05-07-2026, 08:32 AM
Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908
TWENTY-FIRST OBJECTION. PROTESTANTS HAVE THE SAME GOSPEL THAT WE HAVE.
Answer. They have the letter; they have not the spirit.
"Now, the letter killeth," said the apostle St. Paul, "but the spirit giveth life." The letter of Holy Scripture kills the Protestants, as that of the prophecies killed the Jews; because, like the Jews, the Protestants reject the sacred teaching of those whom God sends to explain the letter. The Jews rejected the teaching of Jesus Christ and His apostles, and they are lost; Protestants reject the teaching of the lawful Pastors of the Church, and they are in the way to be lost.
The Church was before the Scripture. The Church is the divine institution founded by Jesus Christ, to preserve, explain, preach, defend, and practically apply Christian revelation, and, consequently, the Holy Scripture, the principal part of that revelation.
It is the Church, and the Church alone, that teaches us infallibly, in the name, and by the authority of Jesus Christ, the divine inspiration of the holy books. It is she alone that distinguishes them in a sovereign manner from the books which were not inspired.
It is she alone that decides the true meaning of obscure or contested passages, by the light of the same Spirit which inspired the books themselves. It is from her, indeed, that Protestants have received those books.
Without the Church, the Bible and the Gospels are nothing but a dead letter, nothing but words. Therefore, the great St. Augustine boldly said, to the heretics of the fourth century, who opposed to him texts of Scripture ill-understood: "I would not believe in the Gospels without the authority of the Catholic Church."*
TWENTY-FIRST OBJECTION. PROTESTANTS HAVE THE SAME GOSPEL THAT WE HAVE.
Answer. They have the letter; they have not the spirit.
"Now, the letter killeth," said the apostle St. Paul, "but the spirit giveth life." The letter of Holy Scripture kills the Protestants, as that of the prophecies killed the Jews; because, like the Jews, the Protestants reject the sacred teaching of those whom God sends to explain the letter. The Jews rejected the teaching of Jesus Christ and His apostles, and they are lost; Protestants reject the teaching of the lawful Pastors of the Church, and they are in the way to be lost.
The Church was before the Scripture. The Church is the divine institution founded by Jesus Christ, to preserve, explain, preach, defend, and practically apply Christian revelation, and, consequently, the Holy Scripture, the principal part of that revelation.
It is the Church, and the Church alone, that teaches us infallibly, in the name, and by the authority of Jesus Christ, the divine inspiration of the holy books. It is she alone that distinguishes them in a sovereign manner from the books which were not inspired.
It is she alone that decides the true meaning of obscure or contested passages, by the light of the same Spirit which inspired the books themselves. It is from her, indeed, that Protestants have received those books.
Without the Church, the Bible and the Gospels are nothing but a dead letter, nothing but words. Therefore, the great St. Augustine boldly said, to the heretics of the fourth century, who opposed to him texts of Scripture ill-understood: "I would not believe in the Gospels without the authority of the Catholic Church."*
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre