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  • Writer's pictureBible Brian

Apparently, Luther didn't die until 1826


Catholic apologists are rarely more consistent as atheist apologists. There are numerous plot holes in their narratives. Take, for example, their attitude towards the Deuterocanon. On the one hand, Catholics will claim it was Luther who removed them from the canon. On the other hand, they will point out that until 1826, all Bibles, including Luther's own translation, contained the Deuterocanon.


These cannot both be true. If Luther is responsible for removing the Deuterocanon, they wouldn't still be there long after his death in 1546. If you still want to blame Luther, their inclusion in all Bibles, including his, up until 1826, could not be indicative of their canonical status. If you want to argue that it is, then you forfeit the right to claim Luther is responsible for their alleged removal.


Of course, in truth, both arguments fail. Even before Luther, the inclusion of the Deuterocanon alongside scripture was never indicative of their canonical status. Let us look at what Athanasias (296/98 - 373 A.D.) had to say in his 39th festal letter (367 A.D.):


"But for the sake of greater accuracy I add, being constrained to write, that there are also other books besides these, which have not indeed been put in the canon, but have been appointed by the Fathers as reading-matter for those who have just come forward and which to be instructed in the doctrine of piety: the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Sirach, Esther, Judith, Tobias, the so-called Teaching [Didache] of the Apostles, and the Shepherd. And although, beloved, the former are in the canon and the latter serve as reading matter, yet mention is nowhere made of the apocrypha; rather they are a fabrication of the heretics, who write them down when it pleases them and generously assign to them an early date of composition in order that they may be able to draw upon them as supposedly ancient writings and have in them occasion to deceive the guileless."


Setting aside Athanasias' view that Esther is not scripture, clearly he does not believe Wisdom, Sirach, Judith or Tobias are scripture either. Rather, they served as "reading matter". He was far from alone. A little after Athanasias' death in 373, Jerome (347 - 420 A.D.) was commissioned in 382 to translate the Bible into Latin. As he did so, he included prefaces, in which he included the following: "As, then, the Church reads Judith, Tobit, and the books of Maccabees, but does not admit them among the canonical Scriptures, so let it read these two volumes for the edification of the people, not to give authority to doctrines of the Church."


Perhaps most interesting is Pope Gregory the Great's (540 - 604 A.D.) statement in Moral Teachings Drawn from Job that "we (i.e. the Catholic Church) are not acting irregularly, if from the books, though not canonical, yet brought out for the edification of the Church, we bring forth testimony (...)". In other words, even Popes did not always accept the Deuterocanon as scripture.


Yet, Catholics assure us that the Deuterocanon was always considered scripture, right up until the day when Martin Luther, that great Satan, crawled out of Hell and snatched it away. When evidence is given to the contrary, suddenly Catholics remember that even the Church "Fathers" were not infallible.


But they can't have it both ways. The truth is, the Deuterocanon is not scripture, and no, it was not always considered such until Luther showed up. To quote a Catholic Source, consider this quote from the New Catholic Encyclopedia: "St. Jerome distinguished between canonical books and ecclesiastical books. The latter he judged were circulated by the Church as good spiritual reading but were not recognized as authoritative Scripture. The situation remained unclear in the ensuing centuries...For example, John of Damascus, Gregory the Great, Walafrid, Nicolas of Lyra and Tostado continued to doubt the canonicity of the deuterocanonical books. According to Catholic doctrine, the proximate criterion of the biblical canon is the infallible decision of the Church. This decision was not given until rather late in the history of the Church at the Council of Trent. The Council of Trent definitively settled the matter of the Old Testament Canon. That this had not been done previously is apparent from the uncertainty that persisted up to the time of Trent."


In other words, here we have a Catholic source admitting that, rather than the Deuterocanon being unanimously considered scripture until Luther showed up, it wasn't until Luther showed up that the Catholic Church officially decided it is scripture. One might say, ironically, the Council of Trent, which erroneously declared the Deuterocanon scripture, was held in protest of the Reformation.


Due to this erroneous declaration by Trent (not to mention many other false doctrines either invented or solidified by Trent), we can officially say the Catholic Church is apostate, and at this point, beyond redemption. That's not to say there are no saved Catholics. As with pretty much all religions, most Catholics don't actually know their history, or their teachings, but rather, they have swallowed the lies their significantly more knowledgeable apologists and leaders have fed them. But the Catholic Church itself is a detestable organisation that has stolen from God, twisting, adding to, and in some cases even removing from His word. Christians considering Catholicism should be strongly dissuaded from joining that Church, and Christians stuck in the Catholic Church should seek the earliest opportunity to leave.

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