Catholicism Today Scripture and Tradition Lesson 3

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. The Most Important Differences Separating Lutherans from Catholics 1. Are sins forgiven by faith alone or by faith + works? 2. What is authority in the church: by Scripture alone or by Scripture + tradition + hierarchy? 3. Authority of the pope 4. Christ alone or Christ + Mary + saints?

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. The Catholic View of Scripture and Tradition First, the official teaching of the church places the oral traditions of the church on the same level as the written Word of God. Second, the leading biblical scholars of the Catholic Church attack the inerrancy of Scripture with the same unbelieving arguments the liberal Protestant critics use.

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Scripture and Tradition The official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church is that the church “receives and venerates with an equal piety and reverence all the books of the Old Testament as well as of the New, since one God is the author of both, and no less the traditions themselves, both those pertaining to faith and those pertaining to morals, as having been spoken orally by Christ Himself or dictated by the Holy Spirit, and preserved in the Catholic Church by the succession of bishops.” (Trent, IV,1)

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Scripture and Tradition 1. What are some teachings of the Catholic Church that are based on tradition, not on Scripture? 2. Read Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18. How do these two passages clash with the Roman doctrine of tradition?

Deuteronomy 4:2 © 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. 2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

Revelation 22:18 © 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. 18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Scripture and Tradition How do these two passages clash with the Roman doctrine of tradition?

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Scripture and Tradition 3. Read Galatians 1:8 and Matthew 15:1-9. What standard for judging tradition is provided by these passages?

Galatians 1:8 © 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!

Matthew 15:1-9 © 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” 3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ 5 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ 6 he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it.

Matthew 15:1-9 © 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: 8 “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’”

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Scripture and Tradition 3. Read Galatians 1:8 and Matthew 15:1-9. What standard for judging tradition is provided by these passages?

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Scripture and Tradition 4. Read 2 Timothy 3:16,17. Why is it unnecessary to place tradition alongside Scripture as a second teaching authority? 5. Why is it wrong to place tradition alongside Scripture as a second teaching authority? 6. What are the valid uses of tradition in the church? What are some of the ways we use tradition in our church?

2 Timothy 3:16,17 © 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Scripture and Tradition 4. Read 2 Timothy 3:16,17. Why is it unnecessary to place tradition alongside Scripture as a second teaching authority? 5. Why is it wrong to place tradition alongside Scripture as a second teaching authority? 6. What are the valid uses of tradition in the church? What are some of the ways we use tradition in our church?

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. “Read the Scriptures within the living Tradition of the whole Church. According to the saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church’s heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God’s Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture (according to the meaning which the Spirit grants to the Church).” (Par. 113) The Catholic Denial of the Sufficiency of the Scriptures

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. “The Church... does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from Scripture alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.” (Par. 113) The Catholic Denial of the Sufficiency of the Scriptures

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Tradition—8 Kinds: 7 Good, 1 Bad 1. The writing of Scripture 2. The transmission of Scripture 3. Oral teaching of the faith 4. Exegetical traditions 5. Dogmatical traditions 6. Symbolic traditions 7. Liturgical traditions 8. The doctrines of men

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Tradition Pass on Bible truth Tested Unscriptural doctrines of men Judge others Exclude others Barrier to outreach No longer fits need Complacency Laziness

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Traditions—How Do We Make Them Meaningful? 1. The writing of Scripture 2. The transmission of Scripture 3. Oral teaching of the faith 4. Exegetical traditions 5. Dogmatical traditions 6. Symbolic traditions 7. Liturgical traditions

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Critical Views of Scripture in the Catholic Church Although the Catholic Church has been a strong defender of the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture in the past, today Catholic biblical scholarship is dominated by the same negative critical views of Scripture that dominate liberal Protestant and liberal Lutheran biblical scholarship.

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Critical Views of Scripture in the Catholic Church Like their Protestant counterparts, Catholic biblical scholars deny Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch and Davidic authorship of the psalms. They deny the biblical doctrine of creation and question many other doctrines. Virtually all teachers in Roman Catholic institutions of higher education in America accept the critical view that there are many errors in Scripture.

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Critical Views of Scripture in the Catholic Church Which is more dangerous to faith, Rome’s traditional exaltation of tradition or its current tearing down of Scripture? Are these two views opposites, or are they natural partners?

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. J Brug

© 2008 Northwestern Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Fair Use f To the best of our knowledge, all materials in this class presentation meet the standards of fair use. No copyrighted material in this presentation should be copied for any use that violates fair use.