Tradition.

                            

Jesus said to the Pharisees: "'And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?'"  Matthew 15:3 (NRSV)
"'You hypocrites!  Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.'"  Matthew 15:7-9 (NRSV)
"'Thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on.  And you do many things like this.'"  Mark 7:13 (NRSV)

And they still do this today - ignoring the words of Jesus for the sake of tradition.

Many Churches teach doctrines which were developed long after the Gospels were written, many of which contradict the teachings of Jesus himself.

We see this with the doctrines that derive from the writings of St. Paul and St. Augustine.

But they hold fast to their tradition and threaten any deviation from strict Orthodoxy.

Jesus would say to them what he said to the Pharisees - "You hypocrites!"


[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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