Firstly, one must Address the issue of Revelation in order to talk about what we know from God about Salvation:
After Christ ascended into Heaven and took His seat at the Father’s right hand He fulfilled His promise. The Holy Spirit descended upon the Church and has been at work in the Church ever since. There is an infinite difference between man’s traditions and divine traditions. Tradition literally means to hand on. The action of the Holy Spirit and also that of the whole Trinity in the Church is known as Apostolic Tradition or Holy Tradition.
In Apostolic Tradition the Holy Spirit reveals to us the Divine Word of God. But the Holy Spirit has expressed the Divine Word in many different forms. The most outward form of Holy Tradition is known as the Scriptures, the written word of God. But then there are other ways the Holy Spirit has revealed the Divine Word. These are, through the Ecumenical Councils (World wide gathering of the Bishops in union with the Head of the college of Bishops the Pope; there are 7), the teachings of the Church Fathers, the Liturgical Life of the Church, the Witness of the Saints, and Iconography.
These things I just mentioned make up the unwritten word of God, the action of the Holy Spirit that has not been written down. This unwritten Word of God is also called Sacred Tradition (which has been characterized by the misnomer “Tradition”), and Sacred Tradition as a whole is equal to the Scriptures.
There is an analogy between Holy Tradition and the Trinity. Jesus is God, but yet apart of the Blessed Trinity. So also, Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition are each the word God (one written and one unwritten) but yet apart of the word of God, Holy Tradition. Remember the Scriptures speak of Sacred Tradition, while Sacred Tradition quotes Sacred Scripture.
All these apologists like to verse quote scripture and the fathers. Well, Holy Tradition is the very life of the Holy Spirit in the Church. He blows from generation to generation of Christians. He manifests His will to us in various ways, some written and others unwritten. We must understand the faith in this sense. Our faith is not meant to be built upon philosophical understanding and then you have to verse quote the Bible and Fathers to back up this understanding. No no no! Holy Tradition has been handed on and anything that has not been handed on since the beginning is some way shape or form, has no place in the Church.
