Why the Bible Trumps Tradition

Last updated on: December 11, 2015 at 12:39 pm by D. G. Hart

Why the Bible Trumps Tradition 2015-12-11T12:39:04-04:00 D. G. Hart

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Roman Catholic liturgy that Dwight Longenecker advocates is further proof of the Protestant understanding of sola scriptura — the idea that the final authority in the church is Scripture, not the bishops:

Some time ago, a friend of mine compared the amount of the Scripture used at Mass to that used in an Evangelical Protestant service. The Catholic Mass was almost 30 percent Scripture. When my friend checked the content of his local Bible-based Evangelical church, he was surprised to discover that the total amount of Scripture read took just 3 percent of the service.

When Catholics go to Mass, they hear a reading from the Old Testament, they say or sing one of the Psalms, then they listen to a reading from the Epistles, then a Gospel reading. The whole structure fits together so that the Mass is focused on Christ in the Gospels.

Catholics follow a three-year cycle of Scripture reading, so a Catholic who goes to church faithfully will – over those three years – hear almost all of the Bible read. Furthermore, the responses and the words of the Communion service are almost all from Scripture. So a church-going Catholic does know and use Scripture – its just that he uses it primarily for meditation and worship (Psalms 119:48) – not primarily for personal information and instruction.

You can think of it this way: Evangelicals use the Bible as a rule book. Catholics use it as a prayer book.

That is music to a Protestants ears, the part about the prominence of Scripture in worship (though Longenecker does not factor in that for much of Roman Catholic history the readings of Scripture were in Latin). And if evangelicals have substituted other sources for the Bible in worship, they should return to the prominence of the word of God as the lifeblood of Christian worship.

At the same time, what Father Dwight does not notice is that his case for Scripture in worship weakens the Roman Catholic argument for the authority of tradition. If teachings of the father and the magisterium have equal authority as the Bible, then why not have readings from papal encyclicals or prayers from theological treatises as part of liturgy? The reason for not using these other fallible human sources (sorry to the defenders of papal infallibility) is that the Bible is the only reliable guide for determining what pleases God in worship. As the Westminster Confession explains:

The light of nature showeth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all, is good, and doth good unto all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.

Image

regulative principle of worship

Westminster Confession

worship

Previous Post

December 9, 2015

America Is not My Home (neither is my kitchen)

Next Post

December 16, 2015 Evangelicalism Lets You Be You

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2016 Presidential Election 2020 Presidential Election Apocalypse Bible in American Life Biblical authority Books and culture Calvinism Church Life Civil Religion Culture Wars Doctrine evangelicalism Gullibility Heaven and Hell Intellectual life Jesus Ministry modernity moralism Nationalism New Testament Old Testament Otherworldiness Otherworldliness Paul Peter Piety Popular culture Protestantism Psalms Puritans Race Roman Catholicism sacred/secular distinction Sex Shameless Self Promotion Sports Ten Commandments U.S. politics Uncategorized vulgarity worship

Select a Month January 2022 October 2021 August 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz