For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; - II Cor 10:3-5A critical issue in formulating beliefs about God is the source of authority for those beliefs. While Evangelicals generally look to the Bible as the sole authority for their beliefs (cf. Act 17:11), Ware presents a comprehensive list that includes elements common to most definitions provided by Orthodox theologians what comprises Holy Tradition as being the final arbiter for the Orthodox faith:1
Orthodox theologians perceive the Church as the life and activity of the Holy Spirit in the world rather than as the body or fellowship of believers or the building where they meet. The Tradition of the Church, then, is the life of the Spirit in the church, who alone is the ultimate criterion of truth and source of authority.3
Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church, and every kind of grace; but the Spirit is Truth.4According to Hopko Tradition can never contradict Scripture, and in this sense Scripture is the “main written authority” by which “everything in the church is judged.”5
One of the fundamental tenets of Orthodox tradition is the sacerdotal form of worship. Sacerdotalism holds to the principle that the priesthood is a special class of churchman and is a necessary part of worship. People cannot approach God on their own, but must come through a priest, whether it is for confessing sin, taking communion, or receiving grace. Any divine blessing conferred upon an individual comes through the Church; that is, through the Church’s ordained priesthood. This tradition is well founded in its antiquity.
The Old Testament law placed the Jews under a sacerdotal system. Aaron and his sons were divinely selected to be the first priests to minister to Israel (Exo 28:1). The priestly duties included offering sacrifices for the atonement of sin (Heb 5:1); representing the nation before God (Exo 28:9-12); and teaching the people God’s Word (Eze 44:23).
The problem that I see is that the Church’s Tradition (and its interpretation of Scripture) is so elevated in saceradotal systems of worship, that it's assumed by all concerned that only the Church bears any responsibility (through its representative, the local priest or bishop) to interpret and disseminate spiritual truth. This can be shown to be an extremely dangerous position to hold.
"So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul." - Eze 33:7-9
Compare that with the following, and decide what personal responsibility one has to discern Biblical truth pertaining to matters of their own salvation:
An wonderful and horrible thing has been committed in the land: ["wonderful most likely would be better translated "astonishing"] The prophets prophesy falsely [This is not a small matter.], and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?When it comes to a proper understanding of the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is all the believer needs. The believer does not need the "church fathers", or the supposed great men of God in the past, or church history, or commentaries, or Bible scholars, or some particular man (like Darwin Fish), etc.. Any appeal otherwise is an appeal to the tradition of men. In Col 2:8 Paul warned,Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.
Then the Lord said to me, "Do not pray for this people, for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence." Then I said, "Ah, Lord God! Behold, the prophets say to them, 'You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.' And the Lord said to me, "The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, whom I did not send, and who say, 'Sword and famine shall not be in this land' - by sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed! And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; they will have no one to bury them - them nor their wives, their sons nor their daughters - for I will pour their wickedness on them." - Jer 5:30,31; 6:17; 14:11-16
Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.We do not need the "teaching of the ages" (the tradition of men) to understand the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is all we need to understand the Word of God. But what about those who have no care to look into these matters? Suppose somebody's too busy? I'm going to school and am too busy to look into trivial things such things as matters of faith.
These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. - 1 Jno 2:26,27Do we need to have the "oaring" or the anchor of church tradition to keep us from wandering from the truth? No. We need the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. (I Jno 2:20,21)in I Cor 2:2 Paul wrote:
For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.What did Paul mean by this statement? That he didn't teach on other matters of Scripture other than the character and actions of Christ (like what is found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and the fact of His crucifixion? No. Paul taught the whole counsel of God (Acts. 20:27). In 1 Corinthians 2:2 Paul is not saying that he didn't teach the whole council of God. Actually, his statement means that he did teach the whole counsel of God, because Christ ("the Word, Jno 1:1, 14; Rev 19:14; Heb 4:12-13) is the whole counsel of God. He is "the Word" of the living God. So, what Paul was basically pointing out here is that the knowledge he let out of his lips was the knowledge of the Scripture (Christ), and Him crucified. The wisdom of this world he determined not to know (1 Cor 3:19).
