Tradition of the Church
For Protestants?

It is often proffered that Roman Catholics differ from Protestants in that the former have two sources of authority: Scripture and tradition, meaning the teachings of the church. Protestants, on the other hand, believe in Scripture alone in that truth is mediated by the Bible alone and not by tradition in and of a church. Authority for belief and living comes from Holy Scripture and not from teaching or tradition of any church body. The early Reformers declared God’s Word to be the final judge of all teaching of the church, the so called tradition.

The unintended consequence of such a position is to isolate Protestants from much of church history. It is as if Luther, Calvin and the other Magisterial Reformers actually invented the real church and that all that came before was bogus or irrelevant. For 1500 years all the folks who called themselves Christians had it totally wrong. They had no concept of interpreting the Bible nor did they have a clue on the person and work of Christ. Before the Reformers there was no “real” church. We should call them the Inventors, not the Reformers. Of, course that was not the case, the Reformers desired to reform the church. They knew it was Christ’s Church and they wanted Christ and His Gospel returned to the position of centrality it once had.

The Apostle acknowledges the tradition of the early church. In 2 Thessalonians 2:15, he states:

So then, brothers and sisters stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by spoken word of by our letter [ESV].

Paul confirms here that he has been teaching and transmitting the tradition of the church. That is all of which a Christian must know, believe and live. Paul did not create a tension between what was revealed and what was taught. The tradition of the church was an aid to the inspiration process of the Holy Spirit.

In the early church, tradition became a way of transmitting the teaching of the apostles. When you think about it, in the first centuries of the church much of its development came from the transmission of tradition. There was no inerrancy of Scripture doctrine in the early church. Why? There was not yet a standard collection of inspired texts. And, we have no idea how available Paul’s letters and other texts were to believers of the day. So, Paul reminds the Thessalonians that tradition was passed on in word and writing. The faith was first imparted in early confessions, singing of hymns and through baptismal instruction when folks made a public profession of their faith in Christ.

The Word of God has always been paramount for the Church and believers. Yet, in the early church, God’s Word was confirmatory of what had been preached and taught. Much like in China today where the Word is at a premium, the early church grew through what was taught by the apostles and those trained under them. They taught the truth in the traditional beliefs of all those who called on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Tradition and the inspired Scripture developed on a parallel track and the Holy Scripture became the normative revelation of what must be believed and lived for all believers.

What Protestants need to understand is that the entire history of the Church has been superintended by the Holy Spirit. The Church is a supernatural work of God. Tradition was not the antithesis of Scripture for the early church. Protestants are as dependant on the tradition of the early church as much as Roman Catholics are. Church history, and especially that of the early church fathers, is not to be dismissed but understood as part of God’s plan for His Church. Tradition is not another source of truth but is part of the deposit of truth transmitted to believers as revealed in its completeness and sufficiency through the inspired Scripture.