Why Church History Matters: Chapter 3

In chapter three of the book, “Why Church History Matters”, Rea sets up the argument that after studying twenty centuries of church history, we cannot deny the idea that everyone has been influenced by and follows a tradition. Yet, all Christians claim to follow the Christian tradition and so do non-believers.

In the Eastern Orthodox church, they carry the idea of Apostolic succession, which is the idea that bishops in their churches today stand in the place of the apostles through the laying on of hands. Because of this view, the Eastern Orthodox tradition places authority on the church to interpret scripture without using the rule of faith, because the bishops are the rule of faith. The Eastern Orthodox, though, does not want to separate scripture from tradition but wants scripture to be inside tradition. By doing this they are placing scripture at the same level of authority as their creeds, confessions, icons, and other writings. Another difference in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, to that of the Christian tradition, is that the Orthodox church does not just read scriptures, creeds, and other writings, but try to get in touch with their inner spirits as a way to get in touch with the church father’s inner spirits. This allows for mystery.

The Roman Catholic church also takes on the concept of Apostolic succession, but they have two sources of authority: tradition and scripture. Because they hold both tradition and scripture next to each other, they claim that their tradition and the scriptures will never or should never be in conflict with each other. This is a great idea, but because they believe in Apostolic succession, this allows their bishops to interpret scripture any way they want so that it will align with tradition. The Roman Catholic church claims that the Spirit works in the heart of their magisterium, so that the Roman Catholic church can trust that he is interpreting scripture correctly. This again allows for mystery.

The other church that Rea mentions that believes in Apostolic succession is the Anglicans. The Anglican church sees themselves as in the middle of the Roman Catholic church, because they hold to the Apostolic succession and hold the sacraments in high regard, and the Protestant church, because they hold scripture to the highest earthly authority. The Anglican church does not want the church over scriptures, but they also see the importance of tradition in the church. They read lots of other church father’s writing, hymns, lives of saints, and devotionals books as their own rule of faith. They hold to scripture, tradition, and reason.

What about the idea of Christian tradition? Protestantism started in the sixteenth century when the reformers did not want the church’s authority to override what scripture said. Protestants hold to sola scripture, meaning that scripture is sufficient for truth and that the church’s bishops are not the only ones who can know this truth. The Bible’s truths can explain other truths in the Bible and not just one man. Protestants do not throw out the church’s authority but acknowledge that the canon is closed and that mystery of revelation of scripture has ceased. Although Protestants have the right mind when it comes to sola scripture, they have a hard time with tradition, because they see all the corruption it caused throughout church history. 
So, with all of this information, how are we to act as Bible focused Christians? Rea encourages us to learn from other believers not only alive, but those who have passed away. By Studying their theology, writings, and creeds, we are able to test what is true and see what is false. Rea argues that if you love scriptures then you need to be informed about those across the centuries who did as well. By limiting ourselves to only things present and relative, we lose sight of God’s work in the life of the church and we miss great truths that we could never understand on our own. Tradition is never over scripture, but without tradition, we miss so many wonderful things in scripture. We cannot deny that we follow some sort of tradition and we need to learn not to be afraid of tradition, but to see that tradition is a beautiful gift that God has given us.