Protestants, and the Art of Tap Dancing

I recently got into a discussion with a guy on a protestant vs Catholic "Biblical" issue. It wasn't my first rodeo. I've spoken with many protestants over the years and learned how to counter their objections - so I asked him a question: "Where'd we get the Bible?" In fact, I asked him FOUR times, but got no answer, only anti-Catholic tap dancing and evasion. Evasion... kind of par for the course with protestants... and liberals too! As a rule, liberals get a lot angrier. Anyway, I’ll answer for him:

The reason we have the Bible isn’t due to Luther or Calvin. It’s due to the CATHOLIC Church.

Three councils of the Catholic Church determined which books were canonical, and which books weren’t. These were the Council of Rome, the Council of Hippo, and the Council of Carthage. All took place in the late 300’s.

Many questions had to be addressed: Exactly which books were canonical? Should the letter to the Hebrews be included? Some argued against it. Likewise, there were arguments made in favor of including the letters of Clement, and the Shepherd of Hermas, among some others. But they were rejected. Yet even afterwards there was still some disagreement. Until the pope signed off on it.

Roma locuta, causa finita est.

And that, dear friends is how we got the Bible. It's easy enough to research. I mean if I figured it out, so can you.

BTW, the only time the doctrine of “saved by faith alone” is actually mentioned in the Bible is in the Letter of Saint James – in which it is specifically condemned. As you’d imagine, that caused the proto protestants much tap dancing. But even there they couldn’t agree on the tune.

https://www.historicalchristian.faith/doctrine/doctrines/canon/african-councils.html

Fitz