The Holy Feast of Pentecost
Wow! Great dialogue gentlemen! I honestly believe,Dan, that your spirit is sincere in asking these wonderful questions. Dan you said earlier that the empty tomb is a fact. I agree but it is also an article of Faith. You are trying to do an exhaustive study of Orthodoxy's claims coming from a Protestant background and all. People do hide behind their intellectual limitaitons by invoking heresy or "not open to the Truth". However, there's a middle ground. We are not dealing with logic here. Faith-wise how can one accept that an individual, claiming to be God, rose from the dead? Or how can we fully explain the Most Holy Trinity? The problem here is the dry defintion of what Holy Tradition truly is. It is more than teachings handed passed down. Holy Tradition is the life of the Church in the Holy Spirit becuase the Holy Spirit leads the Church "into all truth" (John 16:13) and enables her to preserve the Truth taught by Christ to His Holy Apostles. Our Lord Jesus Christ established His Church (Mat.16:18) with a promise that "the gates of hades would not prevail against her". Our Lord doesn't leave us orphans but promises that He would be with us forever (Mat.28:20). He promises also that the Holy Spirit would guide the Church (John !4:26 and 16:13). The Church is founded upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone...( Ephesians 2:20)". This Church is His Body here on earth "may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ-- 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love...Ephesians 4:16). It is this Church that the Bible ( so far this is alI I have used- the Bible-) calls the ground and pillar of the Truth ( 1Timothy 3:15).Plus Our Lord equipped the Church(Ephesians 4:11,12) with the gifts necessary to "go and teach His commandments to all nations ...(Matthew 28:20) and even to forgive sins in His Name (John 20:20-23 and James 5:16) and to do all this He organized a hiearchy, the 4 orders of Church governnent of laity,deacons,priests and bishops.
I wanted to give a synopsis of the holy origin and formation of the Church. Please escuse its lengthiness..lol. Since your Protestant i ahd to speak "Biblese" or Sola Scriptura style for a bit. But now after all this background information we can address what is Holy Tradition. As mentioned at the beginning of this post Holy Tradition is the life of the Church in the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit leads the Church "into all truth" (John 16:13) and enables her to preserve the truth taught by Christ to His Apostles. Thus Holy Tradition icludes the Holy Councils, the Bible,etc and it is dynamic. it isnot only passing down creeds and theology but the encounter with the Holy Spirit in her 2,000 year old existence! Thus God operates through countless ways to make sure His teachings are preserved,taught and encountered! Encounter is key.As each successive generation encounters the Living God, her understanding and living out the commandments are deepened. Unlike the Roman catholic innovation of
the "development of doctrine" Orthodoxy never added anything to the Faith. One thing is to deepen our understanding about a certain doctrine , another is to change the doctrine. For example , the Rc dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Ever Virgin Mary. Besides having a different understanding on Original Sin, this dogma is nowhere to be found in the WHOLE.OF THE APOSOTLIC FAITH! It was an attempt to explain how Our Lord Jesus Christ was conceived in the womb of a human without being under the bondage of Original Sin ! How can God who is pure, be conceived in a sinful human being? They took Patristic sayings with the Bible out of context to devise this under the teaching of "development of doctrine".
Orthodoxy never has had to do that. Our understanding of a dogma was clarified by they power of the Holy Spirit whom Our Lord Jesus promised (John 16:13). An example of this ( please excuse my limited choice) is the Trisagion prayer," Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal" . Tbis comes from the biblcal trisagion prayer (again using "Biblese"...lol) found in Isaiah 6:1-3:" Isaiah 6
3 And one cried unto another and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory...KJ21 version)".The biblical use of ":Holy" 3 times is an indication of the three persons in the Godhead.In the Tradition of the Church, this hymn was amplified.
Well, I have to go..my pillow is calling me. I am obviously not a scholar at all. You guys defintely know your stuff. but if this taken with the rest of the explanations helped that I am glad. God bless you .
