IS 2 TIMOTHY 3:14-17 AN ADEQUATE PROOF TEXT FOR BELIEF IN THE BIBLE ALONE AS OUR SOLE RULE OF FAITH?

Here are the verses from the RSV:

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.


Here is the argument that Protestants make, as I understand it:

The verses above say that Scriptures provide us the wisdom for salvation, and that Scripture is inspired by God. This is a place where Paul would’ve/could’ve, had he wanted to clarify, told us that something OTHER than Scripture existed on an equal plane to provide us with the wisdom of salvation. He doesn’t go on to mention Tradition, nor does he even say Tradition is inspired of God, let alone say it’s useful to us for salvation. We therefore assume that Scripture is the only thing that is inspired by God that he gives us and the only infallible rule of faith for followers of Christ. Anything else that would be added to the mix must be shown to be inspired of God and that without it, Christians cannot be equipped to undertake all these tasks.

Here is my response:

First, let me frame the argument like this. The above argument affirms that the Scriptures teach that they are the sole infallible rule of faith for Christians. Here’s what’s lacking—evidence to back up the claim AND proof that every other claim is false. For if Scripture is the SOLE rule, and these verses teach this, they should also EXCLUDE any other possible rule of faith.

Second, let’s make clear that this argument Protestants make is an argument from silence. In other words, since no other possible rule of faith is listed in these verses, they don’t exist. Protestants draw the conclusion that since no other possible rule of faith is mentioned here, that no such alternative exists that would qualify as a rule of faith. Here’s the problem with that: 1 Thessalonians 2:13-15 and 2 Thessalonians 2:15 (here are the verses)

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judea; for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all men by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they may be saved -- so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God's wrath has come upon them at last!

Here, St. Paul identifies something other than written Scripture as the Word of God—his own oral testimony. St. Paul’s gospel and teachings did not become inspired only once he wrote them down. On the contrary, they were binding when he said them, when he communicated them orally to his followers and no later. If Paul says ‘Baptism is required for salvation.’, those words become binding when he says them, not when he writes them down 2 years, 2 months, or even 2 minutes later. The teaching of the Apostles, in fact, was the rule of faith before Scripture even existed. Think of it this way—Thomas the Apostle created a Christian community in India that exists to this day even though he didn’t write a word of Scripture. How can this be? Because his WORDS, spoken from his own mouth, were the rule of faith on which the Indian Church was built.

But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.

In the context of these verses, we see the gospel being mentioned. Surely the gospel was necessary for salvation, right? Standing firm in the gospel is how one is saved. What is that gospel made up of? Paul tells us it’s made up of the traditions he passed onto them, by word of mouth (spoken) or by letter (epistle). If we do not stand firm in these traditions, which make up the gospel Paul preached, we cannot be saved. Paul does not segregate, in any order of importance, written versus oral teaching but puts them on par with each other. No ‘expiration date’ for oral Tradition or its binding effect is given in Scripture so the potential argument that oral Tradition was only useful until the Bible was compiled and defined is wishful thinking at best.

But now, let’s look at the proof text from 2 Timothy since this is the single best possible verse to hang sola scriptura on…

First, let’s address the overriding idea that this verse somehow proves ‘Scripture is all you need.’ I appeal to an honest and truthful reading of the text—does it really say ‘Scripture ALONE’? Paul includes ALL Scripture in his statement but does not explicitly limit his statement to Scripture ALONE. In fact, had Paul wanted to convey that Scripture, and ONLY Scripture is sufficient or all that is needed, he could’ve said this, using words that plainly existed in Greek to leave no doubt—words like ‘arketos’ (translated as ‘sufficient’ in 3 separate places in Scripture). Instead, he uses ‘ophelimos’ which translates to ‘profitable’ or ‘useful’. Honesty demands that we acknowledge the difference between ‘sufficient’ and ‘profitable’ or ‘useful’. As one scholar puts it: A hammer is profitable or useful for driving nails, but that does not mean that nails can be driven ONLY by hammers. Nail guns and other objects do the job as well, no?

Second, let’s address the second part of the verse, ‘the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.’ The Greek word used for ‘complete’ is ‘artios’. The Greek word used here for ‘equipped’ is ‘exartizo’. From these words, Protestants have interpreted the word ‘sufficient’, in effect, changing the meaning of the words to fit their preconceived idea that they wish to convey. Here are the problems with this:

1. Even the King James Version, along with all the published Protestant Bible versions, states that ‘sufficient’ is NOT the correct translation of even ONE of the two terms.

2. The result of using this principle of exegesis consistently—that is, throughout Scripture—creates some absurdities. The principle Protestants use to exegete this passage is: ‘If X makes you complete then you don’t need anything other than X.’ If we apply this principle to James 1:4, for example, which states, ‘And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.’, we would have to say that we do not need anything other than steadfastness to be complete. Granted, the Greek word used here ‘teleios’ and ‘holokleros’ are different but, alas, they’re STRONGER words than the ones used in Paul’s epistle!

3. The two terms in the verse modify the man of God, not Scripture. It says that Scripture helps make the man of God complete and equipped, not that Scripture itself is complete and equipped. In the New Testament, the ‘man of God’ is a clergyman (not a lay man)—one appointed, prepared, and approved by apostolic authority. The text presupposes a knowledge that the man of God already has before he even approaches Scripture.

4. Let’s assume I am going to build a home. I purchase every single material and tool I’ll require to build that home, thereby making myself fully equipped and complete in everything I’ll need to build that home. I then lay every tool and material on the piece of land I’m going to build on. I may be fully equipped but don’t know how the materials fit together to make a house. Those materials I’ve bought, then, are not ‘sufficient’ to complete the work of building my home. Applied to Scripture, we see that it is MATERIALLY SUFFICIENT but not FORMALLY SUFFICIENT for Christians. Every material is present in Scripture for our salvation but nowhere did God reveal that we alone, apart from a teaching authority, can put those materials into a complete salvation. Just take a look at the 30,000 Protestant divisions and their diametrically opposed appeals to Scripture for their traditions.

Third, in the Protestant vain, let’s compare the verse with others like it in Scripture. In 2 Corinthians 9:8, we see:

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

‘Every good work’ is the same one used in 2 Timothy but here it’s combined with the phrase ‘all that you need’—i.e., ‘sufficient’. The Greek word here is ‘autarkeia’. It’s defined as a ‘perfect state, where no help or support is needed’. To make a case for Scripture ALONE, we should see this kind of language describing Scripture. Yet we see that the only thing that is ‘all sufficient’ is God’s grace.

In 2 Timothy 2:21, we see:

If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use and prepared unto every good work.

Here Paul is talking about the things we have to purge ourselves of which are unworthy. He says if we do this, we are prepared to every good work. Does that mean that ALL we have to do is purge ourselves of these things? Of course that’s not what Paul is saying. We’re told by Paul not just to avoid sin but to have a faith working in love.

In Titus 3:1, we see:

Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready for every good work.

Using the exegetical principle set forth by Protestants in 2 Timothy 3:14-17, mere subjection to principalities and powers is all we need in order to perform every good work. Clearly this is not reasonable or supported by the whole of Scripture. The only place we see something mentioned as ‘all sufficient’ to equip us unto every good work is when Paul names God’s grace—nothing more and nothing less.

The word ‘ophelimos’ is used by St. Paul 3 times—1 Tim 4:8, Titus 3:8, and 2 Tim 3:14-17. Each time it is used, we see St. Paul saying that what he mentions is profitable in various respects. What we do NOT see is St. Paul laying down a hard and fast rule that invokes ‘all sufficiency’ or ‘to the exclusion of everything else’.

In reading and re-reading 2 Timothy 3:4-17, I find the real meaning of the passage a few verses back:

Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, my sufferings, what befell me at Antioch, at Ico'nium, and at Lystra, what persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it (v 10-14)

Paul is preparing a ‘man of God’ in Timothy. He’s doing this by helping him understand how to not be deceived or deceive. Paul says that Timothy can trust in the gospel because of who he learned it from. Timothy learned the gospel from the mouth of Paul (oral Tradition) and from the written Scripture—namely the Old Testament which he knew from his infancy. Paul, then, is telling Timothy that the Old Testament—ALL of it—is inspired by God, considering that the New Testament did not exist yet.

In summary, sola scriptura or ‘the Bible ALONE’ teaches that Scripture is clear enough to understand 2 Timothy 3:14-17 as a proof of sola scriptura. The preceding arguments, along with the 30,000 differing Protestant interpretations of Scripture, should be sufficient (pun intended) to call this idea into doubt. Approaching this verse without preconceptions should render implausible the tradition that the Bible alone is/should be our sole rule of faith. The only way to fit the square peg of this verse into the round hole of ‘Bible Alone’ is to go beyond the written word and the reasonable intention of the text and its writer.

Good Read About Contraception And Christianity

This is a reprint of one of my favorite articles regarding contraception, Christianity, and culture. Father Hardon is one of the sharpest tools in the box but he manages to break this down into relatively simple terms. Many thanks to Catholic Culture Website.

Contraception:Fatal to the Faith and to Eternal Life
by John A. Hardon, S.J.

On the thirtieth anniversary of Humanae Vitae, it seems only proper to identify what contraception really is. It is at once fatal to the true faith and to the eternal life which our faith promises.
You might say this piece will be two articles in one. First we shall see how the practice of contraception inevitably leads to the loss of the true faith. Then we shall look at how contraception leads to eternal death.

Contraception Fatal to the Faith

This must seem like a strange title, “Contraception—Fatal to the Faith.” What does the title mean? Does it mean that to believe in contraception is contrary to the faith? Or does it mean that Christian believers may not practice contraception? Or does it mean that those who practice contraception are in danger of losing their faith?

What do we mean by the title and what is the thesis of this presentation? We mean that professed Catholics who practice contraception either give up the practice of contraception or they give up their Catholic faith.

Needless to say, this is a startling statement that many would violently disagree with. They will point out the widespread practice of contraception among many—some would say the majority of professed Catholics in a country like the United States. They will quote from numerous professedly Catholic moral theologians openly defending contraception. They will give you the pronouncements of whole conferences of bishops who claim that contraception is really a matter of conscience.

Those who sincerely believe that contraception is morally permissible may not be told they are doing wrong; they may not be barred from receiving Holy Communion; in fact, they need not even have to confess the practice of contraception when they go to confession.

We return to where we began, to make clear what we are saying. We affirm in this article that the deliberate practice of contraception between husband and wife is objectively a mortal sin. Those who persist in its practice are acting contrary to the explicit teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. They may protest that they are Catholic. They may profess to be Catholics. But their conduct belies their profession.

Someone may object that we are living in a contraceptive society. Moreover, the silence of so many bishops and the overt teaching of so many nominally Catholic moralists defending contraception forbids our saying that contraception and the Catholic faith are incompatible. In the light of all the foregoing, let me address myself to the following topics which collectively prove the underlying thesis of this article.

• The Catholic Church teaches infallible doctrine, both in faith and morals.
• This infallible teaching is done by the Church’s extraordinary and by her ordinary universal authority or magisterium.
• The grave sinfulness of contraception is taught infallibly by the Church’s ordinary universal teaching authority.
• Therefore, those who defend contraception forfeit their claim to being professed Catholics.
• Consequently, those who persist in their defense of contraception, deprive themselves of the divine graces which are reserved to bona fide members of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Church Teaches Infallibly On Faith And Morals

There is some value in explaining that the Church’s infallibility covers not only doctrines that are to be believed, like Christ’s divinity or His Real Presence in the Eucharist. No, the Church also, and with emphasis, also teaches infallibly what the followers of Christ are to do.

In His final commission to the Apostles, Jesus told them to teach all nations, “to observe all that I have commanded you.”To mention just one infallible teaching in the moral order: the permanence of the marriage bond. Emphatically, the Church’s irreversible doctrines include truths that we are obliged to believe. But they also include precepts that we are universally bound to obey.

This deserves to be emphasized. Why? Because there are nominally Catholic writers who are claiming that the Church’s gift of infallibility extends only to her teaching of the faith. It does not, so the claim goes, include grave moral obligations like the prohibition of adultery, sodomy or contraception. That is not true.

Two Forms of Infallible Teaching

What are the two ways in which the Church teaches infallibly? She does so whenever the Pope solemnly defines a dogma of the faith, as when in 1950 Pope Pius XII declared that Our Lady was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.

But the Church also teaches infallibly whenever her bishops, united with the Pope, proclaim that something is to be accepted by all the faithful. Thus abortion was condemned as murder by the Catholic hierarchy, under the Pope, already in the first century of the Christian era—and ever since.

It is therefore infallibly true that abortion is a crime of willful homicide. So, too, the grave sinfulness of homosexuality is infallible Catholic teaching.

Infallibly True That Contraception Is a Mortal Sin

We return to where we began. Is it infallible Catholic doctrine that contraception is a mortal sin? Yes!

How do we know? We know this from the twenty centuries of the Catholic Church’s teaching. Already in the first century, those who professed the Catholic Faith did not practice either contraception or abortion, which were commonly linked together.

The people of the pagan Roman Empire into which they were born universally practiced:
• Abortion
• Contraception
• Infanticide
• Cohabitation of one man with either several legal wives, or with a plurality of concubines.

In contrast with this moral promiscuity, Christians practiced monogamy, one man with one woman; they did not use drugs to prevent conception; they did not kill the newborn children whom they did not want to live; they did not practice sodomy or prostitution; and for the Christian, adultery and fornication were grave sins that might require several years of penitential expiation.

What do we call the Church’s unbroken tradition in forbidding contraception? We call it her ordinary universal magisterium or teaching authority. This has always been considered a proof of infallibility, or from another perspective, irreversibility.What do these two terms mean? Infallibility means that God protects the Church from error in her 2000 years of teaching that contraception is a grave sin against God. Irreversibility means that this teaching will never be reversed. Contraception will remain a grave sin until the end of time.

To Defend Contraception Forfeits the Catholic Faith

As Christianity expanded, the inevitable happened. Once professed Christians lapsed into their former paganism.We read in the first three centuries about the thousands of Christians who chose to be thrown to the lions, or beheaded, or crucified—rather than conform to the pagan immorality that was so prevalent in the culture in which they lived.

It is possible to misunderstand the Age of Martyrs of the first three centuries of the Christian era. We are liable to associate professing the Christian faith by refusing to drop a grain of incense before a statue of one of the pagan gods. No, the issue was much deeper and more serious. To be a Christian meant to refuse to conform to the pagan morality of those who did not believe in Christ. To be a Christian meant to reject the pagan immorality of the contemporary world—at the heart of which was the practice of contraception.

The Situation in the Modern World

Contraception as a general practice is a recent innovation in the western nominally Christian society.Its rise is partly explained by the medical discovery of drugs which either prevent conception, or which destroy the unborn child in its mother’s womb. But the rise of contraception is mainly the result of a widespread propaganda by women like Margaret Sanger and the powerful forces of population control.

What have been the consequences of this return to prechristian paganism which is now “the law of the land” in once Christian nations like the United States? The consequences are inevitable. The once solitary defender of the sanctity of marital relations is now on trial for the profession of its Catholic faith.In 1968, when Pope Paul VI published Humanae Vitae, the episcopal conferences of one country after another met in solemn session to pass judgment on the teachings of the Vicar of Christ.

Bishops in what we call the “Third World Countries” stood firmly behind the Pope’s teaching. But the bishops of so-called developed countries, like the United States, or Canada, or France, or Germany, or Austria, or Scandinavia issued long documents that, to put it mildly, compromised the teachings of the Vicar of Christ.

What followed was as inevitable as night follows day. Once firmly believing Catholics became confused, or bewildered, or simply uncertain about the grave moral evil of contraception. The spectacle of broken families, broken homes, divorce and annulments, abortion and the mania of homosexuality—all of this has its roots in the acceptance of contraception on a wide scale in what only two generations ago was a professed Catholic population.

Contraception Fatal to the Faith

We come back to where we started—by claiming that contraception is fatal to the Catholic Faith.

By divine ordinance, those who call themselves Catholic must subscribe to the moral teachings of the Catholic Church of which the Bishop of Rome is the visible head.

This Catholic Church now stands alone in the world as the one universal authority which condemns contraception as contrary to the will of God.

Within the Catholic ranks has arisen an army of dissidents who speak and write in defense of contraception. The sex-preoccupied Andrew Greeley of Chicago recently devoted a whole chapter of a book entitled, “That damned encyclical,” referring to Humanae Vitae. This priest remains in good standing in ecclesiastical circles.

When the present Holy Father made his first pilgrimage as Pope to the United States, he pleaded in Chicago with the American bishops to do something over the scandal of so many Catholics on Sundays going to Holy Communion and so few going to confession.

All the evidence indicates that the core issue at stake is contraception. If contraception is not a grave sin, well then what is? And why go to confession if I am still in God’s friendship although practicing contraception.

What is the new conclusion? That the single, principal cause for the breakdown of the Catholic faith in materially overdeveloped countries like ours has been contraception.

St. James tells us that faith without good works is dead. What good is it to give verbal profession of the Catholic faith, and then behave like a pagan in marital morality?

Recommendations

The single most crucial need to stem this hemorrhage from the Catholic Faith is for the Church’s leaders to stand behind the Vicar of Christ in proclaiming the Church’s two millennia of teaching that no marital act can be separated from its God-given purpose to conceive and procreate a child.

I make bold to say that the Catholic Church, the real Roman Catholic Church, will survive only where her bishops are courageous enough to proclaim what the followers of Christ have believed since apostolic times. But the bishops are frail human beings. They need, Lord how they need, the backing and support of the faithful under their care.Contraception Fatal to Eternal Life What can this possibly mean? It means exactly what it says. The practice of contraception is a grave sin. Those who indulge in the practice are in danger of losing their immortal souls.

Difficult or intolerable as the language may seem, it is the truth. My purpose here is to prove that historic Christianity has always held, holds now, and always will hold, that contraception is a serious offense against God. Unless repented, it is punishable by eternal deprivation of the vision of God, which we call eternal death.

Teaching of the Church in Apostolic Times

Historians agree that contraception is a social practice that goes back to centuries before Christ. Medical papyri describing contraceptive methods are as old as 2700 BC in China, and 1850 BC in Egypt.

In the Roman Empire of the first century of the Christian era, contraception was universally approved and practiced by the people.

As might be expected, the followers of Christ were faced from the beginning with a hard choice. If they wanted to remain faithful to Christ’s teaching, they had to avoid contraception.

In the language of the day, contraceptive practice was referred to as “using magic” and “using drugs.” It was in this sense that the first century Teaching of the Twelve Apostles warns Christians in four successive precepts:

• “You shall not use magic.”
• “You shall not use drugs.”
• “You shall not procure abortion.”
• “You shall not destroy an unborn child.”

The sequence of those prohibitions is significant. We know from the record of those times that women would first try some magical rites or use sorcery to avoid conception. If this failed, they would take one or another of then known seventeen medically approved contraceptives. If a woman still became pregnant, she would try to abort. And if even this failed, she and her male partner could always resort to infanticide, which was approved by Roman law.

Christians were warned not to follow the example of their pagan contemporaries, who walked in darkness and the shadow of death. Christians were absolutely forbidden to practice contraception, which leads to abortion, which leads to infanticide.

From Apostolic Times to Humanae Vitae

For the next 1900 years, the litany of the Church’s teaching on artificial birth control was never interrupted. Popes and saints and scholars in different words and from different perspectives taught the same thing: Contraception is a grave sin that no one who claims to be a Christian may perform.

Out of a library of witnesses to this doctrine, St. Augustine wrote a whole treatise on Conjugal Adultery, in which he declared, “Intercourse with one’s legitimate wife is unlawful and wicked whenever the conception of offspring is prevented.”When recently, the present Holy Father repeated St. Augustine’s statement about contraception as marital adultery, he was crucified by the world media.

That is why no one should have been surprised at the reception, or rather, rejection, that Pope Paul VI’s Encyclical Humanae Vitae received in 1968.

Thirty years ago, Paul VI appealed to the conscience of the world when he warned about “the consequences of practicing artificial birth control.” His warning was prophetic. What have been the consequences of contraception in one once-civilized nation after another?

They have been myriad. But I would give especially seven, which may be listed in sequence.
• Fornication;
• Adultery;
• Sterilization;
• Homosexuality;
• AIDS;
• Breakdown of the family; and
• Murder of the unborn.

At the risk of repeating the obvious, let me briefly show how contraception inevitably leads to these seven tragedies that haunt the modern world.

Fornication

How can we expect unmarried people to practice chastity if married people are allowed to practice mutual masturbation, which is another name for contraception?

This touches at the heart of sane morality. Intercourse is the divinely instituted means for married person to cooperate with God in procreating children. It is also the divinely provided means of fostering mutual love between husband and wife.But contraception does just the opposite. It deliberately prevents the conception of a child and it fosters, not mutual love, but mutual selfishness.

Is it any wonder that our country is plagued with fornicators who indulge their sex passions, while avoiding the responsibilities of parenthood?

Adultery

How can a husband respect a wife who insists on using contraceptives? And how can a wife respect a husband who refuses to accept the duties of fatherhood?

The soul of Christian marriage is selfless love between the spouses. Contraceptive relations between married people are a lie. They pretend to love one another. But in reality, they are using one another in what might just well be called prostitution.The history of mankind is clear. Contraception in marriage leads to infidelity in either or in both partners. Naturally! Why limit sex activity to one’s spouse if no commitment to having or raising children is the consequence of intercourse?

