Song - We Forgot To Tell You...
- Bible Brian
- May 4
- 12 min read
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
We wrote the words by candlelight,
With wisdom and a prayer1.
We told the world the truth so plain,
the faith for all to share2.
“Believe upon the risen Lord,
And life will be your gain.3”
But looking back we must confess,
there's much left to explain.
[Chorus]
Oh, there were things we meant to add,
some things we didn't say.
The kind of things the Church will need
to follow in our faith.
If only we had thought it through,
when writing what we wrote.
We gave you half the story,
but missed a few key notes.
[Verse 2]
We spoke of men and women
baptised when the Lord they knew4.
But we forgot to say that
you should baptise babies too.
Forgive us for the oversight,
our quills were running dry.
We mentioned faith repeatedly,
but the kids just slipped our mind.
[Verse 3]
And Mary was a virgin,
even after birthing Christ.
Although she had a husband5,
she withheld his special rights.
We should have made that clearer,
it's a dogma you must believe.
It doesn't make a difference,
but hear what the Church decreed.
[Chorus]
So many things we meant to say,
doctrines we didn't write.
Just trust me bro, we swear it’s true,
listen to Papal lies.
Traditions given, guys we swear,
we forgot to write them down.
Thank goodness for the Catholic Church,
who brought them back around!
[Verse 4]
Another thing we failed to say,
which surely was our loss!
A throne in Rome who speaks for all,
The shepherd of the flock.
The universal throne of faith,
we never made it known.
Peter is preferred to us,
together or alone.
[Verse 5]
And while we’re on the subject,
of things that we forgot,
We never said the saints above
receive our prayer and thoughts.
Mary, our Mediatrix,
intercedes for us we hope.
Oh, nevermind, scratch that.
It was repealed by our new Pope.
[Verse 6]
Perhaps we should have mentioned,
before the ink had dried.
You need more for salvation
than faith in Jesus Christ.
It's true, we told the jailer,
"believe, and you'll be saved"6.
That was far too simplistic,
we had much more to explain!
[Chorus]
My friends, we left a lot out,
things we forgot to tell you.
But since our word is God-breathed7,
that means He forgot them too.
Forgive us for our oversight,
but the Catholic Church preserves,
the extra nonsense we forgot,
to write in the Holy Word.
Background
"We Forgot To Tell You" is a satirical jab at the Roman Catholic Church, and a veiled defence of the Sufficiency of Scripture. It is sung from the perspective of the Apostles speaking to the modern Church, telling us there are many things we're supposed to believe that never ended up in Scripture.
On the surface, this isn't immediately laughable. Many churches, orthodox or heretical, have a number of traditions that aren't drawn directly from Scripture. Naturally, these tend to either deny, or undermine, the Sufficiency of Scripture in an effort to justify themselves.
The song itself doesn't go too deep into defending the truth of the matter. Rather, it comedically portrays the Biblical authors as forgetful numpties that not even God could guide. Ironically, the first verse shows just how far God went to guide them. This verse is the most heavily saturated in Scripture.
The first Scripture it references is 2 Peter 3:14-16. Here, we read "Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures."
For the Catholic Church, this verse is utterly devastating. First, it shows that Scripture was already organically recognised while the Apostles were still breathing. Peter identifies Paul's epistles as among "the rest of" the Scriptures, firmly placing them within that category. In fact, it even states that twisting these epistles is as destructive as twisting the rest of the Scriptures. Why is this a problem? Because the Catholic Church claims they gave us the Scriptures, but over 300 years after the Apostles had died.
But more importantly, it shows the origins of these Scriptures. Contrary to the popular straw man, Christians don't believe God just dropped a book on us. We do, however, believe that it was written with divine oversight. Paul's epistles here are noted as being written "according to the wisdom given to him". This is how all of the Apostles, and even the prophets before them, delivered God's word to us.
The second Scripture referenced in the first verse is Jude 1:3. Here, the very brother of the Lord Jesus Christ tells us "Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." This reference is extremely veiled, and likely wouldn't be picked up on by even the most diligent Bible students. However, it refers to the faith the Apostles gave the world to share.
This not only mirrors Jude's words, but also the way Scripture was seen in early history. Irenaeus, for example, writes "We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from those through whom the Gospel has come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and, at a later period, by the will of God, handed down to us in the Scriptures, to be the ground and pillar of our faith." The early Church, therefore, clearly relied very heavily on the Scriptures that absolutely and unquestionably existed by the second century. Furthermore, there was no expectation that we would be receiving new traditions.
Furthermore, Irenaeus himself was quite opposed to the idea that there was some oral, unwritten tradition floating around outside of Scripture that one would need to interpret it. It was only heretics, in his mind, that "...turn round and accuse these same Scriptures, as if they were not correct, nor of authority, and [assert] that they are ambiguous, and that the truth cannot be extracted from them by those who are ignorant of tradition. For [they allege] that the truth was not delivered by means of written documents, but vivâ voce:" ("vivâ voce" meaning "by mouth").
At the risk of making this entire article a treatise on line 4 and the role of tradition in the church, suffice to say for now Jude 1:3 shows that the first century is the most relevant century to our faith. While Catholics love to babble about "the first 1500 years", the truth is anything much later than 95 A.D. (the absolute latest authorship date for the final book of the New Testament) is ultimately irrelevant. Not entirely, of course. There are concepts described in Scripture that would gradually gain new terminology, like the Trinity. But there is a difference between using new terms to describe old beliefs and inventing entirely new beliefs.
The third Scripture referenced is Romans 10:8-11. The Gospel is the central doctrine of our faith, and the Bible, if indeed it serves its purpose, tells us everything we need to know about it. This, it does by both laying it out in plain and simple words, and by correcting those who depart from it in various ways. Romans 10:8-11 is the simplest explanation of it, being effectively paraphrased as “Believe upon the risen Lord, And life will be your gain." With the Gospel being so important, it seems quite absurd to believe it would be under-explained in the Bible. Yet, if the Catholic Church is to be believed, this is the case.
With the inspiration, all-time sufficiency, and Gospel-centricity of Scripture established, verse 1 moves on to the key theme: There is a lot that is taught in the Catholic Church that is not taught in Scripture.
This song uses a shifting chorus, changing every time it rolls around. The first time, it simply follows up on the established theme. The Apostles conveniently "forgot" to include certain key details the Catholic Church insists we need to believe and practice as Christians. Ironically, the song itself leaves a lot of these things out. No mention is made of Purgatory, indulgences, Holy days of obligation, and so on. While I had initially intended to include as many extra elements as possible, I decided a limit would better serve the song, allowing me to dedicate more time to the ones I did select.
These, I decided to "rank" in order of importance, from the trivial to the outright damnable. So, naturally, verse 2 addresses Pedobaptism. In Scripture, baptism is portrayed as a sacred ritual in which believers partake, ideally at the beginning of their faith. In Scripture, when people believed, they were baptised. However, baptism always follows faith, which an infant can't have. Thus, 100% of mentions of baptism, even when large groups are baptised, are adults. Acts 8:12 even goes as far as to specify "men and women". Yet, the Roman Catholic Church inherited the practice of Pedobaptism. While it undoubtedly appeared early, it seems to have come from the second century, and cannot be reliably traced to the Apostles. Thus, it is absent from Scripture. However, since it's utterly trivial whether or not a baby is baptised, I just laughed this concept off.
Similar things can be said about the perpetual virginity of Mary, which is the subject of verse 3. Objectively speaking, this is actually less important than Pedobaptism overall. As long as you believe Mary conceived Jesus in her virginity, and maintained that virginity until she had given birth to Christ, you have all the information you will ever need about Mary's sex life. Had the Catholic Church not made it an official dogma that all the faithful are required to believe, the perpetual virginity myth would not be worth discussion.
But because it is a dogma, it actually becomes a key point in destroying the credibility of the Catholic Church. We can prove historically that Mary did get married. The consummation of a marriage was expected in Jewish culture. Even in Christianity, married couples are encouraged to have regular sex, delaying only by mutual consent and for a time (1 Corinthians 7:5). Thus, because Mary and Joseph were Messianic Jews, we can say it would be a cultural faux pas for her to withhold Joseph's marital rights. That's even before we get to the fact that Jesus had brothers and sisters, with Psalm 69:8 even identifying his brothers as His "mother's sons". Ultimately, if the Bible expected us to believe the perpetual virginity myth, it is insufficiently detailed to guide us to it.
The second chorus increasingly mocks the idea that the Bible is insufficient, even making use of the common sarcastic idiom "trust me bro". This typically refers to someone who makes assertions devoid of evidence beyond their own authority, which happens to be a staple of Catholic apologetics. Prior to this line, and also after, there are veiled references to a popular Catholic argument.
While not a reference to the verse itself, the lines hint at oral tradition. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 encourages Christians to keep the traditions delivered to us, whether by Apostolic word or epistle. Catholics maintain this proves the Apostles were teaching things by word that never ended up in Scripture, which of course they contend is their teachings. This idea is absurd for four reasons.
First, if there was some oral tradition floating around, proving it without having it written down is quite a monumental task. We can prove the Apostles taught what they wrote precisely because they wrote it, we can't prove they taught what isn't written down. Christianity is not a 2,000 year long game of Chinese Whispers.
Second, as we've already seen, this isn't how it was viewed in the second century. The truth was delivered by the Apostles in the Scriptures (by will of God, no less), and only heretics claim to have some oral tradition that is required to untangle the ambiguity of Scripture.
