RELIGIOUS STUDIES
73 – All books
46 – Old Testament
27 – New Testament
The story of family life is a story about love
shared, nurtured, and sometimes rejected or lost
The Bible is one of the concrete evidences that we
can read to know who God is
Through the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, the authors
who wrote what they have seen, witnessed, and
experienced from God.
These inspired Scriptures have varied literary
types in one compiled book: prose, poetry,
history, prayers, songs, facts, and even fiction
Indeed, God reveals Himself to us in many
unique and creative ways. We only have to
believe and do what we have heard or read from the
Scriptures.
Hearing and doing the word – James 1: 19-25
Church teaching about Scripture
1. God reveals himself through the sacred
scriptures, transmitted orally by the apostles
and to us in a written form
2. Collection of sacred books or writings
written by human authors under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit
3. The principal author is God Himself
4. In order to reveal Himself to men, in the
condescension of His goodness, God
speaks to them in human words:
The church has always venerated the Sacred
Scriptures as She venerates the Lord’s body. She
never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of
life, taken from the one table of God’s Word and
Christ’s Body
In sacred scriptures, the church constantly finds
her nourishment and her strength
Revelation in the Old Testament
1. God’s revelation began with creation and
the manifestation of Himself to Adam and
Eve (CCC 54).
2. God spoke to our first parents, inviting
“them to intimate communion with himself
and clothes them with resplendent grace and
justice” (CCC 54).
3. The eventual sin of Adam and Eve did not
thwart God’s revelation. “After the fall,
[God] buoyed them up with the hope of
salvation, by promising redemption (CCC
56).
4. The covenant with Noah after the flood
exemplified the divine economy towards
people separated into their own lands, with
their own languages and families (CCC 56).
5. In order to gather the scattered human race,
God called Abram and chose him to be
the father of faith. Those descended from
Abraham would be the stewards of the
promise made to the patriarchs, the people
chosen to prepare for that day when God
should gather all His children into the unity
of the Church (CCC 59)
6. God continued to form “Israel as his
people, by freeing them from slavery in
Egypt. He established with them the
covenant of Mount Sinai” (CCC 62).
7. Through the prophets God prepared the
people to accept the salvation intended for
all humanity (CCC 64).
Revelation in the New Testament
1. In Christ Jesus, God has fully revealed
Himself
2. Christ commanded the apostles to preach
the Gospel as the source of all saving truth
and all moral disciple (CCC 75)
Additional Essential Knowledge about the Bible
1. Inspiration
a. Illuminated the mind of the sacred
writers.
b. Moved the will of the sacred writers
 c. Aided the sacred writers in the work of
composition
2. Inerrancy in the Bible
• The Bible contains no error when it
comes to the question about religious
message and truths about salvation
3. Structure of the Bible
1. The Old Testament
• There are 46 books in the Old
Testament and these books are
grouped together into four main
divisions: the Pentateuch, the
Historical Books, the Wisdom
Writings; the Prophets.
2. The New Testament
• These are the following: the Gospel:
(Matthew, Mark , Luke, John); the
Acts of the Apostles; the Pauline
Epistles (13 Letters attributed to St.
Paul), other Letters; and the Book
of Revelation (Apocalypse).
God is willing and out of His love and abundant
generosity, He reveals Himself to us in Jesus Christ
St. Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, affirms that
Jesus Christ is the image and presence of God who
is invisible to the eyes of human
The Supremacy of Christ - He is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of all creation
Army of Angels
1. Thrones
2. Dominions
3. Principalities
4. Powers
Church Teaching
▪ Jesus is true God and true man, the Word
made flesh
▪ Jesus Christ possesses two natures, one
divine and the other human, not confused,
but united in the one person of God’s Son
▪ Christ, being true God and true man, has
a human intellect and will, perfectly attuned
and subject to his divine intellect and divine
will, which he has in common with the
Father and the Holy Spirit
▪ The Incarnation is therefore the mystery of
the wonderful union of the divine and
human natures in the one person of the
Word
God's incarnation in Jesus Christ is the historical
self-revelation of God that surpasses everything
before it.
The gospel according to Luke expressly places the
birth of the Son of God in a historical framework
Themes in Gospels
Matthew – poor
Mark – history
Luke – history
John – love
Communion with God – reconciled
We participate with the communion. Through
FAITH
The good news is that our salvation does not
depend on what we do—it does not depend on the
strength of our faith or our repentance
Paschal Mystery
▪ Passion
▪ Death
▪ Resurrection
Life among believers
• Teaching of the apostles
• To the communal life
• To the breaking of the bread (Eucharist)
Organization of the Church
• Universal Church – Vatican – Pope
• Local Church – Philippines – Cardinal
• Diocese – Cathedral – Bishop
• Parish – St. Nino Parish – Priest
• Chapels – 25 Chapels
God revealed himself in the Church
1. God continues to manifest Himself today
through the Holy Spirit in the Church.
