The Bible | Scripture or Tradition?
In the New Testament, it is the written Word of God, and that alone, to which the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles refer as the final authority. The Lord identified truth with the written Word. Jesus said, sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17) The Apostle Paul declared the total sufficiency of Scripture when he said, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousnessthat the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works (II Timothy 3:16-17). The Catholic Church, however, is forthright in stating with certainty that truth does not rest in Scripture alone but in Scripture and Catholic tradition. Please consider this difference while asking yourself this question: on what authority will I place my trust? The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Bible are instructions that lead in different direction with all together opposing destinations.
The Catechism Says:
#80 “Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine wellspring, come together in some fashion to form one thing and move towards the same goal.”
The Bible Says:
John 10:35…the scripture cannot be broken.
John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Matthew 4:4 It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
The Catechism Says:
#81 “Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit. And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God, which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit.”
The Bible Says:
I Corinthians 4:6 That ye might learn in us not to think…above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.
Proverbs 30:5-6 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him, and then commands, add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
The Catechism Says:
#82 “As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, ‘does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.”
The Bible Says:
Mark 7:13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered.
Revelation 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.
Summary of issue
Christian Bible-believers being convicted by the Holy Spirit, receive, embrace, believe, and submit to the Bible because of the authority of God who gave it to them. The Catholic Church maligns the absolute authority of God’s Word in claiming that, “Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence”. The Roman Catholic Church negates the very means by which a person discovers and learns how he or she is saved from his or her sin. The Vatican’s teaching is literally soul damning, in the words of Lord, “woe unto you, lawyers! For ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered” (Luke 11:52). The Apostle Paul urges the believer to look to the “…demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (I Corinthians 2:4-5).