Guard the Good Deposit

16 • Guard the Good Deposit: The Great Tradition for the Whole Church

Common Objections and Misconceptions If you are saying to yourself, ‘I am not so sure about this Great Tradition’ or maybe, ‘I don’t really think we need the Great Tradition,’ you are not alone. Before we answer why must we guard the good deposit, it is important to stop and address some objections to retrieving the Great Tradition.

Doesn’t the Bible condemn tradition? Is retrieving the Great Tradition unbiblical?

Jesus makes one point brutally clear: not all tradition is godly tradition. He accuses the Pharisees of “making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down” (Mark 7.13). Likewise, not everything the early church did or said should be regarded as godly tradition. To paraphrase one of the early fathers, “Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s true.” 1 However, the Bible mainly presents a positive outlook on tradition. 2 Paul, for instance tells the Thessalonians to “stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” (2 Thess. 2.15). We are advocating guarding the scriptural witness to Christ and his Kingdom by confessing it in our

1 “Custom without truth is simply the antiquity of error” (Cyprian, in A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs , David Bercot, ed. Hendrickson, 1998, p. 647).

2 See Appendix 3, Traditions , on page 65.