For the catholics.. which is more important? your sacred tradition or the bible?

Question

what if the bible doesn't coincide w/ your teachings... which one will you believe?

Answer 1

There are three pillars to the Catholic Church. As everyone knows, a three legged stool is more stable on uneven ground than a four legged or two legged stool.
The three pillars are Sacred Tradition, the Bible, and the Magesterium (the councils of bishops, the pope, etc..) There is not one that is greater than the other, they are all equal.
As for Sacred Tradition and the Bible, you can't really have one without the other. How do we have the Bible today?? The early Christians passed on the Sacred Traditions of reading, teaching, and preaching the Bible. Without Tradition, not many would know about the Bible.

Answer 2

Both.

Even though slavery is approved of in the Bible and Jesus never taught explicitly against it, because of Apostolic Tradition and taking the overall message of the Bible to love our neighbor, Catholics believe that slavery is evil and totally against the will of God.

Holy Scripture and Apostolic Tradition walk hand in hand.

The Catholic Church does not use Holy Scripture as the only basis of doctrine. It could not. The early Catholic church existed before and during the time that the New Testament was written (by Catholics).

There were hundreds of Christian writings during the first and second centuries. Which New Testament writings would become official was not fully decided until about 400 AD.

Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit was guiding the early church (and is guiding the church today) to make the correct choices about things like:
+ The Holy Trinity (which is also only hinted at in the Bible)
+ Going to church on Sunday instead of Saturday (which is actually directly against one of the Ten Commandments)
+ The Communion of Saints
+ Which writings include in the New Testament?

Things that are even more modern like
+ Slavery is bad. Slavery is never declared evil in the Bible. This was one of the justifications for slavery in the Confederate States.
+ Democracy is good. The Bible states that either God should be the leader of the nation like Israel before the kings or kings should be the leader, "Give to Caesar that which is Caesar's." This was talked about a lot during the American Revolution.

This second source of doctrine is called Apostolic Tradition.

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

Your question shows a misunderstanding of Sacred Tradition. Scripture itself is part of Sacred Tradition. Tradition, or paradosis in scriptural Greek (koine Greek), means to hand on. Only those things handed on by the apostles are included. Within that body of work are the scriptures, artwork (Luke painted), stories, services (we still have and use the services written by James, Peter, Mark and Mari and Addai the disciples of Thomas), beliefs and practices. Scripture is part of that which was handed on but not the entirety.

People tend to forget why Catholics created a canon of scripture in the first place. It was not to set a definition of the truth, for that is only God Himself, but rather to determine which books should be read during the services. It was Luther who confined truth to these books because the rest of Holy Tradition was strongly against him. Further, most Protestants forget he also excluded James, Jude and Revelations along with the books Protestants now call the Apocrypha because they didn't agree with him either.

If you read the bible outside Tradition, you no longer have a framework in which to understand it. The ancient writers were in many cases either trained by an apostle directly, or in that next generation. Some, like Polycarp, are known to be one of the redactors of John's Gospel.

There was a Protestant theologian, who when researching the Book of Revelations, kept reading the connection between the Catholic Mass and the Book. He had never attended a Catholic Mass and as a scripture theologian was vary wary. When he attended the Mass, he realized the Catholic service was intended as a foretaste of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb and that the book was being recreated with the vestments, alter, incense and prayers of Revelations. Revelations makes no sense outside tradition because it was written to a particular people who were living it. That is why you get all the strange readings in some Protestant groups, the book is being read outside its context so the symbols make no sense.

Any good Catholic scripture theologian will tell you that there are no contradictions between scripture and tradition. Further, many seeming contradictions in Protestantism disappear when Holy Tradition is included. In Timothy, Paul tells him to keep to all the traditions, both written and oral. That is what Catholics do, keep both the traditions held in scripture and the others that have no reason to be in scripture.

Protestants view scripture in an important opposite way from Catholics. Protestants take different passages and use them as proof of something and string these passages together to create a belief system. As such, it is only as strong and holy as its creator, whether that is Luther, or Calvin, or Simmons, or Swigli or Jimmy Swaggert.

Catholics start with the first century beliefs, and then use logic to try and understand them, not to create beliefs but rather to understand the beliefs the apostles left us, but without leaving out any passages or any elements.

Answer 4

It is not possible for any conflict to exist between the teaching of the Catholic Church and the Bible. The Catholic Church compiled the Bible from its own writings (and Jewish writings). The principle criterion for acceptance of New Testament writings into the Bible was absolute agreement with everything the Catholic Church had already taught for over 350 years. On that basis, the Catholic Church accepted 27 New Testament documents into its book, and rejected nearly 100. The teaching of the New Testament and the teaching of the Catholic Church are one and the same. The New Testament is simply those portions of Catholic teaching that early Catholic leaders addressed in their correspondence.

