Mark & Mary Woolsey <mark.mary@...> wrote:
Just so it doesn’t go completely unanswered, no, Holy
Tradition is not our ultimate authority, and no, the
NT did NOT come from it.  Holy Tradition (thank God
for it) is subservient to the Scriptures.  Scripture,
written by men, is God-breathed (II Tim 3:16); Holy
Tradition, as wonderful as it is, is not.Just so it
doesn’t go completely unanswered, no, Holy Tradition
is not our ultimate authority, and no, the NT did NOT
come from it.--- <SNIP>
-------------------------------------
Mark 

Tradition is not a bad word.  St. Paul used it. He
wrote, "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the
traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word,
or our epistle." 2Th 2:15

Here is a chicken and egg question for you.  Which
came first, the oral word or the written?  And I am
not referring to “the word made flesh,” I’m referring
to Scripture.  Who wrote the first 11 chapters of
Genesis?

The Pentateuch, by very ancient Jewish tradition was
ascribed to Moses.  Does that mean Moses wrote every
word?  Some ancients thought so, and it became
traditional teaching.

Jesus said, “And as touching the dead, that they rise:
have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush
God spake unto him, saying, I [am] the God of Abraham,
and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?” Mar 12:26
   Was Jesus, by this reference endorsing the idea
that Moses was an amanuensis for the Holy Spirit and
that Moses wrote down every word from Genesis 1:1 to
Deuteronomy 34:11?  Jesus did not go so far as to say
that; it became a traditional teaching.

I find it interesting that some who identify
themselves as conservatives Christians will affirm
they believe Moses wrote every word of “the Book of
Moses” even the prehistory of Genesis chapters 1-11,
the history from Abraham to Moses birth in Genesis and
Exodus, and his own epitaph in Deuteronomy 34:10
“There has never yet risen in Israel a prophet like
Moses. . . .”  Yet, it is by a Jewish tradition that
the idea came to these Christians that Moses wrote
every word of the Pentateuch.  That concept is not
affirmed in Scripture.

One can accept your statement “ Scripture, written by
men, is God-breathed (II Tim 3:16),” and still have a
high regard for tradition. In fact II Tim 3:16 is
apostolic tradition. You see, it is by tradition that
we even have a canon of Scripture.  

Why don’t we include the Gospel of Thomas alongside
the Gospel of John?  Without the tradition of the
Early Church, we wouldn’t know what was accepted as
Scripture, the authentic words of the Apostles.

Tradition is not a bad word.  We must of course
distinguish between things that differ.  Jesus
inveighed against “traditions of men” that made void
God’s commands.  

It is by tradition that I accept that the Scriptures
contains everything necessary to salvation and that
the Bible, as we have it has been providentially
preserved (II Thess 2:15).  The Scriptures are our
highest authority and at the same time our most sacred
tradition.

Charles+