CHAPTER SEVEN - Prophetic Toolchest

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PROPHETIC TOOL CHEST
by his apostles to every creature, as the source of all saving truth and discipline;
and perceiving that this truth and discipline are contained BOTH IN WRITTEN
BOOKS AND UNWRITTEN TRADITIONS . . . . (History Of Romanism, Book
7, Chap. 1, 479).
What are the UNWRITTEN TRADITIONS of the Papacy? Wylie explains what these
traditions are:
We may state, that the traditions which the Church of Rome has thus placed on a
level with the Bible are the supposed sayings of Christ and the apostles handed
down by tradition. Of course, no proof exists that such things were ever spoken
by those to whom they are imputed. They were never known or heard of till the
monks of the middle ages gave them to the world (The Papacy: History,
Dogmas, Genius, And Prospects: Book 2, 171).
Notice that the Papacy put scripture on an equal par with tradition. Ultimately the Papacy
had different ambitions for this parallelism of Scripture with Tradition. Martin Chemnitz
(1522 – 1586), observes the true purpose of Tradition in Trent where he cites the
Council’s attitude:
The Council of Trent makes scripture of none effect because: (1) “Scripture is
insufficient, for it does not contain everything that is necessary for faith and
godly living; (2) because also in those things which it does contain it is obscure
and ambiguous, like a waxen nose or a leaden square . . . . Therefore they say that
it is an occasion of strife rather than the voice of a judge, a teacher who cannot
speak, a dead letter, yes, a letter that kills, etc” (Examination Of The Council Of
Trent: “Concerning Holy Scriptures” Sect. 1, paragraph 5, 46).
Chemnitz then notices an important correlation as it pertains to the UNWRITTEN
TRADITIONS of the Papacy:
The Talmudists embellish their fictions by pretending that Moses on Mount Sinai
received from God not only what he wrote but also a mystical and secret
exposition of the Law, which he neither wrote nor wanted written but handed
down orally and recommended that it be delivered to posterity from hand to
hand. And they say that both are the Word of God, to be received and respected
with equal reverence and devotion.
And if the Talmud had not been written beforehand, I would surely have thought
that the rabbis had taken this theory over from the papalists and had
accommodated it to their traditions. For so great is the similarity that there can
be no doubt that both the fictions of the Talmudists and of the papalists
concerning traditions have one and the same architect and maker, namely, him
who sows and mixes tares with the good seed (Examination Of The Council Of
Trent: “Concerning Holy Scriptures” Sect. 3, paragraph 5, 67).
The Roman Church—though pretending to honor the scriptures in the Council—in reality
was debasing the scriptures and seeking every way to discredit their meaning in the hope
that they would be justified in the condemnation of Protestantism. It was simple
destructive logic on the part of the Papacy at the Council: Protestantism was basing their
beliefs on the Scripture, so the Papacy had to discredit the source. The Papacy—in their
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By D. S. Farris