Crusador;4180202:
But is this really true?
Since you have cited some of the church fathers, I should make the following necessary comments:
- When you cite them speaking of the Tradition of the apostles – they are referring to the WRITTEN Tradition of the apostles – Holy Scripture. Check the context of your quotes, and I can guarantee that this is the case. You do not read the church fathers – do you? You only grab what others have ripped out of context and copy paste them at me. Ha ha – admit it! You didn’t even cite the source of your information! How irresponsible-

But just to show you that you are abusing these fathers – we will now look at many of the plainest and clearest statements of these church fathers to see if the Reformers had indeed elevated the Holy Scriptures to a place of authority unheard of in the early Church. ).
Here are a few quick quotes to refute your statements and reinforce that Irenaus believed in the Church.
Your statement concerning the written word and tradition is not true. The NT wasn’t even defined yet. In fact Irenaus thought the Sherperd of Hermas was inspired. So how do you get when he uses the term tradition it means the written word. The NT Bible did not exist and many books were still being disputed.
Who told you that tradition means the written word? This person is clearly not a scholar of any sort. You should stop reading them as it is historically false.
You can make the Bible fit your interpetation. You can not rewrite history to do the same. Every early Church Father supports the Church and you know it. Why try to take letters out of context? We can refute each and everyone of these posts.
Irenaus
“As I said before, the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although she is disseminated throughout the whole world, yet guarded it, as if she occupied but one house. She likewise believes these things just as if she had but one soul and one and the same heart; and harmoniously she proclaims them and teaches them and hands them down, as if she possessed but one mouth. For, while the languages of the world are diverse, nevertheless, the authority of the tradition is one and the same” (Against Heresies 1:10:2 [A.D. 189]).
“That is why it is surely necessary to avoid them [heretics], while cherishing with the utmost diligence the things pertaining to the Church, and to lay hold of the tradition of truth. . . . What if the apostles had not in fact left writings to us? Would it not be necessary to follow the order of tradition, which was handed down to those to whom they entrusted the churches?” (ibid., 3:4:1).
…
"It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors to our own times—men who neither knew nor taught anything like these heretics rave about.
"But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the successions of all the churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul, that church which has the tradition and the faith which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the apostles.
“With this church, because of its superior origin, all churches must agree—that is, all the faithful in the whole world—and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition” (ibid., 3:3:1–2