Sacred Roots Workshop

Ses s i on 5: The Great Confes s i on

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2. Catechesis : oral teaching about Jesus, i.e., that basic outline of the facts of our faith, e.g., 1 Cor. 3.1-3; Heb. 5.12-14

3. Didascalia : the doctrinal substance and content of our faith affirmed by the ancient Church (cf. Heb. 5.11-14)

4. How do the Scriptures, tradition, and authority relate in our confession of Christ, and how do we welcome true confessors into the Church?

B. General propositions about the essence of tradition in the Church

1. The concept of tradition in Scripture is essentially positive. The significance of tradition is everywhere seen through- out the Scripture. Much of the entire Jewish sacred year (with its central observances of Passover, the Feast of unleavened Bread, the Feast of Pentecost, and the Day of Atonement and Feast of Tabernacles) were anchored in the work of God in the past, his display of his mighty works through the Exodus event. 2. Godly tradition is a wonderful thing, but not all tradition is godly. While the God of Abraham and the Exodus, the Lord God Almighty instructed his people to follow and be formed by a tradition of his own devising and design, it is clear from Scripture that we can establish traditions that are particularly ungodly, that actually are patently unholy and unhelpful. 3. Without the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and the constant edification provided to us by the Word of God, tradition will inevitably lead to dead formalism . When the practices and teachings of any given tradition are neither checked by the Scriptures, nor kept by Spirit-filled men and women,