Tragic Consequences of the Private Interpretation of the Bible

Commentary:

                    Anyone who takes it upon himself to give a private interpretation of the Word of God will run into deep trouble. He will find out how complicated it really is and how many contradictions he will fall into and come across. Psychologically, this will cause anger and frustration to surge up within the person (as Augustine tells us). Such a person will end up with a faith crisis and start disbelieving in many of the things he studied and read. With the fall of his Faith, charity soon follows and his love grows cold. He will no longer believe in nor love God and the supernatural. This stage will naturally and logically will also lead to a moral crisis and loss of virtues. Such a person will end up as an atheist and moral relativist.

                This is exactly what happened in Lutheran Germany and is happening in Puritan England and America. With such confusion, chaos and misunderstanding of the Word of God and its interpretation, disbelief, atheism and moral corruption set in. The Nazi philosophy did not come out of nowhere. It was the result of the religious degradation of five centuries of Protestant sectarianism. Augustine is wholly correct in his reasoning: The logical conclusion of the private interpretation of the Bible will be to infallibly lead one to atheism and loss of charity.

Father Anthony Mellace