Dear Anonymous Girl,

You said:

• How do you know God wrote the Bible and that they were telling the truth that God wrote it and weren't making things up?

We believe, because we have faith and we can only obtain faith through Grace.

This portion of the Catechism should help:

• Faith and understanding
  

We believe Jesus Christ is True God and True Man. Because of this, He can neither deceive nor be deceived. He chose to build His Church on St. Peter and his successors and promised that He would be with us until the end of time, not necessarily on Earth as the Man but after His Ascension through the Holy Spirit which would guide our popes and bishops.

As to why we know that they weren't making things up. The answer is simple:

Human nature and mortality tell us that people won't die for a lie and all the Early Church saints died for the faith your friend holds on to today! That's just History 101.

You said:
I don't know how to reassure her that God truly wrote it through the authors by the Holy Spirit.

You reassure her by either going online or to a local library and looking up the Council of Rome.

The Bible does not tell us What the inspired books of the Bible are nor, from a Protestant view, does it give us any inspired table of contents anywhere in the Scriptures.

The approved table of contents you have in your Bible was first chosen in 382 A.D. at the Council of Rome under the direction of Pope Damascus I. (366-383 A.D.)

So every time a Protestant opens a Bible to read it, they are re-affirming that:

The Pope and Catholic Bishops got it right!

Read the whole issue here:

• Are you exclusionary saying, "the Bible was written by Catholics, for Catholics, for use in the Catholic Mass"?

If your friend is still having doubts, she should pray for the grace to have these doubts resolved.

My colleagues may have more to add.

Mike

Dear Anonymous Girl,

Just to add a little, while we believe God is the Primary Author of the Bible, He did not write the Bible. God used human authors and inspired them to write in their own language and within their own cultural norms and it took many centuries to write.

We believe it is the authority of Christ in the Church that authentically interprets the Bible so that we may understand the way to salvation. Catechisms contain these sacred teachings.

Peace,

Paul

Dear friend,

I would try a different approach. Rather than try to prove that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, try something she can get her brain around.

Start with this: Jesus is a real historical person, a person who lived a life so profound that while there have been many great religious leaders in the world, there has never been anyone like Him.

As a matter of fact, if He went around saying the things He said, today, people would think he is crazy. He made claims that no other sane person ever made, and billions of people, some of the greatest people in history have found Him credible and believed Him and believe in Him and love Him.

• Don't you want to know His story?

Read the Bible. Start with the Gospels. The Old Testament is going to give a much better context, but you can get to that later. When you learn who Jesus is, what He said, and how 2,000 years of history have been shaped by Him, you'll start to understand what Christians are saying and how God used people to leave us this legacy.

We believe what we do about the Bible because we believe Jesus. Without Him it doesn't compel quite the same way. Stay focused on Him!

Peace,

Bob Kirby