Failing to accept the veracity of this, makes one accuse God of being a liar:
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:II Pet 1:20 makes it clear that interpretation of the Scriptures is not restricted to those of the "inner sanctum" who have been taught the secret handshake. A.T. Robertson says:So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. - Isa 55:10,11
Knowing this first (touto prôton ginôskontes). Agreeing with poieite like prosechontes in verse II Pet 1:19. No prophecy of Scripture (pâsa prophêteia ou). Like the Hebrew lo-kôl, but also in the papyri as in I Jno 2:21 (Robertson, Grammar, p. 753). Is (ginetai). Rather "comes," "springs" (Alford), not "is" (estin). Of private interpretation (idias epiluseôs). Ablative case of origin or source in the predicate as with gnômês in Act 20:3 and with tou theou and ex hêmôn in II Cor 4:7. "No prophecy of Scripture comes out of private disclosure," not "of private interpretation." The usual meaning of epilusis is explanation, but the word does not occur elsewhere in the N.T. It occurs in the papyri in the sense of solution and even of discharge of a debt. Spitta urges "dissolved" as the idea here. The verb epiluô, to unloose, to untie, to release, occurs twice in the N.T., once (Mar 4:34) where it can mean "disclose" about parables, the other (Act 19:39) where it means to decide. It is the prophet's grasp of the prophecy, not that of the readers that is here presented, as the next verse shows.Its true that these verses are NOT referring to personal interpretion of a reading from Scripture; I'm not using these as proof texts to justify that. However, I Pet 2:9 declares that "You are a royal priesthood and a priestly kingdom," and Rev 5:10, "Through your blood you have made us into priests and kings (cf. Exo 19:5-6, I Pet 2:4-9, Rev 1:4-6, 5:6-10) "No one should regard us as anything else than ministers of Christ and dispensers of the mysteries of God" (1 Cor 4:1). Who is the apostle referring to here? If the apostle is referencing sacradotalism, I have only one question: WHY? and why re-state the obvious? If, instead, the reference is to all believers that are in Christ (as I believe those are indeed to whom the references pertain), what exactly do prophets and priests do?For (gar). The reason for the previous statement that no prophet starts a prophecy himself. He is not a self-starter. Came (ênechthê). First aorist passive indicative of pherô (verses II Pet 1:17). By the will of man (thelêmati anthrôpou). Instrumental case of thelêma. Prophecy is of divine origin, not of one's private origination (idias epiluseôs). Moved by the Holy Ghost (hupo pneumatos hagiou pheromenoi). Present passive participle of pherô, moved from time to time. There they "spoke from God." Peter is not here warning against personal interpretation of prophecy as the Roman Catholics say, but against the folly of upstart prophets with no impulse from God.6
Getting back to II Pet 1:20, the Gr. prophêteia pertains to:
the prophetic rank or work, the office or gift of a prophet. In Rom 12:6 it is classified with diakonia (#1248), ministry or serviing, and didaskalia (#1319), teaching as a charisma (#5486), the result of God's grace or divine enablement to be exercised within the church (I Cor 12:10; 13:2; I Ths 5:20; I Tim 4:14; Rev 11:6; 19:10). Elsewhere it means "prophecy", ie., that which is prophecied, foretold (Mat 13:14; I cor 13:8; 14:8, 22; I Tim 1:18; II Pet 1:20,21; Rev 1:3; 22:7, 10, 18,19). A prophecy is something that any believer may proclaim as telling forth God's Word. This, however, does not make them a prophet (prophetes (#4396), which is used in the NT in a very restrictive sense). Prophets are placed side by side with the apostles as the foundation of the NT Church (Eph 2:20; 3:5), and also with the evangelists who were the successors of the prophets (I Cor 12:28, Eph 4:11). A prophet prophesies, but one who prophecies is not necessarily a prophet.7"With the completion of the canon of Scripture prophecy apparently passed away, I Cor 13:8,9. In his measure the teacher has taken the place of the prophet, cf. the significant change in II Pet 2:1. The difference is that, whereas the message of the prophet was a direct revelation from God for the occassion, the message of the teacher is gathered from the completed revelation contained in the Scriptures."8 So then. Just what is canon?
From evidence in the New Testament, it is obvious that the Jews had a canon—a group of accepted scriptures—that included the Law and the Prophets (see Mat 5:17-18; 7:12; 11:13; 22:40; Luk 16:16-17; Jno 1:45; Act 13:15; 24:14; 28:23; Rom 3:21). In one passage, Jesus mentioned the Law, the Prophets, and Psalms (part of the Writings) together (Luk 24:44), showing that at some point before the time of Christ, the Jews had codified a group of literature into Scripture. History supports this view. Flavius Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, wrote (c. A.D. 90) of twenty-two books “which contain the records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine….” Five of these were written by Moses (the Torah), thirteen books were written between Moses and Artaxerxes, King of Persia (the Prophets and part of the Writings using a different order and enumeration), and four books contained hymns and moral precepts (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon) [Against Apion, 1:38-40].
Josephus considered everything written after the time of Artaxerxes to be non-canonical, because prophetic messages had ceased. It is highly probable, since Josephus was a historian, that this was not his own idea, but reflected an earlier Jewish tradition9. The most interesting evidence concerning the Hebrew canon comes from tractate Sanhedrin: “The rabbis taught: Since the death of the last prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the Holy Spirit has left Israel…”10. Thus, Jewish oral tradition held that Malachi was the last inspired book of the Old Testament.
