Lesson 11 – Are the Sacraments Biblical?
In exploring the question “are the sacraments biblical?” we can see that the Bible points us to Christ and those sacraments in which we meet him during our lives on earth. Through the sacraments, the words of love, life, and mercy that we read in the Bible are fulfilled in particular actions in our lives—here and now.
Excerpt from The Light of Christ:
Citations of scripture are not proof texts meant to compel a skeptical mind. That Christ directly instituted seven sacraments cannot be proven empirically because no one can go back two thousand years to verify that Christ rose from the dead, that he founded the Church, or that he instituted the sacraments. These are all truths of the Catholic faith that can be believed by grace alone, or disbelieved by the rejection of that grace. Intellectually speaking, however, such references act as signs that denote real historical continuity between the earliest life of the Catholic Church and her subsequent development in later ages. The seven sacraments are all of derivation from the apostolic age, but they also each have a subsequent historical development in form.
Course Listening
More Videos
Verbum Domini: The Catholic Approach to Scripture | Prof. Boyd Taylor Coolman
The Role of Scripture and Tradition In Catholic Theology | Prof. Lewis Ayres
Related videos from earlier in the series
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