An Apologetical Explanation of

Motives of Credibility

Why do we believe that what the Church teaches is true?

If this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God! (Acts 5:38-39)

We must pay the closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it…. It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, while God also bore witness to signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his own will. (Heb 2:1-4)

Motives of credibility are what make belief in Divine Revelation and its accurate transmission through the teachings of the Church reasonable. These include miracles, prophecies, the fulfillment found in Christ, and the continuous fidelity and vibrancy of the Church, which “are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all, [and] motives of credibility, [which show that the assent of faith is] by no means a blind impulse of the mind” (Dei Filius, 3: DS 3008-3010; cf. Mk 16:20; Heb 2:4).

The light of human reason makes it possible to acquire the rudimentary understanding of God and his moral law. The truths of Divine Revelation and mysteries of faith do not contradict reason but rather surpass the natural power of the human intellect. These rational motives of credibility that mark the Deposit of Faith include the miracles of Christ and his saints, the fulfillment of prophecies, the sublimity of the words of Sacred Scripture, and the holiness and fruitfulness of the Church. “That the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit” (Dei Filius, 3: DS 3009). (Cf. CCC 156)

Miracles offer proof of Revelation because they defy the laws of nature and thus exhibit God’s intervention. Biblical prophets posses knowledge of the future and warn the people to prepare accordingly, and their prophecies are verified by their fulfillment. Christ himself fulfills the loftiest aspirations of the human person–our natural desire for truth, happiness, peace, virtue, freedom, love, and meaning for our existence–and, ultimately, eternity in Heaven. The life of the Church, in her vitality and fidelity despite the defects of her members and in the opposition that she has endured throughout the centuries, is also a motive of credibility. Thus, we believe “because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived” (Dei Filius, 3: DS 3008). The Church has waged a continuous war against corrosive influences in ever generation in order to continue faithfully with the authentic mission entrusted to her by Christ himself. (Cf. CCC 812)

The Catechism addresses this question in paragraph 156.

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