Tradition in Christianity
A commentary by Paul Suckling
United Church of God pastor, Worcester, MA and Portsmouth, NH
The 154th annual performance in Boston's Symphony Hall of
Handel's Messiah, possibly the greatest oratorio
ever written, has continued a well established tradition. Boston's
Handel & Haydn Society performed the work as it was first presented—meaning
that when the Hallelujah Chorus was sung few stood up.
In the UK today, however, at this point in the music it is tradition
for the whole audience to stand, even though the audience did not
stand when Handel first performed the piece in Dublin, Eire. Why
this difference in tradition?
In England, when the King stands all stand. King George III set
the UK tradition by standing during the Hallelujah Chorus out of
respect for the meaning of its words ("Hallelujah" means "Praise
the Lord"). At that time in Europe, Britain and early America
the words of the Bible were generally respected and accepted as
the Word of God by the majority.
The words of Handel's Messiah are taken from both
the Old and New Testaments, and according to the program notes, "… Part
111 has no plot at all; it is actually a version of the Anglican
burial service, emphasizing the resurrection of the body and Christ's
victory over sin." All of Part 111 is taken from passages
of Scripture: Job, 1 Corinthians, Romans and Revelation.
Past tradition that held respect for the literal words of the Bible
stands in stark contrast with much of Christian tradition today,
where even many Christian theologians are critical of the Scriptures.
Some now claim that parts of the Bible were merely made up to fill
gaps in a time-line. They don't take the Bible literally.
They even attempt to persuade others not to take its words to mean
what they say.
In Matthew 16:18 Christ promised His disciples that He would build
His Church. He added that even the grave would not be victorious
over it. If His word is good then His Church (His faithful servants
dedicated to obeying His teachings) must still exist somewhere today.
According to the Bible it will be a dedicated body of believers
that still "has the testimony of Jesus and keeps the commandments
of God" (Revelation 12:17, 14:12, emphasis added throughout).
In other words, it will not have changed God's commandments—including
even the day of worship that Jesus kept!
From Genesis to Revelation the day God commanded for worshipping
Him is the weekly Sabbath—Saturday on our calendar today.
Further, when Jesus was here on earth He actually addressed this
point in the second chapter of Mark. Some Pharisees who prided themselves
on Sabbath keeping (with excessive, burdensome strictness) challenged
a specific eating practice of Jesus disciples on that Sabbath.
In response to their unnecessary strictness Jesus told them, "The
Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore
the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath" (verses 27-28).
By that He was simply asserting that He had a better understanding
of how God wanted the Sabbath to be observed than they did.
But Jesus never claimed to be the Lord of Sunday. Instead, the
change from Sabbath observance to Sunday observance took place very
gradually, spreading at first only to those regions that intellectually
were closely associated with pagan Rome and Alexandria in Egypt,
the philosophical center of the empire in that era.
This brings us to a significant question. When is tradition appropriate
in Christian practice and when is it not? Paul wrote to one of his
congregations, "Now we command you, beloved, in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living
in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received
from us" (2 Thessalonians 3:6). Here he speaks of tradition
in a positive way. Paul promoted being a diligent, self-supporting
people among all of his new converts.
Paul, however, vigorously objected to human tradition being used
as a foundation for Christian beliefs and practices. His warning
is, "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy
and empty deceit, according to human tradition ... and not according
to Christ" (Colossians 2:8, New Revised Standard Version).
Jesus Christ was also very critical of religious teachers who would
substitute doctrinal traditions for the revealed teachings
of God. He spoke boldly against such practice, saying, "'...
in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.' Then
He added these words, 'You have a fine way of rejecting
the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition!'" (Mark
7:7-8, NRSV, emphasis added).
  For more details on how tradition and the Bible frequently conflict
simply request or download our free booklets: The Church Jesus
Built and Is the Bible True?
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