Many people, both Christians and others have various views of the Scriptures depending on their background. A study of these approaches helps us to understand their position and interact with them in the right way.
1. The Roman Catholic Approach
The Roman Catholic Church accepts the Bible as the inspired word of God. But at the same time it gives equal importance to Bible and tradition. They give authority to the tradition and place the Bible and the tradition in a position of equal authority insisting that the Bible in itself is inadequate to meet the needs of mankind.
a. The tradition of the Roman Catholic church
What is tradition? It is a belief or a practice which is handed down from generation to generation. The Roman Catholic concept of tradition consists of the following two traditions.
i. Dogmatic Tradition: This is the revealed truth made known by God in the Bible. This is called as the ‘primary revelation.’
ii. Disciplinary Tradition: These are the beliefs, practices and liturgical rites that were practiced in the history of the church. These beliefs and practices were also considered as the divine revelation of God and called as ‘secondary revelation.”
About the tradition, George Tavard, the Roman Catholic writer wrote, “Tradition, then, was the overflow of the Word outside Sacred Scripture. It was neither separate from nor identical with Holy Writ. Its contents were the ‘other Scriptures through which the Word made Himself known” (Tavard 1959:8).
b. The Council of Trent and the Tradition.
The council of Trent (1545-63) made the following two statements concerning the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church.
i. The tradition is equal to the Bible:
Following the example of the orthodox Fathers, this Synod receives and venerates, with equal pioux affection and reverence, all the books both of the New and the Old Text ment. together with the said Traditions… as having been given either from the lips of Christ or by the dictation of the Holy Spirit and preserved in unbroken succession in the Catholic church (MacArthur 1998:76).
ii. God gives revelation to the Roman Catholic Church: The Roman Catholic doctrine of tradition says that the church can add anything to the Scriptures. Their belief is that anything that the church adds to the Scripture has equal authority with the Scriptures. The following statement in the council of Trent gives the concept of the infallibility to the Pope, who is considered to be the successor of Apostle Peter. The statement, “unwritten traditions, which… were handed on and have come down to us” (MacArthur 1998:76) gives the Pope the supreme apostolic authority to add infallible truths to the Scripture and tradition.
Two examples given below explain two such infallible additions to Scripture (tradition) in the history of the Roman Church
the In a papal bull of December 8, 1854, entitled Ineffabilis Deus (‘Ineffable God”), Pius IX solemnly decreed that “the most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by the singular grace and privilege of almighty God and in view of the merits of Christ Jesus the Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin, [that this] is revealed by God and, therefore, firmly and constantly to be believed by the faithful” (MacArthur 1998:76,77).
This addition to the Scripture makes Virgin Mary holy and gives her a special status for the Roman Catholics to approach God.
The latest addition to the long list of Roman Catholic beliefs… came on November 1, 1950, with an ex cathedra pronouncement by pope Pius XII from St. Peter’s chair that Mary’s body was raised from the grave shortly after she died, that her body and soul were reunited, and that she was taken up and enthroned as Queen of Heaven. And to this pronouncement was added the usual warning that “anyone who may henceforth doubt or deny this doctrine is utterly fallen away from the divine and Catholic faith” (MacArthur 1998:77).
c. The addition of Tradition to the Scripture
In the history of the Roman Catholic Church, the Popes issued many decrees and added many traditional beliefs of the church into the Scripture. These additions of tradition into the Scriptures are called as ‘extra Biblical revelation’ and Roman Catholics are admonished to believe them or face excommunication. This belief that the tradition can be added into the Scripture by Pope enabled the Roman Catholic Church to add error after error into the doctrine of the church. Examples
of such doctrines are, penance, purgatory, papal infallibility, prayers for the dead and all sacramental practices of the church. These doctrines have no biblical support; but they were added as tradition into the belief of the church. About this belief of the Roman Catholic Church Kevin J. Conner wrote,
No church, Pope nor group of Bishops can scripturally claim infallibility. The Scripness themselves are the only infallible Word of God. The Church did not produce the Weed. The Wond produced the Church. The Word is not subject to the authority of the fallible church, but the church is subject to the infallible authority of the Word (Conner 1980:38)
2. The Approach of Mystics
Mysticism is derived from the ancient mystery religions. Mystery comes from the Greek word mysterion. This word comes from the Greek word me meaning ‘to shut’ or ‘close the lips or eyes. Thus mystic is one who is closed to others and seeks or attains direct intercourse with God in elevated religious feeling or ecstasy.
Mystics try to draw their theology based on their experiences. About Mysticism John F. Mac Arthur, Jr. wrote,
Mysticism is a system of belief that attempts to perceive spiritual reality apart from objective, verifiable facts. It seeks truth through feelings, intuition, and other internal senses. Objective data is usually discounted, so mysticism derives its authority from within…. mysticism is at the heart of modern existentialism, humanism and even many forms of paganism – most notably Hinduism and its close ally, New Age philosophy (Mac Arthur 1998:31, 32).
Mystics give importance to subjective approach of the Word of God. They give importance to experience and build their theology based on their experience and not on the Word of God. Experience differs from person to person and so they have hundreds of views.
Here is an example of a letter received by a radio speaker who based her view on experience rather than the Word of God. “You resort to Greek translations and fancy words to explain away what the Holy Spirit is doing in the church today. Let me give you a piece of advice that might just save you from the wrath of almighty God: put away your Bible and your books and stop studying… you have no right to question something you have never experienced.” Like this woman, when people begin to give importance to experience, they do not give in to the authority of the Word of God.
