Brief reflection on sola scriptura, the infallibility of the Bible and the Church.

Protestantism holds that Scripture is the only infallible source of truth. But if Scripture alone is infallible, does it mean that God left an infallible source for fallible people, who could never finally understand the Scripture absolutely because they are fallible? There is no point in having infallible writings that no one can interpret infallibly. If only Scripture is infallible, no one, ever, at any time, could be assured that their understanding is correct.

In the face of this, surely the Protestant will say, as he commonly says: "We are not infallible, but the Holy Spirit is, and it is He who can guide every believer to understand the Scripture." Well, this raises another contradiction in Protestant thought, for the only way to be able to claim with certainty that one has authentic and correct biblical doctrine would be to assert that at any given moment a reader of the bible can be infallibly guided by The Holy Spirit so that he can interpret, without risk of error, what he reads; then, why should they be so scandalized by the doctrine that the Pope -and the Magisterium of the Church united with the Pope- is preserved from error by the Holy Spirit when he interprets the Scripture and teaches something definitive about it?

So if we understand that it would not make sense to have an infallible Bible without an infallible means to interpret it, we must recognize that God in his infinite wisdom foresaw all this and gave us both instruments, an infallible revelation found in Scripture and an equally infallible Church To understand and teach it.

It is not in vain that Scripture itself calls the Church the pillar and foundation of truth.

Alfredo Rodríguez