Likewise it is not possible for any conflict to exist between Scripture and Apostolic Tradition, because both are the Word of God, and the Word of God cannot conflict with itself. Everything Jesus taught the Apostles was the Word of God from the moment it left His lips, because Jesus is God. The Apostles preached and taught the Word of God for many years before any of it got written down. It did not become the Word of God when they wrote it. It had already been the Word of God for many years before that. Likewise, anything Jesus taught them that never got written down was also the Word of God. This teaching has been passed through the centuries the same way the Apostles spread the Word of God, by preaching and teaching. Apostolic Tradition plus Scripture equal the full and complete Word of God, and therefore the full and complete teaching of His Church.

Answer 5

Because there are so many interpretations of the Bible, both are important. The church tradition helps to make the proper interpretation.....

As a little back ground, the Catholic church was the start of Christianity. This occurred when Jesus said to Peter that he was the rock upon which Jesus would build his church and the gates of hell would not bring it down. Peter was therefore the first Pope and each successor Pope was chosen to today. There is actually a trace of all the Pope's in the church back to Peter. There was of course a split in the church about 500 years ago that has led to the hundreds of Christian groups today. Hence so many different Bible interpretations. So, the Catholic church is the original source of Christianity. Now to be a true Christian, doesn't mean that you have to follow the Catholic church, but rather to follow Christ's teachings from the Bible.

Answer 6

we see that, not only is the Catholic faith biblical, Catholicism is Bible Christianity par excellence.

Because the Old and New Testament Scriptures are the divinely-revealed, written Word of God, Catholics venerate the Scriptures as they venerate the Lord's body. But Catholics do not believe that God has given us His divine Revelation in Christ exclusively through Scripture. Catholics also believe that God's Revelation comes to us through the Apostolic Tradition and teaching authority of the Church.

What Church? Scripture reveals this Church to be the one Jesus Christ built upon the rock of Saint Peter (Matt. 16:18). By giving Peter the keys of authority (Matt. 16:19), Jesus appointed Peter as the chief steward over His earthly kingdom (cf. Isaiah. 22:19-22). Jesus also charged Peter to be the source of strength for the rest of the apostles (Luke 22:32) and the earthly shepherd of Jesus' flock (John 21:15-17). Jesus further gave Peter, and the apostles and elders in union with him, the power to bind and loose in heaven what they bound and loosed on earth. (Matt. 16:19; 18:18). This teaching authority did not die with Peter and the apostles, but was transferred to future bishops through the laying on of hands (e.g., Acts 1:20; 6:6; 13:3; 8:18; 9:17; 1 Tim. 4:14; 5:22; 2 Tim. 1:6).

By virtue of this divinely-appointed authority, the Catholic Church determined the canon of Scripture (what books belong in the Bible) at the end of the fourth century. We therefore believe in the Scriptures on the authority of the Catholic Church. After all, nothing in Scripture tells us what Scriptures are inspired, what books belong in the Bible, or that Scripture is the final authority on questions concerning the Christian faith. Instead, the Bible says that the Church, not the Scriptures, is the pinnacle and foundation of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15) and the final arbiter on questions of the Christian faith (Matt. 18:17). It is through the teaching authority and Apostolic Tradition (2 Thess. 2:15; 3:6; 1 Cor. 11:2) of this Church, who is guided by the Holy Spirit (John 14:16,26; 16:13), that we know of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, and the manifold wisdom of God. (cf. Ephesians 3:10).

Answer 7

They are both equally important - they are the 2 foundations of our beliefs. When it is unclear how to interpret the bible in light of tradition or tradition in light of the bible, the final authority is the Church since the Church gave us both the bible and tradition. Recall that in scripture, it is the Church, not the bible, that is described as the "pillar and foundation of truth." (1 Timothy 3:14-16).

Answer 8

Our sacred traditions are based firmly in Scripture or can be logically derived from them. We also follow the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the formation of any practice or belief.

This article explains the reasons why the Catholic Church rejects "Sola Scriptura." It's very informative.

http://www.geocities.com/thecatholicconvert/solascriptura21.html

Answer 9

The Catholic Faith has three pillars: Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium. Think of it as a three legged stool. Without one of the legs, it will fall over. And each one upholds the other two. One can not go against the others.

Also note, that is Tradition with a capital "T". There's a difference.

Answer 10

The bible coincides with the Church's teachings.

The bible is from Catholics....check history. Why would Catholics approve a bible that they don't believe in?

That's a weird question.....