Scripture and Tradition

BY R. THOMAS ZELL

© 1992 Conciliar Press Ben Lomond, California

Second edition printed in Canada, 1995 Third edition printed in Canada, 2002

§ The Bible says once someone accepts Christ, he can never lose his salvation. All true Christians have eternal security.

§ The Bible says it is possible to fall away from grace. Even believers can turn away from God and be forever lost in their sins.

§ The Bible says homosexuality is a perversion of God's moral law and a deviation from natural human behavior.

§ The Bible says homosexuality is morally ac­ceptable, it is a lifestyle as viable as any "traditional" concept of marriage or family.

§ The Bible says long ago God predestined some men and women to everlasting life, and some to ever­lasting judgment. We are not free to accept or reject His salvation.

§ The Bible says God Himself does not know who will choose Him. Salvation is a matter of free will. The decision is entirely up to us.

§ The Bible says Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God the Father, sharing fully in His divinity, and indivisibly united with the Holy Trinity.

§ The Bible says Jesus Christ is a created being. He is superior to the angels, but not eternal and not of the same nature as the Father.

§ The Bible says we should no longer use the terms "Father" and "Son" in relation to God. They are merely symbolic and were meant to be replaced with less sexist terminology.

§ The Bible says ...

Wait a minute!

How can so many contradictory statements be based on the teachings of one book? How can intelli­gent and sensible people read basically the same Old and New Testament text, yet arrive at such opposite conclusions? Is there any other book, ancient or mod­ern, which has prompted such a vast and often incom­patible array of interpretations and dogmas? Why can't anyone agree on what the Bible really teaches?

I believe the time has come for those who love the Holy Scriptures, no matter what their backgrounds may be, to address such questions earnestly and sin­cerely in the name of Christ. No one who takes seri­ously Christ's High Priestly Prayer for unity among His followers in John 17:20, 21 ("I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me") can look with indifference upon the divisions, factions, and schisms which have become synony­mous with contemporary Christianity. Nor can we ignore the crisis of biblical interpretation which is bringing so much of that division upon us.

In the Roman Catholic Church of the late twentieth century, an increasingly vocal and powerful contin­gent of theologians, clergy, and laity began to cry out for changes far more radical than those of the Refor­mation. Calling into question Church teachings con­cerning the most basic issues of morality, ethics, and traditional Church dogma, and fanned by the turbulent winds of nineteenth and early twentieth century liber­alism, and furthered by a highly militant feminism, these factions tore away at the very core of traditional Catholic beliefs. What effect these forces will have in shaping Church doctrine in the twenty-first century remains to be seen.

In the Protestant world, what began as an attempt by early reformers such as Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli to purify the Church has now largely failed to lead God's people to doctrinal purity and biblical fidelity. Rather, it has resulted all too often in a narrow-minded and independent sectarianism on the one hand, or a progressive descent towards novel and often unrecog­nizably Christian liberalism on the other. Both ele­ments now simultaneously wage war upon the modern Protestant Church and have cast her onto the shores of the twenty-first century divided, confused, and disori­ented. While there are still many who cling faithfully to the essentials of their particular denomination, se­vere structural cracks are now becoming apparent everywhere. Should the Protestant Church survive the twenty-first century, many fear to think what appear­ance it will have assumed?

Never before in the history of the Christian Faith has there been such widespread confusion concerning foundational biblical doctrines such as the nature of the Church, the Holy Trinity, or the essence of the Christian life. Having lost a consistent approach to biblical interpretation, modern Christianity has been cut adrift from its moorings, and now appears to be rapidly drifting out to a tempestuous sea of subjectiv­ity, shallowness, and heretical novelty. Like the dis­ciples of Jesus' day who could not cast out the demons, modern Christianity has seemingly been outwitted and overpowered by the enemy. Divided and confused, it is rapidly losing its momentum, while the watching world either mocks openly, or begins to look elsewhere for answers.