traditions in 2 Thess

Post Reply
User avatar
Ian
Posts: 489
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 2:26 am

traditions in 2 Thess

Post by Ian » Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:07 pm

I am in (unwittingly rather) a brief discourse with someone on youtube about Catholicism. I`d normally let it go but my wife is Catholic and I really owe it to her to at least think about this.

To quote the person:
2 Thesalonians 2:15 teaches us to follow tradition. It's mentioned again in 3:6. There are numerous passages where faithful are instructed to follow tradition, and not just the written letter alone. My position is supported all over the new testament, and historically by the early Church fathers. Nowhere at all does scripture support what you're saying. So if you truly hold scripture above all other things then recognize that it's teaching that you are in serious error.

Is this mere proof-texting? And is so, how do I discern mere proof-texting?

I wouldn't be surprised if this has cropped up on this site before. Perhaps someone could point me in the right direction?

User avatar
steve
Posts: 3392
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2008 9:45 pm

Re: traditions in 2 Thess

Post by steve » Mon Dec 07, 2009 5:02 pm

I am all for the modern church's following every tradition that Paul and the apostles taught, whether by word or by epistle. The very reason that we accept the New Testament writings is that they are apostolic. Apostolic authority remains valid, whether expressed in writing or in the spoken word. Therefore, if we had access to anything Paul had taught verbally, but which he did not include in any of our canonical epistles, I would be among the first to advocate its adoption by the church.

I simply have no interest in those traditions taught much later, by men who have no convincing claim to being true apostles, and for which there is no clear evidence of their being apostolic in origin. Can a Roman Catholic demonstrate that any of their traditions (those that distinguish them from Protestants, that is) were taught by Paul, either by word or by epistle? If not, then in what way do these verses in 2 Thessalonians contribute to their case?

steve7150
Posts: 2597
Joined: Mon Aug 25, 2008 7:44 am

Re: traditions in 2 Thess

Post by steve7150 » Mon Dec 07, 2009 6:15 pm

To quote the person:
2 Thesalonians 2:15 teaches us to follow tradition. It's mentioned again in 3:6. There are numerous passages where faithful are instructed to follow tradition, and not just the written letter alone. My position is supported all over the new testament, and historically by the early Church fathers. Nowhere at all does scripture support what you're saying. So if you truly hold scripture above all other things then recognize that it's teaching that you are in serious error.








As Steve said, there is tradition originating from scripture and then there is tradition contradicting scripture like asking Mary to intercede for us. It seems to me that all of these RCC traditions seem to give them more power in one way or the other. Their priests only can perform the eucharist, they elevate Mary even though hardly anything is said about her in scripture, they name their Saints, they name their Popes who are the spokemen for Christ , etc etc.
To me it's a power play which has worked for 2,000 years although i think they are finally losing their grip.

Post Reply

Return to “Roman Catholicism”