Sacred Tradition
Question: As a Catholic I was always
taught that God's Word is in Scripture and apostolic Tradition.
Tradition is God's Word that has been handed down orally. The apostle
Paul says: "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the
traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our
epistle" (2 Thessalonians 2:15, KJV).
Answer: This issue is one of the
fundamental differences between Roman Catholicism and Evangelical
Christianity.
Evangelicals believe in the sufficiency of Scripture. "The whole counsel of God concerning all things
necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either
expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence
may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be
added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of
men" (Westminster Confession).
In addition to
Scripture, Catholics also regard Tradition as the Word of God. "Both sacred
tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the
same sense of loyalty and reverence" (Dei Verbum).
What is Tradition
The word "tradition" has
several meanings; so let's define from official Catholic writings what
is meant by Tradition.
"The Council (of Trent) clearly perceives that
this truth and rule are contained in the written books and unwritten
traditions which have come down to us, having been received by the
apostles from the mouth of Christ himself, or from the apostles by the
dictation of the Holy Spirit, and have been transmitted as it were from
hand to hand." Further, the Second Vatican Council adds,
"Sacred Tradition takes the word of God entrusted by Christ the
Lord and the Holy Spirit to the apostles, and hands it on to their
successors in its integrity."
In other words, Tradition is a body of
undefined teachings, apart from the Holy Scriptures, allegedly of
apostolic origin, that is passed on
from generation to generation through the church, and
especially through Catholic bishops.
Hold the Traditions
You quoted 2 Thessalonians 2:15 to support this concept of "Tradition" but a closer look reveals that
the apostle Paul has something different in mind. Writing to the
believers in Thessalonica, among whom he had personally laboured, he
says:
But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren
beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for
salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the
truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and
hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our
epistle. (2 Thessalonians 2:13-15).
The apostle Paul had preached the
Gospel to the Thessalonians, and they believed the truth for their
salvation. Now that he was absent, Paul exhorted
them to hold on to the "traditions" he had passed on to them.
These traditions, or teachings, are simply the truths of the Gospel which
the apostle Paul had "handed on" to them by two means: by preaching ("by
word") and by writing ("our epistle"). There is nothing here about the perfect
transmission of an undefined body of teachings through a succession of
bishops.
The argument for the Catholic concept of Tradition
based on 2nd Thessalonians is erroneous - it is a logical fallacy of
ambiguity. The same term, the word "traditions", is used with
two different meanings. In Paul's epistle it means one thing (the divine
doctrines handed on personally by an apostle to the church); it means something
entirely different in Catholic theology (namely the transmission of
God's Word from one generation to another by the church).
Our situation is radically different from
that of the Thessalonian Christians in the first century. They had the privilege of
welcoming a living apostle among them. They
heard the apostle speak to them; we cannot do the same, simply because
there are no apostles today.
Tradition Nullifies God's Word
How then can we learn the Word of
God since we are living so many centuries after the apostles? The Lord has preserved and transmitted
the apostolic message in the New Testament. Therein we find an
infallible record of the apostolic traditions, their message, the
gospel. In the same manner, the
prophets of old preached God's Word to the Jewish people in their generation.
Later generations had access to their message only in the books of the
Old Testament Scriptures - and nothing else. The Jews were not supposed
to find the Word of God in the Holy Scriptures as well as some form of oral
tradition. In fact the Lord Jesus warned them about this very thing in
Mark 7.
Then the
Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk
according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed
hands?”
He answered
and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it
is written:
‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
For laying
aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men — the
washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.” He
said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that
you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and
your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put
to death.’ But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother,
“Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban” ’
(that is, a gift to God), then you no longer let him do anything for
his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through
your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you
do.”
How serious are these words of our Lord; how we ought to
give them our full attention! We are bound to repeat the same mistakes
of the Pharisees unless we take heed. Christ warns us plainly of the
tendency of man's religious inventions to supplant the Word of God.
Three times he charged the Pharisees: "Laying aside the commandment
of God, you hold the tradition of men." "You reject the
commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition." "Making
the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have
handed down." The origin of their traditions was lost in antiquity,
but these old traditions came to be regarded as authoritative. The
Pharisees expected everyone to obey, and they were offended because the
disciples did not keep these regulations. The Scriptures were
interpreted by their traditions, and so, in practice, tradition
superseded the written Word. The end result was disastrous. Like the
addition of a small amount of poison to a glass of water, so is the
addition of human tradition to God Word. The Word of God is rendered
"of no effect" -- void and useless to true spirituality. Human or
Divine Origin "But,"
the Catholic apologist protests, "Sacred Tradition should not be
confused with mere traditions of men. Jesus condemned traditions if they
were contrary to God's commands, but He never condemned Sacred
Tradition." He never commended Sacred Tradition
either! Jesus often referred to the Scriptures as the Word of God, but
He never promoted tradition of any sort to an equal status of the
written Word. If effect the Roman Catholic magisterium is repeating the
same error of the Pharisees; they have exalted certain doctrines and
practices which had their origin in the post-apostolic period, and
pronounced them as authoritative and binding on all believers.
Go back to 2nd Thessalonians for a moment. What evidence do you have that
Paul's "oral" traditions refer to doctrines other than the
Gospel
truth he mentioned in the previous verse? Can the Catholic bishops give
us one single sentence Paul said in any one of his sermons? What evidence do you have that Paul's
oral teaching included
such things as papal universal jurisdiction, the Marian dogmas, veneration of
statues and auricular confession? The words of the holy fathers are
claimed to witness to the presence of Sacred Tradition -- well, what
solid evidence is there from the early fathers of those doctrines?
The Pharisees censured the disciples of Christ
because they ignored their venerated "tradition of the
elders." Today Roman bishops do the same to Christians because
we would not follow their "Sacred Traditions" -- they
curse us for not saluting their images; sternly warn us that we
stand condemned and have fallen away from the divine faith because
we do not believe their novel Marian dogmas, and exclude our
communities from the universal church because we do not submit to
the bishop of the capital city of the old Roman Empire.
It would be much better for you as a Catholic to
question whether your church has fallen into the same trap as the
Pharisees of old. For if "Sacred Tradition" is nothing but
doctrines of human origin rather than the holy Word of God, the
consequences are dreadful. Remember God's warning: "In vain
they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of
men."
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