Is There a
Conflict Between Tradition and the Truth?
1 Certainly we must have
all seen signposts with this warning: “Danger: Undrinkable
water”. In many places, people must be very careful about the
water in the wells and fountains, because instead of sustaining and protecting
life, the water supplied is contaminated and may cause sicknesses and even
blindness.
The waters
of truth can also be contaminated
2 This same
thing may happen with our religious beliefs, because if the doctrines we have
been taught are somehow in conflict with the instructions of the apostles, it
is obvious that contamination must have seeped into the Christian teaching,
blemishing it, and this contamination, just as it happens in water, might cause
spiritual sickness and blindness. Hence, to gullibly accept any traditional
belief could cause a great spiritual damage and drift Christians apart from the
truth revealed by God.
The apostle
John wrote that Jesus “said to the Jews who had believed in him,
‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and
you will know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’"; John
8:31-32 because only the unadulterated truth of God’s revelation frees men
from uncertainty, falsehood and fear.
For this
reason, even if we are convinced that our beliefs are based on the Bible, a
careful analysis and a honest contrast with the Scripture is essential. If we
don’t do so, we could easily be mistaken. As a matter of fact, Martin Luther
was absolutely certain to defend the Scriptures, when hanging on to traditional
beliefs, condemned Copernicus.
All the
disciples of Christ should assume the attitude of the ancient habitants in Berea, that according to Luke, were “nobler than those in Thessalonica, because they
received the word eagerly, checking every day in the Scripture if
things were like this”. Acts 17: 10, 11
3 Despite the
scriptural treasure bestowed to the people of Israel, the faith of the
Jew people acquired through the Rabbinic and the Pharisaic interpretations,
some ideas that prevented them to behave in harmony with the spirit of the Law
and to acknowledge Jesus as the expected Messiah. Therefore, when some
Pharisees and Scribes asked Jesus why didn’t his disciples proceed according to
their traditions, Jesus replied by asking them: “You too, why do you
break Gods commandments because of your traditions?” Matthew 15: 1-3
What was the
problem? Jesus identified it when he quoted some words God said to Isaiah: “These people
honour me with their lips but their hearts are a long way from me, but they
worship me in vain for they teach as doctrine the precepts of
men”. Matthew 15:9 quoting Isaiah 29:13
Jesus accused
them of mixing human judgment and theories to God’s revelation, thus corrupting
it and rendering it void; and “…he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of
rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! Because Moses
said, 'Honour your father and your mother'; and, 'He who speaks evil of father
or mother, let him surely die'. In spite of this, you say, 'If a man tells his
father or his mother: “What you would have gained from me is Korban”, it is an
offering to God, and you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or
mother, making thus void the word of God by furnishing your own tradition. And
you do many things like this". Mark 7:9-13 These words Jesus
said to them, make clear that any interpretation going further than what was
written under the inspiration of God’s spirit, may easily contaminate the truth
and distort His message.
Christianity
contributes to contamination
4 The apostles
and first disciples kept their teaching unadulterated, but after their death,
their instruction was soon damaged by the adoption of foreign ideas and the
approval of some interpretations lacking a real Scriptural support. In order to
assimilate the new ideas to the Apostolic Doctrine, the so called Fathers of
the Church appealed to the authority of oral tradition, and between the second
and the third centuries, some words and phrases meant to support their claim,
were added to the apostolic writings and included in the Scriptures, and even
if these are today well identified by experts, they are still found in almost
all Bible versions.
In favour of
truth and fidelity towards God’s word, the apostle Paul wrote for all
Christians of all times, that they ought to “learn from us (the apostles
an their first disciples) the principle of not going further
of that which is written, that no one of you may feel superior to
another”. 1Corinthians 4:6 But according to the Cyclopaedia of
Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, by
McClintock and Strong, many of the principals of the Church upheld that
tradition was “lessons that the first Christian churches received by word of
mouth from the apostles, transmitted since the time of the apostles,
and conserved in all its pureness till this time”. But the truth is that
most of the ideas considered traditional, came from some of the Jewish myths
developed during the Hellenic period, and from other foreign fountains. Just as
the Cyclopaedia explains, these concepts, unknown in the Bible, “not only
were in conflict with other traditions, but also with the writings of the
apostles, which they had in their hands”.
5 We know
that after the apostles had fallen asleep in death, all these things ought to
happen. Jesus predicted it with a parable, “saying: The kingdom of
heaven may be compared to a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while
men slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel among the wheat, and went
his way. And when the blade sprung up and brought forth fruit, then the darnel
appeared also.
