Finally–and this is the last comment I am going to contribute to this discussion–I challenge you Protestants who insist that miracles have to be seen (and I guess I’m retracting my earlier concesssion), to tell me exactly how you can reconcile that idea with your belief that Scripture is the inspried Word of God. Did you actually see the Holy Spirit move the Apostles and the Old Testament saints to write down Holy Writ? Let’s say that you lived back in apostolic times, and were an unbeliever. Let’s say that you were curious about what Christians teach, so you went to see St. Matthew. You saw him writing. You ask him what he’s writing about. He says that, well he really isn’t the primary writer, it’s God who’s telling him what to write. You would consider the writing of the Bible to be a miracle, would you not?
What physical evidence do you have, then, that God was inspring him to write? Could you see God moving his hand? No, of course not. All you could see is a man sitting at a table and writing on a piece of paper. No evidence that God is writing, is there?
You may respond, “well, I wouldn’t be able to see it, but Matthew certainly felt inspired by the Holy Spirit.” To which I respond: where does it say in the Bible that the Apostles felt anything when they wrote down Holy Writ? Furthermore, even if they claim that they did, this still doesn’t solve anything. You have to take them at their word that they’re feeling something, just as we take Our Lord at His word when He says, “this is my Body,” and “this is my Blood.” You’re willing to take mere man at his word without actually seeing any physical evidence, but you’re not willing to take Our Lord, God Himself, at His word?
You’re willing to take St. Paul at his word when he says, “All Scripture is inspired by God,” etc., even though from appearances it looks no different from any other human work, yet you are not willing to take Our Lord at His word when He says that the bread and wine are His Body and Blood, because they still appear to be bread and wine?
We can’t physically verify it anymore than you can physically verify that God actually inspried the Apostles to write the sacred books. All you can do is rely on faith (and, by the way, you are relying on Tradition for knowing the Canon of the Scriptures, whether you like it or not. Please show me where in the Bible it says that Hebrews, the Letter of St. James, etc., are actually inspried by God. Don’t bring up 2 Timothy 3:16, because that doesn’t say what specifically constitutes the scriptures. Show me where the Bible says that the Epistle of St. Jude is inspired by God. It doesn’t. You, like us, rely on Tradition for that. We’re just more consistent than you are).
You might also respond, “but we know it’s inspired because of the wonderful way it’s helped us respond to Christ!” Indeed, scripture does do this. So, however, does the Eucharist. We can testify to the wonderful changes it has wrought in our lives.
You ask where does the phrase “transubstantiation” occur in the Bible. It is inferred from the fact that Our Lord says that the bread and wine are His Body and Blood. By your rationale, I should ask where does the phrase “Trinity” appear in the Bible, and then reject it as false since the word does not appear there. We infer the process. Likewise, we also infer the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. Where does Scripture explicitly say that the Holy Spirit is God? It doesn’t. We infer that as well, and rightly so.
Finally, I will leave you all with this to ponder: where does the word “Bible” appear in the Bible? Please show me the book, chapter and verse. What? The word "Bible: isn’t in the Bible? Then it’s nothing more than a tradition of man, added by later generations of false Christians! We must reject this false doctrine immediately!
God bless you all, and may you all have a very Merry Christmas!
