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Tradition

Why does the Catholic Church base some of her doctrines on tradition instead of basing them all on the Bible? Did Christ not tell the Pharisees that in holding to tradition they were transgressing the commandment of God?  

*Mt 15:3 - break commandment of God for your tradition
*Mk 7:9 - set aside God's commandment. to uphold tradition
*Col 2:8 - seductive philosophy according to human tradition
1 Col 11:2 - commends them for following Apostolic tradition
2 Thess 2:15 -commands them to keep traditions
2 Thess 3:6 - shun those acting not according to tradition

These are speaking of man made tradition. Observe that in the Bible there are two kinds of religious tradition, human or custom and divine. Observe that when Christ accused the Pharisees He was referring to "precepts of men"(Mark 7:7), to their human traditions. Christ made divine traditions part and parcel of the Christian deposit of faith, as the Apostle Paul affirmed: "Stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistles." (2 Thess. 2:14. Also see 2 Thes. 3:6). This divine tradition to which Paul refers, this revealed truth which was handed down by word rather than by letter, is the tradition upon which, along with Sacred Scripture, the Catholic Church bases her tenets of faith, as the primitive Christian Fathers affirmed. Wrote St. Augustine: "These traditions of the Christian name, therefore, so numerous, so powerful, and most dear, justly keep a believing man in the Catholic Church." The New Testament itself is a product of Christian tradition. Nowhere in the New Testament is there any mention of a New Testament.

2. BIBLE ALONE OR BIBLE PLUS TRADITION -Where did the bible come from -click for more information?  

The Catholic Church bases her teaching upon one source: The word of God. This divine revelation is transmitted in two ways: through Scripture and apostolic tradition. Many assume that only the writings of the apostles are the word of God. However, their oral transmission of the faith is also considered the word of God (1 Thess. 2:13).

1 Cor 11:2 - hold fast to traditions I handed on to you
2 Thess 2:15 - hold fast to traditions, whether oral or by letter
2 Thess 3:6 - shun those acting not according to tradition J
Jn 21:25 - not everything Jesus said recorded in Scripture
Mk 13:31 - heaven & earth shall pass away, but my word won't
Acts 20:35 - Paul records a saying of Jesus not found in gospels
2 Tim 1:13 - follow my sound words; guard the truth
2 Tim 2:2 - what you heard entrust to faithful men
2 Pet 1:20 - no prophecy is a matter of private interpretation
2 Peter 3:15-16 Paul's letters can be difficult to grasp & interpret
1 Pet 1:25 - God's eternal word=word preached to you
Rom 10:17 - faith comes from what is heard
1 Cor 15:1-2 - being saved if you hold fast to the word I preached
Mk 16:15 - go to whole world, proclaim gospel to every creature
Mt 23:2-3 - chair of Moses; observe whatever they tell you


St. Athanasius (360 AD): "let us note that the very tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the beginning, which the Lord gave, was preached by the Apostles, and was preserved by the Fathers. On this was the Church founded; and if anyone departs from this, he neither is nor any longer ought to be called a Christian .... "Four Letters to Serapion of Thmius 1, 28. Origen (c. 230 AD) "The teaching of the Church has indeed been handed down through an order of succession from the Apostles, and remains in the Churches even to the present time. That alone is to be believed as the truth which is in no way at variance with ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition." Fundamental Doctrines 1, preface, 2.
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