible.

As for the "all scripture" referring to the Old Testament scriptures, this is true as at the time Paul was writing to Timothy the Gospels were not even written yet. In addition, of course, we did not know which manuscripts were New Testament Scripture until the 4th century and not fully confirmed until the 16th century.

However, the principle of the passage in Timothy certainly applies to ALL SCRIPTURE, even that which we eventually came to know as the New Testament. Obviously the New Testament Scripture is "inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."

It must be noted, however, that while it is true that all scripture is profitable to teachings, etc., this verse does not say that scripture (Written Tradition) is the exclusive and only thing profitable to teaching. Oral Tradition of the Church, which precedes Written Tradition and informs and vets Written Tradition, is also the Word of God, "inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."

I am sure you have already covered this with your friend, but it begs repeating -- the father of the New Testament is God inspiring his children. The mother of the New Testament that gave birth to the New Testament and verified it is the Church (and by Church, we mean the Pope and Magisterium).

Bottomline: The Scriptures MUST be interpreted. To say that it is wrong to interpret them is just plain stupid. The problem is who has the authority to interpret. The private interpretations of men, in violation of 2 Peter 1:20, created Protestantism and its 30,000 groups, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodox, and the various schismatic groups out there like the SSPX, the Old Catholics and other such man-made groups. Only the Catholic Church (under the Pope and Magisterium) is the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church founded by Jesus Christ as that remains in the fullness of the faith.

Jesus was not so cruel as to leave us without a "Supreme Court" to ensure the correct interpretation of the faith. That "supreme court" is the Pope and Magisterium.

By the way, God has ALWAYS had a Magisterium. This did not begin with the Catholic Church. Immediately before Christ was the Magisterium of Moses -- the Chair of Moses (Matt. 23:2), before that was the Chair of Abraham, etc. all the way back to Adam.

In a real sense Adam was the first Pope (a word that means "father"), the first visible head of God's children.

This is the way God has always done it and He will continue to do it that way until the end of the age.

God bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary