Ecce Fides - Pillar of Truth - St. Patrick's Basilica

We are obliged to yield many things to the Papists [Catholics]—that they possess the Word of God
which we received from them, otherwise we should have known nothing at all about it
(Commentary on St. John, 16).
Martin Luther, Founder of Protestantism
Two forms of Revelation
What many Protestants fail to realize is that there are two forms of God’s revelation. One form is often
referred to as natural revelation and the other as divine revelation. Natural revelation is divided into two
forms, the revealing of God’s presence through the material universe (Rom. 1:20; Wis. 13:15) and the
revelation of God through the natural and moral law that is embedded in the core of all human beings
(Rom. 2:15)—this law becomes perceptible by a clear and informed conscience. Finally, there is divine
revelation or the deposit of the faith, as found in Sacred Tradition--the life of the Holy Spirit working
through the life of the people of God--and Sacred Scripture--which flowed out of Sacred Tradition. Divine
revelation helps to correct the misinterpretations of natural revelation. When we seek truth and God we
must seek to grasp the entirety of God’s revelation to us!
What about Revelation 22:18-19?
Revelation 22: 18-19 states: “I warn everyone who hears the words of prophecy of this book: if
anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; if anyone takes away
from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and
in the holy city, which are described in this book.”
Many argue that by resorting to “tradition” one is contradicting Revelation 22. This is not the
case. Tradition does not add as much as clarifies the word of God in the Scriptures. The life of the Spirit in
the Church (Sacred Tradition) helps us to understand how the Church always understood a particular
scripture passage.
For example, for Catholics, John 6:35-71 testifies to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
Yet many do not accept this Catholic and Orthodox understanding of the Eucharist. So as Catholics we
look to Sacred Tradition: Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple and friend of the apostles John, Peter, and Paul
wrote in 107, only 7 years after the death of the apostle John, that “only heretics abstain from the
Eucharist…because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ.” The
Church has always maintained the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It is only in the 16 th century,
with the birth of Protestantism, that Protestants began to slowly reject this reality.
Secondly, the Bible is full of additions. The most legendary is the ending of Mark’s Gospel.
There are three different endings to Mark’s Gospel that can be found in ancient manuscripts. For example,
Jerome quotes a fourth century manuscript known as the “Freer Logion” (which appears after v. 14). It is
usually footnoted in Bibles. But all Bibles contain within the main text a “longer ending” (16: 9-20) and a
“shorter ending” (found after v. 8 or v. 20) to the Gospel of Mark.
If you have two different endings in the same text, you clearly have additions. All scholars
acknowledge that the “longer ending” is not from Mark and that it was likely written during the second
century. Furthermore, the “shorter ending” appears mainly in seventh to ninth century manuscripts of the
Bible as well as in an old Latin version of the Bible. Yet both endings are in the Bible and are considered
the Word of God, Sacred Scripture. If you check the footnotes in your Bible you will see this explained.
Likewise, when we look at the book of Genesis we notice that Chapter 1 to Chapter 2:1-4 has one
account of the creation of the world and Chapter 2:4f has a second account. That is why the Bible has as
the heading to Chapter one, “The First Story of Creation,” and as a heading to Chapter two, “The Second
Story of Creation.” If you have two different accounts in the same text, you clearly have additions.
Thirdly, we know that some subtractions have been made since some parts of the Bible are
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