Around A.D. 90, a group of Jewish rabbis gathered at Jamnia in western Judea to discuss the established canon. Testing for books that “defile the hands” (i.e., were prophetically inspired), they debated including certain apocryphal books and removing some disputed books. However, the conclusion was that only the books that comprised the Hebrew Bible were the inspired, canonical books 11. These books which were stamped with the "seal of approval" had been in wide use for centuries before, and in fact had been translated into Greek 200 years before these councils met. They in no sense "created" the Old Testament. And they completed their work two centuries before Constantine.
The fact behind the councils being convened was for the very purpose of dealing with the issue of flawed and false doctrines that were being promulgated at that time. This was becoming especially rampant with the emergence of Gnosticism and moreover, especially critical after the desctruction of the second temple. All the councils established was what the people had already been using for generations. They didn't affirm, but confirmed the canon of Hebrew Scripture.
It is clear from the evidence that the Jewish people accepted the thirty-nine Old Testament books as their canon — no more, no less. The New Testament refers to an established division. Josephus said that Malachi, as the last inspired author, completed the canon of Hebrew Scripture. The rabbis at Jamnia, who had access to apocryphal writings, did not include them in the canon of Scripture. Moreover, the ancient oral tradition of the Jews held that the thirty-nine books in our Old Testament are the only Scriptures.
"There are a vast number of false and spurious writings that deserve mention at this point; not because anyone would seriously contend for their authority, but because they do represent the religious lore of the Hebrews in the inter-testamental period. The New Testament writers make use of a number of these books… Of course, it should be remembered that the New Testament also quotes from the heathen poets Aratus (Acts 17:28); Menander (1 Cor.15:33); and Epimenides (Titus 1:12). Truth is truth no matter where it is found, whether uttered by a heathen poet, a pagan prophet (Num 24:17), or even a dumb animal (22:28). Nevertheless, it should be noted that no such formula as “it is written” or “the Scriptures say” is connected with these citations. It should also be noted that neither the New Testament writers nor the Fathers have considered these writings canonical"12."Nowhere does the biblical text state that Jude and Paul equated pseudepigraphal writings with those of Scripture, so any reference to them in the biblical account was merely inspired use of an uninspired source. The first, and most obvious, explanation for the exclusion of any book from canon is that they contain false information about their respective authors. If a book lies about its origin, then its contents most likely contain falsehoods. If a book requires a false attribution in order to be canonical, then it must have characteristics that make its inspiration and canonicity suspect.
The early Christians quickly developed four criteria for accepting a book as Scripture. First, it must have been written by an apostle or based on his eyewitness testimony. Second, the book must possess merit and authority in its use. For instance, The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ tells of a man who is changed into a mule by a bewitching spell but converted back to manhood when the infant Christ is put on his back for a ride (7:5-27). In the same book, the boy Jesus causes clay birds and animals to come to life (ch. 15), stretches a throne his father had made too small (ch. 16), and takes the lives of boys who oppose him (19.19-24). It was easy to dismiss such fiction.
Third, a book must come to be accepted by the entire church, not just a single congregation or area. And lastly, a book must be approved by the decision of the larger church, not just a few advocates.
Here is how this process unfolded. In the first century, a number of books were soon produced in response to the ministry of Jesus. As an example, Peter told his readers, "[Paul] writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16). Thus Peter considered Paul's writings to be "Scripture."
F. F. Bruce was one of the world's foremost authorities on the creation of the Bible canon. "One thing must be emphatically stated. The New Testament books did not become authoritative for the Church because they were formally included in a canonical list; on the contrary, the Church included them in her canon because she already regarded them as divinely inspired, recognizing their innate worth and generally apostolic authority, direct or indirect. . . . what these councils did was not to impose something new upon the Christian communities but to codify what was already the general practice of those communities."
In order to qualify as inspired, a text must pass all the tests for inspiration:
Furthermore, divine providential preservation of The Word is explicitely promised in scripture:
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. - Psa 12:6-7Scholars taking a naturalistic approach to Bible preservation, support a critical text approach. To be consistent, they are forced to deny and/or misrepresent a literal interpretation of many of God's promises of Bible preservation.. Having rejected God's supernatural preservation of His Holy Scriptures, they are open to believe the scholarship claims of textual errors in the Bible. Having replaced God's promises of divine preservation with the theories of 19th century naturalistic scholarship their future hope is to correct and restore what they now believe to be a corrupted Bible. Such a Biblical philosophy of preservation is totally inconsistent with the eternal salvation of God's saints. For if God cannot, or did not keep His Holy Scriptures intact as He promised, what assurance do we have that we can trust His promises to keep our souls for all eternity? A generation without faith in God's promises to keep His holy Scriptures on earth will surely reproduce a new generation without faith in God's promises to keep their own souls in Heaven.As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever. - Isa 59:21
The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." - Deu 29:29
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." Mat 24:35
"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." - Mat 5:18
Finally, it should be pointed out that there is a very important message contained in Jude 3: Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
The main point here is that God's revelation of His Truth to Man was done once. Secondly, inherent in this statement is the expression that there is only one true faith. The law of non-contridiction stipulates that A is not equal to non-A. That which is not true, can not be true.
