The invention of the art of printing as a revolutionary turning point within Christianity

When about the year fifty A.D. Paul made his three great missionary journeys he did not have any Bibles with him. Also the first Christians who wanted to be followers of Christ during the first centuries and who wanted to spread the good news did not possess any Bibles as we know them today. Up to the end of the fifteenth century, when the art of printing was invented, practically no Christian owned a Bible. To go back to the days of Paul: in his time there were hardly any books yet, not even hand-written books, but people used scrolls. It may be that Paul took a number of scrolls with him on his journeys, just for his own use, but it is practically certain that he did not carry so many scrolls along that they covered the entire Hebrew Scriptures. When later, during the first centuries A.D., there appeared books as we know them today, they were hand-written books: for 99% of the people who lived during the first fifteen centuries prohibitively expensive. In short: the Christians who lived during the first fifteen centuries of the existence of Christianity had no Bibles and no direct access to the word of God.

This means that during the first fifteen centuries Christianity did not have the choice to place either itself or the Bible in the centre of religious life: the Church, which was later called the Catholic Church, had nothing else to offer to the faithful than itself. During the first fifteen centuries the Catholic Church had to convey the contents of a terribly thick and difficult book to the European masses, the vast majority of whom could not read. And the Church possessed only a very small number of copies of this book. For what is now called the Roman Catholic Church there was no alternative but placing itself, as an organization, in the centre of religious life. It could only make its message visible and audible through church-buildings, stained glass windows, images of Biblical scenes and persons, music, songs, processions, miracles, feasts, and of course the sermons of its priests and things like rituals and sacraments. It became a Church in which not Bible stood in the centre, but priests. Simply because there were hardly any Bibles and the number of priests could always easily be increased.

In the Middle Ages (between 500 A.D. and 1500 A.D.), the period in which the Roman Catholic Church got its permanent form, neither God nor the Church could convey religious messages through a book like the Bible. The messages could only be conveyed by priests and only the Roman Catholic Church could provide those priests. This is a historical fact. It is not the result of a decision taken by men. Up to the end of the fifteenth century the Roman Catholic Church simply did not have any options which they could choose from.

It is possible to pass all sorts of criticism on the way The Roman Catholic Church functioned in the Middle Ages and the people who lived in those days already expressed their criticism in all sorts of ways. There were serious abuses in the Church, many priests were uneducated and did their work badly. But no matter how many things the Church and its priests did wrong: it cannot be denied that it was the Catholic Church of the first fifteen centuries that made all Europeans followers of Christ and that passed on the Bible from generation to generation. The world owes it to the Catholic Church that we now possess the original, God given, Biblical texts.

The fact that people in the first fifteen centuries of the existence of Christianity possessed hardly any Bibles also explains how it could happen that non-Christian teachings and practices, such as elements of Greek philosophy, were so easily introduced into the Christian faith. Ninety-nine percent of the Christians in the centuries we are talking about had no access to a Bible and consequently did not have the possibility to check whether the things that the priests told them had a sound Biblical foundation or not.

As soon as it became possible to print Bibles, by the end of the fifteenth century, and to print them in European languages which everybody could read, Christianity underwent a revolutionary change. Now all Christians had direct access to the word of God and they could compare the stories that priests told them with the original holy texts. People could make a choice! They could either place the stories and teachings of the Roman Catholic priests in the centre of their religious life or base their convictions and actions on the word of God itself. People could decide to be critical of the doctrines of the Catholic Church and to agree or disagree with each one of them. People could also choose to trust only the Bible as the direct word of God and to become a member of a Church that refused to accept any doctrine that lacked a Biblical foundation. Starting from 1517 (when Martin Luther started the Reformation) people could become members of the Protestant Church of their choice. After fifteen centuries in which there was nothing to choose from, there were first a number of options, later on dozens, then hundreds, thousands and now tens of thousands.

For over ten centuries the Roman Catholic Church had the monopoly within the world of Christianity and for all those years it represented the only form and only organization of this religion. It is obvious that up to the present day it has not been willing to part with this position. For fifteen centuries the Roman Catholic Church, at least in its own eyes, was the indispensable mediator between God and man and occupied a central position in the religious life of Christians. It is not easy to hand over such a central place to a book. In addition the Roman Catholic Church is highly aware of the fact that it is the oldest Christian Church, the Church which all other Christian Churches have originated from, the Church which has converted Europe and which during the Middle Ages was considered an omnipotent and infallible organization. Also the Church which from its very beginning (in its present form the fourth century) has always thought that it was guided by the holy spirit and that as an organization it is God’s representative on earth. In this context people should not forget that in the course of the Middle Ages the Roman Catholic Church began to view the pope of Rome as the one who is God’s substitute on earth.

All Protestant Churches have broken with the ideas expressed in the previous paragraph. They view the Roman Catholic Church, as it proceeded from the Middle Ages, as fallible. They reject many Catholic teachings and practices which have no Biblical foundation. And every time Biblical and human views clash they choose for the Biblical ones. They also refuse to recognize the authority of the Roman Catholic Church in religious matters and do not believe that the Catholic Church was established by Christ and His apostles. In addition Protestant Churches do not believe that the Roman Catholic Church, its popes and its priests are the representatives or substitutes on earth of God and Jesus Christ and that they have the exclusive right to the guidance of the holy spirit.