What does Tradition mean to Catholics vs. Protestants?

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I have another account in another forum where a non-Catholic sent me an IM arguinng about Tradition. I never realized that Protestants view Tradition differently than Catholics. He said Tradition is invented by Man.

Maybe, I should have been more clarified to him by putting the word Apostolic Tradition. He argues that tradition was invented by man and you cannot put your trust in Man, but in God. I argued that the Tradition I speak of is the tradition of Jewish Christian who still cling to Mosaic traditions during the period of the early Church.

Help me on this, he might hit me with another IM saying our teaches are wrong and contradicts the bible.
 
In the Unitarian association in which I grew up tradition meant Scotch on the rocks in the winter and Gin tonics in the summer.
 
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JPhoenix75:
I have another account in another forum where a non-Catholic sent me an IM arguinng about Tradition. I never realized that Protestants view Tradition differently than Catholics. He said Tradition is invented by Man.

Maybe, I should have been more clarified to him by putting the word Apostolic Tradition. He argues that tradition was invented by man and you cannot put your trust in Man, but in God. I argued that the Tradition I speak of is the tradition of Jewish Christian who still cling to Mosaic traditions during the period of the early Church.

Help me on this, he might hit me with another IM saying our teaches are wrong and contradicts the bible.
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Hi.

Speaking as a non-Catholic, let me try to help give some insight here.

There are several view points in Protestant circles regarding Tradition.
  1. I don’t know of any Protestant denomination that regards Tradition as Sacred or inspired. Protestants regard only the 66 books of the Bible as the inerrant and inspried Word of God.
    Sola Scriptura
  2. However there are many Protestants that regard Tradition as ‘edifying’ - in other words we can learn about or gain insight to history, or different aspects of the culture or different practices that are conveyed by these writings. (i.e. the Apocrypha). But Protestants do not believe that dogma or doctrine can be derived by oral or written tradition outside the Bible.
  3. In general, the more Fundamental the more vehemently opposed to Tradition.
  4. You’ve probably got a ‘live one’ here - see #3.
 
This may be obvious, but has he read his bible? 2 Thes. 2:15? Certainly “word of mouth” means there was something of importance that needed to be known that isn’t contained in the bible.
 
If protestants had understood the real meaning of Sacred Tradition, there would have been no more protestants!

Former protestant! :dancing: :dancing: :dancing:
 
Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide and Once Saved, Always Saved were invented by a man named Martin Luther (the first two, anyway; I’m not sure about the third). Catholic/Christian Tradition helped to create the Bible, which really has 73 books. I pray that all Protestants will learn more about Christian history and come home to the Catholic Church.

my Mother my Confidence,
Corinne
 
Isn’t wed. night church service, and the alter calls…tradition
 
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Lillith:
Isn’t wed. night church service, and the alter calls…tradition
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Well, gee…Sunday-Go-To-Meeting ain’t in the bible, neither! Now that’s a tradition! See if this person goes to Sunday meetings, then tell him/her that it is a TRADITION established by the Catholic Church at the beginning of Christianity. See what is said then! (There are usually answers that attempt to justify, but they end up only confirming the tradition)

Traditions were invented by men…the APOSTLES!!! At least the ones the Catholics and Orthodox follow.

That’s your argument…that these traditions are Apostolic in origin and therefore are practices established by the only people Jesus handed authority to. The churches that they established are charged with continuing those traditions. That is why they are called Sacred Tradition. Sacred Traditions are handed to us directly from the Apostles and are the only ones that carry any authority.

Any traditions this person carries have no basis or authority, unless they were established by the Apostles or thier successors, who carry the authority given to the Apostles, like Sunday meetings for instance!

Subrosa
 
His own method of interpreting the bible, and his method of worship, are HIS traditions, and he lives by them.

