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THE FATHERS—TRADITION

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 27, 1878

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 52, No. 1.

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THE FATHERS—TRADITION.

By R. M. Kilgore

The early fathers are universally appealed to at the present time to support the tottering Sunday institution when the weapons of divine truth are turned against it. Failing to find in the word of God any divine authority for Sunday-keeping, its advocates hide behind tradition; and with a great flourish of trumpets, they hold up the fathers as the great ultimatum to settle minds troubled with doubts, and to decide all these controverted subjects.
While the Jews were zealously regarding the traditions of the elders, they forgot their obligation to God and made void the commandments of the Most High. Their worship was in vain, because they taught for doctrines the commandments of men. Matt. 15: 2–9.
The traditions that have their origin with the inspired apostles and prophets of God we are told to hold in sacred reverence. 2 Thess. 2:15; 1 Cor. 11:2 (margin); 2 Thess. 3:6. But of those which are not traceable to this divine source, we are solemnly admonished to beware, Col. 2:8; and there are now no traditions which can be traced to that source.
The Roman Catholic Church finds tradition a necessity. Its life depends upon it. In this the Catholics are consistent, since they declare that the decrees of their councils, and the testimonies of all the fathers of the church, are of equal authority with the Bible. The Protestants, say they, are inconsistent; for while they cry, “The Bible, and the Bible alone,” they will adopt and practice that for which there is no scriptural authority; that which can be known only by their traditions.
In the Catechism of the Christian Religion are these questions:—
“Ques. Is the authority of tradition equal to that of Scripture?
“Ans. It is God who speaks in both cases, and of course the authority of the former is equal to that of the latter.
“Q. Is tradition necessary?
“A. Its necessity is evident from Scripture, evident from the testimony of all the fathers of the church, and even from the practice of those who reject it. Protestants, who reject tradition, baptize infants, and administer this sacrament by infusion, they keep the first day of the week, they work on the seventh day. The English Church observes festivals. Now the Scripture does not order any of these things; they all rest on tradition. Protestants eat blood and strangled meat, though it is expressly forbidden by Scripture. They do not wash one another’s feet, though it is expressly commanded in the same divine book; and yet, that it is lawful to do the former and neglect the latter, can be known only from tradition.”
If the testimony of the fathers will support the Sunday institution, it can also be arrayed on the side of other doctrines which Protestants ignore and treat as heretical, so that if one is proved to be of divine origin because the fathers say so, the others are also divine.
Ignatius, Irenæus, Justin Martyr, Chrysostom, Tertullian, Augustine, and other saints of the early church, are brought to the witness stand to testify concerning the early observance of the first day as the Christian Sabbath, or Lord’s day. The Protestant world having searched for some divine authority for this practice and failed to find it in the Bible, has really adopted St. Augustine’s rule: When any doctrine or practice of the church cannot be traced to its origin, and no time can be pointed out when it commenced, it is, therefore, it must be, grounded on apostolic tradition.
In the Catholic Christian Instructed I find the following questions and answers by these venerable fathers:—

THE POPE.

“Q. How do you prove that the pope, or bishop of Rome, is the successor of St. Peter?
“A. 1. Because the church never acknowledged any other for her chief pastor. 2. From the current sense of the holy fathers and councils that have acknowledged the supremacy in the See of Rome and her bishops. See St. Ignatius, Epistle to the Romans; St. Irenæus, 1. 3, c. 3. 3. [St. Cyprian, St. Optatus, and St. Jerome are also quoted.]”

PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD.

“Q. How prove you that the practice of praying for the dead is as ancient as Christianity?
“A. From Tertullian in his book of the Soldier’s Crown, chap. 3, where he reckons on the oblations for the dead upon their anniversary days amongst the immemorial traditions observed by all Christians. See also St. Cyprian, Epistle 66; St. Cyril of Jerusalem; also St. Chrysostom, in his Epistle to the Philippians, tells us, that it was ordained by the apostles that the dead should be commemorated in the sacred mysteries; and St. Augustine says that it was a practice received from the fathers, and observed by the universal church. And it appears from St. Epiphanius that Arius was ranked amongst the heretics by the church in the fourth century, for denying that the prayers of the living did the dead any good.”

PURGATORY.

“Q. What grounds have you for purgatory, from perpetual tradition?
“A. Because the Jewish Church long before our Saviour’s coming, and the Christian Church from the very beginning, have offered prayers and sacrifice for the repose and relief of the faithful departed, as appears from innumerable testimonies of the fathers, and from the most ancient liturgies of all Christian churches and nations; Romans, Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, Nestorians, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Indians, Mosarabes, &c.; which consent, so ancient and universal, of all ages and all nations, before the pretended Reformation, is a most convincing argument that this practice came by tradition from the apostles, and consequently that the belief of a purgatory is an apostolic tradition; for what sense could there be in praying for the repose and relief of the souls of the faithful departed, if there were no middle place, but all went straight to Heaven or hell?”
This is certainly well authenticated, if antiquity and majorities prove a doctrine to be true.
“Q. How is it proved that sacrifice can be offered for the souls in purgatory?
“A. By testimony of all the fathers of the church.” Tertullian, St. Cyprian, St. Chrysostom, and St. Augustine are quoted. [Here they apply the rule of the latter referred to above.]
“Q. Had the ancients these different modes of offering the holy sacrifice?
“A. St. Justin Martyr mentions the order of solemn mass. Tertullian does the same. It is found in the apostolical institutions. The practice of low mass is equally ancient. See Tertullian, St. Cyprian, Eusebius, St. Augustine. See, in a word, all the fathers of the early and pure ages.”
These might be extended to an indefinite length. If we take these authorities to prove one doctrine, why not accept all they teach? While so many are ready to ride these old stagers into court, and cry, “The fathers, the fathers,” we prefer to stand on the sure foundation occupied by the apostles, and call upon the grandfathers of the church, seeking for the “old paths” and the “good way” in which they walked.
R. M. KILGORE.