The Bible Shows us that Christians Need the Church and Oral Tradition to Correctly Understand the Bible by Laurence Gonzaga
The Protestant Claim: All of what is to be known, understood, taught, believed, and done by the Christian is found in the Bible/Scripture ALONE, the Reformation doctrine of "sola scriptura".
The Catholic Claim: All of what is to be known, understood, taught, believed, and done by the Christian is found in the Bible/Scripture, the Oral Tradition of the Church, and the Living Teaching Magisterium of the Church.
Matthew 2:23
And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
--Where is this prophecy found in the Old Testament? If you can't find it, it must have come down to the time of Jesus by the Oral Tradition of the Jews.
Jude 1:9
Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
--Where did the Apostle Jude get this story from? It's not recorded in the Old Testament. Was Jude a Sola Scripturist?
2 Thessalonians 2:15
Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.
--Paul says to keep the TRADITIONS that were taught by WORD (spoken) or by EPISTLE (written). You can assume they are the SAME thing, but on what SCRIPTURAL basis do you make that claim? What verse do you have that teaches you what was SPOKEN is the SAME as what was WRITTEN?
Luke 10:16
He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.”
--Notice it is the Gospel that is HEARD here. Not READ only.
Mark 16:15
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
--The Gospel is again PREACHED ORALLY.
Romans 10:17
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
--Faith comes by HEARING.
2 Timothy 1:13
Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
--HEARD not READ.
2 Timothy 2:2
And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
--HEARD, committed to "faithful men" who will then TEACH OTHERS.
John 21:25
And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.
--Jesus had a 3-year ministry which is over 1000 days of preaching and teaching. It would be silly to think that all of what Jesus taught was written in Scripture. Jesus is never quoted in the NT as instructing the Apostles to write anything down. There is therefore a CONTEXT that is captured in the MEMORIES of the APOSTLES and their SUCCESSORS which gives the Christians of the Early Church an UNDERSTANDING of what the NT text means. This TRADITION is what is PASSED DOWN (Tradere) to the next spiritual generation. These are captured in WRITTEN form as well in the writings of the EARLY CHURCH FATHERS.
2 Thessalonians 3:6
But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us.
--What is this tradition that Paul speaks of? If he is referring to WRITTEN SCRIPTURE or EPISTLE, why doesn't he say so? One also has to consider the cultural context here, that Judaism was an ORAL TRADITION culture (Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. Psalm 78:3; Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; Your elders, and they will tell you. Deuteronomy 32:7)
1 Corinthians 11:2
Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you.
--Again, here, if Paul meant what he WROTE to the Corinthians, then he could have said WROTE, but instead he speaks of TRADITIONS that he DELIVERED to them.
1 Corinthians 5:9
I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.
--Paul says WROTE here, and so when he refers to TRADITION, he must be referring to some other METHOD of transmitting the message, and not WRITTEN. Also note here, Paul is referring to a PREVIOUS EPISTLE which was sent to the Corinthians. A letter that has not survived and is NOT preserved in the NT, and yet he expects them to abide by that EPISTLE. So, is everything WRITTEN, or not?
1 Timothy 3:15
but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
--Note here that the WRITTEN TEXT or EPISTLES are not the "pillar and ground of the truth" but "the church of the living God". What church then? A Protestant church? Or the one Church that Christ Himself founded in Matthew 16:18 (And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.)
2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
--This text is often cited to "prove" that scripture is the ONLY authority? But does it actually say that? And furthermore, WHAT SCRIPTURE is this referring to? It can only mean the OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE as the NT was still being written and won't even be collected into the NT until the 4th century. All this passage is saying is that Scripture is inspired by God, which it is, profitable for doctrine, which it is, for reproof correction and instruction in righteousness, which it is... but it does NOT say that it is the ONLY authority.
2 Peter 1:20
knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,
--The issue with sola scriptura and the Protestant methodology is that it relies on the individual's "right" and "freedom" to interpret Scripture for himself. How can it not be so since any appeal to any other authority such as the expertise of more learned scholars, councils, popes, theologians, etc. would give credence to the idea that there are indeed other authorities apart from Scripture that helps the man interpret the text CORRECTLY.
2 Peter 3:16
as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
--Protestants will often claim that Catholics are forced to interpret the Bible through Catholic lenses, when all they have to do is read the Bible for themselves to come to the truth and realization that the Catholic teachings are false. In this passage however, it's clear that the UNLEARNED and UNTAUGHT can and do TWIST the Scriptures to their own destruction.
2 Timothy 4:3
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
--This is why we need the authority of the True Church of Christ to interpret and teach the Christians with real authority, otherwise, we find ourselves with our ITCHING EARS and find "teachers" that will teach us what we WANT to HEAR.
Acts 8:30-31
So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.
--Protestants claim that they can simply ask God to lead them to the correct understanding of the Bible, and yet, here we have the Bible teaching us that the wise Ethiopian eunuch, literate as he may be, says he cannot understand what he is reading unless SOMEONE GUIDES him. This shows that the TRUE TEACHERS of Christianity teach with the AUTHORITY of CHRIST and are actually SENT by God. The word APOSTELLO mean TO BE SENT. Sent by whom? God. Are all who "pastor" churches actually SENT by God? How can they be when they don't all agree on key doctrines of Christianity. Is God confused? No, He is not.
Luke 24:32
And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”
AND
John 21:15-17
So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?”
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I [c]love You.”
He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”
He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of [d]Jonah, do you love Me?”
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I [e]love You.”
He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”
He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you [g]love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?”
And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.”
--We see here in the Gospels of Luke and John that Jesus has to interpret Scripture for us and we cannot understand the Scriptures on our own all the time. But Jesus also delegates the authority to guide and lead the flock to the Apostle Peter, as the head of the Apostles.
Galatians 1:8
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
--Stay away from FALSE "Christian" Teachers.
2 Corinthians 3:2-3
You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
--And so, we Catholics continue to press on after 2000 years as it has been done since the earliest days to... "stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught" (2 Thess 2:15), the same deposit of "faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3), and having been taught the true faith, the faithful become the living "epistle of Christ" with the Gospel written on "tablets of flesh" that "now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places" (Eph 3:10).
The moral of the story: Find the Church that Christ founded in the NT. Listen to that Church and ONLY what that Church teaches.
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