We have already encountered St. Vincent in the post Scriptural Interpretation. He gave us an exact delineation of what is truly the doctrine of the Church; viz., that which has universality, antiquity and consent.
Now let us consider some more of St. Vincent’s powerful words:
But it will be said, If the words, the sentiments, the promises of Scripture, are appealed to by the Devil and his disciples, of whom some are false apostles, some false prophets and false teachers, and all without exception heretics, what are Catholics and the sons of Mother Church to do? How are they to distinguish truth from falsehood in the sacred Scriptures? They must be very careful to pursue that course which, in the beginning of this Commonitory, we said that holy and learned men had commended to us, that is to say, they must interpret the sacred Canon according to the traditions of the Universal Church and in keeping with the rules of Catholic doctrine, in which Catholic and Universal Church, moreover, they must follow universality, antiquity, consent. (Commonitory chapter XXVII--NPNF211:152)
After explaining how heretical teachers make use (misuse) of the Scriptures, St. Vincent then poses the question as to how one might distinguish between the abuse and the proper us of the Bible. In other words, if every group appeals to the Bible for support (and most do), how is one to know which is the proper and true interpretation? The answer he gives takes the reader back to the same answer he gave about determining true doctrine—we resort to the tradition of the Church, that which has universality, antiquity and consent.
If one does not rely on the Church and its Tradition, he/she is left to freefall into all type of heresies. Without this safeguard, one might adopt Arianism (as Joel Hemphill did), Mormonism, or any of a million other heretical stands and still feel justified by Scripture. Without the guide of tradition, there is no way to say who is right and who is wrong or even if anyone is right or wrong.
In the same vein, St. Vincent writes in Chapter XXIX:
We said above, that it has always been the custom of Catholics, and still is, to prove the true faith in these two ways; first by the authority of the Divine Canon, and next by the tradition of the Catholic Church. Not that the Canon alone does not of itself suffice for every question, but seeing that the more part, interpreting the divine words according to their own persuasion, take up various erroneous opinions, it is therefore necessary that the interpretation of divine Scripture should be ruled according to the one standard of the Church’s belief, especially in those articles on which the foundations of all Catholic doctrine rest. (Commonitory chapter XXIX—NPNF211:153)
The erroneous notion that tradition does away with the Scripture is refuted here. It is not that one can have either tradition or Scripture; one has both of these God-given tools to determine the Truth. There are many who are “interpreting the divine words according to their own persuasion. That is the reason there are so many different denominations and independent churches. If the Scripture was self-interpreting, so clear as not to need an interpreter and spoke to every question, we would not need tradition at all. This is not the case. Therefore, we need some help, some guide to save us from ourselves and our highly subjective feelings, emotions and opinions.
Without the Tradition, what is there to reign in wild subjectivism in Scriptural interpretation? How would one say with any definiteness what is heresy and what is not? What would be our argument against ridiculous fantastical assertions about the meaning of certain verses? How do we argue with the Mormons about the Baptism for the dead (I Corinthians 15:29), if not from Tradition-interpreted Scripture?
These are only a few of the questions that present themselves if we follow a Sola Scriptura mantra. Since we’ve already seen that everyone has some tradition by which he/she interprets Scripture, we should make sure we are following the one that is as St. Vincent outlines—the one with universality, antiquity, and consent.
