CONTROLLED BY TRADITIONS INSTEAD OF THE BIBLE

CONTROLLED BY TRADITIONS INSTEAD OF THE BIBLE *
*PART 2 of 2*
*By E. R. Campbell *
*
Next, let us join Paul and his party at Thessalonica. For three Sabbaths
he reasoned with them in the synagogue, placing before them the fact
that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ predicted in the Old Testament
(Acts 17:2-3). Again we observe, the tradition-bound Jewish leaders
jealously protected their handed-down religious teachings and customs,
hire rabble-rousers to stir up a tumult, and forced Paul to leave the
city (Acts 17:5-9). In both Antioch and Thessalonica, jealousy played an
important role in keeping the religious leaders under the control of
their traditions, and also motivated them to keep others under the same
control, by blaspheming the Gospel and preventing others from hearing it.

On the other hand, the Lord does have a minority who are interested in
His Word of Grace for today, This was true at Antioch, for Luke says,
"and as many believed as had been ordained unto eternal life" (Acts
13:48). At Philippi, as Paul spoke to a few women by a river, Luke says,
"And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of
Thyatira, who worshiped God, she listened, whose heart the Lord opened
to give heed to the things spoken by Paul" (Acts 16:14). Likewise, after
Paul had spoken at Thessalonica, Luke says, "And certain ones out of
them were persuaded and they were joined to Paul and Silas, of the
devout Greeks a considerable multitude and of the chief women not a few"
(Acts 17:4). In each of these instances it appears that God was
sovereignly working behind the scene, causing those chosen in Christ
(Eph. 1:4) to respond to His Word - to believe.

Now we come to the big issue - what is involved in switching from being
controlled by traditions to being controlled by the Bible? First,
granting that many under religious, traditional control do not even know
the Lord, such as in liberal, humanistic, and sacramental churches, two
things are necessary: (1) we must teach them the Gospel of the Grace of
God (Acts 20:24); and (2) God must sovereignly give them faith to
believe the Gospel (Rom. 10:17). Apart from the prevenient Grace of God
producing moral suasion in them, they will never forsake their false
traditional security and switch to the freedom of the Gospel of Grace
(Gal. 5:1).

Second, granting that many are in groups, the traditions of which
control their approach to the Bible, determine what it teaches, and
super-impose human concepts on it (Gal. 1:8-9), how can they be helped
to come to a place of being controlled by only the Bible? We recognize
that those in this category cover a wide gamut - those who have minimum
traditions which allow them to be primarily controlled by the Truth
given to the Church (Phil. 4:8); as well as those who are engulfed in
traditions, which in actual practice are a more important than the Word
of God. In this situation, where we have group traditions controlling
what is emphasized in the Bible, we basically have a problem of lack of
knowledge and ignorance of the Bible's message for the Church today.
This problem is not going to be cured by attacking the various
traditions, but by graciously teaching the literal-intended- meaning of
Truth written to the New Testament churches, verse-by-verse and
epistle-by-epistle.

We at Canyonview Bible Seminary have one supreme purpose to train men
and women to teach the literal-intended- meaning of the Word of God in an
expositional verse-by-verse manner. All graduates who go forth from CBS
are able to competently teach directly from the Greek New Testament.
Furthermore, they are qualified to teach New Testament Greek to others,
that they in turn may accurately teach the Truth for the Church to their
generation. Again, let me emphasize, we advocate verse-by-verse
expositional teaching of the Books of the Bible because this approach
keeps the teacher under the control of the Word better than any other
method (1 Tim. 4:6,11, 13; 2 Tim. 2:2).

