Orthodox - Answers to List Three

I Cor. 11:19--For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

A fitting Reformation Day (almost) posting.

I can do no better than quote Barnes commentary on 1 Cor 11:19. Those who create disputes in the church where previously there was none, show themselves not approved by God.

"The effect of divisions and separations would be to show who were the friends of order, and peace, and truth. It seems to have been assumed by Paul, that they who made divisions could not be regarded as the friends of order and truth; or that their course could not be approved by God. The effect of these divisions would be to show who they were. So in all divisions, and all splitting into factions, where the great truths of Christianity are held, and where the corruption of the mass does not require separation, such divisions show who are the restless, ambitious, and dissatisfied spirits; who they are that are indisposed to follow the things that make for peace, and the laws of Christ enjoining union; and who they are who are gentle and peaceful, and disposed to pursue the way of truth, and love, and order, without contentions and strifes. This is the effect of schisms in the church; and the whole strain of the argument of Paul is, to reprove and condemn such schisms, and to hold up the authors of them to reproof and condemnation. "

Basically, tradition lead to spiritual dyslexia, whereby the person reading the Scriptures is unable to see the text as it actually is.

The text "as it actually is" can withstand a variety of interpretations, as Vincent explained.

should we revise our bibles so as to add the heretical creeds of men with the same unscriptual acceptance of unfounded traditions that should be accpted because a majority claims it is truth or should we stick to scripture alone?


A false dichotomy. Heretical creeds and unfounded traditions vs scripture alone. Scripture itself is a tradition whose knowledge is based on "majority claims" as you put it.


By the way,would we be wrong in doing so?

Well for a start, without the extra-scriptural traditions, you have no canon of scripture.

For another, as Vincent explained, everybody has a different interpretation of scripture.