An Unreasonable Faith

Now faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not. - Hebrews 11:1

Verse. 1. All this chapter is a commendation and recommendation of faith, which is the substance of things hoped for, giving as it were a substance in our minds to such things as we are in hopes and in expectation of hereafter, and making them present to us before they come to pass. — It is also a sure conviction of things that appear not. For when God has revealed things, and we believe them upon the divine and infallible authority of the revealer, we have a greater certainty of them than any demonstration can afford us. By this virtue of faith, they of old, our forefathers, obtained a testimony from God that their actions were pleasing to him. Wi. — Faith is the basis, the foundation supporting our hope; for unless there be faith, there cannot possibly be any hope.

Faith, in itself, should not be an unreasonable thing.
It is a confidence, a sure conviction of things that do not appear, but not of the unreasonable. One could have a sure conviction that we will one day find life on another planet and move all of us earthlings to another planet before this planet is removed by some cataclysmic event. But faith in this would be unreasonable.

One can have a confidence in promises and similarly related things that come from an authority that has been proven right in similar situations before. This confidence is reasonable and rational. For instance, a young man can have a sure confidence in the concept of receiving payment for his wages if he works for an employer when he has observed his father receive payment for his wages from his employer. The young man may have never received an official check with the signature of the owner for having worked for him, but he has faith that he will receive the reward of his labour at the appointed time: because he has observed this phenomom from his father or his friend.

We have a sure confidence and conviciton that God will reward every man according to his labours, whether it be good or bad, because we have seen His hand in the creation, the physics, the elements, the biological level, the historical accounts, the archeology, the fossils, the plant life, the animal life and through His divinely appointed leadership. Our faith is not unreasonable. We have ample evidences surrounding us every day that steer our hearts and minds back to our Creator.

The validity of Christ’s eternal promises to reward every man according to his deeds can be confirmed by all these evidences that point us back to God every day. We believe because He hath spoken it, but we can have this faith because there are other external evidences which can confirm.

But the heretics have an unreasonable faith.
They believe, because they believe.
If they ceased to believe, then they would no longer believe.

In regards to sacred and holy scripture, preserved by Christ’s bride, affirmed at councils, carefully transcribed by monks, translated from their original tongues into the vulgar; these [the heretics] believe that the holy scriptures are the infallible words of God, because they said so. In spite of all the historical evidences, these men pronounce the holy scriptures which were kept, preserved, transcribed and affirmed by the Catholic Church to be the final authority of their rule of faith.

Some of these heretics will explain, in theory, that God preserved His holy scriptures by dropping them out of heaven for all! Others believe that God would use unholy, defiled instruments such as the Catholics or the Calvinists to preserve His holy, infallible and inerrant word.

When asked how they know that the holy scriptures are the single and final source of all authority and truth, they respond with sources contained within the very writings of the scriptures themselves! But as of yet, I have been unable to find any list or affirmation of the books that we Catholics consider scripture be contained within this final authority!

These heretics have an unreasonable faith that the holy scriptures are the final authority, because these writings do not contain a list of ‘books that are holy scriptures’ not do they profess that are the final authority. Interestingly enough, the last surviving apostle [St John] received the heavenly vision [Apocolypse] from Jesus Christ and makes no mention that the apostolic authority would indeed transfer from the last living apostle to the words written in his book; nor does he give us the final and completed list of all books that should henceforth and forevermore be authoritatively considered holy scripture.

For even St. Peter, when writing to the churches in his second epistle, explains that they [the apostles] had made known to them the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, as they were eyewitnesses of His glory and greatness by the authoritative voice of God from heaven. And yet still, he continues, that they [the apostles] have a more firm prophetical word, and that we do well to attend to it, for no prophecy of scripture is made by private interpretation.

This shews plainly that the scriptures are not to be expounded by any one's private judgment or private spirit, because every part of the holy scriptures were written by men inspired by the Holy Ghost, and declared as such by the Church; therefore they are not to be interpreted but by the Spirit of God, which he hath left, and promised to remain with his Church to guide her in all truth to the end of the world.

-Douay-Rheims Footnote, 2nd Peter 1:20

And yet still, the apostles of our Lord were confirmed with their heavenly authority by many signs and wonders [Mk 16:17-20, Acts 8:13].

If then the holy scriptures themselves are the final authority for the rule of faith, they must then be confirmed by something greater than themselves. For the holy scriptures do not testify that they are the final authority, nor do they declare which scriptures should be included in this concrete, definitive, authoritative list.

For by our reasonable faith do we believe that the scriptures are divinely preserved by Christ’s Holy Church until the end of time. If Holy Mother Church had not told us, we would not know. We know which books were divinely inspired because we have a reasonable faith in our authority; for she was confirmed by many heavenly signs and is the pillar and ground of truth.