It is our desire that all men, regardless of their affiliations, may
increasingly gravitate toward one focal point to be controlled by the
Word of God given to the Church over which Jesus Christ is the Head
(Col. 1:25-28)



*THOUGHT FOR THIS WEEK *


Christ's death on the cross included a sacrifice for all our sins, past,
present, and future. Every sin that you will ever commit has already
been paid for. All of our sins were future when Christ died two thousand
years ago. There is no sin that you will ever commit that has not
already been included in Christ's death.
Erwin W. Lutzer

*CONTROLLED BY TRADITIONS INSTEAD OF THE BIBLE *
*PART 1 of 2*
*By E. R. Campbell *
*
As we approach this subject we need to define the manner in which we are
using the words traditions and Bible. Traditions are the religious
teachings, doctrines, practices, and customs handed down by various
religious groups, particularly, by denominations within the sphere of
Christianity. We are using the term Bible with reference to its Truth
for the Body of Christ, the Church, God's program for this present age
of Grace.

Even though the minds of the faculty members at Canyonview Bible
Seminary may have in the past, to a greater or lesser degree, been
colored and controlled by various affiliations, this is not true in the
Canyonview classroom. We are all unanimously agreed that the Bible, the
Truth given to the Church must control our thinking and teaching. The
final court of appeal is the Greek text, its literal-intended- meaning,
and regardless of position or age, we adhere to what the Greek grammar
says. What all men may say is evaluated in the light of the Word for the
Church, and accepted or rejected on the basis of this test. Who the
person is, his academic standing, his degrees, position, popularity,
etc., do not insure Biblical accuracy. Canyonview teachers are selected
on the basis of their ability to exegete the truth from the Greek text,
on the basis of their desire to be controlled by the Holy Spirit.

Now and then we have students come to Canyonview Bible Seminary who
think they know it all. They are those who have consciously or
unconsciously put themselves in little traditional - sectarian boxes,
and in this limited space, they think that they have arrived. As they
peer out of' the tiny peek holes in their traditional boxes, instead of
relishing in the vast panoramic view of the Word of God for the Body,
"the deep things of God" (1 Cor. 2:10), all they see is their humanly
conceived, legalistic doctrines and practices which give them a sense of
psychological security. If friends try to expand their little boxes, or
suggest that they need to enlarge their peek holes so as to more clearly
see the Word of God, some will brace themselves against any change lest
they loose their sense of traditionally handed-down security. I am
baffled why any little box person comes to Canyonview Bible Seminary
unless he wants to escape into the freedom of the marvelous Grace of God!

Granted, the above picture of the traditional box people is pessimistic,
but in real life it is true. The vast majority will never leave the
security they find in their traditional doctrines, customs, and
religious practices. They will never personally examine the Bible to see
whether their traditional teachings align with the Gospel revealed unto
the Apostle Paul (Gal. 1:12; Eph. 3:2-9). They will blindly adhere to
their religious traditions instead of the literal-intended- meaning of
the Word for the Church.

On the other hand, there is a minority who become dissatisfied with the
dregs of religious traditions. They want more than a Bible, the meaning
of which is controlled by traditional precepts, they want an untrammeled
Bible free to communicate God's Word to them. Many of us can remember
the days when our thinking was hemmed in by sectarian traditions, a time
when new truth was dawning upon our minds, but we did not dare share it
with our associates lest we incur their wrath. Several of you may still
find yourself in this position, new glimpses of truth flash across your
mind, but instantaneously you recognize that they are inconsistent with
the traditional position of the group with which you are affiliated and
you squelch them. To allow our traditional views to hamper obedience to
the Word of God is comparable to making it null and void (Matt. 15:6).

Now let us look at some examples in the New Testament of how individuals
were controlled by their traditions rather than the message of God. On
his first missionary journey, at Antioch of Pisidia, Paul proclaimed
God's Word to those assembled in the synagogue (Acts 13:16-41). After
this first message many responded positively, they wanted to hear more
(Acts 13:42-43). On the following Sabbath almost all the city came
together to hear Paul speak the Word of the Lord. This massive crowd
that came to hear Paul was too much for the Jewish leaders. A chord of
jealousy was struck in their hearts and they spoke against and
blasphemed the Word of the Lord via Paul (Acts 13:45-46). These Jews
recognized that God's message of Grace was a threat to their smug,
traditionally bound synagogue, and jealous for their traditional method
of operation, they rejected the truth for the Church, the Body of Christ.

*
*May we be found faithful in prayer, faithful in reading the Bible, and*
*faithful in sharing the faith with others.*