CHRISTIAN SECTS AND THE BIBLE

All Christian sects prove the authenticity of their sect from the Bible.  And each of them jealously proves itself right and the others wrong from the words of the Bible. . .for all claim this is the Word of God.  The Catholic Church alone does not prove its Divine origin from the Bible.    

While all Christian sects prove their origin from the Bible, the Catholic Church proves its Divine origin from the Tradition of early Church and, in the process, has produced the Bible which the same Tradition has shown to be the Word of God.  

If, therefore, we ask all Christian sects why they believe that the Bible is the Word of God, their answer must be "because the Catholic Church said so."  Because there is no other proof that the Bible is the Word of God.

We cannot say that the Bible is the Word of God because the same book says so.  A thousand books are making the same claim.  The proof must be outside the book.  And the proof is found in the Tradition of the Catholic Church -- those sets of rites, letters, creeds, writings, Gospels written by the Apostles, their pupils and Holy successors that kept the Church established by Christ one and united at its beginnings.  It is these people who compiled some of these writings and declared it to be the Bible wherewith the summary of the teachings of Christ may be found. 

Vincent of Lerins