2. He is present in the Church’s preaching of
the truth of the Sacred Scriptures
3. in its witness of loving service, and through
the celebration of its Christ- given
sacraments
The Church as Mystery
▪ faith in the continuing presence of Jesus
among us, faith in “the purpose of God’s
plan, which is “to unite all things in him.’’
▪ The Church is the Body of Christ (CCC
669, 787- 795), the People of God (LG 2;
CCC 781- 786), and the temple of the Holy
Spirit (CCC 797- 80).
The Church is the Sacrament of Christ
▪ The continuous presence of Christ in the
world. As Sacrament, the Church is Christ’s
instrument
▪ It is “the universal sacrament of
salvation” by which Christ is “at once
manifesting and actualizing the mystery of
God’s love for men.”
Sacraments – visible presence of the invisible God
Jesus is the sacrament of the God the Father
The Church is the sacrament of Jesus Christ
▪ The Church “is the invisible plan of God’s
love for humanity” because God desires”
that the whole race may become one People
of God, form one Body of Christ, and be
built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit”
(CCC 776)
The Church is the Body of Christ
▪ We are part of this body and each part of
the body has unique and specific work to
do. We cannot live separated from the body.
Just like the vine and the branches, we
cannot do anything apart from Jesus (Jn
15:5).
▪ Vatican Council II spelled out clearly that
the Church is the People of God. This
strong community- oriented image pointed
out how much the Church should be a
community focused on the
interrelationship and mutual loving and
service among members.
▪ the principle of shared responsibility
▪ practicing and living out the humble
servanthood way of living is a concrete
manifestation of becoming a Church, as
Body of Christ and the People gathered by
God.
The Church Magisterium, guardian and
authorized interpreter of Revelation
▪ “The task of giving an authentic
interpretation of the Word of God,
whether in its written form or in the form of
Tradition, has been entrusted to the living
teaching office of the Church alone.
▪ “The Church’s “living teaching office,”
made up of the bishops in communion with
St. Peter’s successor, the bishop of Rome,
(POPE) is a service rendered to the word of
God and has as its aim the salvation of souls.
▪ “this Magisterium is not superior to the
Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches
only what has been handed on to it. At the
divine command and with the help of the
Holy Spirit, it listens to this devoutly, guards
it with dedication and expounds it
faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as
being divinely revealed is drawn from this
single deposit of faith.”
The four marks of the Church
1. The Church is one because of her source,
the one living God in Three Persons; her
one founder, Jesus Christ: Her one soul, the
Holy Spirit, who dwells in the life of the
faithful, and who unites them into one
communion of believers
2. The Church is holy because of her founder,
Jesus Christ, the source of all holiness
3. The Church is catholic because it possesses
fullness of faith and all means of salvation.
 The origin of the word “catholic” is derived
from Greek word meaning “universal.”
4. The Church is apostolic because she guards
and transmit the teachings and witness of the
apostles
Revelation of God
1. Creation
2. Scriptures
3. Jesus Christ
4. Church
Catechism for Filipino Catholic (CFC)
The CFC also points out the following
characteristics of Christian Faith:
1. Total and absolute adherence to God
(CFC 123)
2. Trinitarian- Our Faith as Catholics then,
consists of our personal conviction and
belief in God our Father revealed by Jesus
Christ, His own divine Son- made man,
and their presence to us through the Holy
Spirit, in the Church (CFC 124).
3. Loving, maturing and missionary- Our
Christian Faith is life- giving and mature
only through love; thus impels us to
mission, to evangelize, by bringing others
the Good News (cf. 1 Cor 9:16) (CFC 125).
4. Informed and Communitarian – Catholic
Faith must be “informed” that is “believing
Jesus’ words, and accepting his teachings,
trusting that he has
5. “the words of eternal life” (cf. Jn. 6:68
NCDP 147) must be “communitarian”
since it is the Church that transmit to us
Christ’s revelation through Sacred Scripture
and its living Tradition, and alone makes
possible for us an adequate faith- response
(CFC 126).
6. In – culture -ated- This Catholic Faith in
God and in Jesus Christ is never separated
from the typical Filipino faith in family
and friend (CFC 127).