Paper Pope

Penetrating the Priestcraft of Protestants and Papists

It is traditional for Roman Catholics to taunt Protestants with the allegation that they treat the Bible as a “paper pope,” usurping the authority of the Pope of Rome to provide binding interpretations of scripture for the faithful. Martin Luthor’s tenet of Sola Scriptura (“scripture alone”), Catholics charged, did not actually establish the centrality of scripture but instead completely decentralized religious authority, making of it an ever-expanding circle with no identifiable circumference! In other words, Luther’s doctrine made “every man his own pope.” If everyone is the authority, then no one is the authority. There is no authority. And the overnight sprouting of a jungle of rival interpretations, held by a Babel of competing sects, would seem to vindicate the Catholic accusations. But there is another, equally damning problem with the Protestant notion of the Bible as the infallible Word of God, inspired by God but transcribed by man.