The servants
of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your
field? Where did this darnel come from?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done
this’. The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’ But
he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel, you root up the
wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the
harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel, and bind
them in bundles to burn them; then gather the wheat into my barn’…” When “Jesus sent the
multitudes away and went into the house, his disciples went to him, saying,
‘Explain to us the parable of the darnel of the field’, and he answered them, “He
who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the
good seed are the children of the kingdom and the darnel are the children of
the Malignant, the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest
is the end of the world, and the reapers are angels”. Matthew
13:25-30 and 36-40
6 About the
things to happen after their death, the apostle Paul wrote: “Be
vigilant that nobody leads you astray with subtle philosophical
arguments, inspired in deception and in human
tradition, and supported on the ideology of the world, not in
Christ”. Colossians 2:8 And he advised Timothy: “The Spirit tells us
explicitly that, in the final times (of the first postolic
Congregation that disappeared after their death) some will apostatise
from the faith and will listen to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, being mislead
by the hypocrisy of fraudsters with a conscience as callous as a burnt scar.
These will forbid marriage and the eating of some foods that God created to be
gratefully consumed by those who have faith and know the truth… Refuse to
listen to old women fables because they are contrary to that which is
holy, and exercise yourself in the practise of the faith, because physical
exercise is useful for a short time, but the practise of the faith is useful
for everything, permitting to enjoy the present life and the future one… Take
care and watch over your instruction, be persistent in these things,
because by doing so you will save yourself and also those who listen to you”. 1Timothy
4:1-3 and 7-8
7 History bears
witness of the implicit adulteration in the religious instruction assumed by
Christianity during the centuries following the apostles death. Paul had
written: “Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and our gathering together to him, we ask you not to be quickly shaken in your
mind, nor yet be troubled, either by declarations, or by words that might seem
inspired, or by any letter that may look as ours, saying that the day of the
LORD is about to happen. Let no one deceive you, for it may not come before
the apostasy, before the revelation of the man of sin, the son of
destruction, he who opposes and exalts himself against anything considered
divine or object of respect, and taking a divine sit, assumes divinity.
Don't you remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things?
Now you
know what is restraining him, so that he may be revealed in the established
moment; for this mysterious transgressor is already active, but when
what restrains him is taken out of the way, the transgressor, whom the Lord
will declare spiritually dead and bring to nothing during the manifestation of
his coming, will be revealed.
He presents
himself in accord to the performances of Satan, with all powerful signs and
deceitful wonders, so as to seduce through injustice those who are going to
perish, those who haven’t loved the truth that would have enabled
them to be saved”. 2Thessalonians 2:10
8 While alive,
the apostles restrained the birth of the apostasy, but as Paul predicted, when
they were taken away by death, the transgressor revealed himself, and taking a
divine seat, assumed the divine authority that belongs to Christ. The original
apostolic congregation died and disappeared, as Christ had indirectly predicted
when he asserted that the “gates of Hades (the tomb or sepulchre) will not
prevail over her”. Matthew 16:18
The apostasy
became involved in earthily matters and was strongly enforced from the final
years of the third century on. Since then, Christians have been misled to rely
on several concepts really unknown in the Scriptures, as for example, the one
god in three similar but different persons, or the eternal hell of
torture and fire, which certainly is a heathen belief that entered in the
Pharisee tradition through philosophy, just as the immortality of the
human soul.
Christians
have been led to idolatry trough the cult of the images of saints and other
divine mediators, and have been guided into a nationalistic ideology, which is
in every way, opposite to Jesus’ teaching that all men are brothers. Through
the centuries, mankind has been used to deception. “The great Dragon, the
ancient snake, which is called Satan and Devil” and “is deceiving
the entire humanity”, Apocalypses 12:9 has confused people’s
minds with many deceitful ideas, his distortion of truth has been since the
beginning, voluntary accepted by humankind, when, declining God’s warning, man
listened to the words of the ancient snake, who said: “In no way will you die!” Genesis
3:4
For all these
reasons, Paul warned the disciples of Christ, of the fact that “we do not
fight against flesh and blood but against the governments, the authorities and the
cosmic rulers of this darkness, that is, against the evil spiritual
forces that live in heavenly regions”. Ephesians 6:12
The effects
of spiritual contamination
9 How serious
is the harm that spiritual contamination may cause?
To have an
idea, let’s think about the polluted water and how much damage it may cause to
our physical health. In the world there are about two hundred million people
that suffer from schistosomiasis, an illness caused by a parasite called a
schistosoma, which produces anaemia, general discomfort and in many cases,
causes death; besides, there are five hundred million people who suffer
from trachoma, which is one of the main causes of blindness. These are only two
of the many illnesses we may develop when the skin gets in contact with
contaminated waters, and still, there are more than two million people
who cannot accede to drinkable water.
This is
really an enormous disaster, but even worse is the fact that millions of
believers are spiritually blind, sick or spiritually dead, because they cannot
get in touch with the untainted water of Jesus teaching, who said: “He who drinks
the water I will give him, will never be thirsty again, because the water I
will give him, will be in him a source of water that sprouts for everlasting
life”. John 4:14
10 Due to the
doctrines embraced by the Church and aggressively enforced from the third and
fourth centuries on, many people are to day confused about the rapport between
Christ and his father Yahuh, and in support of an even deeper confusion, the
early translators of the New Testament systematically omitted in the text the
holy name of God.
