{"id":106,"date":"2004-03-11T23:18:14","date_gmt":"2004-03-11T23:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/03\/bible_vs_tradit.shtml"},"modified":"2021-05-29T02:48:46","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:48:46","slug":"bible_vs_tradit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/03\/bible_vs_tradit.shtml","title":{"rendered":"Bible vs. Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let me start here by saying that “Bible vs. Tradition” isn’t a good title. Perhaps I’ll come up with something better before I’m done typing, but if not, I’m sorry. \ud83d\ude42
\nVirusdoc<\/a> has once again dragged me into a Catholic or Prodestant debate today<\/a>. Try as I may to fight it, this blog is turning into a place to entertain that discussion because of his exploring of the Catholic faith as his own. On the whole it’s not a bad thing, but I just hope that folks don’t think that I came to the web to talk about Catholicism vs. Protestantism. Actually, his post was quite good and asks some honest and pointed questions.
\nHe points out that most evangelicals put their faith in the Bible unequivocally. Nothing holds any authority over it. I would probably put myself in that category. He also points out that most of us have not<\/i> done any in-depth study, or probably any study at all, in the origins of scripture. We believe in it because men we know and trust have told us it’s reliable, it’s consistent and it’s worked for us. Until very recently, I would have put myself in that category too. I say until very recently because it was one of many ‘conversations<\/a>‘ with VirusDoc that pushed me to dig deeper for answers to his probing questions. More on that later.
\nI find much to disagree with and question in his post today, but I’d rather not get into that today. At the end of the post he asks, <\/p>\n

\n“So, my request to you (particularly if you are a devoted Protestant) is the following: help me understand how the choices of the evangelical protestant to follow the teachings of Scripture are at all different from the choices of the earnest catholic to follow the teachings of the Catholic Church on Mary?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He bases that on the fact that, as stated above, both the average Catholic and Protestant base their beliefs on their faith in their leaders and the fact that it seems to work. They haven’t done any research into the validity of the Bible or the teachings on Mary, they just go with it.
\nFrankly, he’s right. For most followers of either faith, their reasons for doing so are similar. At that level, there is no real reason to choose one over the other. But the question for me becomes is that the only level to think about it? Just because most don’t dig for deeper reasons, does that mean that none exsist? If I find myself confronted with no good reason to believe a certain way (as ‘doc has done here) I must dig deeper (being aware of the dangers of Intellectual Inertia<\/a>) and find out if there is a reason to hang onto it or if it should be thrown out. So with VirusDoc asking tough questions, I dug for answers. I discovered an article<\/a> about the origins of scripture. I’m sure that there are more,in fact John Oakes points out a couple, but this site cane recommended by a man I have a great deal of respect for. Since we are dealing with the NT primarily, I only read that section of it. In it I found reasons to hang on to my belief that scripture is the place to go for the ultimate authority on what Christianity is.
\nBefore I tell you what those reasons are, let me say that I do believe that God can reveal Himself to us in other ways. Each person experiences God in a different way, but I do believe that those experiences will match with the teachings of scripture and that they must be subject to them. So here are m reasons, pretty much from that article, of why the Bible is the ultimate authority:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The early church used the New Testament<\/i> There is ample evidence that what we know of as the New Testament was codified as the official documents of the faith by the churches by around 200 AD or so. It shows that all the churches were using the same books.<\/li>\n
  2. The New Testament Canon was approved by the apostles themselves.<\/i> I had assumed that some committee of scholars from various backgrounds had gotten together to put the canon together. No, it was done long before there were<\/i> various backgrounds in Christianity. The evidence suggests that the basis for choosing the books of the Bible was that the apostles, those who had seen Jesus, themselves held them as the inspired standard.<\/li>\n
  3. They are highly accurate.<\/i> Despite the fact that there seems to have been no effort to preserve the original writings or even to research their validity until the 1400’s, today we have thousands of texts with parts and sometimes all of the NT and it has proven to have been accurately handed down. There are very very few discrepancies of any consequence in the manuscripts. Remarkable for a book of it’s age.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    To me the history and teachings of any religious group, Catholic or otherwise cannot live up to the actual evidence for the Bible: in place with in a few generations, approved by the founding fathers (apostles) and reliably handed down for centuries without significant error. The words of men, no matter how learned or in what position, are still only the words of men. They may be profound, wise and worthy of obedience, but they are not scripture. It’s a matter of evidence. There is ample evidence that the NT is what it claims to be, the blue print upon which Christianity was built. As far as the teachings or traditions of the Catholic or other churches, there is little evidence to support the idea that God wants them to be treated with the same respect as scripture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Let me start here by saying that “Bible vs. Tradition” isn’t a good title. Perhaps I’ll come up with something better before I’m done typing, but if not, I’m sorry.Read More Bible vs. Tradition<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nBible vs. Tradition - salguod.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/03\/bible_vs_tradit.shtml\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bible vs. Tradition - salguod.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Let me start here by saying that “Bible vs. Tradition” isn’t a good title. 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Inspired by David Underwood's post to New Wineskins here. What does it mean to be 'safe'?Protected Sheltered Closed, locked. IsolatedLet's look at some spiritual concepts:If you want to live, you must die. If you want to be first, you must be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles, papers and lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Articles, papers and lessons","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/articles-papers-and-lessons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/03\/inellectual_ine.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":106,"position":1},"title":"Inellectual Inertia","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"March 2, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Gary at Country Keepers had an intersting post the other day on gay marriage. Gary takes on an article at a pro gay marriage site by someone who claims to be a Christian. 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