Third, we know for a fact that the Apostles taught the same things by mouth that they did by epistle (Acts 15:27). Thus, Paul isn't saying "we're only giving you some truth by epistle, the rest we'll tell you directly and hope it gets reliably passed around for the next few centuries". He's saying whichever way you received the tradition, keep it.
Finally, we can at least reasonably assume that if there was some extra tradition, it would go hand in hand with Scripture. Contradictory traditions certainly wouldn't have proceeded from the mouths of God's own messengers. Which is why the traditions presented in the rest of the song are even more significant.
We start with the Papacy, which is the cornerstone of Roman Catholicism. If there is no Pope, there is no Catholic Church. Thus, since we cannot reliably trace the doctrine of the Papacy back even as far as the third century, much less Scripture, we can dismiss it entirely. A particularly interesting thing about the Papacy is that while it appeared fairly early, it has dramatically evolved since its inception. In the verse, I actually referenced First Vatican Council (1869-70 A.D.), which says that "Peter, in his single person, preferably to all the other Apostles, whether taken separately or together, was endowed by Christ with a true and proper primacy of jurisdiction", anathematising anyone who disagrees with this, and stating that it has always been the position of the Church. In contrast to this "infallible" dogma, even Paul states (twice) that he is inferior to the other Apostles in nothing. This means that not only did the Bible (not to mention the whole Church) omit the concept of the Papacy, but Catholics ultimately picked the wrong Apostle to pin it on.
Verse 5 returns to Mary, and in the cheekiest way I could manage. It briefly touches on the Catholic practice of talking to the Saints, but specifically zooms in on Mary. In particular, her role as "Mediatrix". For a very long time, this title has been ascribed to Mary by the Catholic Church. Even the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us "Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix." But more recently, Pope Francis passed into the Lord's courtroom, and was replaced by Leo XIV. This new Pope made an extremely controversial decision, declaring this title inappropriate on the basis of 1 Timothy 2:5. It's worth noting that he didn't entirely strike the title. Rather, he said it needs to be used carefully, ensuring that Christ's unique role as Mediator isn't diminished. Thus, our satirical Apostles tell us "Oh, nevermind, scratch that. It was repealed by our new Pope." This is a playful jab at the way Catholic doctrine can evolve both ways.
All of this, however, pales in relationship to the Gospel. It can be argued that most, if not all doctrine technically ties into the Gospel in some way. Compromise on the Trinity, for example, can certainly be called an affront to the Gospel and a damnable heresy. However, the Gospel, as far as I'm aware, is the only thing with a verse comparable to Galatians 1:8-9. This reads "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed."
Here, we see Paul effectively threaten himself, his fellow Apostles, and even angels from Heaven, over this one essential core. Twice, he reiterates "let him be accursed". (And that's "let him be anathema", in case it wasn't clear). If you preach any other gospel, it doesn't matter who you are, what authority you claim to have, or where you came from. Paul basically says "go to Hell".
So, back to a more playful note, verse 6 contrasts the Catholic and Christian gospels. If someone asked you "what must I do to be saved?", how would you answer? If you know the Bible well enough, you'd know that this exact question is asked and answered in Acts 16. Specifically in verse 30, a Philippian jailer asks Paul and Silas "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And so they give him a very simple answer in verse 31: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household."
If you are a Christian, that is your Gospel. If you are a Catholic, by contrast, you're going to get something much different. They still believe faith is important, but they also believe one must be baptised, partake in the 7 Sacraments, and obey the commandments. Whereas Scripture says salvation is by grace, through faith, not of works (ignoring the fact that it literally defines grace as the absence of works), the Catholic Church adds a myriad of works. This, of course, is entirely absent from Scripture.
Originally, the song was actually supposed to be sung from the perspective of God Himself. However, I found this to be quite irreverent. Thus, I changed it. But an element of this is retained in the final chorus. It continues with the theme that the Apostles "forgot" to include many things in the Bible, but demonstrates the absurdity by referencing 2 Timothy 3:16-17. This verse tells us that all Scripture is God-breathed, which means it is ultimately not a human work. It is God's own word, as surely as if He spoke it aloud with His own mouth, or carved it into stone with His own finger. Thus, any insufficiency you charge Scripture with, you lay directly at the feet of God Himself. This is a dangerous game to play. Not only is it a matter of simple wisdom that God alone gets to dictate how we worship Him, and adding to His word is guaranteed to guide us into error, it also happens to be outright sinful to credit to God a doctrine He does not teach. Thus, as the final portion of the final chorus states, the Catholic Church really does teach "extra nonsense". And I believe the song provides the appropriate response to it: Pure mockery, grounded in the truth as it is portrayed in actual Scripture.
Scripture references
2 Peter 3:14-16
Jude 1:3
Romans 10:8-11
Acts 8:12
Matthew 1:16
Acts 16:30-31
2 Timothy 3:16-17
AI usage
This song was produced using Mozart AI.
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