I would be willing to bet that he didn’t just one day sit down, read the bible, and only then decide what he believes and how he would worship. No, I rather suspect that he got these traditions from some preacher–who didn’t just hand him a bible, but rather preached from his own tradition.
 
Bottom line, the bible as we have it today, is a product of Tradition. So if you believe in the Bible, you acknowledge and accept a) Tradition b) the authority of the Catholic Church. There is no other way around it.
 
Tradtion (big T) can’t be changed.
tradition (little t) can be changed. There is a big difference.
You should watch Father Corapi’s video series “the teaching of Jesus Christ” On one video (can’t remember which one) he talks heavily on the T vs t
 
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Jennifer123:
This may be obvious, but has he read his bible? 2 Thes. 2:15? Certainly “word of mouth” means there was something of importance that needed to be known that isn’t contained in the bible.
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Yes Jennifer, you are on the right track. I dont want to spend much time on a thread that will never be productive for nonbelievers, they just will never get it. Throw logic out the window. Let PREJUDICE govern their thinking and guide their souls to where ever.

Jennifer. “Word of mouth” was the method that Christianity was spread for almost 300 years. Why was this? No printing presses, thus no books and no Bible. If the ones who want to throw Tradition or Oral Tradition ( 80% the same thing) out the window were not so Prejudiced by their elders (who were ignorant) then they could use their God-given mind to think. ARWwww , closed minds, uhgg.
 
Exporter said:
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Yes Jennifer, you are on the right track. I dont want to spend much time on a thread that will never be productive for nonbelievers, they just will never get it. Throw logic out the window. Let PREJUDICE govern their thinking and guide their souls to where ever.

Jennifer. “Word of mouth” was the method that Christianity was spread for almost 300 years. Why was this? No printing presses, thus no books and no Bible. If the ones who want to throw Tradition or Oral Tradition ( 80% the same thing) out the window were not so Prejudiced by their elders (who were ignorant) then they could use their God-given mind to think. ARWwww , closed minds, uhgg.
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Hi Exporter -

Would you mind if I expand your statement a bit? Thank you! 🙂

The first printed book in the world was the Gutenberg Bible, bl.uk/treasures/gutenberg/homepage.html printed in the 1450’s. Previous to that all books were copied by hand. This made them scarce and expensive, a luxury for the wealthy and institutions. Bibles were produced mainly in monasteries and places like Notre Dame.

Preaching and worship in churches was how the the gospel was passed on. It wasn’t until the 1500’s that the concept of sola scripture was available to take place because oral tradition was the norm until then.

Subrosa
 
Gratias Grace:
If protestants had understood the real meaning of Sacred Tradition, there would have been no more protestants!

Former protestant! :dancing: :dancing: :dancing:
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That is true protestants could learn a lot about what the Bible really says if they paid more attention to early church traditions. We wouldn’t have those awful congregations like the liberal Methodists and liberal Presbyterians.

I don’t put a lot of emphasis on what my church teaches because it’s pretty messed up at times. I just go there to fellowship with other Christians. My experience is that you can’t rely on the church to know what’s right, you just have to seek God for yourself. But that is just me I am just a Protestant myself, if that’s what you wanna call it.
 
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Christian4life:
That is true protestants could learn a lot about what the Bible really says if they paid more attention to early church traditions. We wouldn’t have those awful congregations like the liberal Methodists and liberal Presbyterians.

I don’t put a lot of emphasis on what my church teaches because it’s pretty messed up at times. I just go there to fellowship with other Christians. My experience is that you can’t rely on the church to know what’s right, you just have to seek God for yourself. But that is just me I am just a Protestant myself, if that’s what you wanna call it.
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I’m glad you think there’s lots to know from the early church traditions! 👍 You may find the writings of the earliest Christians to be interesting! 😉

May I say though that church in and of itself is more than “fellowship”. What is good versus bad? How does one know right? How does one know truth? If it were up to you yourself, how would you know you were right? Or that you had the truth? Just something to maybe think about?
 
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