The issue pertaining to God's Truth being revealed once is a very important issue can be seen in the account recorded in Exodus:
"And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God." - Exo 31:18
"And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. {16} And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." - 32:15,16
"And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount." - Exo 32:19
What happened subseuqntly? Exo 34:1,28 tells us:
"And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest." And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments."
Technically the first original stone autographs though given by divine inspiration, and inscribed by the hand of God were not infallible, because Moses was able to break them. However, God's words on the original autographs were infallible, and God personally preserved them and God gave us our first copy of apographs! God made sure the first copy of Bible apographs were infallibly accurate. God is still much more concerned about His infallible words, than the things with which or upon which they have been copied. God's divine precedent gives us a great faith producing example. God is not only concerned with the accuracy and authority of His divine originals, He has preserved the received text apographs or copies which have come down to us to preserve His inspired, infallible authority. The salient point here is that God fashioned the tables and grave the inscriptions thereon Himself only once. That His Word was important for transmission is exemplafied that He dictated His Word to Moses; Moses spent 40 days and nights doing it.
There is a hermeneutical doctrine that stipulates if its mentinoed in the Scripture, its important. If its mentioned twice you better pay attention. And if its mentinoed three times: WATCH OUT!
If Moses who alone spoke to God mouth to mouth, (Num 12:7,8), did not handle God's word properly in anger, how can you and I expect to do so? It is still the power of the Holy Spirit which enables God's servants to properly handle God's preserved Word today just as it was in the days of Moses.
"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come." - Jno 16:13
This guidance of the Holy Spirit is clearly seen in the generation by generation providential preservation of the received text of God's Holy Scriptures. God never intended for His house to become the pillar and ground for doubt and unbelief fostered by modern Bible perversions and confusion. Bible believing members of local New Testament churches should be taught how to behave concerning God's Holy Truth (I Tim 3:15).
I Sam 6:1-3 shows us how God controlled the false priests of the world system to preserve His word. I Sam 6:7,8,12 shows us how God controlled the dumb animals of this world system to preserve His word. II Sam 6:2-12 shows us that God controlled transmission of His Word by His people to preserve it from worldly methods. The world's "ox cart methods" for transporting or preserving God's ark were tolerated by God in Philistia, but God did not tolerate this worldly form of transgression in Israel. God committed much to His own people, and so so much was required (Luk 12:48).
God blesses those who treat his ark of divine providential preservation respectfully and handle it scripturally. Worldly printers and publishers may get away with using ox cart methods of handling God's Holy Scriptures, but God's people won't. If God so judged His people for unscriptural handling of His Holy Scriptures, how much more dangerous will God's judgment be for those who alter the very text or content of His Holy Scriptures in the name of God, revelation, Bible scholarship (all of which foments division within His Church)?
God has given us “all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him…” (2 Peter 1:3), and our knowledge of Him is complete through the revealed Word. “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30-31). Scipture also teaches that the libraries of the whole world couldn't contain the record of all that Jesus did. Whatever these deeds were, and whatever other works may have been "lost" are nevertheless not important to the message being proclaimed in God's Word as we know it. While such material may be germaine, its irrelevent.
The Bible that we possess is the inspired Word of God, and the only thing we need—no additions and no subtractions, only sixty-six canonical books. While some of the extra-canonical writings are useful for historical or literary study, they are not inspired and do not belong within the pages of the Bible. They do not possess the same authority as the sixty-six inspired books, and should not be regarded as Scripture. This canon was created and established by God, and was closed by Him.
God presented these books to us with special directives. The writer of Proverbs said: “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar” (30:5-6, emp. added). Moses commanded the Israelites in Deu 4:2: “You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” Again, in Deu 12:32, Moses said: “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.” As diligent students of the Scriptures, let us always keep in mind that the sixty-six inspired books of canon contain everything we need to know.
So now the issue of "authority" as it pertains to Scripture and matters of faith have been resolved, eh? To bad I wasn't born a few centuries ago and I'd have resolved all the problems. Ah, well, maybe they weren't meant to be resolved, and I doubt they are now.
I just hope that you've had as much fun reading this as I've had writing it.
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