George Howard
said on the Journal of Biblical Literature “In my
opinion, I believe that the elimination of the Tetragramma, (YHUH, the
four letter name of God) created a confusion in the minds of the
first gentile (non Jew) Christians about the relationship between the
Lord God and Christ our Lord”.
However, if
we rely on Jesus words, we must have in mind that he said invoking his father: “I have
manifested your name to the men you have given me in the world, they were
yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word”. John 17:6
And he also taught his disciples to pray in this way:” Our Father who
is in heaven, be Your Name sanctified…” Matthew 6:9 Jesus
often spoke to his Father in this manner, so if we are free from prejudice, it
is not difficult to understand the relationship he had with the Father and
Creator of all what exists.
11 We must also
consider the confusion and the fear produced by the concept of soul immortality
and the eternal torture in the fire of hell. This idea is absolutely strange
and even in opposition to what the Bible says about life and death. We learn by
the Scripture, that the first man brought sin and death to
humankind, consequently, man was not created to die, but to live. We are told
that God rises man from death through the redemption of Jesus Christ,
therefore, the only hope of life man may retain, is to be raised by God by
means of the promised resurrection.
Misleading
traditions do not only harm Christians. There are many people devoted to
ancestors worship and veneration, or living in a constant fear of being harmed
by the dead.
Many Japanese
people believe that their spirits will gather somewhere after death, and this
belief has induced some parents to kill their own children and to commit
suicide. The book An English Dictionary of Japanese Ways of Thinking, explains:
“In
Japan suicide is not always condemned, but it is often considered an
acceptable way to ask forgiveness for a grave error... even family suicides are
informed in an understanding way…”
Let us check
what traditions hold
12 So, to follow
blindly traditional beliefs and customs may be harmful. Which is the right way
to act before God? The apostle Paul says to Christ followers: “Investigate
all things, but only “retain that which is useful”, 1
Thessalonians 5:21 and the apostle John writes to his fellow Christians: “Loved ones, do
not trust anybody who declares himself inspired, try him out, to
understand if his inspiration comes from God, because many false prophets
have come out into the world”. 1 John 4:1
And which is
the only way provided by God to try out the truth? There is only
one authority approved by God, his own revelation to man, registered in the
canonical Jew and Christian Scriptures. For this reason, when Jesus
introduced himself to the people of Israel as the expected Messiah, he did it
with the words of the prophet Isaiah, because as Paul writes: “all the
Scriptures are inspired by God, and are useful for teaching, for convincing,
for correcting and for educating towards the path of righteousness, so that the
man of God may be mature and prepared for every good deed”. 2 Timothy
3:16
On the final
chapter of the last book of the Bible, the apostle John relates the vision sent
to him by Jesus through an angel, about the events to precede the establishment
of God’s kingdom on earth, and reports his concluding words, writing: ”I, Jesus, sent
my angel to make these things known to the congregation. I am the root and the
offspring of David, and the glittering morning star. The spirit and the bride
say: ”Come! And whoever hears them, say: ‘Come!’
He who is thirsty, come, and he who desires it, drink
freely from the water of life!” Revelation 22:16-17
13 Jesus pleaded
his Father in favour of all those who should put faith in him, and said: ”Sanctify them
with the truth: the truth is your word”. John 17:17 He
also told his disciples: “the time has come, and it is now, in which the true
worshippers shall worship the Father in the spirit and in the truth, because
this is how the Father wants his worshipers to be”. John 4:23
We must never
forget that small amounts of contamination may have devastating consequences,
even if the effects could take years to show. And the same may be said about
spiritual contamination. Shridath Ramphal, president of the International
Union for the Conservation of Nature and its resources’, said: ”The
contaminated water has become the most dangerous assassin in the world. At
least twenty five thousand people die every day as a result of its use”. even if in
this world all men are born to die, this is a terrible thing. But Jesus warned
those who put faith in God’s promises of everlasting life, of a severest and
permanent harm, he said: “...I tell you my friends, do not fear those who
kill the body and then cannot do anything more. But I will show you who you
must fear: fear him who after having taken life, has the power to
throw it to the Gehenna (that is into the fire of an absolute and eternal
destruction). I tell you this: fear him!” Luke 12:4-5
14 True
worshippers must fearlessly abandon some of the traditions and beliefs
taught to them and largely accepted, having in mind that: “the fearful, the
unbelieving, the depraved, the murderers, the fornicators, the performers
of magic, the idolaters and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which
burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death (not the
first death due to Adam and common to all mankind, but the total and definite
death or destruction) Revelation 21:8
For this
reason, if listening to the advise we find in Scripture, one realises that his
beliefs go further than what is written or are in conflict with some assertion
in the Bible, he must show himself courageous; the things involved are vital.
He should remember these words of Jesus: “He that is faithful in
that which is least, is also faithful in much, and he that is unjust in the
least, is also unjust in much”. Luke 16:10