Sterilization

We do not ordinarily associate contraception with sterilization. But we should.It is one thing to use contraception as an occasional malpractice. It is something else when people have themselves sterilized to avoid even fathering or mothering a child.

Yet massive sterilization, in a country like the United States, has become commonplace. Now the discovery of a five-year, synthetic hormone contraceptive gives carte blanche to any female teenager or adult, willing to have it surgically implanted under the skin. One of the largest school systems in America is doing just that—at taxpayer’s expense. The sterilizing hormone is implanted under the skin in young girl’s arms. No parental permission is needed.

This opened the door to an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, whose ratio is already sky-high in the United States.

Homosexuality

The relationship between contraception and homosexuality is seldom adverted to and, in homosexual circles, openly denied. Yet they are connected by the most basic laws of human society.

Contraception contradicts the most fundamental desire of the human heart: to give oneself in total generosity to another human being. Marital relations are meant by God to satisfy this desire between the married spouses.But if women selfishly withhold this generosity from men, men will—tragically look for such generosity in other men. And women will look for it in other women.

As you read some of the homosexual and lesbian literature, you are moved to tears at seeing how a contraceptive society has begotten a homosexual society. In their desperate search for love, men will turn to other men and women to other women. To say they are being deceived is only to emphasize the pity of a sodomistic culture that is starving for love. Contraception deprives married people of the love that they expect to find in a marriage between two people of opposite and complementary gender.

AIDS Epidemic

With all the published writings and statistics on Acquired Immune Deficiency, seldom a word is given to associate this dreadful scourge with widespread practice of contraception.

In spite of all the protests to the contrary, the AIDS epidemic has its roots in homosexuality. By now, of course, there are victims of AIDS whose condition is the result of other factors than sodomy. But the radical cause remains. And therefore, we should in sheer justice, associate the physical disease with its moral foundations, which is homosexuality abetted by contraception.

Family breakdown

The breakdown of stable family life in formerly Christian countries of the Western world is a matter of record. No one who is even dimly aware of what is going on in countries like our own, has any doubt that the family, as known since the dawn of Christianity, is being legislated out of existence.

I use the word “legislated” to bring out what Pope Paul stated so clearly in Humanae Vitae. In context, he is urging reasons for avoiding contraception. He says:

Consider also the dangerous weapon that would thus be placed in the hands of those public authorities who pay no attention to moral obligations.Who could blame a government for applying to the solution of the problems of a community those means acknowledged licit for married couples in the solution of a family problem?

So it has been. Once contraception became widespread, it was only logical for civil governments to impose a contraceptive way of life on all their citizens.

Thus, everything controlled by the government reflects a contraceptive mentality:

• The majority of employed people, working outside the home, are women.

• The salaries earned by husbands and fathers make it next to impossible for them to provide for the size and kind of family they would honestly desire.

• The feminist ideology deprives men of the dignity and respect they deserve and need in the modern world.

• The number of children of single parent, shall we call them families, has reached gigantic proportions.

• Countless children are no longer reared by their parents, but by paid personnel in so-called day care centers.

• Working mothers and under-paid fathers have become commonplace.

• The very idea of a stable and loving family has become—for millions—a starry ideal.

All of this, and more, can be traced, as surely as smoke proves a fire, to the contraceptive mania that is destroying the foundations of the human family.

Abortion

I have saved abortion as the last of the seven deadly consequences of contraception. This, too, is a law of human behavior. Abortion follows contraception like the law of gravity.

This is obvious. As people come to equate sexual pleasure with the self-gratification, there is no limit to their lustful pride. Contraception has taught them to have their own way. They will stop at nothing to have their way, not even murder of their unborn offspring.

Respect for human life requires selfless love of human beings. As a nation is nurtured on contraceptive self-indulgence, it becomes a nation that kills innocent children—if they are an obstacle to the self-gratification of those who brought them into existence.

It has been correctly said that Humanae Vitae divides the Catholic Church into two periods of history. The Church will survive only among those who believe that contraception is deadly to both Christianity and the promise of a heavenly reward.Normally thirty years is a short time. But in this case it has been long enough to prove who are still truly Catholics. They are those who believe that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ. “If you love me,” Jesus said, “keep my commandments.” The single most tested commandment of the Savior today is that contraception is fatal to the true faith and to eternal life.

Father Hardon is the Executive Editor of The Catholic Faith magazine. © Copyright 1998 Inter Mirifica