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Catholics believe that their
tradition and the papacy are equal in authority with scripture and Protestants
usually consider tradition to be a bad thing with scripture as the true source
of doctrine, teaching and truth for the Church. So who is right? Could they both
be wrong?
First of all, lets look
at why there are differences in opinion.
The Roman Catholics In A.D
1545 at the Council of Trent declared tradition of equal authority with scripture
and the official Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994) places tradition and
the Magisterium on the same level of authority with Scripture:
"It is
clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition,
Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated
that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in
its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively
to the salvation of souls."
Catechism of the Catholic
Church, pg. 29, para 95; see also pg. 25, para 8
."Sacred
Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of
God ..."
Catechism of the
Catholic Church, para 97
"The Second
Vatican Council indicates three criteria for interpreting Scripture in accordance
with the Spirit who inspired it.
1. Be especially attentive ‘to the content and unity of the whole Scripture.'.
. .
2. Read the Scripture within ‘the living Tradition of the whole Church.' . .
.
3. Be attentive to the analogy of faith."
Catechism of the
Catholic Church, para 111, 112, 13, 114
"Sacred
Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath
of the Holy Spirit. And (Holy) Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word
of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy
Spirit. "
(Pg. 26, #81)
So is this view of tradition justified?
Well it does seem obvious that the Bible doesn't contain all the teachings of Christ, so some argue that tradition is what we have in order to preserve teachings that were not recorded.
Mark
4.33
“Jesus preached his message using many other parables like
these….” (none were recorded here)
Mark
6.34
“..and began to teach them many things.” (none were
recorded here)
John
16.12
“I have many more things to teach you, but now it would be
too much for you to bear. But when the Spirit comes he will lead you into all
truth”
John
21.25
“There are many other things which Jesus did. If they were
all written down one by one the whole world could not contain the books that
would be written.”
John
20.30
“In his disciples presence, Jesus performed many other miracles
which are not written in this book.”
On top of this, the Bible itself recognizes the value of the tradition:
1
Corinthians 11:2
Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and
hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you
2
Thessalonians 2:15
So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which
you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.
2
Thessalonians 3:6
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not
according to the tradition which you received from us.
Now the tradition that the Apostles taught and passed down were eventually preserved in the gospels.
But the scriptures contains verses that condemn tradition too, and these scriptures are part of the reason why Protestants do not hold tradition in high esteem as the Catholics do.
Matthew
15 3-6
3 Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God
for the sake of your tradition?
4 For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father
or mother must be put to death.'
5 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you
might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,'
6 he is not to 'honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God
for the sake of your tradition.
Repeated in:
Mark
7: 8-13
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding
on to the traditions of men."
9 And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of
God in order to observe your own traditions!
10 For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses
his father or mother must be put to death.'
11 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: 'Whatever help you
might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to
God),
12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother.
13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed
down. And you do many things like that."
Colossians
2:8
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the
tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
So we have 2 types of tradition.
So how do we distinguish between man's tradition and the tradition of the Apostles. Well we have the scripture do we not.
2
Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is Godbreathed and is useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
So we can judge tradition by the scriptures. If we do not judge tradition with scripture, we won't be able to judge whether certain traditions are of God or Man, outside of direct revelation from the Spirit of God. We obviously need to be very careful because acceptance of the traditions of men, means we nullify the Word of God in our life.
This next scripture shows that the tradition of the Apostles were written down in the gospels, so we can be certain of the true teachings.
Luke
1:1-4
1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled
among us,
2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses
and servants of the word.
3 Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the
beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most
excellent Theophilus,
4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
So here is the admission in scripture where we are told that scripture makes the true traditions certain. Nowhere do we read in scripture that tradition over rides scripture.
Today we (the future disciples compared to the time when the scriptures were written) live in an age where such traditions are not fresh in our memories because millennia have passed since these things happened. We also know that man is unreliable in preserving history with oral and other methods. It is human nature to change, exaggerate or remove things and if we trusted in tradition to preserve the truths that were passed down to us from the Apostles and Prophets, then that would open up a very big temptation to change the truth of God for a lie, by ungodly people and even well intentioned people. This method of passing down tradition would be absolute catastrophic for the truth at least in our understanding, as this method would surely lose focus of the teachings and the truth itself and we would end up with legends.
If we look at the different books in the New Testament we first of all have the gospels, which are historical records of the teachings, words and works of Jesus Christ and others. These books have preserved the true traditions of our faith. We also see many letters from Paul, Peter, John etc, which record teachings, doctrines and advice to the person or church that it is addressed to and hense the true traditions are preserved there to. These letters are absolutely relevant to the Body of Christ today as the truth doesn't change. Then we have the Book of Revelation, which is a prophetic piece of writing that reveals God's truth and plan. It also contains letters which guide and rebuke the different churches, which is also relevant today, as we have the same problems to this day as the 7 churches did. So it is really the gospels that record the tradition for our benefit and the other books were written to address certain timely events. The book of Revelation is a prophetic book containing amazing visions of God.
Now how would tradition compare with scripture 2000 years later as a means of preserving the true traditions that Paul and other Apostles taught. I think that most people would agree that the scriptures are clearly more reliable simply because they are harder to alter. I can appreciate that tradition would precede New Testament scripture, but the scripture is now the reliable means of understanding the true tradition as the memory and passing down of tradition would have to survive 2000 years of fallible men.
Now we know that Catholics follow the Papacy and both Catholics and Protestants follow particular traditions and creeds to different degrees and balance that with scripture. Now these creeds serve as guides on how scripture should be interpreted, which has to be a replacement for the Spirit of Truth. Many who are filled with this wisdom of man actually do not realise that they leave very little room for the Spirit to teach them. Many people's minds are already made up and they use certain scripture out of context to prove their predefined beliefs. Very few people actually let the Spirit reveal the truth of scripture, most start with religious creeds and other man made conclusions and see everything through those filters. These predefined guides we call creeds only provoke the battle between the flesh and the Spirit as the Spirit wants to reveal the truth and the man made doctrine is often in disagreement. Many scholars today are like the Pharisees of yesterday, they read the scriptures and memorize them, but do not understand the Spirit behind the scriptures.
Matthew
23:23
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
You give a tenth of your spices–mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected
the more important matters of the law–justice, mercy and faithfulness. You
should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
Matthew
5:20
For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that
of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not
enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew
23:15
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one,
you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
Now if men are offered worldly power in return for setting their allegiance on an Emperor in the name of serving God, then will not some do so. Some would even believe that God gave this worldly power as a way to turn this world into the Kingdom of God using worldly power. You could justify such change in allegiance from Christ to Caesar by saying that God gave us the Keys of the Kingdom etc. But if we are honest we will know that we cannot be friends with the world and a friend of God at the same time and many of today's religious traditions are indeed the traditions of men from worldly powers and dressed up to look like the true teachings of Christ. We therefore must challenge all tradition with scripture. If it conflicts, them the tradition should lose.
Acts
17:11
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians,
for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures
every day to see if what Paul said was true.
So these people were commended for searching the scriptures to see what Pauls saying was correct. They didn't accept his tradition blindly, nor did they compare Paul's teachings to tradition. The Bereans are an example of how we should be.
In addition to checking out the scriptures to see if traditions or teachings are of God, we should of course be lead by the Spirit of God, who will lead us into all truth.
2
Corinthians 3:6
He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant, not
of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives
life.
If we read the scripture without the Spirit of God leading us, then we may become like the pharisees who knew about the scriptures, but actually didn't understand the spirit or true message in the scripture.
So in conclusion, being lead by the Spirit of God and true understanding of the scriptures gives us the true tradition that the Apostles taught. If we start with the tradition of the Catholic or Protestant Churches, then we cannot possibly understand the true tradition that can only be revealed by the Spirit of God and the scripture and we then become like those who follow the commandments of men.
Finally I leave you with this thought.
Matthew
19:14
Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not
hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
So why do children hate going to church. I believe it is because denominations are the not the Church at all. They certainly contain the Church, but they also contain the World and the commandments of men. Denominations are actually creeds and traditions of men that materialize as organisations, all built with mens hands. Children in their innocence are letting us adults know that something is wrong.
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